Fight Club and Feminism Essay - 2137 Words

The issue at the heart of the David Fincher film, Fight Club, is not that of man’s rebellion against a society of â€Å"men raised by women†. This is a film that outwardly exhibits itself as promoting the resurrection of the ‘ultra-male’, surreptitiously holding women accountable for the decay of manhood. However, the underlying truth of the film is not of resisting the force of destruction that is ‘woman’, or of resisting the corruption of manhood at her hand, but of penetrating the apathy needed to survive in an environment ruled by commercial desire, not need. In reality, Fight Club is a careful examination, through parody, of what it means to be a man; carefully examining the role of women in a society busy rushing towards sexual†¦show more content†¦These support groups (notably, the testicular cancer survivors’ group, â€Å"Remaining Men Together†) give Jack the emotional stimulation he so desperately craves. It is the enveloping comfort of cathartic release that is his salve; but, like all addictions, tolerance sets in, and the fix must be elevated. Henry A. Giroux, in his essay â€Å"Private Satisfactions and Public Disorders: Fight Club, Patriarchy, and the Politics of Masculine Violence†, maintains the argument that Hollywood films, being in a position of public pedagogy, exhibit a great deal of influence and must be regarded carefully; he criticizes the film, saying Fight Club: †¦offers up particular notions of agency in which white working class and middle class men are allowed to see themselves as oppressed and lacking because their masculinity has been compromised by and subordinated to those social and economic spheres and needs that constitute the realm of the feminine. Giroux sees the film â€Å"satirizing and condemning the ‘weepy’ process of femininization† that therapy groups offer as compensation for wounds it inflicted upon itself, and he’s right (insofar as there is no therapy group offered for the disaffected). Jack is certainly an individual deserving of disdain for his involvement in the founding of a ‘club’ where men meet to, ultimately, beat the shit out of each other; and, as Giroux suggests, this type of man deserves no personal revolution, no reclamation of lostShow MoreRelatedFeminism : The Face Of American Politics983 Words   |  4 PagesFeminism is a word with a wide variety of connotations. For some it brings to mind images of strong, influential women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony—women who changed the face of American politics for women. To some it is just another word, but to far too many, feminism is a hated word and therefore a hated cause. 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