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The theme of Masculinity in Fight club

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Dan Makin
Dan Makin

The document discusses the theme of masculinity in the film Fight Club. It describes how the narrator attends a support group for men with testicular cancer called "Remaining Men Together," whose members represent a crisis of masculinity in America. One member, Bob, is a former fitness guru who has lost his testicles. The creation of the underground fight club is meant to provide an escape from emasculated consumerist lifestyles through violence and danger. In a key scene, the narrator fights Angel and takes things too far, showing fight club spinning out of control. By the end, the narrator realizes the limits of using violence to achieve masculinity and must take responsibility for his own identity.

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Masculinity in Fight Club By Dan Makin
The support group The issue of masculinity is a prevalent concern right from the start in Fight Club. The narrator attends a support group meeting for men with testicular cancer, aptly named "Remaining Men Together." It is here that he listens to a man lament the fact that his ex-wife just had a baby with her new husband. The population of this support group illustrates a crisis signifies the crisis of masculinity in America. In the following scene, the soft lighting in foreground of the support group contrasts to the hard lighting focused on the America flag hanging ominously in the back of the room. This gives the impression that the image of the men crying has declined into being that the symbol of the modern American man is weak and helpless.
The men of the support group The men the narrator meets at the "Remaining Men Together" support group are a representation of a cultural loss of masculinity. One of the group's members, Bob, is a former fitness guru whose steroid use has caused him to lose his testicles and in their place develop "bitch-tits as a result of hormone replacement therapy. While the narrator feels emasculated because of his consumer driven and IKEA furnished life, the men in the support group represent the physical manifestation of emasculation.
Fight club The creation of the fight club plays an essential role in freeing the narrator from his crisis of masculinity. In Fight Club the "group hug" mentality of the early 1990's men's movement is replaced by raw and uncensored violence. The male in Fight Club turns to violence in an attempt to reawaken the senses that have been dulled by their quotidian existence, corporate jobs and consumerist lives . Fight club is a place where men can experience a true sense of "being." "You weren't alive anywhere like you were alive here," the narrator tells us because, "who you were in fight club is not who you were in the rest of the world." The basement arena of the fight club provides a space in which the men in the film can transcend the reality of their lifestyle, their jobs, and their bodies. The narrator demonstrates his understanding of rebirth through violence by describing how after a fight "we all felt saved."
Fight club In one scene we see the narrator in fight club fighting Angel (played by Jared Leto.) The narrator's flippant explanation for his explosion of rage is nothing more than "I wanted to destroy something beautiful." This statement captures the irony that is fight club; the men are destroying the very bodies that they must inhabit and cannot escape. In this scene, however, the narrator has taken things too far; he breaks the very rules he established for fight club by continuing to beat Angel Face once he is down on the ground. Fight club is spinning out of control.
Conclusion In Fight Club the white male has lost faith in his role as a consumer and wants to experience a "real" sense of being that can only be achieved through pain. The narrator, whose body has been bloodied and broken by Tyler (aka, himself) in the final scene of the film, portrays himself as the victim who wants to reverse the damage of Project Mayhem when he tells Tyler "this is too much!. On the one hand, Fight Club could suggest that the only way the white male can truly experience a masculine self, is through wounding. On the other hand, however, Fight Club appears to be more of a critique of violence than anything else by stressing the brief nature of salvation through violence and pain. In the postmodern world, violence becomes just another hackneyed affectation, and by this formulation the men in fight club are just perpetuating their banality. By accepting responsibility for his actions and by acknowledging that he and Tyler are the same person, the narrator matures and recognizes the limits of Tyler's nihilism. While the film acknowledges the frustration felt by men in today's society, Fight Club seems to be telling them that it is time to grow up and take charge of their individuality instead of blaming society for making them feel like they have lost it.

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The theme of Masculinity in Fight club

  • 1. Masculinity in Fight Club By Dan Makin
  • 2. The support group The issue of masculinity is a prevalent concern right from the start in Fight Club. The narrator attends a support group meeting for men with testicular cancer, aptly named "Remaining Men Together." It is here that he listens to a man lament the fact that his ex-wife just had a baby with her new husband. The population of this support group illustrates a crisis signifies the crisis of masculinity in America. In the following scene, the soft lighting in foreground of the support group contrasts to the hard lighting focused on the America flag hanging ominously in the back of the room. This gives the impression that the image of the men crying has declined into being that the symbol of the modern American man is weak and helpless.
  • 3. The men of the support group The men the narrator meets at the "Remaining Men Together" support group are a representation of a cultural loss of masculinity. One of the group's members, Bob, is a former fitness guru whose steroid use has caused him to lose his testicles and in their place develop "bitch-tits as a result of hormone replacement therapy. While the narrator feels emasculated because of his consumer driven and IKEA furnished life, the men in the support group represent the physical manifestation of emasculation.
  • 4. Fight club The creation of the fight club plays an essential role in freeing the narrator from his crisis of masculinity. In Fight Club the "group hug" mentality of the early 1990's men's movement is replaced by raw and uncensored violence. The male in Fight Club turns to violence in an attempt to reawaken the senses that have been dulled by their quotidian existence, corporate jobs and consumerist lives . Fight club is a place where men can experience a true sense of "being." "You weren't alive anywhere like you were alive here," the narrator tells us because, "who you were in fight club is not who you were in the rest of the world." The basement arena of the fight club provides a space in which the men in the film can transcend the reality of their lifestyle, their jobs, and their bodies. The narrator demonstrates his understanding of rebirth through violence by describing how after a fight "we all felt saved."
  • 5. Fight club In one scene we see the narrator in fight club fighting Angel (played by Jared Leto.) The narrator's flippant explanation for his explosion of rage is nothing more than "I wanted to destroy something beautiful." This statement captures the irony that is fight club; the men are destroying the very bodies that they must inhabit and cannot escape. In this scene, however, the narrator has taken things too far; he breaks the very rules he established for fight club by continuing to beat Angel Face once he is down on the ground. Fight club is spinning out of control.
  • 6. Conclusion In Fight Club the white male has lost faith in his role as a consumer and wants to experience a "real" sense of being that can only be achieved through pain. The narrator, whose body has been bloodied and broken by Tyler (aka, himself) in the final scene of the film, portrays himself as the victim who wants to reverse the damage of Project Mayhem when he tells Tyler "this is too much!. On the one hand, Fight Club could suggest that the only way the white male can truly experience a masculine self, is through wounding. On the other hand, however, Fight Club appears to be more of a critique of violence than anything else by stressing the brief nature of salvation through violence and pain. In the postmodern world, violence becomes just another hackneyed affectation, and by this formulation the men in fight club are just perpetuating their banality. By accepting responsibility for his actions and by acknowledging that he and Tyler are the same person, the narrator matures and recognizes the limits of Tyler's nihilism. While the film acknowledges the frustration felt by men in today's society, Fight Club seems to be telling them that it is time to grow up and take charge of their individuality instead of blaming society for making them feel like they have lost it.