2008-07-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

"Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?"

Fight Club's Representation of Masculinity in a Consumer Based Culture

Film's Interaction with Culture

Film is a representation of the beliefs, values, and expectations of our American culture. The shape of the society we live in is exposed, if not somewhat created by, the movies we watch. Family dynamics, elements of love, fear, faith, and social norms are perpetuated by movie plots and resolutions. Movies guide how we feel and interact with the world. Latham Hunter contends that "Film is not just text. It is also cultural practice and should be approached and studied as such. It is made under specific cultural circumstances, and yet it also influences the circumstances of culture." ¹Film is created with culture in mind and it responds to various exigencies provided by our society. After the 9/11 attack on the United States, The Sum of All Fears was released in the wake of our nation's fear and qualms surrounding terrorism. John Travolta starred in the film Primary Colors and portrayed a President who very closely resembled that of Bill Clinton, scandals included. Movie plots themselves are typically fictional. Even films "based on a true story" rarely parallel actual events entirely. The values, ideas, social climates, and fears intertwined into these plots, however, are non-fictional. The values which build the problems and resolution of movie story lines are real and based off of the progression of society. As we expose ourselves to film, we see how our lives and world are reflected in movies. Through this, values, beliefs, ideas and concepts contained in movies are reinforced and accepted by society. Because we are exposed to film constantly and allow film to become an intimate part of our psyche, we make ourselves readily available to persuasion.

The Representation of Masculinity in Film

Film addresses myriad themes. There is virtually no subject untouched by the movie industry. Gender roles are perhaps one of the most defined aspects of our society through film. Femininity and masculinity are common underlying themes of most movies and generate perceptions of what men and women should be. The way men and women are depicted in movies addresses how each gender fits in and contributes to our world. Films that were created after World War II showed men coming home from war wounded, exhausted, and victorious. These same films showed women welcoming the men home and becoming their caretakers, as the men returned to provide for their families. For the most part, movies in the 1940's through to 1970's depicted men as the strong working class. Success was equated with masculinity in movies. As our nation has evolved, so has the way gender is represented in film. Films in the 1980's produced men/action-heroes such as Rambo and the Terminator.² These male characters represented masculinity in an undefeatable manner that glorified the strength and ability of men. Films in the 1980's produced fearless, quasi-superhero men who could not only dominate the world, but had an individually defined place in it.

Masculinity, to some extent, is biological. Testosterone has an effect on how males develop, partly on males' thinking process, and somewhat on males' behavior. The masculine gender, however, is learned. Terry Lee states that:

Post-structuralist sociology explains that our culturally normative ideas of masculinity are sociologically constructed sets of rules that govern male behaviors, from authorizing male emotions--tough emotions are okay; emotions of vulnerability are not--to authorizing male sex roles, the heterosexualization of desire, for instance. The masculinity that men enact has been developed and packaged by our culture, which insists that men perform it. Men have been conditioned to think that certain behavior is naturally masculine or not, and therefore abhorrent. They do their best to measure up.³

Lee shows that masculinity is clearly dictated by the cultural expectations of men. Men are supposed to be big, strong, tough, successful, and able to provide for their families. Masculinity is represented this way in most mainstream films. Masculinity, in film, is empowerment.

The Disempowerment of Men

With the advent of large corporations such as Microsoft and a multitude of computer-related companies forming because of technological advances, a new male working class was created. In the 1990's corporations became bigger than ever and had the capabilities to employ thousands upon thousands of workers. From this came a large class of employees who were entrapped in routine positions, with monotonous responsibilities, most likely confined to a cubicle. Careers faded from a blue collar work force to a more sophisticated white collar corporate atmosphere. As men dawned crisp white collars, the former "manliness" that was associated with blue collar work disappeared. Ashcraft and Flores contend "...blue collar labor produces a primitive masculinity replete with images of raw physicality-hard, hands on work performed by dirty, sweaty, bodies."⁴ Corporate America does not offer jobs with a sense of such primitive masculinity. These jobs, while boosting the economy, took away the individuality of workers in the profession. Men took a majority of these jobs and while making an average salary, became a collective conformity of "slaves" to the corporate world. Men, by cultural definitions of masculinity, are supposed to be the breadwinners of the family, and therefore dedicated and committed to their career. As corporate careers took over, men became less enchanted with their work. Movies such as Office Space exemplify this perfectly. A group of men all working for a computer company grow tired of the tedium of their jobs, cubicles, and monotone boss. This film took a different stance than most mainstream films in which males are lawyers, killers, detectives, and soldiers. This is how men are continually portrayed in film, yet the majority of men do not live the lives males have in film.⁵ Office Space answered the exigency of men working in jobs just like those in the film and demonstrated the truth of their emotions. These emotions consisted of being a generation of men engulfed by the white collars of large corporations.

