Fight Club and Masculinity

Contemporary screen media has seen a significant change in the way that it displays masculinity, which in the past hundred years or so has been seen as being in a recurring state of crisis (Baker 2008). The way that this crisis of masculinity within Hollywood has manifested itself, and the way it is explored, has ranged from a visceral male anger, as seen in films such as Fight Club (1999) and American Psycho (2000) which portray a violent response to the way society expects men to express their masculinity, to movies such as American Beauty (1999), which depicts a more subdued response in its criticism of the feminised, white collar ‘New Man’ (Deakin 2012). Focusing specifically on Fight Club, a film which is centred around a young, white man working in a job he hates, this essay will analyse the way in which it comments on the idea of masculinity in crisis.

The depiction of white, heterosexual men struggling with the perceived threat to conventional masculinity has become more prolific within the arts and popular culture (Gymnich et al. 2010). Gates (2012) explains that the starting point of masculinity descending into crisis can be traced to the rise of second-wave feminism, which began in the 1960s, and the consequent social change spurred on by the empowerment of women. With an increasing number of women leaving the home and entering the workplace - a space which had previously been dominated by men - male dominance was faced with a major challenge. By the 1980s, more and more women were managing to secure high-paying professional and corporate jobs. This apparent rise in the importance of women’s roles resulted in a perceived feeling that the masculine role was becoming more diminished. Observers often associate these masculine anxieties with war; in reference to British masculinity, this crisis goes in hand with the end of the Second World War, when thousands of men returned to a country whose domestic landscape had been changed by the need to operate without them. The traditional spheres of gender, which depict women in the home and men in the workplace, were redefined as women entered the factories in support of the war effort (Genz and Brabon 2009) and it was discovered that women could do the same jobs, and to the same standard of quality, as their male counterparts. McInnes (cited in Gates 2012) points out that attributes which were once celebrated as masculine features, such as strength, rationality and backbone, had now evolved into male downfalls, such as aggression, coldness and an inability to communicate. According to studies which took place during the late 1980s and into the 1990s, the ‘average’ male had come to feel alienated and uneasy within this changed environment, as those masculine qualities that would once have been of benefit to him were now perceived to be outdated and disadvantageous (Slack 2008).

The ‘New Man’ refers to the way in which early 1990s cinema depicted white heterosexual men, who were often displayed on screen as domesticated, feminised and/or paternal figures (Nelmes 2003). The creation of the ‘New Man’ has a direct correlation to the masculine crisis because, in many ways, it is itself the product of this masculine anxiety. The ‘New Man’ was born out of the perception of a change within men’s attitudes to issues such as gender equality, and the way men’s roles in the home were changing, specifically in relation to parenting and the shared responsibility of housekeeping (Slack 2008). The ‘New Man’ stereotype also refers to an increased willingness among men to connect with what were previously perceived to be more typically feminised aspects of the self, such as being in touch with and expressing their emotions. Beyon (cited in Baker 2008, p. 67) attributes the redefinition of masculinity to “changes in employment patterns, loss of the ‘breadwinner’ hegemony and the high profile of feminised ‘New Man’ models, and particularly the loss of masculine ‘rights’.” Ging (2012) further associates the label ‘New Man’ with terms such as ‘gay’ and ‘metrosexual’, which again emphasises the way that the ‘New Man’ has been feminised. The description is now being lumped together with the kind of terminology used to describe homosexual men who have been strongly feminised by society and the media (Cook 2014), and to refer to men who take particular effort in their grooming and physical appearance, both of which are typically seen as feminine qualities.

