Gender Analysis Of The Film Fight Club

Alec Chambers

COM 201-Paper 3

Doctor Lozano

23 April, 2014

Feminism in a male-dominated society: A gender analysis of the film Fight Club

Fight Club is a 1999 film based on the novel of the same name, penned by Chuck Palahniuk in 1996. The film was directed by David Fincher, and received extremely mixed reviews from critics. Fincher would go on the win two Academy Awards for best director for his films The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and The Social Network (2010). It was considered to be one of the most controversial films of 1999, and made over $100 million1 at the box office because of this. The novel was adapted into a screenplay by Jim Uhls, was produced by Art Linson, and stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton opposite of each other. It had a budget of $63 million1 and has a run-time of 139 minutes. According to Rotten Tomatoes, a popular critic review score aggregation system, the average critic review was a 7.4/10, while only 64% of top critics gave it a favorable review.2 The film ended up receiving a huge cult following and critic reception and audience approval increased over time due to the DVD release. I watched the film with a feminist lens, and realized that the films anti-capitalist messages actually ended up being helpful to promote feminism, despite what other reviewers would suggest. The film is pro-feminism because of its satirical portrayal of men, the constant arguments about consumerism and advertising throughout the film, and the film's representation of support groups.

The film follows an unreliable narrator without a name (Edward Norton), who suffers from insomnia and what is assumed to be some form of chronic depression. He begins to attend support groups to try and occupy his time and better c...

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...tem that stands to this day."3 What she is suggesting is that the films obvious anti-capitalist messages are actually harmful when considered through the feminist lens. The anti-feminism view that the film creates actually begins to overpower the intended message. It is suggested that the male characters, who are emotional and cry at support groups, are actually being put out of their natural state by capitalism, as the system allows for women to depend on men less. Men would be considered instinctively to be the hunters/providers for the women, and the consumer culture has erased that need. This is causing the men to feel out of place, and feel a need to liberate themselves from the barriers that modern society has put on them. Iwanttheairwaves is suggesting that men are becoming more feminized, while women are gaining no improvements to their image from this film.