Film, for the most part, had ignored these emotions and sentiments of men not contained within the movie industry. Ever since their birth, this generation of working class males had grown up with films teaching them to pursue the American Dream, make money, be successful, and to be fearless. As the generation grew up, it became much more difficult to attain the American Dream and to be successful. Many men began to realize the American Dream was not so easily attained, and when it was attained it did not make their life complete. Others found that success may make money, but success does not enrich the meaning of one's life, increase the manliness of a man, or create a near utopian lifestyle. In the real world, men had become disempowered from their set roles created by culture and movies. One of the most unique, intricate, and outspoken films to address this is Fight Club. This film argues that our corporate, consumer-based culture has emasculated men, created a consortium of working class males striving for the American Dream, and urges men to liberate themselves from the American culture where their masculinity has been lost. Through a rhetoric of satire and exaggeration, Fight Club begs men who are disempowered through immersion in an acquisitive culture to reclaim their masculinity.

Overview of Fight Club

Fight Club is a film based off of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name. The film itself has many themes ranging from dissociative identity disorder to communism. The most overlapping theme, though, is masculinity and the life of a middle-class white male. Edward Norton stars in this film as the protagonist narrator who does not have a name. The namelessness of his character is very symbolic of the place he holds in the world. For the purpose of this paper, Norton's character will be called "Jack," based off of mental comments and observations he makes throughout the movie. Jack's occupation is a risk and recall analyst for what he names a "major automobile corporation." He represents the corporate "everyman" with no distinctive or individualistic qualities about himself or his occupation. At the beginning of the film he shows how his apartment is filled with furniture from the IKEA catalog, and tells about how he has to buy possessions that are "clever,"⁶ like a coffee table in the shape of a yin-yang. He states, "I flipped through catalogs and wondered: 'What kind of dining set defines me as a person?'"⁷ Jack's character at the beginning of the movie is a man who is defined by the work he does and the things he buys, and realizes that he does not like the work he does, and is consumed by materiality. Jack is an illustration of the path men take to achieve the American Dream. He lives in a high-rise condominium and fulfills his life with material goods. Jack's "full" life is not complete. He suffers from insomnia and attends support groups for illnesses he does not have, such as testicular cancer and bowel cancer. The support groups somehow give him solace, and he is able to sleep once again. This temporary fix does not last long though, as another "tourist" of the support group circuit upsets Jack's relief and sends him looking for other ways to ease his pain.⁸Her name is Marla, the only main female character in the film.

On a business trip, Jack meets a mysterious stranger named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). As we learn later in the film, Tyler is actually Jack's alter-ego. Tyler's existence is directly related to Jack's masculinity and materiality, as Tyler is the impetus that urges Jack to refute the expectations of the American culture which has emasculated him. As Tyler and Jack form a friendship, they establish an underground boxing club consisting of working class men. The fight clubs grow into a much larger terrorist organization called "Project Mayhem," whose ultimate goal is to destroy corporate America. Tyler is responsible for this growth, but it is Jack who questions the actions of Project Mayhem. Jack then learns that he and Tyler are one in the same person, and that he has created Project Mayhem through his own accord. Jack realizes that everything he thought were actions of Tyler were in reality, actions of himself. Tyler was a figment of Jack's imagination that led him on a path to a sort of enlightenment, and a path of destruction. Project Mayhem succeeds and annihilates the major buildings in a large American city. As Jack watches corporate America literally be destroyed, he shoots himself in the head, which kills Tyler but not himself. As Jack learns how to reclaim his masculinity and lose everything material, he is then able to liberate himself from Tyler and control himself as Jack.

Fight Club's Representation of Masculinity

With the exception of a few characters, only white males are in Fight Club. Men are the focal point throughout the plot, and the idea of masculinity is theorized. It presents the idea that middle class white men are a grey area in history, working menial jobs and giving their money away to a consumer culture in order to attain the American Dream. Tyler states:

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war, our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.⁹

Shown through Tyler's statement, the defining feature of this generation's life is not having a distinct purpose. Tyler claims as men they are not fighting a war, they are not surviving an economic disaster, and because of this, their lives are the war and depression. This angers them and questions their masculinity. Jack and Tyler are nearly resentful of the men who fought in the World Wars and Vietnam, because the nation's need for those men's masculinity was immense. As men, they were a necessity. This generation's masculinity is a not a necessity, and their place as men has thus been hindered and unappreciated, especially through the work force.¹⁰

