Tuesday 19 May 2015
Friday 15 May 2015
Interesting responce from a student about the issue of gender in Fight Club
Student
Response
What different attributes and
characteristics are associated
with masculinity and femininity
in fight club?
What does it suggest about the
ideology of the film?
Masculinity
is a strong theme played throughout the film. Fincher is trying to portray the
different views about masculinity and femininity and how our society shapes
them. Fincher has said that Edward Norton is an example of a modern man who has
lost touch with his traditional masculine side. An example of of Edward's
modern man characteristic is his emphasise on consumer pleasure and
materialistic goods. In contrast traditional pre-industrial male traits were
those such as being focused of physical sex, being the bred winner and
supporting a family; all attributes which are missing in Norton's life.
Robert
Bly upheld these points of traditional masculinity in his mytho-poetic
essentialism. Such points were “men had a clearly defined role in
pre-industrial society. They were required to be violent when hunting animals,
and when society became industrial based – to protect the farm and family.
Modern society refuses men this role – unless at wartime”.
Robert
Bly suggests males should reject the consumerist pleasures. This is portrayed
in fight club where Norton and Tyler live in a run down flat and they wear
dirty clothes. Another of Bly's solutions is to separate yourselves from the
'tender' feminine world. Fight club shows this by females such as cancer
patient 'Chloe' taking a male focus on life; as she speaks about wanting sex, the
lack of nurturing female characters in the film and lack of females in general.
Bly also suggested we should do initiation through enduring pain. This can be
strongly seen in fight club, by self-inflicting acid burns, the huge amounts of
fighting and pain, and Norton's emotional pain experienced from leaving behind
society norms.
In
the modern society, masculinity now includes taking care of yourself and your
image. Fight club attempts to rejects this by taking masculinity views on
appearance back to the pre-industrial society. However, even though fight club
members reject current images of male 'beauty' and express their
hunter/gatherer role through the use of violence, the style of the film has
been criticized for doing exactly what it aimed to go against; by making their
bodies conform to a female idea of beauty through fighting as a sport and
gaining a muscular attractive body.
Confused
masculinity is element seen in fight club. The pre-fight club life of the
narrator is an example of a modern man and the superego; he is 'emasculated'
and a consumerist, he's confused between whether this has brought him happiness
or not.
His
job, his possession, clothes and car has made him 'happy', however his male
status is an illusion; it's an accumulation of possessions but there's a lack
of real happiness. He's lost his traditional male role and has no male friends,
no sexual partner and no 'action' job. Society influences what people find
important, and has made the modern man have a more female mind-set e.g. choosing
IKEA furniture. The narrator is low in hierarchy at work, this portrays how
he's not achieving highly how masculine providers should be. By choosing to
spend money on furniture over food for survival (constantly empty fridge) he's
attempting to make the 'perfect home', for a family he doesn't have. This
suggest the ideology of fight club is to emphasise to males the importance of
keeping the traditional masculine roles and way of life.
The
cancer groups are another example of confused masculinity; these are men who
have attempted to conform to traditional masculine roles, but who have failed.
The testicular cancer patients can no longer 'provide' for females, they have
been stripped away from being able to become a father, and the lack of
testosterone has resulted in a lack of masculinity. This can be seen in the
father-figure who's wife left him due to him being unable to provide her with
children. The character 'Bob' is a another example; oestrogen has caused female
tissue fat to grow and has taken away his 'perfect masculine' body. Males such
as these are now left confused how to live their lives after having their
masculinity taken. This emphasises fight clubs ideology of the importance of
masculinity in male lives.
Norton's
'power animal' is a penguin. This is a message showing contemporary masculinity
to be useless. Penguins are black and white which represents the 'new man'
being boring and basic. Penguins can't fly, showing the 'new man' to be skill
less. Male penguins also look after the children in their habitat; this
portrays the 'new man' as a home man and therefore not fulfilling his
traditional masculine role.
A
problem said to be with the modern man is their lack of having a role model and
the focus being on the mother raising them; resulting in a lack of a father
figure. The narrator created Tyler from his own self-conscious needs because he
felt he needed one. The narrator can be seen to look up to Tyler; following his
rules, his way of life and believing his views. Being brought up primarily by
the mother means the child will naturally have feminine attributes within their
personalities. Fight club goes against this and attempts to show how the father
figure is hugely important in the child growing up to achieve their full
masculinity. Traits such as separating the 'son' from the feminine 'nest' can
be seen when Tyler takes Norton away from the comforts of his materialistic
world. Teaching the 'son' about the 'real world' is portrayed through Tyler
showing Norton how to fight and how to live like a 'real man'. The 'son' then
kills the father to enter adulthood; seen through Norton's rejection of Tyler
and resulting in Norton killing him. To an extent fight club proposes a
traditional Oedipal narrative and the importance of other males being present.
Overall
fight club's ideology and message is to the modern male; it's expressing the
view that the 'new man' is feminised and isn't going to succeed if relying on
materialistic goods and consumerism traits. However it does offer other views
by incorporating Marla and introducing the importance of a partner. It also
results in Norton killing his masculine role model; offering the idea that
perhaps the 'new man' is a good and an a important adaption, but needs to find
the right balance between pre-industrial society and modern society to be the
perfect man.
Thursday 14 May 2015
Tuesday 5 May 2015
Model Answers for all sections
In the document below you will find model answers to all the sections we study (along with ones that we don't.......). Have a look through and read the essays that are relevant to the topics we study.
Fight Club and the Politcal Critical Approach
Don't forget that you have an essay to write! Due in on Tuesday 12th May
Fight Club Marxism (political critical approach) from Naamah Hill
In case you have 'lost' your Fight Club booklet.....
In case you have 'lost' your Fight Club booklet.....
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