FIGHT CLUB: CRITICAL APPROACH OF GENDER

INTRODUCTION
From looking further into the messages which Fight Club (David
Fincher, 1999) presents, I have been able to gain an in depth
understanding of its representation of gender.
INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION
- Fox Studios (Major Hollywood film studio and Hollywood
conglomerate) allowed a $63 million budget.
- DVD packaging comment: The film is meant to make you question.
The package, by extension, tries to reflect an experience that you must
experience yourself. The more you look at it, the more you get out of
it.
AUDIENCE RESPONSE
- Using Brad Pitt suggests a mainstream audience.
- 15-25 multiplex but there is an art-house cross over which can cause
more problems as an art-house audience may be put off by Brad Pitt.
- Copycat fight clubs and attacks became a media focus of concern.
- Fight Club gained cult status and popularity for the film has grown
since the initial release. Audience demanded for DVD re-release in
2004 and the DVD became one of the largest selling in the studios
history.

ERA/CONTEXT
- Released following the Columbine school
shootings, the US public were not wanting to see
violent productions which probably had a
negative effect on the films overall ratings.
- Top box office films of 1999 were mostly clear,
blockbuster genre films with specific audiences in
mind: (Toy Story, Phantom Menace, Matrix,
Austin Powers). American Beauty was the only
other surprise hit film with similar masculinity in
crisis/anti-consumerism messages but appealing
to a safer audience.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
MARLA AND THE FEMALE GENDER IN FIGHT CLUB
MARLAS NEGATIVE INITIAL
REPRESENTATION
For a first time viewer, their initial reaction is
most likely to be critical of the way the film is
debatably misogynistic. This is not a difficult
assumption to make based on the many
disrespectful term which women are referred to
with. Jack refers to Marla in the first scene we
meet her as this chick and later, as Tyler
influences his actions more as a little bitch.
Marla herself is represented as a bad character
and she is given the blame for the events from the
films start which the audience take on board,
aligning themselves with the negative view the
narrator Jack has towards her. Due to this, her
negative aspects become strongly highlighted to a
fist time viewer who see Jack as a reliable
narrator. Her stealing, smoking at a lung cancer
support group and blunt attitude represent Marla
in a negative way. When she repetitively sleeps
with Tyler after he continuously treats her badly,
she also seems to become a desperate character
and an overall bad representation of women.
MARLA AS A FEMINIST
However, after the ending is revealed and we think back and re-
watch the events, we begin to understand her actions are reactions
to dealing with Jacks bipolar personality. In this new light, an
audience is able to sympathise for her and this in return begins to
present Marla as a figure of feminism. Most representations of
women in films show the clich, blonde, pretty girl whos only aim is
to find love. Marla challenged this completely: her hair is messy as
are her clothes and her personality is based around her pride in her
madness, not her looks. Despite her aims being unclear, we
understand love is not her goal when Jack apologises for how he has
treated her (despite not being able to fully remember it) and she tells
him straight that she does not want to see him again. Overall, her
character is a lot stronger than a typical Hollywood representation of
women. She is not afraid to h=shout and at one point she even walks
into a busy road of traffic making them stop for her.
FIGHT CLUB: THE CRITICAL APPROACH OF GENDER


