Fight Club

I've probably watched Fight Club over a dozen times before watching it again last Tuesday. It's amazing to see how my perspective regarding the movie has changed by incorporating a little bit of that queer reading we've been discussing for a few weeks now. I originally watched the film as a recommendation from a friend who expressed his enjoyment in watching this "bad-ass" fighting movie. The film is pretty bad-ass but after seeing it queerly so many things made more sense to me than they did the last times I have seen it. It's not that now I understood the movie it was more of an understanding of certain parts that I did not catch as being homoerotic in a sense. For example the constant references to the loss of masculinity in the film is overwhelming. From Edward Norton's love of decorating his apartment to the support group for men with testicular cancer; this fear of losing your manhood is a very prominent theme in the film. In these support groups there is constant crying and hugging especially with Meat Loaf who apparently is on the verge of "becoming a woman" after developing, what Norton calls it, "bitch tits." There are also little things like the fact that fight club gave them a reason to need to groom themselves; like cutting their nails. I did not even pay attention to this detail before this queer reading was introduced to me. Another thing that struck me was the importance of the first rule of Fight Club which was not speaking of fight club. I ultimately tied it up to Tyler Durden's constant request to not be mentioned. He states do not talk about me or I will leave forever. I kind of tied these two things together in a way that reveals a males fear to openly talk about their homo-social intents. These two characters, although the same person, have this connection and are seen as a great example of a buddy film duo. They don't know much about each other but seem to be stuck together in a very homo-social way.