Euan White

Fight Club: Homoerotic

Fight Club could be interpreted to be homoerotic as several themes within the film
have elements that point to homosexuality and suggest something about the
characters involved.
Jack is struggling with his sexuality, throughout the film he bounces forwards and
backwards with Marla. His alter ego, Tyler, establishes a heavy sexual relationship
with Marla, whereas Jack claims to hate her, this is because she gets in between Jack
and Tyler, Jack perhaps taking this as rejection, She'd invaded my support groups,
now she's invading my home. Tyler represents the masculine figure that Jack wants
to be, but perhaps also serves to keep his heterosexuality intact or even to reject it,
keeping it separate from himself.
Jack seems to feel insecure about his sexuality; Marla notices the kiss scar on his
hand and asks who did it, guy or girl? Jack responds defensively why would you ask
if its a guy or girl?!. Reacting to Marla in such a way has implications of being in
denial or the closet.
Tyler and Jack make a No Shirts rule at fight club, seeming to serve no purpose
other than to emphasise the animalistic atmosphere in the club. The rule reinforces
the homoerotic image of fight club, a large group of men congregate several times a
week to fight each other in a basement, shirtless. Sometimes you could hear the flat
hard packing sounds, Jack tells us about the noises of the fights, and even more
audible are the punches without shirts. The basis that fight club was formed on was
to become men, to reach that ideal perception of masculinity, yet it seems to have
underlying tones of homosexuality, A guy comes to fight club for the first time, his
ass is a wad of cookie dough.
Jack becomes jealous of Tylers attraction to Angelface, I am Jacks enflamed sense
of rejection. Again someone has come between Jack and Tyler. This could be Jacks
way of trying to stamp out his homosexuality as if he hates it, in his quest to become
the most masculine figure possible. Jack proceeds to beat Angelface at the next fight
club, to the point that his once-pretty face is now horribly disfigured. After the fight
Jack says: I wanted to destroy something beautiful. You could interpret Jacks
actions as an attack on the feminised man, and his own sexuality, perhaps to
prevent himself from feeling an attraction to Angelface.
It appears that Jack uses Tyler as a way to manage his sexual confusion, Tyler being
the heterosexual half, as he has an avid interest in Marla for their sexual encounters.
Together they search for what makes a man a man, Is that what a man looks like?,
Tyler However in several cases Tyler seems to lean towards the homosexual, with his
apparent interest in Angelface, and his obsession with castration. Castration conveys
complete emasculation, like with Bob at the testicular cancer support group.
Castration is seen as a way to deprive a man of his masculinity, fertility and libido.
Towards the end of the film, Tyler orders Jacks castration in the event that he tries to
ruin Project Mayhem. This would be a setback in his quest for masculinity as he
tries to improve his relationship with Marla, and embrace his new persona (after
realising he is Tyler).