The character of “Jack” in Fight Club is the archetypal middle class, white American male. After he leaves his meaningless job every evening, he is shoved into another meaningless job, that of a consumer. With the money he earns working, he “buy[s] shit [he] do[es]n’t need,” as Tyler Durden pointed out in their first conversation together. The media that espouses the need for consumer goods also espouses a need to define one’s gender in a manner that is beneficial to the market if not initiated by it. There is not a universal definition of gender identity; it is, after all, a social construct. It is constantly changing in much the same way industry is. There is a feeling of insatiability in expressing one’s identity that is coupled with an ever adapting advertising industry. The fashion industry in particular takes full advantage of the social climate as a function of capitalism. It is through accessories that one must convey one’s gender. Within “Jack” we see the central conflict presented by living in social modernity: reconciling the real with the ideal. Two interdependent aspects of this conflict presented in Fight Club are the interplay between gender identity and consumerism.
Midway through the film, Tyler and “Jack” are walking down the street asking each other what celebrity they would fight. Tyler and Jack get on a public bus “sizing everything up” and Jack asks Tyler, “Is that what a man looks like?” in response to a Calvin Klein underwear ad. Tyler perhaps believes, or finds it more palatable to present, this image to be a result of being part of a “generation raised by women.” A few scenes before, “Jack” says he is a “30-year-old boy” and Tyler wonders if “another woman is what [they] really need.” Without influence from their fathers, they see what they think of as the “feminization” of men and attribute it to the single-mom culture in which they were raised. Madison Avenue and the corporate image machine are controlled by men, not women. Even though women are often forced to head households due to the collapse of the nuclear family, women are largely absent from such high positions. So, these men must guess what women want men to look like in the heteronormative scheme of society. The male authorities that Tyler suggests as targets of their animosity are absent fathers, bosses and God. When it comes to confronting the feminine, it appears that they willingly confuse women with their oppressors because the fashion industry has so readily conformed to the ideas put forth by male executives that men should look and act more “feminine,” in comparison to the idea of an idealized, “primitive” man.
It is through the seemingly omniscient media that most people identify their role within the framework of society. “Jack” and his peers are never fulfilled, but nonetheless chase after the ideal life. If “Jack’s” living room is perfect, if his clothes look “respectable,” he may forget that he has little independence. His “freedom” to choose any couch in an Ikea catalog seems to present a choice, while not allowing actual freedom. “Jack” says he was “almost complete” before his condo burned down. Tyler’s take on reality is an ideology as well, one driven by the frustration “Jack” had with the realization that he is trapped in the belief that life is about looking a certain way. The advertising media presents a finite number of ways to do this and attaches with each a social implication as to who people are by how they look.
The last scene of Fight Club is, in a sense, a microcosm of the film itself. Each theme is demonstrated succinctly through these final, crucial moments. It begins: “Three minutes. This is it. The beginning. Ground zero. Think of everything we’ve accomplished! Through this window we will witness the collapse of financial history….” declares Tyler Durden. “Jack” doesn’t seem to be listening. Tyler shoves his chair into the window. “Jack’s” head against the glass, he looks down and sees a bus stop and knows Marla is being pulled off of it. He turns to Tyler and says, “I beg you. Stop this.” Tyler struts around trying to intimidate “Jack,” while “Jack” sits helplessly in a chair. The scene is silent until “Jack” says, “I can beat this, this isn’t real. That gun isn’t even in your hand, that gun is in my hand.” At these words, a bass-heavy electronic beat begins that signals to the viewers that he is regaining control. Tyler nonchalantly replies, “It doesn’t change a thing,” and the music momentarily stops. Then, “Jack” positions the gun under his chin, the music resumes and Tyler says, “Where are you going with this Ikea boy?” “Jack” says, “I want you to listen to me. My eyes are open.” The next time the music stops is when “Jack” fires the gun. Marla is soon dragged in screaming and shouting. She finds “Jack” and launches out at him for putting her through this ordeal. She stops suddenly and says, “Oh my God, your face.” “Jack” repeatedly assures her “everything is alright” and the Pixies’ “Where is my mind?” begins. He looks at her and says, “You met me at a really strange time in my life.” This is the moment when there is a forceful drum beat, the first electronic chords in the song and the buildings all begin to collapse. “Jack” and Marla hold hands as they watch this “theater of destruction.”
