encoded notions

Classically, men are associated with things that are brutal, sharp, visceral, mechanical, forceful, distant, emotionless, rational, dirty, and crude, whereas women are associated with more elegant, beautiful, smooth, emotional, compassionate, clean, and natural things. Men are the providers, and women are the receivers. In a consumer-driven society, everyone becomes a receiver, and by association, men assume some aspects of femininity: “Consumerism in Fight Club is criticized primarily as an ideological force and existential experience that weakens and domesticates men, robbing them of their primary role as producers whose bodies affirm and legitimate their sense of agency and control (Giroux 60).” The culture around consumerism, as depicted in the movie, Fight Club, delays and inhibits the ability of men to leave their boyhood behind and grasp for a masculine stage of self-actualization. The events that transpire in Fight Club showcase one man’s struggle with the oppressive effects of consumerism, and how he overcomes it by entering a period of late adolescence.

Consumerism has not taken Jack’s manhood away from him, but rather it nearly stripped him of his chance to ever discover it: “Men have become increasingly defined within the spheres of consumerism and domestication that…have been stereotypically characterized as the realm of the feminine (Giroux 35).” Mass consumerist culture does not necessarily appeal to the male or female populace, but instead caters to a gender-neutral composite being; passing the magic-brush of abstraction over the sexes does not bode well for the concept of masculinity. The blending forces the genders to relate to products and consumption in many of the same ways, leading men to be more like women, and less like men.

As Jack openly states at a point in the film, “I’m a 30 year old boy (Fight Club).” Jack’s pubescent development as a full male has been hindered and he is stuck on pause. Like others in his situation, even the responses and desires of his id are under question; Jack says it himself, “we used to read pornography, now it is the Horstchild collection (Fight Club).” In the minds of many men, some physiological pleasures have been displaced by the pleasures of purchasing. I recall that there is a time during normal human fetus development when the male Y-chromosome has yet to be expressed; it is at this time that all babies carry with them feminine traits. Jack is very much still in the womb, and hasn’t been able to grow into, nor express, his manhood due to the influence of the limiting reagents of a consumerist culture.

Feeling out-of-place in his life, devoid of much of what can be called a manly connection to reality and a satisfying existence, Jack seeks out any kind of connection that provides even a minute amount of comfort. The support groups that he visits fulfill his need. Though Jack should not attend the group meetings, because he does not share in the problems that draw the gathered together, he is drawn to the groups for the shared pool of compassion that flows freely within. These groups only amplify the problems imparted to Jack by the emasculating aspect of a consumerist society. Though his involvement in the groups cures him of his insomnia, it only drives him further from his natural, base state of existence. He deludes himself into believing that his happiness is not just a fleeting dream.

Sometimes dreams are an escape from a reality that one doesn’t wish to confront.Jack is violently jerked from his waking dream world when Marla Singer enters his life. Her presence interrupts the fragile sense of connection that Jack had formed by visiting the support groups. Strangely, Marla’s entrance into Jack’s life occurs in the most symbolically perfect support group: a group composed of men that are battling a physical loss of their manhood. With testicular cancer, the group members have a hampered or absent supply of testosterone, and hence, exhibit more feminine traits such as compassion and openly sharing their emotions. Jack is shocked by the entrance of true womanhood into a life filled with false representations of femininity.

“Suddenly, I realize that all of this-the gun, the bomb, the revolution-has got something to do with a girl named Marla Singer (Fight Club).” In some way or another, Jack sees the events that transpire in Fight Club as a series of chain reactions catalyzed by Marla’s sudden appearance in his life. Awoken from his dream by Marla, Jack’s insomnia returns. His mind constantly dwells on the thought of her, because “she ruined everything (Fight Club).” Jack develops a strange infatuation with her, so that he can truly enjoy confronting her to discuss how she’s adversely affected his life. The infatuation is strange because of its dichotomous nature. A large part of Jack thinks of Marla much like the way that little prepubescent boys often think of little girls; he sees her as a threat to his little clubhouse-life that is labeled “No Girls Allowed.” At the same time, however, some small, deeply buried pilot light of adult masculinity in him is drawn to her as a woman on a boy-meets-girl level. Regardless of what he thinks, her presence does plant an important seedling of interest in his mind.

