Gender Roles In Chuck Palahniuk And David Finchers Fight...

In today’s society, there is confusion regarding sex, gender, and gender roles. Sex is referring to the biological differences between males and females; whereas gender refers to the normative behaviors of males and females. Gender roles are roles defined by society for each sex. With the world changing, traditional gender roles are being defied. Males are â€Å"acting† and â€Å"dressing† like females, and vice versa. This utter disregard to traditional gender roles has spun our society into a tizzy. In Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk and David Fincher have focused on the promotion of traditional gender roles and masculinity, as well as clearly defining appropriate behaviors and appearances for men. The traditional gender role of a male is†¦show more content†¦Ultimately, if men do not endure pain, they cannot showcase that they are tough. Thus, never obtaining their dominance and power. Throughout the book and film, there was a clear promotion of masculini ty. The reinforcing of the traditional male gender role is a promotion of masculinity in itself. The Assault Committee is another promotion of masculinity. It is a male only committee, with the objective of helping men regain and maintain their mascininity. Tyler explains, â€Å"What we have to do, people [...] is remind these guys what kind of power they still have† (Palahniuk 120). Tyler has created this committee to demonstrate each members commitment to their gender role and masculinity. They go around displaying their masculinity by picking fights with strangers, and glorifying each other when they do not get caught, but punishing each other when they do. Through allowing the strangers to win, the committee is giving them their masculinity and power back, in the hopes the strangers will join the committee. Another promotion of masculinity is the discussion of bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is a sport that promotes masculinity. Bodybuilders train to become as masculine and as defined as they physical can. Big Bob explains the lifestyle as, â€Å"better than real life† (Palahniuk 22). Big Bob wanted to become so masculine, that he took steroids to do it. These steroids resulted in the development of testicular cancer.Show MoreRelatedMasculinity in Chuck Palahniuks Work7062 Words   |  29 Pagesthis array of comfort and leisure we are inclined to believe that male lifestyle has reached its peak on the timeline of satisfaction. This was until David Fincher took Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and made it into a big budget Hollywood blockbuster. With the male demographic being the hardest to pinpoint in the literature sense, David Fincher’s adaptation helpfully put Palahniuk’s thoughts into the cinematic forefront. This increased the popularity of Palahniuk’s other works and placed him