5 February, 2010 | Leave a Comment
It’s Friday night and I’m livin’ it up. Oh wait, no…just the opposite. I’m home working on my dissertation. I’m currently writing my Fight Club analysis (while listening to the soundtrack of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) and I’m going to throw two questions out there:
[1] This first one is just for the Yanks (and I know those of you on the East Coast are nearly snowed in, so you have nothing else to do but help me). There’s a famous scene in Fight Club where Brad Pitt’s character makes a big deal of the fact that he and Edward Norton’s character know what a duvet is. It’s apparently a bad thing that men know what this word means – it’s a sign of their figurative castration! I have transcribed this scene from the film and added the following footnote:
-“Duvet” is more commonly used in British English than in American English and many Americans (male and female) would not be familiar with this word.
I added this footnote for two reasons: I’m doing my PhD in England where the word duvet is common, but it’s not as common in the States (which is why it was an issue in Fight Club). But the key point for me is whether many women would not know this word. I think there are plenty of American women who would not know what a duvet is. Thoughts? This might seem trivial, but it’s important to my analysis.
[2] This will be for the more academic-minded amongst you. Is anyone out there familiar with the work of Max Weber? One of the profs in my department said that Weber might be able to help me with my Fight Club analysis, particularly the idea that consumer culture is traditionally considered something female, which is of course important to Fight Club. I have no idea where to look in Weber’s oeuvre to find this (nor do I have a lot of time to read much of his stuff). Does anyone happen to know about this – or, alternatively, know of another writer whose work might be helpful?
All right, I better get back to work, where I get to write sentences like this: “This reference to Lorena Bobbitt, the Ecuadorian-American woman who famously sliced off half of her husband’s penis and threw it from the window of her car, inserts the issue of literal castration into the narrative.”
Anglofille said @ 9:52 pm | academia | 13 Comments
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Ken Says:
February 6th, 2010 at 12:58 amMax Weber was a sociologist and political scientist who wrote about modernity, capitalism, bureaucracy and religion. I haven’t spent a lot of time reading him, but I wasn’t aware he wrote about consumer culture. I think the concept of his era was more mass culture.
Consumer culture is female? Is that a serious idea? Most men I know are avid “consumers” (I hate that word!) This inquiring mind wants to know. A lot of ad campaigns are aimed at women, but that’s just a recognition who buys most of the products that come into a house.
I tried to watch “Fight Club” once. I have to admit I was bored. Since it was on home video, I bailed.
I know what a duvet is. My wife has been big on them for years. Her background is northeast Italo-American, first generation born here. My ethnic background is varied. We were both blue collar kids. Hope that helps.
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I know who Weber is, but I’ve never read much of him. Clearly no one else around here has either!
I think traditionally that “consumer culture” was considered to be primarily female because so much of it involves buying things to improve lifestyle and appearance, which are considered “female” areas of interest. This has changed during the latter part of the 20th century and men are now buying more of these things, which is partly what Fight Club is about. But even now, “shopping” is really considered a female pastime and not “manly.”
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Sydney Says:
February 7th, 2010 at 6:35 pmI’m a woman with a fairly vast vocabulary but had never heard the word duvet until I was in my late 20s via exposure to Europeans (who spoke UK English). I’d venture a guess that most people in the US don’t know what a duvet is, regardless of gender.
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I agree – I think my footnote is accurate. This will help me show the flawed assumptions in this particular scene of “Fight Club” – upon which many other assumptions are made.
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Mariah Says:
February 8th, 2010 at 2:56 pmOn the duvet question, not until I had traveled to Europe, did I hear that word. Since then, I even own one. I doubt that many everyday Americans would be familiar with it. In my opinion, it would be right up there with “bidet”.
