You're Not Your Fucking Lipstick

            “Yes these are bruises from fighting. Yes I’m comfortable with that. I am enlightened,” says Jack as he bumps into a woman, knocking the papers out of her arms. Jack is becoming a man. One way of understanding Fight Club’s message is a guy’s need to become a man. A guy’s insatiable desire to do manly things instead of things like flipping through Ikea catalogs. Fight Club oozes with manliness: constant fighting, massive explosions, and glorified muscles. That’s the lens through which the movie displays its message. That is not the message though. The message I receive from the movie is a unisex one. Both women and men like Fight Club and that’s not only because Brad Pitt is in it. It is relatable to everyone. Though it’s told through the eyes of white, male Jack, everybody can access the message. In Fight Club the message is delivered through a testosterone powered story. Despite being drowned in masculinity, the significance of the movie is androgynous. If only it didn’t reinforce gender stereotypes so drastically.

            Jack isn’t very masculine. He loves buying things from Ikea and decorating his house. This is obviously something normally attributed to femininity. He goes to self-help groups where emotions are rampant. Being emotional is also something normally attributed to femininity. One of the support groups he enjoys most is the testicular cancer support group. The men here don’t have balls. Lacking balls is another attribute normally attributed to femininity. Consequently, society seems to have labeled Jack as weak. This association between femininity and weakness is harmful. Femininity is associated with being female. Therefore, being female and being weak are implicitly equalized in the film. A very damaging message indeed. If we’re able to look past that, however, the film can be used to encourage and “enlighten” those of either gender. It’s not simply the femininity that depresses Jack. It’s the dichotomy between what he is because of society, and what society is telling him he should be. All the products and pressures of his culture weigh him down. Surely a female can relate to this. All of the things a woman is supposed to be, causes severe stress for tons of women. Reifying what it is to be human through the products marketed to women is dehumanizing. The media says, “This is what a woman looks like” and to not respond is to create great anxiety. It’s not masculinity as such creating Jack’s problem, it’s conforming to impossible expectations.

            Fight Club is about rejecting those impossible expectations. It’s not about manliness. Referring to an ad with displaying a “manly”, male, Gucci model Jack asks Tyler, “Is that what a man looks like?” and Tyler laughs. In his monologue Jack declares, “I felt sorry for guys packed in gyms… trying to look like how Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger said they should.” As with every scene in the movie, this scene on the bus only depicts the problem as males face it. Truth be told, women face the exact same problem. “Is that what a woman looks like?” “I felt sorry for girls packed in gyms.” It’s the same thing. Society tells us what we are supposed to look like. Fight Club tells us how to fight back. The “fight” in Fight Club isn’t about dudes beating the crap out of each other. It’s about beating the crap out of the system. Reject the ideas that advertising, business, and government inject us with. Women and Men aren’t what the TV says they are.

            After a discussion about the absentness of their fathers, Tyler tells Jack that they are, “A generation of men raised by women.” Talking about marriage he then says, “I’m wondering if another woman is the answer we really need.” This may seem like it’s talking about men and women but it’s not. It is still referring to the system. We’re supposed to grow up, get a job, and get married. The quote works just as effectively (probably more so) when the gender is reversed. “I’m wondering if another man is the answer we really need.” It represents the rejection of the formula we’re supposed to live. It isn’t the rejection of a gender.

            The reinforcement of damaging gender stereotypes in Fight Club can’t be denied. The marvelous thing is that the movie’s message is to reject what media and entertainment shove down our throats. If these stereotypes are accepted then the entire message of the movie has been lost. “You are not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.” This is the point of the movie. It doesn’t matter what society says you are, you’re not that. If you let society determine who you are, you need to seriously reexamine your life. If you accept that women are unimportant and weak like Marla is in Fight Club, you’re doing something wrong. “You’re not your fucking khakis” means the same thing as, “You’re not your fucking skirt, or purse, or lipstick.” Fight Club tells us to reject the cultural norms of our society. If we accept the cultural norms found within the movie, we didn’t understand the movie.