Fight Club and the Subjective View of Masculinity

There are a lot of ways of examining Fight Club from specific gender role theories. However, I believe the biggest underlying gender theory in the film is the over-exaggerated view of masculinity and the man. For starters, the lack of female characters in the film gives a huge path to discussing masculinity and the man; however, feminism is very important in this film entirely. The scene in which "Jack" and Tyler are in the bathroom as Tyler is the the bathtub is an important and key scene within the film. Tyler is speaking about how his father had put him on a path to the "normal, routine" life, go to college, get a job, get married. When Tyler says, "We are a generation of men raised by women," that sifts the process of the film entirely. I believe the film is responding to the generation of men that have lost their "masculinity." As technology and life progresses, men start to inhabit feminine qualities, losing their raw "masculine" identifications and aggression. Many of the characters that enter the fight club inhabit stereotypical feminine qualities; "Jack" for example has a compulsive need to perfect his apartment, which in society can be seen as a feminine quality (the process of going to Ikea or shopping for furniture to perfect one's apartment). Bob, who has no testicles and "bitch tits" also inhabits feminine qualities. One could even say Tyler is a tad feminine because of his groomed appearance. The one female role in the film, Marla, is seen as a hot mess; she has a drug problem, and she enjoys casual sex. She is not taken seriously by either of the male leads, but rather cast aside. I believe the film is responding to the lack of masculinity left in the world with the abundance of consumerism in America. When Tyler says, "The things you own start to own you," to "Jack" is it important because although Jack has a perfect lifestyle, good job, good home, he is unable to sleep. The one place he was in comfort was a place where he can go to cry or talk it out, which is a feminine quality in comparison to the  Fight Club. The self help groups and the Fight Club are polar opposites in Jack's world. One is a place in which people can go to vent and work through their issues, and the other is a place where men can brutally beat each other senseless until they are satisfied. They are the feminine and masculine ways of solving one's issues. I wouldn't say that the film is bashing feminism or blaming females entirely for the way in which masculinity has evaporated; I would say more so the innovation of technology and industrialization is a cause of it. Tyler lives in a run down, abandoned home, he needs no fancy innovations, no technology. Project Mayhem is surrounded around  destroying all of these innovations, this technological, materialistic way of life. Tyler is trying to re-establish this past belief and value of the strongest survive, men who can prove to be brutally tough and cut-throat, beat their way to the top are the masculine and strong ones. He does this by recruiting his army, training them to become beasts and fight their way to the top. He does this by establishing the Fight Club in the first place.