Militarism, Security, and War: the Politics of Contemporary Hollywood Superheroes
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MILITARISM, SECURITY, AND WAR: THE POLITICS OF CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD SUPERHEROES LORI ANN CROWE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO AUGUST 2018 © LORI ANN CROWE, 2018 Abstract In the fields of political science and international relations, engagement with popular culture has been deemed predominantly un-important and irrelevant as an area of study. This dissertation interrogates one of the most popular cultural icons of the early 21st century, the fictional Hollywood superhero, and asks what it does for us to take seriously that which is often deemed frivolous entertainment. Understanding the superhero as a political entity in and of itself, this project reveals the mutually constitutive relationship between its production, consumption and reproduction and particular ideologies around militarism, security and war. Acknowledging the complexities of superhero characters, narratives, and aesthetics such as subversive and contested elements, this project reveals superheroes as potential sites of political and ideological reflection, articulation, constitution, and transgression. This project demonstrates that a pop cultural/aesthetic approach to IR can enable critical practices that contribute to complicating and enhancing our understandings of war and politics. ii Table of Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….. ii Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………….. iii Chapter One: Introduction ……………………………………………………………….. 1 Popular Culture is Politics ……………………………………………………….. 4 Contemporary Heroes …………………………………………………………... 10 Hollywood Superheroes: Why Film? ……………………………………………14 A Mixed up Method with a Multitude of Influences …………………………… 20 Re-circulating Representations …………………………………………………. 29 Let the Adventure Begin! Organization of Chapters …………………………… 32 Chapter Two: Negotiating the Superhero as Political Artifact and Enabling Critical Thinking/Practices through Popular Culture …………………………………... 39 What is a Hero? ………………………………………………………………… 43 Subversion? …………………………………………………………………….. 52 Give Them What They Want! ………………………………………………….. 60 Chapter Three: The Security Illogic and the Superhero: Interrogating the Connections between Hero Worship and the Normalization of Insecurity …………….. 65 The Exceptionalism of Hyper-moral Superheroes ……………………………... 70 Superhero Security Narratives ………………………………………………….. 88 Imagining Beyond the Metanarrative of (In) Security ………………………... 100 Chapter Four: The Militarization of our Contemporary Heroes ……………………… 105 Enjoying and Ignoring War …………………………………………………… 106 Superheroes at War ……………………………………………………………. 111 A History of Hollywood Militarism …………………………………………... 117 The Re-incarnated Superhero Goes to the Movies ……………………………..120 Perpetuating a Culture of Militarism ………………………………………….. 134 Chapter Five: Masculinities, Militarism, and the Superhero Body …………………… 143 A Typology of Superhero Masculinities: from the Super “Ordinary” to the Post-Human ………………………………………………... 145 The Malleable Superhero Body as a Site of Conflict …………………………. 155 The Neoprene Armored Cape …………………………………………………. 162 The Body (Filmed) in Action …………………………………………………. 169 The Complex, Malleable, Subversive Superhero Body … with Boobs? ……… 174 iii Chapter Six: “Super”men and the Military Machine: The New Militarized Techno-Soldier ………………………………………………………………………... 189 The Technology/Security Conundrum ………………………………………... 194 Military Technology Propaganda? ……………………………………………. 196 Superheroes are Recruited … Again ………………………………………….. 198 Super-heroic Cyborg Soldiers ………………………………………………… 207 Lessons from Our Heroes ………………………………………………………214 Chapter Seven: Conclusion – Spoiler Alert: Every Good Superhero Movie has a Sequel ……………… ………………………………………...…………. 220 The Affective Register and Unpacking Our ‘Experience’ of Superheroes ……. 221 “I am Batman!” The Full-Immersion Superhero ………………………………. 223 Towards an Aesthetic Politics …………………………………………………. 225 Change, Self-reflexivity, Critique ……………………………………………... 227 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………... 234 Filmography …………………………………………………………………………... 