The Androgynous Woman In Marla Singer's Fight Club

An androgynous individual is someone who has the most desirable personality characteristics from both genders. Someone who is androgynous could be a man who is assertive but also sensitive, or a woman who is caring but also dominant. While being a woman with some masculine qualities or a man with some feminine qualities is commonly frowned upon, androgynous individuals often have better mental health and are more effective than individuals with only masculine traits or only feminine traits. (Mitchell and Allen) Marla Singer in Fight Club has both masculine and feminine traits. She may not have the most desirable traits from both genders, but she should be considered an androgynous character. Tyler Durden is very focused on restoring masculinity

For example, “Marla has been given some masculine attributes such as short hair, bearing earring holes without earrings and the habit of smoking” (Jacobson 33). She also has feminine attributes as she is described in the book as having “big eyes the way they are in Japanese animation, skim milk thin, buttermilk sallow in her dress with a wallpaper pattern of dark roses” (Palahniuk 18). It also seems as though others in the novel view her as having masculine qualities. She goes to the testicular cancer support group, which is definitely just for males, and no one questions it or says anything about it. It seems as though it is normal for her to be there. There is also one instance where Marla is looking for Tyler at the apartment the space monkeys stay at. One space monkey assumes she wants to join Project Mayhem, a program focused on restoring power to males. He follows protocol and tells her she is too young to join, he does not say anything about her being female. Finally, she has the mark of Tyler’s kiss, a sign of being in fight club. This is significant because “the membership to the fight club is something that cannot be faked as it represents a ‘real’ masculinity rooted in the body.” (Jacobson 37) There are clearly those in the novel who see her as androgynous and as having some masculine