Jack and Tyler respond to these realizations by fighting each other. Neither men had ever been in a fight before and decide to fight one another. Being aggressive and violent, the men feel better and let fighting consume their lives. As Fight Club is formed, men join by the masses, and are empowered once again by fighting. Jack says, "After fighting, everything else in your life got the volume turned down."¹¹ The fight clubs allow the men to act aggressively and animalistic and return to the roots of what "real" masculinity is made up of. Fighting becomes the fixation men are immersed in. Instead of living for work, or living to be consumers, they begin to live for fight club. As Ashcraft and Flores point out, "They must mobilize and fight to regain control, if not life."¹²The importance of fighting is vast because it acts as a raw outlet in the lives of men looking to embrace their masculinity.

While riding a bus, Jack points to a Calvin Klein-like advertisement of a man modeling underwear. Jack asks Tyler, "Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?"¹³This statement brings into the film's conversation an idea of what "real" masculinity is and who "real" men are. The men who attend fight club are men of all sizes, demographics, and ethnicities. Jack's sarcastic question of "Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?" spotlights the film's exact answer of No-- real men don't wear designer underwear, they are men who in more than one way, must fight to be men.

Film has largely ignored the concept of what "real" men are supposed to be. Hollywood movies cast rich, good-looking actors to play the roles of "real" men, yet the actor's authentic persona usually precedes the film itself, overshadowing the "real" man character in the film. Fight Club addresses this issue head-on, casting Brad Pitt (People Magazine's twice-elected "Sexiest Man Alive") as the epitome of masculinity Tyler Durden, and Edward Norton as a lost corporate soul looking for enlightenment. Edward Norton acting as Jack asks Brad Pitt acting as Tyler, "Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?" Both men brush it off with aversion, and something beyond Tyler and Jack is created. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, through their characters, disown a male model as looking like a "real" man. As actors they are adored in our culture, and men both are measured against them and measure themselves against them to gauge their masculinity. But in Fight Club, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton defy this, and act as "real" men would, giving viewers a sense of authenticity to the film's message about what "real" men look like.

Though women are not a focal point in Fight Club, feminine effect on Jack and Tyler is apparent. Marla is the reason why Jack loses comfort from the support groups. The simple presence of her femininity disrupts Jack's tourism of the support groups so deeply that he can no longer attend.¹⁴ She is so bothersome to him he says "If I had a tumor, I'd name it Marla."¹⁵ Her femininity eats away at him like cancer, and goes along with another one of the film's themes that women are nestled in the cause of men's emasculation. In Tyler's words, "We are a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need."¹⁶ Tyler questions the need for women in his life and other males of his generation. Women are apart of the cause for men's place in the corporate world. Ashcraft and Flores argue:

Women have feminized and disabled men with conflicting demands for emotional, financial, and political support and sensitive, over-civilized behavior. To make matters worse, 'woman' is the ultimate source of men's corporate bondage; it is largely because of her that men subject themselves to the whims and abuses of an elusive, all-powerful, corporate elite.¹⁷

Ashcraft and Flores highlight the same sentiments Tyler and Jack express in Fight Club. Tyler makes this impression strongly with the statement, "Fuck Martha Stewart."¹⁸This is a clear-cut stab at femininity and domesticity, two major barriers preventing the reclamation of masculinity. Through this, the film itself speaks out about what masculinity is and is not and distinctly takes a stand that complete refutation of American

Culture is needed to become men once again.

An American Virus

The quest for the American Dream is the driving force behind the loss of Jack's masculinity. Jack's need to be a consumer is the essence of the American Dream. The American Dream is a universal goal that expands farther than American soil. It is a worldly idea, as the United States is seen as "the land of opportunity." This perception is disseminated through the media, namely film. It is portrayed as possible, important, and within the reach of all who attempt to attain it.¹⁹Pileggi, et al. argues that the American Dream existed before America did. The idea of manifest destiny and "utopian desire for a new world" drove what would become the American Dream to encourage a thirst for always wanting more.²⁰Furthermore, the American Dream is nothing more than a myth, which bases success and failure off of financial success and social class.²¹The American Dream is perceived as standard, anyone who is "normal" would want it. It is the ultimate sign of success and prosperity. In our culture today, the American Dream is defined by large paychecks, even bigger corporations, and being a white collar sophisticate.

