The Role of Women

It seems since the women's rights movement, women are portrayed as much stronger and able people as previously thought of in books and movies. Hollywood has also evolved in its portrayal of strong female characters and seems much more willing to place females in the lead role. With such great actresses as Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore people are willing to watch movies centered around women. Fight Club and Brokeback Mountain however, are not two of these movies or books. Both portray women as simple pawns pushed around by the men that the real story centers around.
Brokeback Mountain makes a stark and obvious contrast between the conventional family life and the relationship between Jack and Ennis. Family life is considered a chore or obligation and both wives are considered annoying and bothersome while the relationship between Jack and Ennis is considered blissful and captivating. It is interesting the way Jack and Ennis's wives chose to deal with their role as a supporting character to their husbands' lives. Alma knew of Ennis's infidelity and still chose to stay with him emphasizing the portrayal of the need for women to be with a man, even a cheating one, at that time. Jack's wife is portrayed as stronger than Alma. She runs a business and is very good at it but coincidently she is also portrayed as coldhearted. Apparently women can't be both strong and compassionate.
In Fight Club, Marla Singer is the only woman who plays a key role in the book and she is still only secondary to the narrator and Tyler Durden. Marla is basically passed around like some kind of toy in this story. Neither the narrator nor Tyler, at least in the beginning, have any real feelings for her. She is only used for sex and not considered important enough to expend any substantial feelings on. Marla seems to realize this but decides it is easier just to accept her meager existence, perhaps thinking it would be too difficult to make people think otherwise.