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Justin Timothy

Dr. Wansor

El 267

28 March 2017

Fighting to be a Man

The fights that occur within Fight Club are therapeutic for those taking part. The men

there may be fighting each other, but they are fighting much more than that. They are fighting

everything in the world that pisses them off, and their insecurities that they are ashamed of. Fight

club gives them the confidence they seek. It is for the men in the world who need to realize that

they need to become actual men. The next logical question is “When does it go too far?” Being a

man is a wonderful, but how far should people go to assert they masculinity? Fight Club can

send a powerful message to the reader when looking at the context of a commentary on

masculinism.

Fight club was made by a man for men. The narrator and Tyler Durder, which is still the

narrator, both made fight club and all the rules about fight club always say men. The rules are

explained as “only two guys to a fight,” (Palahniuk 49). This gender specific wording is

intentional. Men are generally stereotyped to be the aggressor in many situations. Fighting is the

perfect place for men to be who they are at their core. The narrator touches on this concept when

he describes fight club in its infancy. He says “You aren’t alive anywhere like you’re alive at

fight club,” and “Fight club isn’t about winning or losing fights. Fight Club isn’t about words,”

(Palahniuk 51). Fight club is about the most visceral instincts and interactions men can have.

These men at these fight clubs are real men down to their core. The narrator also explains “Fight

club gets to be your reason for going to the gym...The gyms you go to are crowded with guys
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trying to look like man, as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director

says,” (Palahniuk 50). Real men do not have to show off their muscles to assert their manliness;

real men have an attitude and character that make them men. These men are eventually rising up

the ranks of their manhood, or fight club, to be in Project Mayhem. The narrator refers to these

men as “space monkeys” numerous times throughout the novel. These overly masculine men are

just mindless people who are going through the motions and blindly following orders. Trying to

be an overly masculine man to fit into society’s views is not what Palahniuk wants people to do.

He paints an exaggerated picture to show how ridiculous people look when they follow the same

societal trends blindly in an attempt to get the fake confidence they seek. Real men have actual

confidence and do not need the approval of others.

Robert “Big Bob” Paulson is character who tries to be a man, but pays the ultimate price

as a result. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator meets Big Bob in a support group for

testicular cancer. He has no testicles and has developed breasts due to hormone therapy. This

character is set up to be a man who is as close to a woman as possible. He physically lacks one of

the most important organs that distinguishes males from females and he also has large breast

which is an attribute associated with woman. He then starts to get involved with fight club. Bob

tries to explain to the narrator about how he found a new support group. He says “’The good

news,’ Big Bob says, ‘is there’s a new group, but the first rule about this new group is you aren’t

supposed to talk about it’” (Palahniuk 100). Big Bob engages in the fight club in place of his

therapy meetings. Instead of acting like a women and expressing his saddening emotions, he is

acting like a man and fighting as a new form of therapy. Big Bob is trying to use fight club to

become a real man again. Big Bob progresses through the ranks of the fight club to eventually be

able to run his own fight club. The conversation between the mechanic and the narrator says
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“’Maybe Big Bob can take over running the next chapter if we find a bar.’ So next week, he’ll go

through the rules with Big Bob and give him a fight club of his own,” (Palahniuk 142). Big Bob

was embracing fight club and his manhood to the highest extent possible, and Project Mayhem

was willing reward him with his own club. It is revealed during chapter 24 that Big Bob was

killed during one of his homework assignments for Project Mayhem. When the narrator was

explaining the death of Big Bob, he throws in the line “Extend your left arm, flex the bicep and

hold,” (Palahniuk 177). This alludes to Big Bob’s time as a body builder. The narrator explained

earlier in the novel that these people who sculpt their bodies and are very concerned with their

looks are not true men. Big Bob’s character starts out womanly, and then through fight club and

project mayhem becomes overly masculine. This newfound masculinity leads to his demise. His

death could be Palahniuk saying that masculinism to the extreme is not something that should be

supported. Big Bob dies at the end, which is the most negative outcome one can achieve. The

line regarding Big Bob’s past as a body builder may allude to the fact Big Bob did not change

much at all. People may be who they are at a core, and no amount of environmental conditioning

can change that. Big Bob’s character is an example of where masculinism can be more harmful

than beneficial.

Men and woman are most notably different in their biology. Men have testicles, where

woman do not. Project Mayhem threatened to take the testicles away from men who did not

agree with ideals. During the course of the novel, the narrator let Tyler’s personality bleed into

his own more and more throughout the course of the novel. This change in attitude from the

narrator is evident in his interactions with his boss. When his boss first questions his appearance,

the narrator simply backs down and accepts that his boss will do the narrator’s presentation.

Later when his boss finds the typed up fight club rules, the narrator lets Tyler show. He threatens
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his boss in a very graphic way that only Tyler would. Soon, Tyler’s over masculine side overruns

the narrator more and more, to the point where the narrator attempts to stop project mayhem all

together. This causes him to almost lose his testicles. In chapter 26, the Project Mayhem almost

succeed in castrating the narrator. They would have taken away one of the main parts of his body

that distinguish him as a male. The over masculine nature of the narrator and Tyler almost cost

the narrator his physical masculine characteristics. This can be seen as a negative aspect of

masculinism from Palahniuk. Being overly masculine can harm your confidence and actual

masculinity in the long wrong. People can act masculine and put on a show, but inside the can be

insecure.

Taking masculine views to the extreme can put into the context where men and women

are enemies. This very limited women in this novel are not shown in a positive light. The main

female character in the story is Marla. Because she is the only significant female character in this

novel, it can be assumed she is a generalization of all woman. The narrator first meets her during

chapter two in a support group for people who have testicular cancer. This alone already states

that she is a liar. The fact that she is a woman means she cannot have testicular cancer. She also

is someone who desperately wants attention. It is revealed in chapter 7 that Marla called Tyler

and told him that she was going to kill herself and he needed her to come over. She obviously did

not commit suicide, and just wanted to be with someone. Tyler’s masculine side uses Marla for

her body instead of forming a genuine connection. The narrator also explains in chapter 7, “One

morning there’s the dead jellyfish of a used condom floating in the toilet,” (Palahniuk 56). This

sexual encounter is reduced to Tyler merely using Marla just to pleasure himself by the means of

her. This is a prime example of objectifying women for the benefit of a man. The same thing

happens when the narrator has sex with Cloe. He does not to it because he loves her, he does it
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for his own benefit. There is also a distinct lack of women involved in fight club and Project

Mayhem. It would not make sense for a group dedicated to masculinism to allow women within

its doors. Palahniuk paints women in a negative light in this novel to contrast the focus on

masculinism. Someone who is an extremist for masculinism may hold these views, but having

Marla as a moral compass for all women is purposely exaggerated. Overly masculine men may

think that women are just objects there for their own pleasure, and every thing else women do is

just an annoyance. These views are untrue, but exaggerated characters make them easier to see.

Palahniuk uses his characters to show that too much masculinity is not beneficial. Big

Bob ends up dying, and although he thinks he is changing, ends up being himself at the core.

Fight club serves as a way for men to act like true men, but ends up making them mindless cogs

in the machine of society. Project Mayhem was an attempt to make men more masculine, but as

a result took away the physical manhood of those who stood in its way. Marla and women in

general can be seem as enemies to men in the most extreme of views. The one thing that could

possibly bridge the gap to overcome these tensions that the feminists and masculinists is the fact

Marla was the only women in the novel to have the kiss scar on her hand. Why did Palahniuk

choose to do this?
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Works Cited

Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. London: Vintage, 1996. Print.