The Rebirth of Slick: Clinton, Travolta, and Recuperations of Hard-Body Nationhood in the 1990S
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THE REBIRTH OF SLICK: CLINTON, TRAVOLTA, AND RECUPERATIONS OF HARD-BODY NATIONHOOD IN THE 1990S Nathan Titman A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2006 Committee: Dr. Simon Morgan-Russell, Advisor Dr. Philip Terrie ii ABSTRACT Simon Morgan-Russell, Advisor This thesis analyzes the characters and performances of John Travolta throughout the 1990s and examines how the actor's celebrity persona comments on the shifting meanings of masculinity that emerged in a post-Reagan cultural landscape. A critical analysis of President Clinton's multiple identities⎯in terms of gender, class, and race⎯demonstrates that his popularity in the 1990s resulted from his ability to continue Reagan's "hard-body" masculine national identity while seemingly responding to its more radical aspects. The paper examines how Travolta's own complex identity contributes to the emergent "sensitive patriarch" model for American masculinity that allows contradictory attitudes and identities to coexist. Starting with his iconic turn in 1977's Saturday Night Fever, a diachronic analysis of Travolta's film career shows that his ability to convey femininity, blackness, and working-class experience alongside more normative signifiers of white middle-class masculinity explains why he failed to satisfy the "hard-body" aesthetic of the 1980s, yet reemerged as a valued Hollywood commodity after neoconservative social concerns began emphasizing family values and white male responsibility in the 1990s. A study of the roles that Travolta played in the 1990s demonstrates that he, like Clinton, represented the white male body's potential to act as the benevolent patriarchal figure in a culture increasingly cognizant of its diversity, while justifying the continued cultural dominance of white middle-class males. While Travolta's film persona has remained relatively stable over time, as demonstrated by recurring mannerisms and frequent appearances in dancing scenes, his image in the 1990s appears to prescribe normative roles for men, whether he is iii playing oppressed fathers, outrageously depraved villains, or slick criminals. Memories of Travolta's star image in the 1970s and his benevolent public appearances, such as those on The Oprah Winfrey Show, help reinforce the perception that values and identities of celebrities are "real," even if they are inherently contradictory. This thesis calls for more critical evaluations of celebrity personae, arguing that Travolta's film performances demonstrate how "hard-body" conservatism (either in politics or mediated images) adapts and endures over time, even when certain public figures appear to challenge traditional masculinity and long-established cultural hegemony. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For me, the rewards of this project have been multiplied several times over by virtue of having worked with my thesis advisor, Simon Morgan-Russell. With his guidance, I was provided with copious amounts of assurance and encouragement throughout my research and writing experience. For his unfailingly constructive commentary and for his faith in my independent decision-making, in terms of both content and editions, I am enormously grateful for his involvement. Also, I felt continuously bolstered by the input from Phil Terrie, who supported my self-directed approach to research and analysis, and encouraged me to continue asking the more rigorous theoretical questions throughout the writing process. I also wish to acknowledge Cynthia Baron, for her helpful advice and bibliographic suggestions during the early stages of this project. In addition, I remain deeply appreciative of Michael Staub and his invaluable support as my research interests shifted toward gender studies and film. Finally, it seems to me that my experience as a graduate student has given back so much more than I feel I have put into it, and I would like to express my gratitude to Don McQuarie and my colleagues in the American Culture Studies department at Bowling Green State University for making the last two years far more rewarding than I ever expected. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 Re-Imagining the White Male Patriarch of the 1990s ............................................... 2 Dancing Back from Obscurity ................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER I. HARD BODIES, SOFT SOULS.................................................................... 15 Trimming the 'Hairy Beast' in a Post-Reagan Nation................................................ 15 Who's Your Daddy?: Travolta as National Father..................................................... 21 White-Collar Dreams and Travolta's Working Stiffs ................................................ 29 Travolta's No-Thing-Ness: White Fatherhood in Multicultural America.................. 38 CHAPTER II. THESE CHARMING MEN.......................................................................... 47 Performing Masculinity in Clinton's America ........................................................... 47 Dueling Dualities: The Problematic Clinton Identity ................................................ 49 The Reluctant Championship Twister: Tony Manero Dances into a New Decade ... 55 Getting by on Charm: Travolta and Hollywood Man-Making .................................. 67 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 76 Oprah's Favorite Movie Star...................................................................................... 76 Celebrating Hard-Body Normativity in the Twenty-First Century............................ 81 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 87 1 INTRODUCTION On January 21, 1998, the Washington Post ran a front-page story that detailed an alleged affair between then-President Bill Clinton and a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky, and reported that he had become the object of scrutiny in an investigation of perjury conducted by Kenneth Starr (Clinton, My Life 373). At the time, Lewinsky was only the latest in a parade of women whose sexual histories mysteriously intertwined with the president's. After accusations of sexual impropriety from Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, the impression of Bill Clinton as a charming and incorrigible womanizer had already permeated the American public imagination. Into a copper pot of public opinion that had almost reached the point of boiling over came another ingredient only two months after the Lewinsky story broke. The film adaptation of Primary Colors (a novel written by political reporter Joe Klein, who was originally identified as "anonymous") came to movie screens ("Travolta, Thompson and Bates" 1). The film's central character is Jack Stanton, a Southern governor whose empathy for minorities and the working class, manipulative approach to the media, fondness for calorie-rich desserts, and lust for women are unmistakably based on famous (and infamous) Clintonian traits. After Tom Hanks had to back out of the project, director Mike Nichols offered the role to his second choice, John Travolta (Andrews 316). In Primary Colors, Stanton is performed in a manner that suitably captures both Clinton's quiet-spoken affability and his cutthroat ambition, and Travolta's casting consequently marks a unique merging of similar political and pop culture masculinities. Even in middle age, Clinton and Travolta are posited in the media as objects of female desire⎯Clinton through recurring accusations of sexual indiscretion, and Travolta through evocations of a time in which he 2 enjoyed heartthrob status among his fellow baby boomers. Moreover, both Clinton and Travolta embody the masculine version of the American Dream: emerging from humble beginnings⎯Clinton from a single-parent home in Hope, Arkansas, and Travolta from the suburb of Englewood, New Jersey⎯to earn success and take their places as patriarchs of nuclear families. Yet this patriarchal ideal is compromised in both men by actions and representations which threaten to undermine their value as responsible white male breadwinners. Clinton's extramarital affairs and aggressive foreign policy caused his image of idealized fatherhood to rupture by the end of his tenure, while Travolta's penchant for choosing villainous roles⎯often in hyper-violent action pictures⎯manages to destabilize his public persona as one of Hollywood's most bankable charmers. By combining the performance style and public image of John Travolta with the multiple and conflicting gendered meanings of a then-sitting president, Primary Colors makes visible the most prominent crises in 1990s American masculinity: namely, the problem of assimilating the trope of the benevolent, industrious father to the privileged male "hard"-ness that emerged after Jimmy Carter's presidency, and negotiating new spaces of empowerment for white middle-class males in a nation which increasingly placed credence on consumption and multiculturalism. Re-Imagining the White Male Patriarch of the 1990s In her book Hard Bodies, Susan Jeffords examines popular Hollywood representations of masculinity and posits them as part of the "Reagan Revolution" in the 1980s. Upon analyzing films such as First Blood and Die Hard,