The American Dream is no stranger to criticism. In the 1960's Malcolm X pointed out its shortcomings, naming it "An American Nightmare."²²The way Fight Club criticizes the American Dream is different. It shows it for what the Dream is: an American Virus. It gives Americans something to strive for, a reason to get up and go to work in the morning. It spreads from person to person, as we learn from the media that this is what we all should be working for. Over time, it sickens the person. Nothing can ever truly match up to the idealistic vision of the American Dream. The quest for it can never be cured. Jack filled his life with working and spending his money on a condominium and IKEA furnishings. It began to keep him awake at night and ruin his life. Jack's life in his condominium was filled with Scandinavian furniture and an expensive wardrobe, but in having all of this he did not have a means to retain or express his masculinity.

Tyler's Relation to Jack

Jack is not aware that Tyler is his alter-ego until the very end of the film. Up until this time, Jack is mesmerized by Tyler. Tyler is the collectivity of what Jack wants to be. He is the pinnacle of masculinity: good looking, reckless, muscular, smart, and strong. Before meeting Tyler, Jack only really cares about the things that he owns. His condominium is destroyed in an explosion caused by Tyler. In this explosion, Jack loses every material possession he owns. We even see his clever yin-yang table crushed and burned on the ground. The yin-yang table acts symbolically as the relation of Jack and Tyler. Jack is the blackness of the yin-yang; Tyler is the white vision of light -- a dichotomy of one another. After the explosion happens, Jack ends up staying with Tyler in a dilapidated shack-like house. Jack no longer has an IKEA furnished home, and no longer has Calvin Klein shirts and DKNY shoes. All he has now is fighting and a vision of his ideal self in Tyler.

The explanation of why Jack created an alter-ego such as Tyler rests in Tyler's admission of "I am free in all of the ways you are not."²³ Jack's subconscious knew he was tied down to a corporate career, unhappy in his condo "on the fifteenth floor of a filing cabinet for widows and young professionals."²⁴Because of his emasculation, he was incapable of ridding himself of all of the things he did not like in his life. He needed a strong, masculine force such as Tyler to guide him on his path to enlightenment. As the film progresses, Jack becomes more and more like Tyler. He begins to stop caring about how he looks and owning possessions. He becomes a strong fighter and more willing to live a reckless lifestyle like Tyler does. Tyler forces him to relinquish control while letting go of the steering wheel on a rainy road. Jack and Tyler, along with two members of Project Mayhem roll off the road into a violent car accident and Tyler exclaims, "You just had a near-life experience!"²⁵ Tyler forces Jack to live a life with nothing material, no hope of anything for the future, and no fear of losing anything-- including his life. Jack says, "Losing all hope was freedom."²⁶ Jack finds enlightenment and freedom through Tyler, and then is able to recognize that he and Tyler are literally the same person. Once Jack sees this, he can no longer live with the guidance of Tyler. Jack takes a gun to his head and shoots himself. Miraculously, Jack does not die but Tyler does. Jack is now all the aspects of Tyler he once envied. This was the purpose of Tyler's existence.

A Rhetoric of Satire and Exaggeration

When Fight Club came to theatres in 1999, the film was underscored because of its extreme violence. Many film critics argued that the fighting in the film was much too violent, and would endorse domestic violence. On the surface, Fight Club does appear to be over the top in violence, but this element is what makes the text itself effective. It is rhetorically satirical for the purpose of delivering its message. Gary Crowdus suggests that the film is "darkly satiric" and purposefully outrageous in its fighting.²⁷Fight Club is extremely satirical in its view of corporations taking over the world. Jack says "When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks."²⁸ Obviously no such thing would ever happen. However, it paints the picture of an entire universe encompassed by corporations. The satire proves the point of what our world will be like if we don't stop the growth of and loyalty to corporations. Fight Club draws from the truth but paints it in a sarcastic way that viewers can relate to and fear at the same time.

The extreme and graphic violence in Fight Club is an exaggeration of the journey men should take to recover their masculinity. This type of exaggeration makes the film rhetorically persuasive as it provides a journey that no reasonable man would ever take. In fact, it would most likely be stopped by law enforcement before a real fight club ever spread. Fight Club is a film that men can live vicariously through and be inspired by to not take their quest for the American Dream so seriously. Jack shows up to work bloody and bruised from fighting and even blackmails his demanding boss. It is a scenario that would/could not happen, but it gives viewers an embellished image of cutting off all ties to American Culture and white collar work. If anything, Fight Club is a glimpse to its male viewers of what life could be like without commitments to work, materiality, and IKEA. Fight Club exaggerates the effects of emasculation as well as the ways to reclaim masculinity. Its violence is what captivates the viewer and creates an arena to think about what their life is centered around.