The woman is continually deemed the “enemy” in this film. In order to “reclaim their manhood”, the men involved with fight club and Project Mayhem routinely wreak havoc on corporations and one another’s bodies trying to reestablish some mythic primitive classless society where men and women have clearly defined roles of the strong, breadwinning man and the domestic, subservient woman. Gender roles, though not immediately apparent, are quite prominent in this scene. Before Marla even enters, there is this conflict between “Jack” and Tyler’s respective concepts of what masculinity is. As Marla lashes out at “Jack” she sees his face and becomes motherly and concerned. For the first time since she’s met “Jack,” he is admitting to the duality of his personality and accepting it, an arguably manly thing to do. Even though Marla screams at him, he realizes that women are not the reason for his frustration. If she ever consoled him this way before, “Jack” was incapable of appreciating it because he is too busy switching between personalities to deal with her. She made him feel “feminine” because of how independent and brash she struck him as, yet was is not responsible for this feeling.
Consumerism briefly but emphatically enters this scene while Tyler is trying to convince “Jack” that he has no life to go back to. He asks, “What do you want? Do you want to go back to your shit job, go back to condo world watching sitcoms?” “Jack” has no idea what he wants. He is back to where he started. This power play between Tyler and “Jack” recalls the power dynamic present in gender roles and consumerism. In physical fighting, the omnipresence of members of Project Mayhem in society and also the conflicts of genders and classes all deal with the dynamic of domination and submission. After having been alienated from their pointless jobs and their nondescript gender roles, the men of fight club are determined to “reclaim their manhood,” which can be manifested in domination. The overbearing attitude Marla shows by going to all of “Jack’s” support groups, the mutually weak and reassuring manner in which the people in the support groups act and how “Jack” is submissive to his boss all demonstrate “Jack’s” initial powerlessness. Tyler, on the other hand, has influence over Marla, creates fight club, what he sees as the anti-support group, and is the epitome of the dominant male. Tyler’s plan to get “one step closer to economic equilibrium” has attempted to reverse the power dynamic. Though this power dynamic has changed, the power of each individual remains the same.
Tyler, though appearing to rebel against the concept of the elite, becomes simply another powerful man that dictates how the “space monkeys” should look and act. He redefines the way in which he thinks they should project their genders and wield their influence, but it makes them feel powerful, despite the fact that they are just as anonymous and submissive as before. When it comes to their bosses and women, this does not enter into their minds. Consequently, they do not escape from these forces, but shift who determines these things from corporate executives to Tyler, who assures them: “You are not your jobs.” While they are no longer their jobs, they define themselves by being members of Project Mayhem. They go through similarly dictated motions by working in the garden, making soap and cleaning the house on Paper Street, but instead of doing it for a guy they can’t stand; they do it for Tyler, the father they never had. Within this we see challenges to gender roles. They’re supposedly free and masculine men, yet they are doing stereotypically female domestic activities. This is the most blatant and simple demonstration of “Jack’s” original fears. The “space monkeys” are being “feminized,” according to their own standards, by their boss for his goals, convinced they are their own.
The character of “Jack” in Fight Club is conflicted between what he is and what he thinks he should be in the context of society. Through consumerism, he thought self-fulfillment would eventually come. If he worked in a job he hated and consumption didn’t solve his problems, what would? “Jack” found himself incapable of conforming to the overly optimistic watered down version of reality presented in the media. The social propaganda he was expected to consume began to seem empty. But his projection of the ultra-masculine, anarchistic leader did not fulfill him either. It merely shifted the targets of his enmity from his boss and Marla, to corporations and women, which served to create nothing out of its destruction. His search to "return" to some mythical time when gender roles were firm leads to catastrophe. “Jack's” search for his gender identity through consumerism as well as his search for it through destruction lead to the same conclusion: modernity.... [conclusion is weak, rework]