Contents

Contents.   2

1.  Introduction  3

2.  Causes.  3

3.  Effects.  5

3.1.  Physical effects.  5

3.2.  Psychological effects.  8

4.  Conclusion.  9

5.  Bibliography.  10

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1. Introduction

David Fincher’s movie Fight Club (1999) ¹ provoked a lot of debates because of its explicit depictions of violence, the representation of a mental disease, called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and its questioning of today’s masculine role. The latter is a very interesting theme to which I will dedicate this essay. In the following, I will show and analyze the representation of the feminized, post-masculine men in Fight Club.

Firstly, I will concern myself with the causes of this emasculation. Directionless and without any real-life role-models or strong father figure, without any wars or enemies, men in Fight Club are drawn to consumer society to find a new focus in their lives. But consumerism feminizes men’s bodies and pushes them more and more into a female sphere. Secondly, the effects of this feminization will be analyzed. Men want to re-masculinize their bodies and try to achieve this through a traditionally masculine way: violence. But even aggressive behaviour does not rescue them from their feminized self, as deriving pleasure from a fight involves both parts a sadistic, male and a masochistic, feminine one.

2. Causes

Frustrated by his job, his absence of close social relations and a fulfilling sexual life, average man Jack ² , the protagonist in Fight Club, suffers from insomnia. His job in an automobile company, for which he has to travel to accident sites to perform product recall cost analyses, does not give him too much gratification and his only pleasure in life seems to be the frequent visits of numerous support group meetings. His life is going nowhere and he is not even trying to question the sense of all that.

He has no real-life role model to identify with or a strong father figure that would have led him the way to success and happiness. Jack’s father left the family when he was six years old and Tyler’s father only gave him yearly, one-sentence advices on the telephone. Like the creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Jack and his alter ego Tyler are left fatherless, without a mentoring through a father figure to aid in forming values that define the masculine and foster success, to tell them, when and how to fight for their desires. It is the father’s central role to help sons develop a conscience and a sense of responsible manhood. But Jack / Tyler are left without that guidance and Jack experiences abandonment and scorn from the

¹ Based on the novel Fight Club by American author Chuck Palahniuk (1996)

² As no real name is mentioned throughout the film, I will just call him Jack, based on the name of the author of some documents that he finds in his new house and from which he constantly quotes.

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societies. In Fight Club, the viewer becomes the witness of Jack’s rebellion against a world that will not father him. Fight Club and Project Mayhem seek to recapitulate the function of the father as the primary male mentor and model for manhood, which attracts many members. Tyler also critiques the conventional male models and their striving for success in America. But what is it that those men are really striving for? Power, fame, and money? Kimmel and Kaufman observed a very interesting fact when concentrating on the relation between men and power: “Ironically, although these men are everywhere in power, that aggregate power of that group does not translate into an individual sense of feeling empowered” (Kimmel/Kaufman, 262). They do not have a real relation to their power because they did not have to aggregate it and prove themselves; it has been passively given to them. Men are the receivers, a historically rather feminine part.

So how can men nowadays at least gain real fame and become men of honour? There is nothing to conquer, no glorious battles to fight, no common mission. Men have to remain physically powerful while eschewing all violent behaviour. There is not even a common enemy against whom men can ally. So in this atmosphere of general directionlessness, everybody could become a potential enemy, so why not oneself.

Tyler Durden directly identifies this problem: “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.” American manhood has become totally disconnected from any meaningful social purpose, men seem to be useless. Jack goes to support group meetings without having one of the problems discussed in the group. Boon brilliantly summarizes the paradoxical expectations put on today’s men:

Fight Club addresses the impossibility of satisfying the contradictory cultural demands placed on men, who in relinquishing power, are expected to renounce the traditional, defining rituals of manhood while continuing to fulfil the functions those rituals were designed to prepare them for: to physically defend without training in single combat, to exhibit bravery and valour without physically imposing themselves on anyone else, to conquer without dominating, to acquiesce without surrendering, to control their environment without being controlled, to attain victory without defeating anyone, and to remain ready to fight without fighting. (Boon, 4)

Men still have the same tasks as centuries ago: the protection of the home and family, the expansion and growth of the community, and the defence of the nation, all aims that require a certain ability to act with aggression. They live in a paradoxical cultural environment that makes heroes of aggressive men while debasing aggressive impulses. Thus, the American

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