Nicholas Vonderheyde

Masculine Identity in Science Fiction Film: From Reagan to Bush
From the 1970s to the early 1990s, there were many anxieties regarding shifting gender definitions and roles in American society. Ronald Reagan’s attempt to “re-masculinize” the country was during a time when communism and terrorism posed real threats to our nation. After these problems were resolved diplomatically rather than through physical action in the early 1990s, the definition and representation of masculinity began to shift. This was directly reflected in the media in “critical dystopias”, or films that envision an apocalyptic future. Essentially, these Science Fiction productions are artistic critiques of contemporary issues in society. Terminator 2 (James Cameron, 1991) and Demolition Man (Marco Brambilla, 1993) are both critical dystopias from the early 1990s that exemplify the social commentary of such films. The protagonists of both films completely redefine the white, heterosexual male super-body version of masculinity that was popular in the 1980s. By examining the narratives, the characterization, and the cinematography of each critical dystopia, one can see a clear cultural shift in the definitions of masculinity and a growing critique of contemporary masculinity within these films of the early 1990s.
Following the Vietnam War, the nation experienced a period of feminization. This can best be depicted in the creation of the “New Man” in men’s magazines; the “New Man” is sensitive, fashionable, and clearly feminized. He also is romantic and expresses emotions. The Reagan years of the 1980s brought a culture that was anxiously fearing its own emasculation. In an effort to combat the “New Man”, Hollywood producer’s created a new type of action character: the hardbody. As Susan Jeffords explains, “These hardbody heroes articulated well with the Reagan presidency, which represented itself as an effort to re-masculinize the nation after what was widely perceived as a global, post-Vietnam impotence”. These action heroes of the 1980s were typically loners devoid of family who acted violently and drastically without regard for societal rules. The hardbodies often acted out of duty, as their physical size made it necessary for them to do jobs that others could not. During the 1990s, the definitions of masculinity were once again redefined as the President Bush era took over. This transformation can be seen within mainstream film. As Jeffords recounts, “In 1991, the hard bodies of the 1980s seemed to have been successfully rejected in mainstream Hollywood films.” To counter the hardbodies of the 1980s, the transformation of leading men in the 1990s was “inward”. Rather than increasing the displays of violence, the masculinity shift now moved towards “increasingly emotional displays of masculine sensitivities, traumas, and burdens.” This “new man” in film is emotional, loving, and closely connected with his family. Ironically, the transformation can be seen in two early 90s films starring white action heroes known for their hardbody roles in the 1980s: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. While the characters may resemble those of the previous decade, a closer analysis of the films show strong distinctions in masculinity that highlight the cultural change in American society. It’s important to note that among the shifts in the masculine action hero, the hero remains to be a white male. James Cameron’s Terminator 2 is a critical dystopia in which technology has overtaken the planet and is at war with humans. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the title character, the terminator. The terminator’s character transition from the first film to the second perfectly exemplifies the changing definitions of masculinity from the 80s to the 90s. Even though he is a robot, the Terminator transforms from an emotionless killing machine to a family-oriented character capable of learning human emotion and willing to sacrifice himself for his new family. Cameron doesn’t waste time in showing the reproduction of masculinity in the 1990s. He begins the film with the Terminator arriving naked to Earth and becoming sexually objectified at a local bar. As Schwarzenegger arrives in the bar, Cameron gives us a first person perspective as we see out of the robots eyes. We can see the eyes of surrounding females as they gaze at his entire body. The terminator becomes the subject of the “female gaze”, a process of sexually objectifying the male body that was quite new at the time. This gaze originated in the “New-Man” portrayal of masculinity in male magazines. Sexual objectification brings a sense of vulnerability to its subjects. This vulnerability is heightened by the cinematography as we are put inside the Terminator’s body and experience the objectification ourselves. Vulnerability is a trait completely absent in the hardbody characters of the 1980s because it does not exist without emotion.
Rather than acting alone, the 1990s masculine man has strong emotional ties with his family and thus takes action accordingly. Throughout Terminator 2, Schwarzenegger’s robotic character becomes extremely close with John Connor and his mother. Representing the new “family man”, the terminator even seems to portray a motherly figure at times. While Sarah Connor is set on her final mission of saving the future, she has no time to be a parent to John. Instead, it is the robotic terminator who becomes the maternal figure in John’s life as he provides protection and stability that Sarah cannot. This can best be described in the scene at the arsenal, when Sarah watches John and the Terminator from a distance. She refers to the terminator as a better father figure than men she had dated before. In a medium range shot, we see John and the terminator talking lightly from the perspective of Sarah. With the terminator’s strapping body, the three make up an example of the nuclear family at the time. However, this seen show’s Sarah Connor’s distance from her son. She is too caught up thinking about the future and how to avoid Judgement Day that she has been emotionally absent from son. In fact, with her muscular frame she takes on many characteristics of the hardbody male heroes of the 1980s, while the hyper-masculine body of the terminator takes on a maternal role. She needs the terminator to protect John because her motherly duties had become a burden on her mission to save the future. The spacing of this shot helps to exaggerate this idea of Sarah’s distance from her son, and thus strengthens the terminator’s role as maternal guardian. Therefore, this scene may seem to simulate the nuclear family intitially, but further analysis shows that it has flipped the nuclear family upside down and made the hyper-masculine appearing terminator the more nurturing of the two.
