The Women of the Last Two Stories

In both Brokeback Mountain and Fight Club, the women played secondary roles. Ennis Del Mar’s wife was the prime example of secondary. She took care of the children and the house all while working a job at the grocery store. It seems that Ennis was only concerned with Jack Twist and the only thing keeping him at home was the well being of his two daughters. Both of their wives were submissive; they both knew what was going on with their husbands on the side, but kept quiet for years. The women are portrayed as weak and malleable. Even the girlfriend that Ennis meets is remembered by her last scene where she exits unsatisfied, lacking control, in an emotional breakdown. Despite the homosexuality, the men are still shown as strong, even when they cry, they also fight. Bottom line, masculinity prevails over both sexuality and femininity.

In Fight Club we have the privilege of meeting the adventure that is Marla Singer. She is a foul, sex-driven, walking cancerous tumor that seems to metastasize everywhere she goes. Her entire purpose in the plot is to come between the narrator and his alter ego, only further complicating things. She is nothing more than an object of sexual fantasy; her actual self is completely untapped in the story. Then there is Chloe, she died, but while she was still alive sex was her last wish. It is simply demoralizing to place a human being’s last wishes in the bed sheets of anyone willing to have sex with them. The men are basically like manikins to sex, unfazed by the weakness associated with sexual addiction.