Have you seen Priscilla? I am contemplating getting a ticket for my upcoming trip and would appreciate hearing your opinion. Is it in the theatre where Les Mis ran for so long? -
Jaimie Says:
February 9th, 2010 at 1:06 pmI now live in the UK, but I had heard of the word duvet before having exposure to UK English or culture; however, this was in the context of a ‘duvet cover’ which, though exactly the same, I think might be a little different: in the UK (in my experience) people mainly have just a duvet on their bed, while in the US (again, in my experience!) there’s a sheet and a ‘comforter’, which I guess is a duvet without the cover!
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Jennie Says:
February 9th, 2010 at 4:59 pmAnglo, if you enter duvet on Google you will see that duvets and duvet covers are sold in every major and not so major stores in the USA. I think most Americans have heard of duvets and duvet covers especially since they are even sold at Target and Wal-Mart and Ikea and what American hasn’t been to one or all of those stores to buy everything including bedding.
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Thanks for your feedback, everyone. Perhaps duvets are becoming more popular Stateside, but I think when Fight Club was written (in 1996) and when the film was made (1999), they were not as common. Perhaps I will make this distinction.
Mariah, I haven’t seen Priscilla as a play, just the film. I don’t think it’s in the Les Mis theatre, though I might be mixed up on where Les Mis was. Outside the Priscilla theatre, there is a giant sequined shoe!
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Aisby Says:
February 10th, 2010 at 2:20 amI, and my husband, know what a duvet is. I was actually surprised when my sister-in-law’s boyfriend didn’t know what it was. Other than him, I don’t know anyone who DOESN’T know what a duvet is. (I live in the southern US)
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Kristin Says:
February 10th, 2010 at 3:59 pmI do think duvets have become more common here, but I grew up in New England with a very old-fashioned grandmother who even still used regular British and Irish terms (leftover from her grandparents); and, well let’s just say, it was the sort of house where if duvet was a standard term we would have heard it; and I would swear I never heard it used the way you mean until a couple years ago. I just can’t believe most Americans knew/used that word, the way the English do, back when the Fight Club characters were all agog about it. Except, as Jaimie noted, in terms of a duvet cover (for our down comforters), which we did have when I was a kid. I only recently noticed the word duvet this way after I dated someone from the UK.
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Hmmmm. It’s so difficult to generalize about these issues, which is why I asked for some feedback. Of course, since the PhD examiners will be British…they’ll never know if my assumption is wrong. Ha! There’s scholarship for you.
I grew up in the West and I had never heard of a “duvet” until I moved to NYC for college and even then I thought it was another word for bedspread. Maybe there are differences between East vs. West as well.
I will “assert” in my thesis that it’s likely many American men *and* women would not know what a duvet was circa 1999, though now it’s more popular, but perhaps not as widespread in usage as in Europe. Perhaps I will just say that it’s not necessarily a gender issue, because that’s the heart of the matter. Fight Club implies that women would all know what a duvet is, which I don’t think is true, at least not back then.
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RobDP Says:
February 17th, 2010 at 2:35 pmThe idea of industrial productivity as masculine and consumption as feminine is quite a prevalent one in western history. There is a well-known academic anthology on the history gender and consumer culture called ‘The Sex of Things’ edited by De Grazia which has a good introduction which will give you a general perspective, and you can pillage the footnotes. Some of the chapters are also quite good. If you google ‘gender consumer culture’ you’ll get loads of reading lists for similar types of courses at universities worldwide.
Not sure what this person is referring to for Weber developing this idea; he certainly wouldn’t be my go-to thinker on this issue/stereotype. Not sure he did anywhere prominent. What might be relevant, if I remember correctly, is that Weber distinguished between class and status, arguing that your social class was based on your position in relation to production, and you social status by consumption. As far as I remmeber he wasn’t making a point about gender by doing this. This is an essay called ‘Class, Status, Party’, I think.
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Ahhh, thanks for the tips! I checked and “The Sex of Things” is checked out from all my usual libraries, but I’ll put a reserve on it. That might be just what I’m looking for! I don’t need to focus on this issue in depth, but need to do a bit of reading about it. I will also check out that Weber essay. Thanks!!!