MARLAS MASCULINITY
Marla also shows many masculine traits: she is
more of a leader than Jack when they first meet,
allowing him to run around to find her to
arrange what nights they will each attend
support groups. She becomes an ironic example
of a ballsy woman when she visits the mans
testicular cancer support group even though it
is clear that she does not/has not had testicular
cancer, none of the men (expect for Jack
although for different reasons) dare to tell her
to leave. Marlas masculinised traits inevitably
highlight Jacks feminised traits which is what
leads to his further vivid visions of Tyler on his
journey to regaining his masculinity, making
Marla a protagonist and in 2013s top 100 films
only 15% of protagonists were female. I believe
that Marla represents women very positively
she is a woman who represents womens
freedom to be as crazy as they want but,
despite her masculine traits, she does not
conform to masculinity and the way men act
shown by her dresses and fur coat throughout
the film. As the only main female character, she
takes on the whole representation of the
gender and, as she is the most innocent
character by the end of the film, shows woman
as strong and independent.
THAT LITTLE BITCH MARLA SINGER: A CULTURAL
CTIQUE OF SEXISM IN FIGHT CLUB
Some people disagree Marla is a figure of feminism. Within the article
That Little Bitch Marla Singer: A Cultural Critique Of Sexism In Fight
Club by Logan Phillips, he quotes the line in which Tyler mentions his
mother cooking for him and took this as a hint of sexism. I however
disagree as previous to this, he also mentions his father leaving him
and from research into the book the film is based on, I found that the
author (Chuck Palahniuk) interviewed many men during planning its
narrative and fund that boys without fathers had no idea how to be a
real man and as David Fincher is known for often including
empowering women in his films (Panic Room, where a woman fights
off murders in her home to save her daughter and ex-husband) and
through the type casting of Helena Bonham Carter (a feminist actress
who only accepts women empowering roles), I believe that the female
gender is actually empowered through its portrayal in Fight Club.
JACK/TYLER AND THE MALE GENDER IN FIGHT CLUB
JACKS FEMINISATION/TYLERS MASCULINITY
Masculinity is far more critically represented in Fight Club. Throughout the film,
Jacks feminised persona and Tylers more masculine one are contrasted and
compared. For example: as the film starts we first see Jack sat on a chair with Tyler
pointing a gun to his head. This instantly describes the two main representations of
men in the film: the alpha male (Tyler) with the gun and rigged look and the
weaker, feminised male (Jack) who states through the narration he is more
bothered about the cleanliness of the gun in his mouth than fighting back
(cleanliness is typically a female trait). Jacks feminine representations do not end
here, when we are introduced to his condo (which is perfectly clean and tidy
more stereotypically female) he describes how he asks himself what furniture
defines me. This links to the feminisation of men directly to consumerism and
introduces battling it which becomes the main narrative message in the film. We
even see a yin/yang table which ironically mocks his over feminised personality as
real men are expected to be violent. Jack also mentions how porn has been
replaced with furniture catalogues which shows how little manly instincts he has
left and familiarises him more with a female than a man. Real men are meant to
be leaders whereas a first, Jack is bossed around at work and does not challenge
this. His suit is smart, not rugged and dirty as his clothes are when he becomes a
true male at the end of the film. When compared to Marla, he seems to notice
this himself and finally his instincts kick ion as he begins to create Tyler, the
epitome of an ideal male.


ED NORTON AS JACK
Ed Norton is cast perfectly as Jack. He is a small male with
a whiney voice and weedy figure who represents the
average male likely to be watching the film. This could
effectively align them more with him and target the main
male audience to look at how feminised they are
themselves.
TYLERS MASCULINITY/PITT AS TYLER
Tyler is the binary opposite of Jack. He is muscly, physically and mentally strong, he is a
leader (of project mayhem) and largely independent with no attachment to people or
possessions (all male stereotypes). In comparison to Jack who we know no longer even
looks at porn, he has intercourse regularly with Marla throughout the film showing he still
has his primal instincts and with his rugged, care free image he seems a far wilder ideology
of a man. Casting Brad Pitt as Tyler was an effective an ironic decision for Fincher,
particularly during the bus scene where Jack and Tyler point at a boxer advertisement with
a muscly man in it, mocking it saying Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?.
This is ironic and mocks the entire ideology Jack has created as Brad Pitt does look like hat
and has himself been in a very similar advertisement. Pitt is the perfect male in the
audiences eyes as he is in Jacks, to them he is their Tyler and this represents hat men are
lead to believe they must be. I also find it interesting how Tyler becomes objectified
through his topless, masculine portrayal as normally this sexualisation would stay around a
female (Marla). This further backs up my idea that Fincher purposely employed Marla as a
stronger character.
MARLA AND JACKS NEUTRAL BALANCE
During the final scene where the buildings collapse, it seems to work as a metaphor for how destructive Jacks attempts to be
a perfect male were on himself and how now his wish to be an alpha male has come to an end. I feel that while women are
represented more positively and powerfully, Fight Club seems to mock the idea of what men are supposed to become. The
overall theme of violence at first seems to be encouraging men to take on their instincts ad fight but in the end we see Jack
regret it all, the film seems to peruse more the balance of femininity and masculinity (a link back to Jacks yin/yang table at the
start of the film and a suggestion he was trying to find spiritual balance rather than masculinity). It is hen both Marla and Jack
reach this balance that they, as two colliding genders, finally get along as they stare calmly at the buildings crashing around
them.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, from applying a deeper analysis into gender representation in Fight Club, I have been able to look beyond the
violent, misogynistic, view many people have of it and understand its more empowering take on females whilst it pursues a
more balances male figure, a view far more positive than I originally thought.