Group 4 Answers

KC Chow

Joyce Chun

Madison McCann-Farhat

Erin Cooney

1.    Jot down your impressions of Arnold as a cultural phenomenon:  what are your first memories of him? How might we describe him?  Who that we’ve studied might you compare him too? In Stars, McDonald writes that ‘stars are significant for how they make . . . elusive . . . [concepts of identity] into a visible show’  (180). What concepts of identity does Arnold help us visualize? How?

Our first memories of Arnold is as follows: he is this huge, bodybuilding, former governor who was married to a Kennedy. Because he’s such a major pop culture icon, we were also all aware of his catchphrases like “I’ll be back” and “Hasta la vista, baby” despite not having watched any of the Terminator films yet. Of the stars we’ve studied, we think he’s most similar to Marlon Brando - having very few lines in movies, a big muscular body, and being shirtless on-screen a lot of the time. Being a “hero” and “dad-figure” are all represented throughout Arnold’s movies, especially Terminator 2 as he is responsible for the safety of John Connor as he stars as a robot that is invincible.

2.    When studying Marilyn, we discussed ways in which her star image was closely tied to her body, that is, issues of embodiment were tightly bound up with her star persona.  Is this true of Arnold? If so, how are visual representations of his body like or unlike representations of Marilyn’s body? Could we say he’s positioned as a spectacle? To what end?  What role does genre play in how Arnold is imaged?

Yes, this is also true of Arnold. In his early career there was a large focus on his body image, seeing that he way a professional bodybuilder. It has been said that he was cast in The Terminator series purely based off of his masculinity and body image. In the film the first moment Arnold’s character is seen, he is naked, with a few factioning shots to follow. In Stars, Dyer says that action films are “a genre of the body,” one that makes great efforts to emphasize the significance of the body. This genre plays into illustrating Arnold as a spectacle - albeit, in a different way than Marilyn. Seeing that that she was seen through the male gaze and in a way so is Arnold. But Marilyn was sexuilized and Arnold is idealized. His body and how it functions as a spectacle is respected in ways that Marilyn’s really isn’t, because of the way that his body, his physicality, is essential to the plot and the victory of the movie. Marilyn’s body may be involved in the plots of her movies in a pretty big way too, but especially in the movies we watched for this class, she isn’t given the same authority, control, and power that we see Arnold’s body afforded to him, because how her body and the spectacle is mediated through sexuality and his is through violence.

3.    How do the readings for today relate Arnold’s importance as a star to the cultural moment from which he emerged?  Put differently, why Arnold in the 1980s and 1990s? How are these two decades different? Do you buy Susan Jeffords’ argument?  What other popular cultural images of the period connect up with the image of Arnold?

Arnold emerged during times of social disorder as “reports of drug use increased, as AIDS moved clearly out of the ‘closet’ and into white hetereosexual homes, as the Iran-contra scandal refused to disappear, as George Bush came under attack for his relationship to Manuel Noriega, and as the Reagans were accused of abuse and neglect by their daughter, Patty Davis.” The U.S. mainstream citizens began to worry as the social order, instituted by Ronald Reagan, was disrupted. Arnold was relevant during this time because “Hollywood’s interest in justice had waned and been replaced by a less socially troublesome topic - commitment to the family”. Arnold was used to play very masculine roles as he fights evil to protect other characters. Entering the 1990s, however, the focus shifts the the family man as he stars in Kindergarten Cop. This once “hard body” of the 1980s is now a family man who leaves his law enforcing career to become a Kindergarten teacher and father figure to Joyce and her son, Dominic.

4.    What role does femininity play in a film like T2?  How is Arnold’s hypermasculinity sketched in relation to femininity?  Can we relate this to wider cultural issues of the 1980s and 90s?

We do think the roles represented femininity for it’s time. Till this day, Sarah Connor is known as the strongest women character. However, the absence of other major women characters discounts the variety of different types of female representation. In addition, although she is a brave, strong fighter mom, she is still shown as a lacking mother who does not properly take care of her son. The men in the movie view her as crazy and uncontrollable when in fact she was acting this way to protect her son. Arnold as the Terminator took over the role of the parent in the film as John’s mom or dad weren’t present in his life. Arnold protects John like he was his own son, taking over the implied responsibilities on a woman character. This does relate to the cultural issues of the 1980s and the 90s as the scare of communism and war was very present in society. People during this time needed a figure like Arnold to feel protected and secure despite the rising tensions in America. His father figure role was also to show men how to be a family oriented father as Reagan pushed family values on Americans.

5.    How can we understand the relationship between Arnold’s past as a Hollywood star and his more recent present as a political player?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5zJvX3pIY4 His first political action (according to Wikipedia) was appearing in this anti-drug music video sponsored by Reagan!

As Arnold’s Hollywood career continued to escalate, his idealization was seen as masculine and a protector. Once he married Maria Shriver, who is a Kennedy, he became associated with a different social circle. The fact that he is a Hollywood star who ran for a political position in California where Hollywood is also helped with this transition. Fame already brings celebrities into the public awareness and consideration in a way that can translate meaningfully to the political sphere--i.e., we’re already used to hearing from them, so hearing from celebrities around politics isn’t much of a reach--but that more specific connection to politics through his wife was meaningful in bridging the rest of that gap between celebrities and politics to let him eventually run for governor.