A Terminator Who Doesn't Terminate (Reading Post #5)

In just a decade the idea of hard bodies in Hollywood has changed drastically. The 1980’s marked a time when audiences needed to be reassured that the white man was still in power and that they had control over the government and rules. The hard masculine body of Arnold Schwarzenegger was the perfect fit for 1980’s audiences. However, the idea of the hard body changed in the 1990’s according to Susan Jeffords in her article “Terminal Masculinity: Men in the Early 1990’s”. There was a shift from the hard masculine body upholding rules and regulations to the hard masculine body upholding family values and holding the family together. This change can be seen in the film Kindergarten Cop and shows how manhood is going to be addressed in the years to come. It also emphasized how these men from the 1980’s were being destructive because of their hard bodies and the fact that they were able to do things that others were unable to do, such as physical violence.

These ideas about the masculine body in the 1990’s are present in the 1991 film Terminator 2. The first example involving the masculine body and family is seen when John Conner and The Terminator are playing a game while the mother, Sarah Conner, looks on. In voice over she discusses how The Terminator is the closest thing John has ever had to a father and that The Terminator will never leave him or beat him. This is in stark contrast to what The Terminator is actually made for; terminating people. The other example involving how these bodies actually hurt the protagonists in the 1980’s is present as well since John Conner constantly insists that The Terminator not kill anyone and thus not to be destructive.

Although the look of men in the 1990’s is still the same as the 1980’s and can be seen in the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the men of the 1990’s may look hard on the outside but inside they are quite soft and vulnerable, still reeling from their destructive past.

Do you think the idea of the hard body has changed from the 1990’s to the 2000’s? How so?

What does Arnold Schwarzenegger and his masculine body say about the fact that he is California’s governor?

Why would the masculine body change from the 1990’s to the 2000’s and onward? What political or historical events could have changed that image?