Fight Club, directed by David Fincher and released in 1999, is a film about masculinity in crisis; it centres around the young, white, American male and the way in which he has become alienated, feminised and frustrated with capitalism and the life he is forced to lead in the late twentieth century (Nelmes 2003). The key theme at the heart of the film focuses on the way that men’s role in society has changed, and how there appears to be a lack of meaning in their lives. This motif is addressed several times throughout the movie, in speeches almost always delivered by the infamous Tyler Durden. In one of his opening speeches to the men of fight club, he states: “We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... Our Great Depression is our lives.” For these men, fight club is supposed to give its members a task, some purpose and a place in history - to be remembered and thus to have led a meaningful life (Gymnich et al. 2010). The Narrator and the members of the exclusively male fight club, an underground bare knuckle boxing society, are trying to reclaim their lost sense of masculinity through taking part in a brutal display violence and male bonding, as in their day-to-day lives they feel powerless (Kimmel and Aronson 2003). For some critics, the violence in Fight Club serves as a metaphor to represent the inner struggle of men who wish to destroy the new form of masculinity they have come to know before it has a chance to destroy them (Lee cited in Shary 2012).

Eventually the fight club group splinters into a sister organisation, ‘Project Mayhem’, a faction obsessed with anti-capitalism. However, in order to join ‘Project Mayhem’, members of the fight club must endure a series of harsh tests in order to be considered masculine enough to be accepted (Nelmes 2003). The members of ‘Project Mayhem’ attribute much of their loss of masculinity to consumerism and therefore focus their attacks on symbols of corporate culture, such as coffee shop chains. This eventually develops into targeting the buildings of major credit card companies, with the end goal being to erase all debt (Kimmel and Aronson 2003). Fight Club criticises consumerism, depicting it as an ideological entity which is breaking men down, weakening them and domesticating them (Lewis 2002). The Narrator addresses this when he and Tyler are on a bus and he points at a Gucci underwear advertisement showcasing the torso of a muscular looking man wearing a pair of boxer shorts, and asks: “Is that what a man looks like?”. Just before posing this question, The Narrator expresses his pity for men who force themselves to go to the gym every day in order to achieve a specific type of body because that is what Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger decree they should look like.

The Narrator versus Tyler Durden dynamic explores the ‘New Man’ versus anxious male who wants to reclaim his masculinity. The Narrator embodies the domesticated man: he is passive, alienated and without ambition. Tyler, on the other hand, exemplifies the sort of masculinity that rejects the allure of consumerism (Giroux 2003). The Narrator’s crisis of identity is shown in a literal sense throughout the film. At first he adopts various names when attending group therapy sessions for different diseases, and then later on in the film it is revealed that Tyler is his alter ego. This identity crisis is further emphasised when it is pointed out that The Narrator does not even have a name; he is never addressed by a specific title and is even credited as ‘Narrator’ at the end of the film (Ruddell 2014). By contrast, The Narrator’s alter ego has a first and last name, Tyler Durden, which is repeated constantly throughout the film. The Narrator is dissatisfied with his life, he represents the Everyman (Giroux 2003) with his fear of a loss of masculinity. The Narrator has been constructed to be relatable to men, a character who is dissatisfied with his personal and professional life, whose only respite from this unhappy monotony is through his desire to complete the perfect ‘IKEA home’. The Narrator even tries to find a sense of identity through this aim, asking questions such as: “What kind of dining set defines me as a person?”. Essentially, The Narrator's identity is that of a consumer, and that is all (Shary 2012).

For Tyler Durden this dissatisfaction and unhappiness is not applicable, as he was created out of a response to a perceived loss of masculinity and identity. Instead, Tyler is regarded as the ideal in masculine perfection. The Narrator created Tyler to be everything he himself is not, and as a result of this, Tyler’s characteristics are deeply rooted in the traditional perception of macho masculinity (Ruddell 2014). This is highlighted when,  after the reveal that Tyler is a creation of The Narrator, Tyler explains: “All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways you are not.” Tyler takes steps to help The Narrator reclaim his masculinity, and the beginning of this journey can be pinpointed to when Tyler blows up The Narrator's apartment. The IKEA set that The Narrator had become so obsessed with is destroyed, forcing him to abandon his consumerist lifestyle in search of a more meaningful one, and thus marking the beginning of his quest for an identity (Klemens 2007).

