Super Bodies and Secret Skins: A Genealogy of Body Transformation by Scott Daniel Boras A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved April 2012 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Kelly McDonald, Chair H. L. Goodall, Jr. Daniel Gilfillan ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2012 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the influential relationships between popular culture depictions of superheroes and the substantive, malleable, and real possibilities of human body transformation. Cultural discourses condition and constrain the ways in which identity and bodies are formed and expressed. This includes popular culture texts that, through their evocative narratives, provide guidance or solutions for dealing with real world problems. From the perspective of communication studies, this project involves examining ways people project and perform fantastic future versions of humanity in relation to popular culture artifacts, like superheroes, but also examines how such projections are borne out of and get expressed through our everyday, less than extraordinary experiences. Key theoretical tensions regarding identity and culture are elucidated. These tensions are then developed discursively into a genealogy of body transcendence that features the historicizing of social functions to determine from where such tensions and changes manifest, and how they ultimately affect us. Several key artifacts are introduced to help inform the investigation, including eight specific superhero body types that provide an ideal perspective through which transformative power can be observed. The superhero discourse is particularly relevant because it offers a utopian/dystopian tension regarding how the splendor and seduction of the discourse materializes in both liberating and problematic ways. Another aspect of this embodied approach involves adopting the alternate superhero persona of Ethnography Man. By undertaking my own i identity transformations, I am better able to investigate spaces that encourage such identity slippage and play, such as the annual San Diego Comic Con International. The once strongly held perception that our bodies are fixed and stable is fast disappearing. In bridging the body with culture through a genealogy, it becomes much more apparent how body transformations will continue to manifest in the future. Therefore, from the experiences and analysis contained herein, implications regarding powerful discursive conditions and constraints that influence our ability to change take form in revealing, problematic, and sometimes unexpected ways. More specifically, implications of who has power, how it is exercised, and the effects of power will materialize and indicate whether or not everyday humans have the potential to become superheroes. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who have been incredibly supportive and accommodating in helping me complete this project. I am grateful first and foremost to my family and friends. They provide endless love and support and have fueled my desire to see this project to its completion. I especially want to thank my good friend Joe Faina for provided me with the artifact that ultimately launched this study. I would also like to thank the wonderful people who I have met along the way, especially those at conferences and conventions who have taken the time to talk to me about the issues I am investigating and offer their own insight and experiences. I am additionally indebted to my brilliant and patient committee. They each offered invaluable insight that was both inspiring and illuminating. Equally important, they put their trust in me and allowed me the freedom to work through these ideas at my own pace. I am especially grateful to Dr. Kelly McDonald, who oversaw this project and sacrificed much of his own time and energy to ensure its completion. Words cannot express how gratified and thankful I am for my committee. They are true superheroes and I hope we continue our personal and professional friendships long into the future. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1 SPLENDOR AND SEDUCTION................................................................1 Research Questions ....................................................................................21 Genealogy as Anti-Method ........................................................................21 2 PROCESS AND POLITICS OF BECOMING .........................................39 The Convention Floor ................................................................................41 Commodity Culture ...................................................................................48 Culture and Identity ...................................................................................57 Representation and Gender ........................................................................68 Masquerade ................................................................................................78 Traversing Spaces ......................................................................................88 3 SUPER BODIES AND SECRET SKINS ...............................................100 The Fashionable Body .............................................................................101 The Graphic Body ....................................................................................108 The Patriotic Body ...................................................................................125 The Armored Body ..................................................................................138 The Aerodynamic Body ...........................................................................148 iv Page CHAPTER The Virile Body .......................................................................................157 The Mutant Body .....................................................................................169 The Paradoxical Body ..............................................................................179 The Postmodern Body..............................................................................191 4 BODY, IDENTITY, AND TRANSFORMATION .................................206 Who has power? .......................................................................................213 How is it exercised? .................................................................................223 What are its effects? .................................................................................235 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................246 v Chapter One Splendor and Seduction The driver knows where I am going well before I step into his cab. Though it is only 7:50 in the morning, he has already transported ninjas, Ewok s, space aliens, and a Star Fleet Commander to the same destination. After a brief exchange regarding the anticipated weekend traffic and how hard it was for me to find a hotel, he asks me what I used to make my cape. “It’s just a curtain,” I tell him. “I ran a bungee cord through where the rod goes.” I pull down the collar of my t-shirt to show where I’ve clasped the cord together. He keeps his eyes on the road, unimpressed. It occurs to me that he has already encountered several homemade capes this morning, many of which are no doubt more elaborately constructed than my own. Anxiety settles in. “I’ll get you as close as I can to the convention center,” he tells me. “It’ll save time if you walk the last block or two because otherwise we’re just sitting in traffic.” I decide to tip him well, perhaps because he saved me a dollar or two on the fare but more likely because I don’t want to appear as cheap as my costume. In trying to retrieve money from my wallet, however, I realize that the dish gloves I’m wearing make it impossible to pull apart the bills. The driver patiently waits while I clumsily remove them. Once I’ve paid, he points me in the direction of the San Diego Convention Center. The breeze that comes off the ocean does little to hide the fact that I’m sweating. Out in the open I feel vulnerable. I’ve never done anything like this 1 before, not in daylight, and certainly not when it wasn’t Halloween. Though my costume affords some degree of anonymity, the feeling of being out in the open – on display – is nonetheless foreign and distressing. I dart between two buildings within a block of where I’ve been dropped off and contemplate ditching my costume. Disrobing in public, however, would expose me to a whole new host of problems and potentially amplify the public embarrassment I hope to avoid. I peer down the alley to see where it comes out on the other side. If this were Star Wars a glowing Obi-Wan Kenobi would appear behind the dumpster and tell me to use the force or let go . Instead, a cluster of four misshapen Stormtroopers with two unusually tall Jawas in handcuffs confidently march by. 1 In following them, I conceal my presence by varying my pace with occasional stops to pretend to check my phone. Ahead of us are about a dozen statues lined up in rows that from a distance look like they could be victims of the Pompeii volcano, little figures frozen forever in time. As I get closer I realize that they are movie props, Samurai warriors from the most recent Mummy (Cohen, 2008) movie. I stop to gawk and take a picture just as a man in a Green Lantern jersey bumps me off the sidewalk. In every direction sporadic groups of convention attendees emerge out of what I can only imagine are