Conclusion

Fight Club is more than a film with a message; it is a film with a plea. It is a film speaking to men in the real world. It answers the sentiments of men who spend their lives working and buying things that are supposed to make their lives complete. It comforts the men who were raised to believe that they had to grow to be successful and strong and powerful. Films have changed as society has changed, and Fight Club is a film that is truly reflective of the emotions of the current young generation of men. While movies are still being made about super-hero-like men, Fight Club stands out as a film that addresses men's place in a consumer culture, showing them in a vulnerable light. Instead of The Terminator, men how have Tyler. What Fight Club preaches though, is that men like Jack have the ability to become someone like Tyler, assuming that men watching the film are men like Jack. Fight Club acts as the virtual Tyler urging all of its male viewers to take a journey reminiscent of Jack's. It reflects the values of our culture and provides a plot that is filled with symbols that we see in our everyday lives. Men relate to this film because they see in Jack things they see in their lives. They see Starbucks, they see IKEA, and they see corporate America. Jack is a conglomeration of working American men, and is a character that can be related to and exemplified in the drive to reclaim masculinity.

While addressing Project Mayhem, Tyler reminds them that "You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else."²⁹ What this means and creates is the idea that all men, no matter what place they hold in the world, are basically the same. Whether they dress in blue collars, white collars, or no collar at all, they still have the same fundamental urges, needs, and purposes. Because of this, everything else is dispensable, and masculinity is key. Fight Club raised questions about violence in the social realm, as well as various other topics. The true impact that Fight Club has is on its male audience, as it pleads with them to reflect on their own lives and question if they are chasing an unattainable American Dream. To men like Jack, Fight Club is the American Dream and masculinity is Tyler. The film works to represent real men and give them support to welcome and demand their masculinity. It wants them to look in the mirror and ask, "Is that what a real man looks like?" and have the confidence and reason to say yes. Fight Club is a film that addresses a crisis in masculinity, and creates an exaggerated solution for men to build off of. Ironically, it gives hope, even though Jack says losing all hope is freedom. It is a persuasive text that questions the way we live, and more importantly, what we live for.

Notes

1. Latham Hunter, "The Celluloid Cubicle: Regressive Constructions of Masculinity in 1990's Office Movies," The Journal of American Culture 26 (2003): 71.

2. Terry Lee, "Virtual Violence in Fight Club, This is What Transformation of Masculine Ego Feels Like," Journal of American and Comparative Cultures 25 (2002): 418.

3. Ibid; 419.

4. Karen Lee Ashcraft and Lisa A. Flores, "Slaves With White Collars": Persistent Performances of Masculinity in Crisis," Text and Performance Quarterly 23 (2000): 5.

5. Office Space. Dir. Mike Judge. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

6. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

7. Ibid.

8. Karen Lee Ashcraft and Lisa A. Flores, "Slaves With White Collars": Persistent Performances of Masculinity in Crisis," Text and Performance Quarterly 23 (2000): 10.

9. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

10. Karen Lee Ashcraft and Lisa A. Flores, "Slaves With White Collars": Persistent Performances of Masculinity in Crisis," Text and Performance Quarterly 23 (2000): 9.

11. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

12. Karen Lee Ashcraft and Lisa A. Flores, "Slaves With White Collars": Persistent Performances of Masculinity in Crisis," Text and Performance Quarterly 23 (2000): 10.

13. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

14. Ashcraft, Karen Lee and Lisa A. Flores, "Slaves With White Collars": Persistent Performances of Masculinity in Crisis," Text and Performance Quarterly 23 (2000): 10.

15. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

16. Ibid.

17. Karen Lee Ashcraft and Lisa A. Flores, "Slaves With White Collars": Persistent Performances of Masculinity in Crisis," Text and Performance Quarterly 23 (2000): 14.

18. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

19. Mary S. Pileggi and others. "Business as Usual: The American Dream in Hollywood Business Films." Mass Communication and Society 3 (2000): 1.

20. Ibid, 2.

21. Ibid, 1.

22. George Breitman, ed., Malcolm X Speaks (New York: Pathfinder Books, 2002).

23. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Gary Crowdus. "Getting Exercised Over Fight Club."Cineaste 25 (Fall 2000): Infotrac Expanded Academic Database. Online. Quoted in Terry Lee, "Virtual Violence in Fight Club, This is What Transformation of Masculine Ego Feels Like," Journal of American and Comparative Cultures 25 (2002): 420.

28. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999.

29. Ibid.

Fight Club - where it all began