Fight Club and Social Constructs of Gender

A discussion of how Fight Club utilizes the socially constructed notions of gender to craft its characters and plot. Analyzing toxic masculinity and the effects of constructs such as this allows for a clearer understanding of what this novel tries to convey to its audience through a sociocultural critique.

The tone of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club as an entire piece of work is aggressive and is fueled by the societal notion that being "manly" means being aggressive and inappropriately confrontational. The narrator of the story has split personality disorder and is both the narrator and the antagonist, Tyler Durden. The character Tyler embodies what happens when socially constructed notions of gender and manhood are taken to the extreme. It is important to mention that the characters are not truly realistic examples of men, but rather a reflection of the social constructs that determine what makes a man masculine.

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Fight Club displays how, thanks to society, the concept of masculinity has been made to be understood by men as feelings of power and authority that are achieved through violence, aggression, and confrontation that does not involve "talking it out." Though there are many examples of this all throughout the novel, one specific excerpt from the book's twelfth chapter exhibits this socially constructed notion of manliness in a manner that is smart, sneaky, and blatant all at the same time (this is a theme that carries on through the whole novel). At this point in the story, it has not been clearly revealed to the reader or even the narrator himself that he and Tyler are one and the same, and the narrator has been ordered by Tyler to type up the rules for fight club and make precisely ten copies. The scene involves the narrator's boss finding his original copy of the rules for fight club in the copy machine and passive-aggressively confronting him about it; "What do I think, he asks, what should he do with an employee who spends company time in some little fantasy world. If I was in his shoes, what would I do? ...What I would do, I say, is I'd be very careful who I talked to about this paper. I say, it sounds like some dangerous psychotic killer wrote this, and this buttoned-down schizophrenic could probably go over the edge at any moment in the working day and stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-180 carbine gas-operated semiautomatic" (Palahniuk 97). The narrator is being challenged by his boss, and in this moment of discomfort, he chooses to threaten his boss and his entire office to maintain a sense of authority and power, and therefore maintain his sense of masculinity.

"Tyler's words coming out of my mouth. I used to be such a nice person" (Palahniuk 98).

The behaviors presented in Palahniuk's novel are identifiable as a commentary on the social constructs of male gender roles because the use of the "alter ago" Tyler. Tyler Durden exhibits all of the masculine qualities that the narrator desires. The relationship between the narrator and Tyler is so hectic because Tyler represents a freedom to execute everything the narrator is conflicted about-whether it is a moral issue or a confidence issue. The narrator desires masculinity as society has served it to him, aggressive and reckless. To identify this book as a representation of inherent nature based on sex would imply a lack of reception and critical thinking on the analyst's part. The social constructs of gender benefit the capitalistic corporate world in which Tyler Durden wishes to demolish through project mayhem. The lines are blurred regarding what aspects of society Tyler accepts and rejects, seeing as he dismisses much of the capitalism and societal expectations of the world, and yet is still ruled by fear of emasculation. In this novel, the notions of socially constructed gender roles hurt every single character that is mentioned, whether they are given a name or not. These social constructs wound people mentally and emotionally (as represented by the narrator), but also physically (as represented by the members of fight club and the victims of project mayhem).

Word Count: 687