Analysis of Fight Club

Torin Phillips

California State University, Monterey Bay

March 2015

Instructions:
Apply the concepts and principles from the readings associated with Social
Psychology to the film "Fight Club." Be sure that discussion includes an analysis
of gender, sexuality, and power.
 The film Fight Club is an over-exaggerated satire on what it means to be a man at

the turn of the century. After reading the articles by Berkowitz, Kimmel, and Mahler on

masculinity, frustration, aggression, and homophobia, I felt there was a strong connection

to the film. I would like to specifically analyze gender, sexuality, and power portrayed in the

film Fight Club, and relate it to the articles.

One of the main themes of Fight Club is undefined masculinity, and what it means

to be a man. The main character, the nameless Narrator, feels no purpose or place in

society as a man. Out of his desperation and psychosis resulting from lack of sleep he

creates an alter-ego named Tyler Durden, who actually describes himself to the Narrator

as, All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you

wanna fuck. I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you

are not (Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999). A group of men, feeling a similar lack of

purpose in their lives, decide to meet for a weekly meeting called Fight Club, where they

take out their aggression by engaging in brutally violent fights with other men.

What these men believe about their lives is exemplified perfectly in a rallying speech

Tyler Durden gives at Fight Club one night: We're the middle children of history, man. No

purpose or place (Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999). The Kimmel and Mahler article

illustrates why the men of Fight Club feel this way: In an important sense there is only one

complete unblushing male in AmericaWhen we feel that we do not measure up we are

likely to feel unworthy, incomplete, and inferior. It is here, from this place of unworthiness,

incompleteness, and inferiority, that boys begin their efforts to prove themselves as men.

And it is here where violence has its connections to masculinity (Kimmel & Mahler, 2003).

The article also mentions Stanley Hall, who invented the term adolescence, and how he
believed that a non-fighting boy was a nonentity and that it was better even an

occasional nose dented by a fist . . . than stagnation, general cynicism and censoriousness,

bodily and psychic cowardice(Kimmel & Mahler, 2003). The creation of Fight Club

actually came about when Tyler Durden asks the Narrator to hit him as hard as he could.

How much can you know about yourself, you've never been in a fight? I don't wanna die

without any scars (Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999). The two main characters of the

film also seemed to be always sizing other men up and making comparisons and judgments

about what defines manhood. For example, in one scene they walk onto a bus and see an

advertisement featuring a perfectly trim male Calvin Klein model in underwear. The

Narrator asks Tyler Durden, Is that what a real man is supposed to look like? (Bell,

Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999) The underlying assumption here is that men have lost

touch with their masculinity, and Fight Club was their chance to regain it. Without fighting,

or aggression, these men felt purposeless in their masculinity.

The Kimmel article makes the claim that homophobia, or Mens fear of other men

defines masculinity (Kimmel, 1994). Interestingly, the director of the film, David Fincher,

chose to employ homoerotic overtones from the novel in order to make audiences

uncomfortable and prevent them from anticipating the twist ending (Hobson, 1999). One

perfect example is a scene where Tyler Durden is naked in a bathtub next to the Narrator.

There he states My dad never went to college, so it was real important that I go. So I

graduate, I call him up long distance, I say Dad, now what? He says, Get a job. Now I'm 25,

make my yearly call again. I say Dad, Now what? He says, I don't know, get married. I

can't get married, I'm a 30 year old boy. Tyler then turns to the Narrator slowly and states,

We're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the
answer we need( Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999) This reaction is perfectly

exemplified in the Kimmel & Mahler article: In an important sense there is only one

complete unblushing male in America: a young, married, white, urban, northern,

heterosexual, Protestant, father, of college education, fully employed, of good complexion,

weight, and height, and a recent record in sports. . . . Any male who fails to qualify in any

one of these ways is likely to view himselfduring moments at leastas unworthy,

incomplete, and inferior (Kimmel & Mahler, 2003). The failure to live up to this specific

model of manhood is where the feelings of inadequacy shared by both the Narrator and

Tyler Durden originate.