Jack’s first communication with Marla shows that he is still uncertain of how he should feel about her. Jack’s little boy mindset wants Marla to leave him alone forever, so it can sleep again, comforted by the warmth of complete strangers. His more assertive, masculine side is interested and wants to learn more about Marla and her life. For a majority of the conversation, the little boy tries to push her away, and at the very end his other side makes a stab at pulling her closer by asking her to exchange phone numbers. Already, his psyche is split between two extremes. Meeting Marla jumpstarts Jack’s journey to manhood.

The result of Jack’s conversation with Marla is that he’ll never see her again. This does not bode well for Jack’s state of mind. Now that she has affected his mental state significantly, her absence causes a cascade reaction that further crystallizes his two antithetical half-selves. Shortly after Jack last sees Marla, his mental issues catch up to him when he meets Tyler Durden.

The fabrication that is known to the audience as Tyler is an embodiment of Jack’s darker, more masculine side: his id. It is the part of oneself that proceeds without a thought to restrictions and without complete thought to the impending consequences of these actions when carried out. Tyler has always existed inside of Jack, but a consumerist culture has barred him within the confines of a psychological prison. It is through Jack’s sleep-deprived mind that Tyler escapes into Jack’s conscious mind. Tyler explains his relationship to Jack quite well:

“You were looking for a way to change your life. You could not do this on your own. All the ways you wished you could be…that’s me!… I’m smart, capable and most importantly, I’m free in all the ways that you are not (Fight Club).”

Jack was looking for a way to attack the poor excuse for a reality that he was living and carve out a more assertive and enjoyable life for himself, one where he felt like a complete male; his solution was to create the personification of his antithesis-the “thrill-seeking everyman (Giroux 35)” named Tyler Durden-and befriend him.

How better to grow into a vastly different self than to first learn to accept it as a friend, before accepting it as yourself?

Tyler, Jack’s purely masculine side, has a purpose in Jack’s life: he is meant to tutor Jack’s day-to-day self, the little boy, in the ways of being a true man. Tyler introduces Jack to the joys of hand-to-hand combat as a means of breaching the many abstraction layers imposed by modern life upon the fabric of reality. Each punch is felt straight down the core of one’s being. Like a shock-treatment for schizophrenic individuals, fighting shows Jack what is real.

Tyler is not just a solution for Jack, but he is a solution for every man who feels the effects of a consumerist culture pushing men and women into the same form-moulds. Other men join with Jack for self-discovery and self-creation. Together, they awaken themselves to the sights and sounds of a true existence-an existence written by themselves, and not by some inhuman driving force. The fight clubs are focal points of the collective journeys to enlightenment and remasculation.

The fight clubs function on a volunteer basis; those people who wish to regain the manhood that they lost or never had, find their way to these Meccas of masculinity. The first two rules of fight club explicitly limit the range of influence and the rate of growth of the underground social and mental revolution, by prohibiting the members from mentioning the clubs’ very existence outside the confines of a fight club. Those who are members of fight club are the men who can see that something is wrong with themselves-that something is lacking, but what about the men who cannot see their own situation for what it is?

This problem becomes glaringly obvious to Tyler. Jack’s imagination responds by taking Tyler to new dimensions. Tyler’s goals become extreme; he starts a crusade to save all of the world’s men from the shackles placed on them by a consumerist culture, by attacking the root of the problem itself; Project Mayhem is a war on consumerism. It starts small, with homework assignments for various fight-club-goers to carry out in the real world. These assignments are mere annoyances, planting tiny seeds of attention in the minds of those who witness or experience their application. Homework assignments graduate into full-blown organized operations carried out by an elite team of specially chosen fight club members. Like the previous assignments, these are meant to plant seeds in the minds of others; these seeds draw attention to aspects of consumerism that sit before the populace in plain sight, yet go unnoticed until Project Mayhem makes them blatantly visible. In all that they do, Project Mayhem resorts to methods that will yield the biggest shock value; their methods directly confront the problem by jumping into the minds of onlookers.

