masculinity in fight club. masculinity masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics...
TRANSCRIPT
Masculinity
Masculinity is possessing
qualities or characteristics
considered typical of or
appropriate to a man.
Task
On the handout provided write down 5 characteristics / traits
that belong to the ‘typical’ male
This all changed
•The Second Wave of feminism •Women became increasingly empowered as legal reforms such as:The Equal Pay Act (1970) and The Sexual Discrimination Act (1975) can into force
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
Aids: the queering of the mainstream
AIDS raised 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
The emasculation of traditional male identity has led to a ‘crisis of masculinity’.
Men were no longer certain of what their role in society was.
Confused Masculinity
Robert Bly
An American poet, author, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement, most famous for his Iron John: A Book About Men (1990)
A deeply troubled situation in which most men find themselves in
western societies today
Men raised by women
The decline of the father's role in the modern family
Men are an "experimental species" and have to be taught
what it is to be a man
Rites of passage
Older men would teach young boys on these gender-specific
issues.
Today's men as half adults, trapped
somewhere between childhood
and maturity
Confused masculinity in FCBoth 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”
FC and collective identity3 principle examples of the modern man’s confusion over masculine roles and what being a ‘man’ actually means:
FC and collective identity
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
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 castrationFirst 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
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.
Recap on last lessonRecap on Last Lesson
What are the characteristics of a ‘new man’?What are the characteristics of a ‘Real Man’ according to Bly?What was Robert Bly’s theory called?
What were the 3 examples we looked at in class to demonstrate confused masculinity in Fight Club?
I’m still a guy
Brad Paisley is a Country and Western song writer and singerwho personifies what it is to be a man in his songs.
His song ‘I’m still a guy’ works well with Robert Bly’s theory
What aspects of this song relate to:A.The new manB.Bly’s man
The song lyrics are on the sheet in front of you
Fight Club and the Mytho-poetic Essentialism
Rejection of consumerist pleasure
Separation from the tender feminine world
Initiation through enduring pain
Self Flagellation to prove manhood to enemy
Father son relationship
Fight club could be used to examine two archetypal (model) male relationships:
Acolyte (student) and mentorSon and Father
The Narrator creates Tyler from his own subconscious needs (Bly would say essential needs)
Acolyte/Mentor:
Tyler is the cool kid in school, cares nothing for status or urban wit or etiquette.He is the ultimate adolescent fantasy – the ‘wild man’ showing the straight guy how to cut loose
Son/Father: The oedipal role
‘We are a generation of men raised by women’
‘You are not Gods delicate snowflake’
Tyler takes the narrator away from his ‘comfortable’ feminised world, he destroys his ‘nest’, takes him away from the love and support of the groups and exposes him to the harsh realities of the ‘real’ world.
TASK 1:After watching the first scene where the Narrator encounters Tyler – What
examples of traditional adolescent rebellion can you see?
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.
Task two:Now think about the relationship between the characters as the film
progressesTo what extent is this traditional Oedipal narrative
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’