Fight club analysis

1. MALEREPRESENTATION
“We’re designed to be
hunters and we’re in a
society of shopping”
- Tyler
Objectives:
To analyse the representation of Masculinity in
‘Fight Club’.
To outline and analyse the binaryopposites
that exist between the Narrator and Tyler.

2. Starter
Annotate the body outline with the features,
signifiers of traditional masculinity. Be as
creative as you like

3. Task
On the handout provided
write down 5
characteristics / traits that
belong to the „typical‟ male

4. Masculinity: Social Context Feminism
 Traditional male roles: Cowboy; Hunter; Defender;
Achiever; Warrior; Breadwinner
 Exposed as myths by thefeminist movement
 Men left without a clear identity after Feminism
questioned the role ofman
 Traditional Male roles/unachievable images of
strength ALSO imprisoned men
• Repressed male rage – Frustration about:
• The Feminization of Man and an increase in
‘consumption’
• Repressed ‘Raw’Masculinity
• The dehumanizing effects of corporate consumer
culture

5. The death of the industrial male
In the 1970s and 1980s a lot of Britain‟s heavy industries were dismantled as the country
moved towards a more computer driven, service based economy where traditional male
roles were taken away and replaced by jobs that could be undertaken by women. Men
left the home to work in factories and offices

6. Aids: the queering of the mainstream
AIDSraised the gay
profile; suddenly you
couldn‟t ignore the
existence of the
homosexual male.
The financial muscle
of the pink pound.
The queering of the
mainstream brought
eroticised images of
the male body into
fashion and
advertising

7. The feminised male
Wearsnice clothes
(or skirts in
Beckhamscase)
Keepshimself
groomed

8. The‘New Man’
•
•
The ‘new man’ has lost touchwith his
masculine ‘core’
The ‘real man’ has been lostby
consumerism and the media
• Film depicts mens’ frustration at the
media’s ‘feminisation’ of men
• Mans obsession with consumerism has
replaced traditional male symbols:
strength, honour
• Attacks lack of male role models – men
raised by women due to men working
• Fight Club attempts to reassert
supposedly ‘obsolete’ Violent, Mindless
Masculinity

9. TheNarrator
 As you watch the clips and with the knowledge
we have already gained make noteson:
 How is the Narrator presented to us a ‘man in crisis’?
 What does the Narrator’s‘Power Animal’ say about
the state of contemporary masculinity?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yekfcxczBMQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XGyxOwM0tE

10. TheNarrator’s ‘Power Animal’
• What does the Narrator’s‘Power
Animal’ say about the state of
contemporary masculinity?
• Power Animals: Lion? Tiger?
Shark? Penguin
• Connotations of the Penguin:
• Small; Incapable of Flight;
Childish; Harmless;
Tuxedo/wears a suit
• Penguin is juxtaposed against
Narrator’s dream of masculine
empowerment

11. Norton (Thenarrator)
• Introduced by credits hurtling
through his brain
• The ‘Unreliable Narrator’ – gains
audiences trust but isuntrustworthy
due to his mentalstate
• The ‘new man’ character – he is
‘emasculated’
• Consumerist: Job + Possessions +
Clothes + Car = Happiness
• His male status is an illusion –
accumulation of possessions but no
happiness
• Traditional male role is lost –no
male friends, no sexual partner, no
libido, no ‘action’job
• Fantasises about dying

12. Mise en Scene& TheNarrator
• Mise en scene
depicts the
Narrator in a
constricted,
unsettled world
• Spaces which
constrain him/give
a sense of
confinement; Low
ceilings cluttered
sets; no colour
(chiaroscuro)
• TRAPPED in his
suit

13. Remaining Men Together
 We are introduced to two men that have attempted to
conform to traditional roles of masculinity and failed.
 In what ways have they both been emasculated?
 Dvd Chapter

14. Bob
• Bob’s character is seen through
the eyes of the ‘Unreliable
Narrator’ –
• Norton’s unstable perspective:
How he see’s contemporary
man:
• A muscleman with breasts
(Traditional Masculinity V’sthe
New Man)
• In trying toattain ideal male
physique gets breasts!
• Gives maternal, feminine care
to Narrator

15. Starter/Re-cap
 Annotate the features of the new man presented to us
by Fight Club all around the body outline.
 You can be as creative as youlike.
Objectives:
To analyse the representation of Masculinity in
‘Fight Club’.
To outline and analyse the binaryopposites
that exist between the Narrator and Tyler.

16. Tyler
 Watch the clip.
 What role does Tyler play in the narrative?
 What does he embody &how is he different to the
Narrator?

