Feminism in Fight Club

I enjoyed our class discussion of Chuck Palahniuk’s book, Fight Club. It was interesting to discuss whether the book could be considered a feminist work or not. After thinking about this idea, I suppose that Fight Club does have some elements of feminist thought within it, suggesting a radical shift in women’s and men’s roles when it comes to childcare responsibilities. However, I disagreed with a specific argument presented in class. It was suggested in class that Palahniuk’s novel was a feminist work because it challenges and criticizes women’s obsession with consumerism and therefore open’s their eyes to the fact that they do not need to identify themselves by the material possessions they accumulate. I disagree with this argument because it implies that women are the ones in society who do all the consuming, that women lead our consumer culture. In my opinion, we live in a society dominated by consumerism, material possessions, and status; men and women both fall victim to our consumer culture. In addition, women in particular fall victim to consumerism due to social pressures directed at them. In our society where advertisements and commercials are everywhere, the media tells women that they should fit a certain ideal of feminine beauty, one which involves being thin, young, tan, having large breasts, and being well dressed. Commercials and advertisements pressure and manipulate women into believing that if they buy certain products, they will fit this unnaturally “perfect” imagine of femininity. Essentially, the argument raised in class failed to recognize these social pressures driving women towards consumerism and instead implied that women were at fault for having some kind of “natural” tendency towards consumerism.

Fight Club

What is gender? What is sex? Sex is defined by the biological behavior of a human. It is composed of the genitals or chromosomes, which signifies if a person is a male or female. Gender on the other hand is an ongoing activity of behavior that classifies masculinity or femininity. It is shaped by our interactions. Because gender and sex are connected, society sees them everyday and they are underlying factors to most social situations. In the novel and film, Fight Club there is a connection with gender and sex roles through the characters and motive of the film. When I first read and saw the film there was not a very clear connection to gender. I saw the masculinity of Tyler’s character and how it was related to Fight Club, but the main theme I saw was how our consumerism was controlling our society. During our class discussions on Tuesday and Thursday we talked about how gender was played into this movie. I realized that gender did in fact play a role in the movie, not just through the characters, but also through the representation of how these characters are portrayed through their roles. Marla, one of the only female characters is not necessarily what society would consider feminine, but because she is one of the only females in the movie she projects an aspect of the female sex. Marla is seen as a vulnerable, disturbed woman who thrives off of the attention of males, creating a stereotypical image of woman needed men and men needed woman simply for sex. The book and film both use gender and sex to highlight the theme of consumerism and to suggest that the roles we play are formed through gender.

Fight Club

After reading Fight Club and watching the film Fight Club I was confused about how they would be connected to the ideas of gender and feminism. I really enjoyed class Tuesday because it helped me connect the ideas together. I thought it was interesting that the unnamed narrator chose a penguin for his power animal. If he was the typical manly man he probably would have chosen a tiger, bear, lion or a big, overpowering animal. As people discussed in class, a penguin is not very masculine. Some people even said it was not gendered which I agree with. Penguins are also small compared to other animals and are not known to be aggressive. I think the author's choice of the penguin was to show that the unnamed narrator does not think like the typical manly man. According to an internet source, male and female penguins look a lot a like. I also thought it was interesting how much advertising is included in the book. Women are typically consumers in American society, buying the clothes for the children, husband, themselves, decorating the house and therefore buying the furniture and knick knacks. To me, the majority of guys do not care how their house is decorated. For instance, one of my good guy friends moved into his house about 4 months ago and is only using the essentials. He still hasn't unpacked many boxes in his house. I know that if it were me I would have everything organized the way I want it and atleast a few decorations around the house. Another example of the difference between men and women, my brother lived in dorms or apartments throughout college, he never ever put a poster up or anything. On the other hand, I put posters up in my dorm as soon as I could. Decoration and consumerism is more aimed towards women. Toys and big items are aimed more towards men. I know a guy that has owned all the toys imaginable: a hummer, a tractor, motorcycles, boats, cars, trucks, snowmobiles, etc... as they say, "boys with their toys." I thought the talk in class yesterday was interesting and brought up many new ideas.

