Queer Theory in Fight Club PDF

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An exploration of queer theory in Fight Club (1999). 1000 word essay....

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Queer Theory in Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)

Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) is closely looked at as a hyper-masculine film. Even though it is laced with examples of masculinity, this essay aims to prove that when analysed from a queer perspective, it is a film about the Narrator exploring his sexuality. Key scenes from the film will be analysed and the relationship between the characters will come into question, as well as the whole concept of the fight club within the film. The conclusion will sum up the key points in order to convince that Fight Club has a hidden sub-text; the exploration of the Narrator’s sexuality. “Once the term 'queer' was, at best, slang for homosexual, at worst, a term of homophobic abuse. In recent years 'queer' has come to be used differently, sometimes as an umbrella term for a coalition of culturally marginal sexual self-identifications and at other times to describe a nascent theoretical model which has developed out of more traditional lesbian and gay studies” (Jagose, 1996). The term ‘queer’ is inclusive and is not just reliant on sexuality. It can also mean strange, peculiar, odd, eccentric etc. In which case, the characters in Fight Club are all queer in their own ways. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is a soap salesman who lives in an abandoned house. Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) is unemployed and attends support groups because, in her own words; “It’s cheaper than a movie, and there’s free coffee” (Fincher, 1999, 15:22). The Narrator (Edward Norton) is an insomniac who also attends support groups in order to cure his insomnia. One of the first scenes of the film has phallic symbolism; the Narrator is being held hostage by Tyler who has a gun shoved into the Narrator’s mouth. This phallic imagery of the male character with his gun has been shown throughout film history. The male protagonists of the early westerns were rarely seen without their gun and were often praised by other male characters for their gun’s aesthetics and capabilities. Clint Eastwood’s character in Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971) carried the infamous Smith & Wesson; action film posters display male characters holding a gun; the opening sequence to Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006) features an animated James Bond repeatedly shooting card suit symbols out of his gun. This scene in Fight Club is featured not only at the beginning, but near the end of the film. Thomas Peele, who wrote a response essay in an online journal about the queer representations in Fight Club, commented on how the graphic novel in which the film is based on pushed this symbolism further: “The first, short chapter is filled with references to the gun in his mouth, the tonguing of it, the adjusting it in his mouth to be more comfortable, the worry about the cleanliness of the gun. Jack (the Narrator) notes, for example, that with ‘a gun stuck in your mouth and the barrel of the gun between your teeth, you can only talk in vowels’” [CITATION Tho01 \p 863 \l 2057 ]. The relationship between the Narrator and Tyler Durden is bordering on marital. After the Narrator’s apartment is destroyed rendering him homeless, he has the choice of calling Marla or Tyler. At first he calls Marla but quickly ends the call. He then calls Tyler. This is the Narrator allowing himself to push free from society and its expectations to explore his unconscious feelings towards men. He ends up moving in with Tyler, despite not knowing him for long. During their time living together, they share intimate moments together, such as when Tyler is bathing in the same room as the Narrator. During this scene, Tyler admits “we're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need” (Fincher, 1999, 38:41).

When the Narrator asks about his luggage at the airport, the airport security officer says he had to confiscate the luggage because it was vibrating. He then implies the Narrator owned a dildo and that was the cause of the vibrating. The secondary characters in this film, namely the men within fight club, are the only ones who know that Tyler and the Narrator are the same person. If secondary characters are to know more information than the main characters, then the security officer’s nod to the Narrator possibly owning a dildo is an indication to his sexuality. The Narrator could be afraid to openly express his sexuality, so the creation of the fight club is a ‘safe’ substitute for engaging in sexual activities between men. Consumerist society sells through sex and images of heterosexuality are projected through the media whereas homosexuality was not accepted in mainstream media. Society expects men to be and to act a certain way. Tyler openly expresses his anti-consumerist beliefs, and if he is the product of the Narrator, then he acts as the Narrator’s rebellious subconscious. The Narrator expresses disgust for Marla throughout the entirety of the film, yet the end scene sees them both holding hands. The Narrator kills Tyler therefore killing his desire of men and chooses to pursue the desire for women, although the last shot is intercut with the image of a penis. Earlier on in the film, the Narrator explains how Tyler, working as a projectionist, would quickly intercut an image of a penis while he changed over to the next reel. The quick intercut at the end would deduce that Tyler may not be completely dead, therefore the Narrator’s desire for men isn’t completely gone. The film both starts and ends with the phallic symbolism of a gun in the Narrator’s mouth. The Narrator doesn’t feel disgusted with it and doesn’t react how someone would when a gun is pushed into their mouth, suggesting that he doesn’t see the gun as a weapon. The Narrator moves in with Tyler and they both create the fight club, a way for men to express hidden desires for other men. For the Narrator, the act of rebelling against society is to rebel against its norms, namely heteronormativity. With the help of Tyler, he explores his sexuality through the fight club.

Bibliography Campbell, M. (Director). (2006). Casino Royale [Motion Picture]. Fight Club 1999 [film] Directed by David Fincher. USA: Fox 2000 Pictures/Regency Enterprises (139 mins) Jagose, A. (1996, December). Queer Theory. Retrieved from Australian Humanities Review [online], December 1996 Available at: http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-Dec-1996/jagose.html [Accessed 7th March 2016] Peele, T. (2001). Fight Club's Queer Representations. JAC Online, Volume 21.4, pages 862-869 Available at: http://jaconlinejournal.com/archives/vol21.4/peele-fight.pdf [Accessed 7th March 2016] Siegel, D. (Director). (1971). Dirty Harry [Motion Picture]....