Fight Club/Brokeback Mountain: Where do the Women Stand?

In the movies Brokeback Mountain and Fight Club the women were shut out from the masculine world. Although they tried to enter this world, they were put back in their place by their male peers. The women were always on the outside, prevented from getting to close to their male companions. The men shutting the women out of their world made their relationships extremely difficult. As the women tried to get close the men they would only push them away. This caused rifts among the relationships and ultimately made them impossible to sustain.

In Brokeback Mountain the women sat quietly, accepting their place in their male companions world. They realized that they would never truly be able to exist in this world; that they would always have to watch from the outside. This created an environmen were there was little love and great distance. Ennis Del Mar's wife, Alma Beers, could not take living like that anymore and she divorced him. Also, Jack Twist admitted to Ennis that he and his wife could do their relationship over the telephone. The men's marriages were so unsuccessful because the women played such a passive role. The men wold not let them in and the women resented them for it.

In Fight Club Marla Singer was the only women who had a significant role in the movie. Although the men shut her out, she did not sit quietly and just let it happen. She argued and fought about not being let into Tyler Durden's world. However, ultimately she was forced to realize that her role was to sit on the outside and look in. She had to accept her place in the male world surrounding Fight Club and know that she would never fully be accepted into Tyler's life. After realizing this she refused to talk to Tyler and even told him that he was the worst thing that happened to her. The relationship failed because, like the male-female relationship of Brokeback Mountain, Marla tried to be a part of Tyler's life but he kept pushing her away. This realization was too much for Marla and she realized that the hope for a fulfilling relationship with Tyler was impossible.