Fight Club

I really enjoyed the class discussion today about Fight Club. This is one of the discussions where I feel that people were able to really get into how they feel about certain situations. Usually the class is calmer, a lot of silence, but I felt tension today which is a good thing. There was a lot more about feminism than just gender. Something that I found very interesting was how the constricting society was described as feminist, which is something I viewed in class. However thinking more about it I think it is kind of contradicting not only to blame the women for males being constricted in society but also saying it is feminist. Feminism and being feminine are two totally different things. These males may feel like they have been raised in a feminine society but I would never go to say it is a feminist society. A feminist society has the goal of equality between both men and women where neither sex is limited. In fight club it is saying that society is constricting the male, which is different from the usual argument that it is the female is the one who is constricted in society. I think it is a great book, extremely interesting and a great different perspective. There are always two sides to everything and I agree that men need to get out their aggression and anger in a society that maybe, yes, is a little to constricting sometimes. I also believe that the other side is important to recognize. That maybe women need to express their anger and aggression as well and maybe they are also constricted within society. If this was addressed, then it would have been a feminist theory. I think it is more of a society problem then a gender problem.

Gender and Fight Club

i really enjoyed today's class discussion about fight club. There were so many different themes that were mentioned in the book, and we seemed to have covered many of them. I like the author, and his way of writing very much. I had read Invisible Monsters even before i read fight club. Invisible Monsters is quite the opposite of fight club. Its about a model who gets her jaw blown off, and they cannot replace her jaw. So instead she walks around, missing a jaw. No one wants to look at her, thus she is "invisible" and even steals a frozen turkey from a grocery store. The author has a very blunt way of writing that makes you really think about things outside of the norm. I like this very much.

One of the topics that was talked about in class was the idea that Fight Club completely left out the idea of women being surpressed. I could understand how alot of people could have felt that way, but i somewhat disagreed with this arguement. Yes, the book may have been about a male domninated anarchy where only men came to fight and rebel...but i also think that the marla singer character was a symbol for women doing the same thing. She was not the typical "lady." In fact, she was quite the opposite. Marla does not care what other people think of her. She does as she pleases and does what she believes in. She is attracted to the idea of death, thus she used to work in a funeral home, and now she attends terminal illness support groups. Perhaps the perfect example of her "unladylikeness" could be when she attends the testicular cancer support group. There is no possible way taht she might have testicular cancer, but i think the symbolism of her being there is to put her on the same level with the narrator. This is why Marla and Tyler Durden are so perfect for one another.

To go further, i would also say thats its very interesting that Tyler gets so frustrated that Marla is attending "his" meetings. His insomnia comes back beccause this "faker" is in his presence. Even though he is doing the exact same thing as Marla, he is being hyppocritical that he cannot have this "tourist" attending his meetings. I think that this could also be a statement on women in the work place. Marla is just as perverse as Tyler, however, "how dare she attend?" Women for years had to fight for equal jobs. However they still do not get paid as well as men do in our society. Maybe this is the reason why Tyler beings a males only fight club. To get away from this female "faker".

P.S. I think Transamerica would be perfect...love it

Carmilla discussion/thought

I found Carmilla very interesting, explaining its influence on the vampire culture proceeding it. However, I am torn between whether I think it is empowering to women or criticizing women as sexual beings. The concept of being a vampire, as we have discussed, is seductive and sexual but mainly pertains to men. Carmilla focuses on a women vampire, who is attracted to and feeds off of the female characters. The vampire represents beauty and attractiveness, but as a dangerous entity. Laura on the other hand represents the virginal, obedient daughter who is curious about the Carmilla. The essay I feel criticizes what happens to women if they should dare to be overtly sexual in general, and especially towards women with lesbian tendencies. Having been written so long ago, I do feel that it is making a social commentary about the role of women, rather than just bringing up the issue of lesbian sexuality. The work could be seen as shining a light on the fact that women do have sexual preferences other than striaght heterosexual roles. Also ,women are portrayed as being sexual which generally could be a good thing although takes on a negative context in the work. I like the idea of the seductive sexualized female vampire, which could potentially be empowering to women, except that I think the author is trying to deter women from being to sexual because back then women had strict social constructions on how to behave. The author is trying to abstain women from doing anything "bad" or taboo, because in the end the vampire does and Laura lives. The work could also be a message to men that attractive sexual women are dangerous and have potential to castrate a male by seducing him; therefore, switching power roles.