The members of Project Mayhem are led by Tyler Durden’s decisions, and surrender their identity to become one with the group. This loss of individuality is not without purpose. It may only take one vision of the future to fuel a cause, but consumerist society is too large a beast for one man to take down by himself. The members see this extraordinary vision in Tyler’s mind, and freely decide to use their newfound masculine selves to fulfill Tyler’s glorious goal of freeing mankind from its self-imposed bondage.

Not only does Tyler Durden draw together directionless men and give them a purpose, he draws together two lost souls and lets them give each other a purpose. After Jack and Marla insured that they would never see each other again, chance threw them a bone, and Tyler was there to catch it.

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything (Fight Club).” As Tyler Durden, Jack can lose the parts of his personality and mindset that are dead-weight and be free in his romantic involvement with Marla Singer; unfortunately, Tyler’s very nature prohibits him from connection on anything more than a physical level. This is how he brings Jack into Marla’s life. In the interludes between physical love, Tyler leaves Jack so that he may talk to Marla in whatever capacity that his adolescent self can manage. Over time, Jack becomes accustomed to Marla in his life, and Marla learns that having someone in her life like Jack is better than being alone.

Little by little, Jack grows wiser and more independent. Towards the beginning of the movie, seated next to an emergency exit door on an airplane, Jack tells Tyler that “[he’s] not the man for that kinda job (Fight Club),” in reference to the job of assisting his fellow passengers in case of an evacuation; Jack wasn’t secure with himself. By living in a dump for a house, cut off from his old life, his ways of thinking slowly come into phase with Tyler’s.

“You had to give it to [Tyler]. He had a plan, and it started to make sense in a Tyler sort of way. No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide (Fight Club).”

Jack’s developmental shift comes to a climax when he learns the truth about his condition, that he and Tyler are one and the same person. In a sudden rush of understanding, Jack accepts full responsibility for the life that he has unconsciously written for himself. Jack convinces Marla to leave, so that the one thing that he loves in his life can be saved from harm. Jack also turns himself in to the police to try and prevent a catastrophic ‘stunt’ from coming to fruition. Like a man, he doesn’t resort to excuses for what has happened to himself, and instead attempts to handle the situation himself. His self confidence and sense of responsibility grew tremendously by the conclusion of the movie.

The end of Fight Club brings two important images: an image of Jack pointing a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, and an image of Jack and Marla holding hands as the credit card buildings come tumbling down all around them. Shooting himself to kill Tyler symbolizes Jack’s final acceptance of his masculinity, because he no longer has any need whatsoever for his extremely male-self. He has come to grips with his adolescent experience, has absorbed the best, and most important aspects of Tyler Durden into his own deviated personality. The vision of Marla, holding Jack’s hand in a moment of fear symbolizes the fact that Jack is finally secure enough with himself to be a true provider and protect and comfort the ones that he loves. Through the course of the movie, he rose from a corporate drone-a mindless beast roaming the surface of the planet-to the rank of an self-aware individual swirling with grand ideas. Through the focused creation of a self that embodied all that he wasn’t in life, Jack was able to successfully evade the consumerist system of masculine oppression that so often claims the hopes of many men. Jack gives us, as men, hope for a future not predefined by the ebb and flow of the world around us, but rather a future where we can live as individuals and as men who cut across the waters of life, leaving a wake that isn’t silenced easily.

References:

• Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. 1999.
• Giroux, Henry A., and Imre Szeman. “IKEA boy and the politics of male bonding: Fight club, consumerism, and violence.” New Art Examiner Dec./Jan. 2000/2001: 32-37, 60-61.