The Precarious Balance of Gender’s Binary Opposition in Fight Club

								
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Julia Ziyue Peng

Mr.

ENGL. 100

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

                The Precarious Balance of Gender’s Binary Opposition in Fight Club

       One of the most notable repercussions of today’s late capitalist society is how the

methods of expressing catharsis have most been replaced with consumerist culture. In order to

feel whole and maintain perfection, it is absolutely imperative for one to keep up with the fast-

paced evolution of commodities. In Fight Club, the flourish of consumerism not only breeds

alienation, but in fact strips the very essence of masculinity from the white middle class, leaving

a generation of men without purpose. During his futile attempt in obtaining perfection through

consumption, the narrator creates Tyler, who resurrects the binary opposition of gender in a

society of repressed masculinity, which effectively highlights the perceived threat of

feminization.

       The most prominent implication of consumerism, in which the socioeconomic sphere is

dominated by feminine mannerisms, is the crisis of masculinity men undergo as they are drawn

into a world as purchasers rather than producers. This process of alienation successfully blurs the

male-female binary opposition. Generally speaking, consumption and excessive acquisition

“constitute the realm of the feminine” (Giroux 6). The disruption of opposites is the primary

reason the narrator and Marla regard life as meaningless. Both attend therapy and recovery

clinics for the sole purpose of breathing in death. Without the experience of death, life’s “real

sense” vanishes, as there is “nothing to contrast it with” (Palahniuk 38). In order to experience
	
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life, one has to experience death. When the same notion is applied to gender roles, the narrator’s

own sense of masculinity is indistinct at best: there is no definitely binary opposition because the

masculine has been increasingly subjugated as men try to keep up with the “right set of dishes”

and the “perfect rug”, to the point where “things you used to own, now they own

you” (Palahniuk 44). The narrator’s obsession with possess the perfect apartment is a result of a

redefined, societally accepted catharsis. Before Tyler’s materialization, emotional relief can only

be attained through purchasing. The narrator creates Tyler as a subconscious revolt against not

only consumerist culture, but against the absence of masculinity such an environment produces.

And so an exclusively male fight club is established in order for the “generation of men raised by

women” (Palahniuk 50) to reclaim their masculinity. What appears to be a crisis of capitalism is

actually a crisis of masculinity repackaged, one that mirrors the resentment of the growing

female presence.

       The fixation with consumerism extends beyond just the practise of catharsis, but is rather

symbolic to society’s preoccupation with perfection. In Fight Club’s capitalist lifestyle, people

are driven to perfection in terms of both possessions and actions. Being perfect means being

surrounded by a rainbow of quilts, armchairs with green stripe patterning, and galvanized steel

clocks. The abiding state of perfection also necessitates a lack of physical violence. In other

words, the concept of perfect is feminized. Tyler acts as the primary foil to the narrator’s

obsession with constant perfection, because Tyler does not believe in perpetual idealism, but

rather in its fleetingness. He goes through a process of piling logs just for that “one perfect

minute” where their shadows would form a “palm of perfection” (Palahniuk 33). Tyler

epitomizes the masculine ideal in a feminized society; whereas the persistent state of perfection
	
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is attributed to females, its transience is strictly male. Tempted by the thought of somehow

regaining his masculinity, the narrator pleads with Tyler to “deliver [him] from being perfect and

complete” (Palahniuk 46). The narrator’s personal battle against perfection manifests into the

binary opposite, mayhem. Project Mayhem’s ideologies clash directly with those of

consumerism, and in doing so, bring masculinity into direct conflict with femininity. The

recovery of masculinity can only be accomplished with the regression to instinctual violence,

consequently “breaking attachments to possessions … destroying oneself” so as to “discover the

greater power of spirit” (Palahniuk 110). To destroy the materialistic part of a person is to reject

all frivolity, thus rediscovering a man’s virility. In detaching oneself from the promoted

principles of modern society, the narrator, through Tyler, rebels against everything consumerism

stands for in order to establish a defined zone of masculinity against the tide of an increasingly

feared feminized culture.

       The disappearance of a strictly defined binary opposition is what causes the narrator to

crave something as extreme as death so he can see the point of living. In a world where

masculinity has been threatened by femininity and its perfectionism, he creates a space of the

pure masculine that evolves into a fascist paramilitary organization to threaten the very

foundations of capitalist society. Fight Club is a mirror to society’s fear of the feminized

consumerist culture, and how one combats the ambiguity of gender once the consequences are

too great to bear.
	
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                                          Works Cited

Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. Print.

Giroux, Henry A. “Private Satisfactions and Public Disorders: Fight Club, Patriarchy, and the

       Politics of Masculine Violence”. JAC. January 2001.