The final scene of Terminator 2 is the most vital in studying the changing representation of masculinity. For starters, Sarah Connor is just about to destroy the antagonist when she runs out of bullets. Coming from behind her, it is the terminator that gets the last shot and kills the opposing robot. This seems to reiterate the masculine hardbodies of the 1980s as it is the buff man who defeats the opposing buff man. However, it is what happens after this victory that is vital to the cultural comprehension of the film. The terminator realizes that the computer chip inside him is the last remaining piece of SkyNet, and thus decides that he must sacrifice himself to save the future of humans. This sacrifice is based on newfound emotions and the connections he has made with John and Sarah. While he is programmed to follow John’s commands, he selflessly disobeys him as he knows his decision will guarantee the end of SkyNet. In his last moment with John, he says, “I now know why you cry, but it’s something I can never do”. This shows the robot now understands emotion and sadness, and feels this as he is about to sacrifice himself for his pseudo family. This is arguable the terminator’s most heroic action of the film, and yet it is an emotional decision rather than a physical action requiring his hyper-masculine body. As his physical body is destroyed, Cameron gives us a shot-reverse shot sequence going from close ups of the dying hero to close-ups of Sarah as she watches her hero die. Cameron’s film techniques help to maximize the emotion in a scene where the only ones dying are robotic. Overall, the terminator represents the best of both the 80s hardbody and the 90s new man: he has a hypermasculine body allowing him to do his job but his emotions and connection to family are what drive his actions.
Just like in Terminator 2, the protagonist of Demolition Man represents a perfect combination of the typical 1980s hardbody and the “New Man” of the 1990s. Sylvester Stallone takes on the typical hyper-masculine shape of the 1980s action hero, but differs in that he acts on his emotions and feels love for women and family. Waking up 40 years in the future, Stallone finds himself programmed with feminine skills such as knitting that were set up to tame his violent, aggressive side. The entirely feminized dystopia of Demolition Man can be described as a parody on the fear of feminization during the Reagan years. This can be summed up in the early scene where Phoenix faces several police officers in an altercation. The futuristic society has become so feminized that men are completely impotent. Police officers have no idea how to deal with the outlaws, and resort to asking portable computers which tell them how to operate. In this humorous scene, Wesley Snipes’ character easily beats up all these products of a society that has lost all masculinity. Within the mise-en-scene, the officers hold electrifying rods rather than dangerous, more masculine guns. Stallone, like Schwarzenegger, represents the new hero of the 90s. He is nostalgic of the 1980s, which can be seen in his unnaturally muscular body. However, he acts on his own emotions, and exemplifies the new masculine hero of the 1990s.
The opening scene is a type of flashback to a 1980s action film. Stallone is acting as an individual hardbody, by duty of his job, to stop the purely evil bad guy. This is capped by a massive explosion of a building that shows the emphasis on external violence rather than internal issues in the previous decade. Contrasting the opening scene, the newly revived Stallone seems much more human. He feels remorse for the death of those in the building, he feels devastated about missing his daughter’s life, and he feels love towards Lenina. A key scene in the film is the “sex” scene between John Spartan and Lenina. Lenina’s apartment brings us to a familiar scene with the mise en scene, as it is decorated entirely with 90s memorabilia. Instead of the sex we are expecting, this world has become so afraid of dangerous actions that sex itself has been banned. As Stallone and Bullock sit opposite eachother wearing stimulating helmets, Stallone snaps. He insists he wants to do it “the old fashion way”. Here we see a perfect example of the 90s action star. While he has all the muscles of the 80s hardbody, he has emotions too. He is falling in love with Lenina, and he isn’t afraid to express his sexual passion. This replaces the robot-like muscle man of the past, just as Terminator had as well, by adding inner conflicts. This is directly related to the culture of nation under the Bush administration. As Jeffords accounts, the shift from Reagan to Bush was from a militant culture to a “kinder, gentler place, where men were pledged to their families, were reluctant to kill, and were confident, firm and decisive.” A true sign of this new masculine hero is Stallone’s insistence on only killing when it matters. In a powerful scene at Taco Bell, John Spartan sees the riot of poor people running away with food. We see Spartan’s face as he watches the rebels scatter away, and we can tell he is having a moment of self-reflection. He follows it by saying he won’t kill people who are “just trying to get food”. This inner-directedness and emotional response shows a sharp contrast to the 1980s hardbody who killed out of duty and asked no questions. Demolition man serves as both a parody of the macho-man thrill of the 1980s and a social critique of the redefining of masculinity.
Hollywood films of the early 1990s were directly reflective of the changing representations of masculinity during the shift from the Reagan administration to the Bush administration. This period of transition included several films that integrated the old view of masculinity with the new one. Terminator 2 and Demolition Man are two critical dystopias that include this integration. With white, heterosexual male hardbodies starring in the film, one may think it resembles an action film from the 1980s. However, these films deal with a progressive form of masculinity that includes love, passion, reflection, and the importance of family that incorporates aspects of the “new man” into the body of a 1980s star. While this movement was clearly progressive, it was not quite ready for the emergence of black leading stars that is to come in the near future.

Works Cited
Baird, Robert M., William E. Loges, and Stuart E. Rosenbaum. The Media & Morality. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 1999. Print.
Jeffords, Susan. Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1994. Print.
Mizejewski, Linda. "Action Bodies in Futuristic Spaces." Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science-fiction Cinema. London: Verso, 1999. N. pag. Print.
Rehling, Nicola. Extra-ordinary Men: White Heterosexual Masculinity in Contemporary Popular Cinema. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2009. Print.
Shapiro, Michael J. Cinematic Political Thought: Narrating Race, Nation, and Gender. New York: New York UP, 1999. Print.