17. Tyler







Played by Brad Pitt – the star most
men would want to play them in a
movie of their life
Male aspiration figure for the
Narrator – his care-free, hot ideal
alter ego: answers to nobody
• Created from frustration and
repressed rage
Introduced wearing sunglasses,
leather jacket, chiseled jaw, spiked
hair, a colourful juxtaposition
against the ‘grey’suited Narrator
Everything the narrator isn’t:
Charismatic, Sexually Dominant
Aggressive, Powerful, in charge of
his own destiny
Tyler rejects consumerism/
materialistic lifestyle

18. Group Task
 Create a list of the binary opposites that exist between
the Narrator and Tyler.
 Choose one of these and write up your notes in full
sentences.

19. Male BinaryOpposites
• Occupies corporate spaces:
Offices, Planes, Hotels
• The same as everybody else–
just another grey suit (‘A
copy of a copy of acopy’)
• Occupiesshadowy
underworld
• Outlandish,
Flamboyant, Unique,
Original – link toAnti
Globalization themes

20. TheFight Club
 The creation of ‘The Fight Club’
plays an essential role in freeingthe
narrator from his crisis of
masculinity.
 Mostly filled by white middle class
achievers who feel there material
successes are empty, or working
class men frustrated by their social
status.
 It is almost like a ‘trial by fire’
initiation ritual for the modern man.
 The focus of fighting is endurance –
taking the beating and defining
one’s identity through the pain.
• Scenes of physical displays of
violence in an attempt to find inner
‘man’
• Men resort back to a tribal, raw
masculinity = another empty role

21. The feminised male
Wearsnice clothes
(or skirts in
Beckhamscase)
Keepshimself
groomed

22. Confused masculinity in FC
Both the author, Palahniuk and the director have said that the story of Fight Club reflects and
explores real men‟s lives today.
Palahniuk said he wrote his book „in public‟ by talking to real men in diners, bars, coffee shops and
their work places.
Fincher said that the unnamed narrator is “an everyman. Every young man”

23. FC and collective identity
3 principle examples of the
modern man‟s confusion over
masculine roles and what being a
„man‟ actually means:
FC and collective identity

24. First example: the life of the narrator pre- Fight
Club
Based on an illusion of materialist accumulation and career hierarchy,
The pursuits of these false goals = no male friends, no sexual partner in the „nest‟
apartment, no physically demanding work or action-based solution to problems. No libido:
“we used to read pornography; now we read the IKEA catalogue”.
Sees himself through his meaningless possessions
“a refrigerator full of designer condiments and no food”.
He is emasculated by pursuit of consumerism

25. Second example: The „Remaining Men Together: testicular
cancer group
This group is compromised of men who have
attempted to conform to traditional roles, but who
have failed. They have been emasculated by
castration
First speaker- talks of ambition to be a father, a
goal he will never achieve; the ultimate insult is
that wife has abandoned him and procreated with
another man.
Bob- pathetic and grotesquely breasted. His
attempt to attain a traditional male image, the
Muscle Man has resulted in the exact opposite
and becoming feminised

26. Third example: the group of men in Fight Club
Supposed to be the „solution‟ to the problems of confused masculinity. But it eventually
turns into another form of the same confusion: the neo-fascist-anarchist „Project
Mayhem‟. This form of „male fundamentalism‟ is, ultimately as empty as the other male
roles it reacts against. By moving the desire of money and sex men can establish
themselves.

27. Father son relationship
Fight club could be used to examine two archetypal (model)
male relationships:
Acolyte (student) and mentor
Son and Father
TheNarrator creates Tyler from his own subconscious needs (Bly would sayessential needs)

28. Acolyte/Mentor:
Tyler is the cool kid in school, cares nothingfor
status or urban wit or etiquette.
He is the ultimate adolescent fantasy – the„wild
man‟ showing the straight guy how to cutloose
Son/Father: The oedipalrole
‘We are a generation of men raised by women’
‘You are not Gods delicate snowflake’
Tyler takes the narrator away fromhis
„comfortable‟ feminised world, he destroyshis
„nest‟, takes him away from the love and support
of the groups and exposes him to the harsh
realities of the „real‟world.

29. TASK 1:
After watching the first scene where the Narrator encounters Tyler – What examples
of traditional adolescent rebellion can you see?

30. Sigmund Freud‟s Oedipus complex:
the unresolved desire of a child for
sexual gratification through the parent
of the opposite sex, especially the
desire of a son for his mother. This
involves, first, identification with and,
later, hatred for the parent of the same
sex, who is considered by the child as
a rival.

31. Task two:
Now think about the relationship between the characters as the film progresses
To what extent is this traditional Oedipal narrative

32. Other examples:
23” Vibrating bag on plan – The Dildo NOT your Dildo
25” Possessions being burned – first signs of destroying the female
31” Cinema pornography – destroying it
43” Gucci MAN
58” Using women's fat and „boy scouts‟

33. Question
 What function does ‘The Fight Club’ play in the film?

34. Essay Question
What different attributes and characteristics areassociated
with masculinity and femininity in FightClub?