The Women of Brokeback Mountain and Fight Club

Regardless of their insignificance to the plot, the existence of women is required in these two works. They are there, because they are supposed to be there, because men are supposed to have families – a wife and children – or a girlfriend – or at the least a love interest of some sort. As the women play their respective roles of wife/girlfriend/love interest, the men are able to play theirs of husband/father/typical guy. At the same time, however, there are minor differences in the way in which women are presented in Brokeback Mountain and in Fight Club. Due to the audiences at which these two works are targeted at, the women have different degrees of depth to their characters...

In the case of Fight Club – a book written primarily for a male audience – the female characters almost entirely lack depth and personality; have them change their names and dress in black, and they might as well be Space Monkeys in Project Mayhem. Chloe, for example, does nothing notable aside from sleeping with the main character. She wants only to be laid. She might as well be a sickly, dying version of Tyler. Marla is no better off, even though she is a more prominent character. She is the narrator’s girlfriend, wants only to be the narrator’s girlfriend, and, at many times, she seems to be like a female version of the narrator, acting and speaking much in the same way that he does. Overall, the women in Fight Club are not much different from the men. In addition to that, they don’t have subplots of their own; they are merely a part of the main plot revolving around the narrator.

In the case of Brokeback Mountain – a novelette written for a more general audience – the female characters have mercifully been given distinct personalities and some depth. Alma, for example, does actually do something on her own: she leaves her husband. Lureen, it could be argued, also does something about her husband. These women have some influence on the plot, although their primary function and the main way in which they are defined is still in relation to Ennis and Jack.