248 iv Chapter One: Introduction What if popular culture can change the way we do (and don’t do) politics? What if in looking for different ways to interpret the political, we are better able to understand the problems surrounding us? I have always loved a good action packed superhero movie: exciting explosions, intricate fighting sequences, death defying stunts, threats to mankind that get resolved by heroic characters who endure perilous journeys to save the world – and get the girl. There was little I enjoyed more as a kid than watching Batman and Superman movies and then re-enacting the fighting sequences with my brother and his He-Man and G.I. Joe action figures; it did not register with me, as a child spellbound by the battles of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fighting against evil in the sewers of New York, that there were messages I was receiving through my pleasure, and that there was an important politics behind their production. The continuing cascade of Superhero films on screen indicate that my childhood fascination turned adult preoccupation is far from unique. The superhero is a societal obsession more than ever before – and Hollywood has perfected its formula to gain from our desires. Superhero films have been topping box office sales worldwide (in spite of decreasing cinema sales for almost every other genre) and exponentially increased in market share since 2000. This success has contributed to superhero saturation of our everyday lives through advertisements, toys, clothing, bedsheets, coffee mugs, toothbrushes, and boxes of cereal. These films are being seen by the largest and most diverse audiences in history – the phenomenon is indeed global. Entrenched in popular discourse and imagery, it is without a doubt that today “superheroes are everywhere” (Knowles 2007, 3). What might it do for us to take 1 popular culture seriously, and specifically, to take seriously a culture obsessed with superheroes? Superheroes are always political. From the way in which they are produced to the way in which they are sold, consumed, and utilized. Whether in print or on television or film, superheroes have been embroiled in wars, they have acted in response to the dangers of organized crime, they have contributed to the popularity of world leaders and they have been used to criticize and take down political agendas. Superheroes have been made to respond to “threats” such as the “war on terror” and positioned as allies for good and protectorates so as to provide solace and reassurance as a government called the country to arms to “fight evil”. They have been made to both support and vilify police, and have been positioned on all sides of contentious political issues, contributing to both ideological awakenings and political unrest. Superheroes have resolved the Cuban missile crisis and attempted to drop a baseball stadium on President Nixon (X-Men: First Class (2011); X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)). When superheroes appeared in comic books, it was not long after that they began to be blamed for social disorder and juvenile delinquency – such was the power they were believed to have. Many respected individuals including President Barack Obama, Edward Said, Gloria Steinhem and others have admitted to having been inspired by characters such as Spider-man and Wonder Woman. Indeed, it is no accident that, as comic-book writer Mark Miller explains, “Superhero stories are at their most popular and evocative when they respond to particularly turbulent political times, especially those marred by war and social unrest” (DiPaolo 2011, 1). It is their political embodiment, their nearly universal presence in our everyday, our persevering enjoyment of and perhaps most importantly, their dismissal as 2 harmless entertainment that makes it undeniably important to understand the political work superheroes do for us. Jason Dittmer clearly illustrates the enormity of this power and its coinciding tendency to be belittled as un-important or trivialized as objects of study: The combination of power and silliness…is central to the politics of superheroes – they are both bluntly obvious and seemingly innocuous. Superheroes suffuse our everyday existence via TV cartoons, big-budget cinema, and everyday objects such as T-shirts and Pez dispensers, occupying narratives in which Manichean categories of good and evil are embodied by heroes and villains, usually marked as such by their name and costume for all to see. (Dittmer 2013, 2) The ethical codes, socio-political beliefs, and the actions of superheroes can, as DiPaolo demonstrates, simultaneously represent “a healthy, moral, and ethical worldview” or “become the vehicle through which dangerous, divisive political propaganda is being spread through the mass media” (2011, p.3). This latent malleability is precisely where the political potential sits: a nearly universally recognized popular figure with extraordinary power to deliver messages and construct meaning, and thus a potentially influential repository for those who seek to communicate ideology. In spite of (or perhaps as a result of) a troubled history of comic books and film1 within American pop culture more generally, superheroes have proven to be valuable topics of study in the fields of theology (See LoCicero 2008; Oropeza 2008; Knowles 2007), philosophy (See White