Fake Spoilsport

The idea that mayhem can be reached through a systematic process of carefully researched and skillfully designed events, is contradictory. Mayhem is criminal law, violent behavior, physical assault, rowdy confusion, chaos, and disorder; to systematize it would defeat its very purpose (OED). Tyler’s plan for new world order, Project Mayhem, is problematic in that the moment their chaotic events are planned, it is no longer true mayhem. Palahniuk has similar contradictions in Fight Club with Marla: she is the spoilsport, but there are aspects of her personality that are distinctly socially feminine – if she truly followed no rules then that would apply to her not subscribing to feminine characteristics; Fight Club, according to the narrator, is all about Marla, but his actions continually undermine her and she is portrayed as passive in both narratives – more so in the movie, as seen after Marla’s suicide attempt where Tyler is the one taking charge and helping her escape.

Marla’s femininity is confusing. She exhibits very female characteristics like suicide by pills, not shooting her head off like the narrator, but a technique that preserves her beauty; a vain, typically female desire. But uncharacteristically femininely, she wears her hair short, enjoys her boyish body figure, and is cynical towards ideas of love and the rules of sex. When Marla’s in the kitchen showing off a thrift store bridesmaids dress, she mocks the institution of marriage, “It’s a bridesmaids dress and it’s all hand sewn….Somebody did all these tiny stitches just to make this ugly, ugly dress.” Marla scoffs at all the work that went into the dress: the attention to detail, the planning, the execution of it all. Those small, hand sewn stitches were just a small reflection of how much work went into the actual wedding. But it’s ending? A dress worn and forgotten, on sale for a dollar at Goodwill. Marla gets this.

As a spoilsport, Marla goes against social norms and flaunts her sexuality. She is an avid player of “sport fucks” and understands the limits and benefits of just sex, but doesn’t participate in the games that happen before the copulation. Her analogy of the condom as a glass slipper of our generation mirrors how sex is seen today. Her rebellion is doing it for the sake of doing it, for reaching her moment of “now”, for selfish, physical reasons. Without the games of flirting and the foreplay, sex is animalistic. It is basic and raw and exposed. Just how Marla likes it.

Chloe understands this. She wants to get laid for the last time. “No intimacy, sex,” is how the narrator puts it (19). Her lack of participation in playing by the rules, echo Marla’s. However, Chloe isn’t there yet – she must ask people in her support group, bribing them with porn and lubricant and sex toys. Marla just goes for it. Marla’s version is, according to Huizinga, play. It is a state distinct from other states, is absorbing, and safe place. Marla understands what sex entails, it is what she knows, what she is comfortable with. Sex is her safe place. Chloe wants to be there, wants to have the sexual freedom that Marla has. Because to be in that place, the player can experiment, try new roles, do things without the influence and constraints of the world outside of play. It is to experience deep play. This is what Marla does constantly. She has no drama that brings her out of playing because she lives in the now. She doesn’t plan ahead or think about the past, thus she can live a drama free life.

Chloe, like Marla, is dying. This is an out for them because they don’t have to deal with the consequences of their actions. But, unlike Marla, Chloe has not reached the state of being where she is comfortable with that. In the movie when Chloe tentatively asks her support group for a sex partner she is rushed, nervous, and lets herself be interrupted by the facilitator. She was hesitant a fearful of judgment because she understands – and cares – that she is not playing by the rules. Marla, however, gets that she isn’t playing by the rules and doesn’t care. When Marla is walking across a busy intersection she doesn’t even let a speeding car interrupt her. Her ability to not care is a step up from Chloe. Once Chloe can embrace the idea of not caring, then she can do whatever she wants and not have to deal with the drama, then she will reach the ranks of a spoilsport.

The narrator’s grandmother would be flabbergasted at the idea of a spoilsport. She is the picture of modestly, a true rule follower. His grandmother never wore a swimsuit in public and ran the water in the bathroom sink to mask the noise her using the toilet (105). For the narrator, this description of his grandmother, “sums up the whole story,” defining her by how she followed the rules (106). The portrayal of the narrator’s grandmother, and his lack of respect and sense of humor towards her, follows how he treats Marla.

Despite the opening of both Fight Club narrations emphasizing the idea that it is all about Marla, the rest of the text don’t reflect that. The narrator certain of one thing: “the gun, the anarchy, the explosion is really about Marla Singer” (14). But, the threat of “if you don’t cooperate we’ll go after Marla” stress the weakness in her character (203). It is saying that she is vulnerable to attack without the big, strong help from her man, that having a relationship with her is ultimately detrimental since she is seen as his weakness and therefore taken advantage of, and most importantly, perpetuates the idea that the female is the weakest player in the game. This characteristic of being the weakest player is part of Palahniuk’s contradictions about Marla being a spoilsport and fitting into the femininity stereotype. This is seen when the narrator is dealing with the realization of his split personality and Marla wants to take advantage of Tyler and says, “Hey, before we get rid of Tyler, can we go shopping?” (183). It is seen again when Tyler claims responsibility for Marla because he was chivalrous and saved her life or when she tries to kill her and admitting, “This isn't a real suicide-thing. This is probably one of those cry-for-help things” (60). Marla further undermines herself by qualifying her statements with words like “probably,” and her nonchalant attitude toward decision making. Marla as a passive participant throughout the narratives contradict how Fight Club is all about her. Marla can’t be the center of something and not be in the center.

Palahniuk’s attempt for the “now” in Marla is her questioning her sexuality. His desire to stay in the “now” is seen in how Marla maintains her “now” through exploring her sexuality in sex and through support groups. In Fight Club’s afterward, Palahniuk discusses how the making of Fight Club was his “now,” that as long as it was in the process he was in the “now.” Sex and support groups are Marla’s version – questioning her sexuality is her making of the “now.” Marla’s fixation with defining herself by her breasts, or redefining herself once that could be taken away is explored in “Remaining Men Together.” When Marla and the narrator find the second lump, it is sexual in the way that Marla and Tyler having sex never was. The female breasts, unlike Bob’s bitch tits, are life and death. It is a symbol for nurturing, motherhood, female. Marla’s strategy to get over that and redefine what it is to be female, is by exploring the other symbol of femininity, her sex. This, in Huizinga’s guidelines, is how Marla plays. Sex exists in its own space, it has a clear beginning and end, and there are repetitive elements.
Palahniuk’s portrayal of Marla as a spoilsport is inaccurate in that she does follow some rules set by society in what it means to be female. But, these facets add to how she pushes those boundaries to question her sexuality in such a brash and daring way making her the ideal player for living in Tyler’s new world order.