Another minor theme of the movie is sexuality. Specifically, the sexual tension felt

between the films only female character, Marla Singer, and the Narrator. Initially, Marla

intrudes and disturbs his peaceful life, causing him to feel misogynistic rage. Eventually she

ends up becoming the sexual partner of Tyler Durden, much to the chagrin of the Narrator,

who explains, Except for their humping, Tyler and Marla were never in the same room. My

parents pulled this exact same act for years (Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999). In a

sense, Tyler and Marlas sexual relationship is a struggle for power and dominance. Tyler

even says, This isn't love, it's sport fucking (Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999). The

Kimmel article talks about how Feminist women have theorized that masculinity is about

the drive for domination, the drive for power, for conquest (Kimmel, 1994). Manhood is

similarly defined in this article as equated with power- over women, over other men

(Kimmel, 1994). In the film, Tyler gains his power over women by sexually dominating

Marla on a routine basis, then over men by eventually becoming the leader of a terrorist
organization who succeed in destroying the materialistic, capitalist structure pin-pointed

as another culprit for these mens feelings of inadequacy.

The ritual of Fight Club, consisting of two men beating each other to a pulp, while all

the other men in the room observe and cheer them on seems to stem from the similar

aggressions felt by the men mentioned in Kimmel and Mahlers article, and their violent

reactions. Kimmel makes the claim that mans real fear is not fear of women but of being

ashamed or humiliated in front of other men, or being dominated by stronger men

(Kimmel, 1994). The feeling of being in Fight Club, fighting and dominating other men, gave

the men purpose and status. Or, as the Narrator describes, You werent alive anywhere

like you were there (Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999). The Narrator uses one

example of a man who, outside of Fight Club was a lowly sales clerk, but inside was a god

for ten minutes when he trounced the maitre-d of the local food court (Bell, Chaffin,

Linson, & Fincher, 1999). The Kimmel article states that, for a man, true despair is felt

when he has ceased being a man among men (Kimmel, 1994). The Narrator felt this

despair in his life before Fight Club. It was only from the thrill of potentially dominating

another man through violence that this despair went away.

I believe the aggression felt by the men of Fight Club stemmed from what the

Berkowitz article refers to as instrumental aggression, dealing with the lack of attainment

of a specific object: in this case, social and economic status (Berkowtiz, 1989). Tyler

Durdens most famous rallying speech illustrates this point quite poignantly: Man, I see in

Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I

see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves

with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we
can buy shit we don't need We've all been raised on television to believe that one day

we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly

learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off (Bell, Chaffin, Linson, & Fincher, 1999).

The frustrations felt by these men were the ultimate catalyst for their aggression.

The film Fight Club, although extremely exaggerated, is a satirical commentary on

many themes, such as masculinity, frustration, aggression, sexuality, dominance and power.

This film is about one man who feels no purpose or place and starts a club with other men

who feel the same inadequacies. The Kimmel & Mahler article explains these same

inadequacies that are felt by the men in the film. The feelings felt by these men were

related to their masculinity, and led them to feel frustrated. These frustrations led to

aggression in the form of Fight Club. The point of the Berkowitz article was to show how

frustration leads to aggression. In the film, the whole purpose of this club was to regain

masculinity by dominating other men. The Kimmel article points out quite clearly that the

real source of masculinity is fear of other men. The club, led by Tyler Durden, then grew

out of control in its pursuit of power, by becoming a terrorist organization that ultimately

destroys the current power structure, capitalism. All of this being the result of the

frustrations and feelings of inadequacy of one man, the Narrator, who ultimately embraces

the films sole female character he once hated: A symbolic metaphor, indeed.
 References:

Bell, R.G., & Chaffin, C., & Linson, A. (Producers) & Fincher, D. (Director). (1999). Fight club.

[Motion picture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox.

Berkowitz, L. (1989). Frustration- aggression hypothesis: Examination and reformulation.

Psychological Bulletin 106 (1), 59-73.

Hobson, Louis B. (October 10, 1999). "Fiction for real". Calgary Sun.

Kimmel, M. (1994). Masculinity as homophobia: Fear, shame, and silence in the

construction of gender identity. In H. Brod, & M. Kaufman (Eds.), Research on Men

and Masculinities Series: Theorizing Masculinities. (pp. 119-142). Thousand Oaks, CA:

SAGE Publications, Inc.

Kimmel, M.S., & Mahler, M. (2003). Adolescent masculinity, homophobia, and violence.

American Behavioral Scientist 46 (10), 1439- 1458.