Fight Club also exhibits its fear of a loss of masculinity through its relationship with its female characters, as well as in the representation of the male body throughout the film. The singular female character in the film, Marla Singer, is, in The Narrator's eyes, the source of all his problems. She ruins the group therapy sessions he attends at the beginning of the film for him, and she drives a wedge between The Narrator and Tyler when she strikes up a sexual relationship with Tyler. As the The Narrator explains: “She ruined everything.” The narrative deliberately makes Marla - and the sexual threat that she represents - key to the masculine identity crisis (Wager 2009). This highlights the threat women appear to pose to men, in the sense that they are making men replaceable: entering the workplace, earning the breadwinner title etc. In fact, Marla represents the male fear of castration, a theme which runs throughout Fight Club (Nelmes 2003). It is a literal response to the fear of a loss of masculinity: the fear of losing the penis. Castration is presented as the ultimate act in the removal of the masculine identity, and Fight Club takes steps to combat this, through the animalistic aggression of the fight scenes (Packer 2002).   

In a bar, Tyler tells The Narrator that his situation (his destroyed apartment) could be worse: instead, a woman could cut off his penis and throw it out the window - here, Marla is implied to be the woman to whom he refers as the audience does not know any other female characters in the film. In Tyler and Marla’s first meeting in Marla’s apartment, Tyler notices a large dildo on her bedroom drawer. She quickly assures him, although mockingly, that it does not pose a threat to him (Kuhn and Rubin 2009). It does, however, because it shows that men could be perceived as replaceable, not only by women in the workplace but by dildoes in the bedroom. The film draws upon these phallic images in order to suggest the notion of masculine vulnerability, and Tyler’s response to this is to reclaim his manhood through various acts of rebellion, such as inserting images of penises into family films at the cinema; urinating into the soup of rich customers at a restaurant; and threatening the chief of police at the head of the ‘Project Mayhem’ investigation by targeting the chief’s testicles (Gymnich et al. 2010). Castration is a fate that almost befalls The Narrator, which would be fitting as he represents the feminised ‘New Man’. Tyler describes his generation as men who have lost their masculinities, and attributes this to the women in their lives and the absent father figures: “We are a generation of men raised by women.” He blames women for the feminisation of the men of his generation and, by extension, for the loss of their masculine identity (Rehling 2010).    

The men in Fight Club seek to reclaim their bodies and their masculinities from the threat of castration (figuratively and literally) from women, and to free themselves from the consumerist culture that has surrounded them. They do this through fighting with each other, inflicting their bodies with cuts, bruises and broken bones which have historically been perceived as badge of manliness (Armstrong 2014). “The wounded male body is stylised as an icon of the crisis of masculinity and creates a bond between the members.” (Gymnich et al. 2010, p. 51). By marking their bodies with scars and imperfections, the men strive to reject the ideal of the perfect body which has been imposed upon them, such as the unscarred, flawless and faceless male model of the Gucci underwear bus advertisement that The Narrator and Tyler mock. The implication is that such self-inflicted pain offers the men a way to re-establish their autonomy over their bodies and “break out of the chains of a commodity culture that has reduced masculinity to an image that can be bought or sold.” (Rehling 2010, p. 85). Tyler embodies this idea; he is consistently shown as bloodied, beaten, greasy, dirty etc., but also within a powerful context: the camera often points up towards him, which puts him in a position of power. At one point, the film draws a contrast between the idealised masculine body (Tyler) and the flawless, consumer culture-driven ‘New Man’ Gucci model seen from the bus. Tyler is framed in the exact same pose as the model in the advertisement, although with Tyler in the bruised aftermath of a fight he has just won (Baker 2008).

In conclusion, Fight Club, in common with many films released during the same period and even today, showcases a specific response to the way that masculinity and male identity has been challenged. This crisis of masculinity is shown as a real anxiety within Fight Club, and is depicted through themes such as loss of purpose, the impact of consumer culture, what it means to be a man and the threat posed by women to the male identity. This is explored through the relationship between ‘The Narrator’ and his alter-ego Tyler Durden, which, when analysed, represents the ‘New Man’ and his quest for a masculine identity.  

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