Morning Ren - okay, lots of interesting stuff here, but there's also an issue for me in terms of your own reliance on gender-normativity throughout the article: for example, there are multiple moments where you or another writer suggest that 'being a waitress' or 'shopping' ARE feminine characteristics - which is to rely on an constructed idea of what it IS to be female (and male) etc. You argue that by becoming 'strong' Jack becomes more 'like a man' and Marla becomes less like a man, when she becomes 'soft' - this is a problematic statement when you're discussing gender, because essentially you are agreeing with pre-existing stereotypes of what people expect from men and women.
My point is this: it would be more interesting (and less problematic) if you were to look at Fight Club as being a 'discussion' of gender roles and our cultural expectations of them, as opposed to the film 'solving the problem of Jack's effeminacy' and correcting some kind of imbalance. You suggest in your conclusion that you're going to be more critical in this sense, but your analysis of the film keeps appearing to 'agree' with gender stereotypes - as opposed to remaining discursive and sceptical of them.
I think you're missing something here - and it's actual gender theory; really you're getting stuck into the film too soon and you don't have a theorist or framework by which you're engaging with your topic. My advice would be to look at Judith Butler and her 'Gender Trouble' book before you take things any further: I think you need to get your head around the concept of 'normativity' ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normative
My general advice is this: all your research so far is very specifically around Fight Club - what you need to do is take a step back and look at gender theory more generally, to get a sense of the ideas at work that feed into the analysis of the film: you need to look at Butler and her ideas on 'gender performance' - and if you want some further advice, I think your essay would be better served if you were to use Butler's ideas on gender as the toolkit by which you analyse Fight Club's discussions on gender roles and the masculine 'crisis'.
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OGR 01/03/2019
ReplyDeleteMorning Ren - okay, lots of interesting stuff here, but there's also an issue for me in terms of your own reliance on gender-normativity throughout the article: for example, there are multiple moments where you or another writer suggest that 'being a waitress' or 'shopping' ARE feminine characteristics - which is to rely on an constructed idea of what it IS to be female (and male) etc. You argue that by becoming 'strong' Jack becomes more 'like a man' and Marla becomes less like a man, when she becomes 'soft' - this is a problematic statement when you're discussing gender, because essentially you are agreeing with pre-existing stereotypes of what people expect from men and women.
My point is this: it would be more interesting (and less problematic) if you were to look at Fight Club as being a 'discussion' of gender roles and our cultural expectations of them, as opposed to the film 'solving the problem of Jack's effeminacy' and correcting some kind of imbalance. You suggest in your conclusion that you're going to be more critical in this sense, but your analysis of the film keeps appearing to 'agree' with gender stereotypes - as opposed to remaining discursive and sceptical of them.
I think you're missing something here - and it's actual gender theory; really you're getting stuck into the film too soon and you don't have a theorist or framework by which you're engaging with your topic. My advice would be to look at Judith Butler and her 'Gender Trouble' book before you take things any further: I think you need to get your head around the concept of 'normativity' ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normative
My general advice is this: all your research so far is very specifically around Fight Club - what you need to do is take a step back and look at gender theory more generally, to get a sense of the ideas at work that feed into the analysis of the film: you need to look at Butler and her ideas on 'gender performance' - and if you want some further advice, I think your essay would be better served if you were to use Butler's ideas on gender as the toolkit by which you analyse Fight Club's discussions on gender roles and the masculine 'crisis'.