Muscled Movie Mavens: A New Need for the Fernale Form in Pumpinp: Iran II, Tenninator 2, and G.1 Tane A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirernents for the degree of Masters of Fine Arts Graduate Programme in Film and Video York University North York, Ontario August 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationale u+1 ,,,a du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON KiA ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distri'bute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfichelnlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantieIs may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. MuscIed Movie Mavens: A New Need for the Female Form in Pumpine Iron II, Tenninator 2, and G.I. Jane by Petra E. Janopaul a thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fuifillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts Permission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF YORK UNIVERSITY to tend or seIl copies of this thesis. to the NATIONAL LlBRARY OF CANADA to microfilm this thesis and to fend or seIl copies of the film. and to UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to publish an abstract of this thesis. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. ABSTRACT The women of cinema are undergohg a makeover. Rouge, base, and lipstick are being augmented by ripped muscles, buffed biceps, and defined deltoids. Across genres, muscled women are appearing everywhere, from the staged documentary Pum~inaIron II: The Women (1984), to Linda Hamilton's defined arms in Terminator 2 (1991), to Demi Moore's multiple star tums showcasing her muscular body, espeually G.I. lane (1997).These images of muscularized women are not only acceptable, they became desirable and in demand, illumhatirg the Literal and figurative explosion of the female form in popdar cinema. Using Michel Foucault's detailing of how knowledge and power bath of and ooer the body function within an "apparatus" in which we live as well as help to create, 1argue that the major function of the apparatus at a certain moment in time is to respond to an "urgent need." 1will argue in this thesis that the "useful body" for the late 1980s into the 1990s has been the strong, muscularized fernale body. This urgent need is manifesting itself in contemporary standards for female star bodies as newly hard, muscled, taut, and defined. This "need" is in response to the crisis in rneaning around the body and especially the female body in contemporary times. At a time of continuing redefinition of gender roles, the power apparatus is calling for a female body which seems to contain both traditionally ferninine and masculine coding. As opposed to prior decades, such as the Victorian era, where the ascribed roles in society were definitively split between male and female, the 1980s through the 1990s iç a tirne where women are working in the public sphere in addition to still being largely responsible for the maintenance of the private sphere of the home. An Enjoli perfume ad from the 1980s symbolizes this split which must be forged/combined: "She can bring home the bacon, and fry it up in a pan, and never never let you forget you're a man, 'cause she's a woman. Enjoli." In a society where everythîng seems to be in flw, something solid is needed to hold onto, laud, and prize. I will argue that it is the hard body, the Arnold body, the rigid and defined body. 1will argue that these forms are ultimately contradictory and ambivalent and serve to continue the dynamic of power relations which create new forms which are then able to resist power's reaches. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The foo! who persists in his folly becomes wise. William Blake 1know many wnters open their introduction with a quote, which 1will also do, but for some reason 1 felt it was equally appropriate to do the same with my adnowledgments. This quote only begins to describe the experience of complefing this thesis; as a kind fnend pointed out to me, it could equally apply to any thesis or dissertation. This of course is true, and 1 do not daim the quote in any unique or exceptional way, for 1am well aware that although my experience was far from the ordinary, it was not one-of-a-kind (though indeed, 1 wish, for other students sakes, it were). Further, 1do not wish for the reader to infer even an ounce of self-deprecation withu-i my reference to myself as a "fool," for without a doubt the first person 1need to acknowledge and thank in these pages is the one and only. For although a fool is (from Webster's) "a person showing lack of wisdom, or of common sense," it is exactly this lack of common sense which enabled me to never give up, and perhaps foolishly, came back for more, even when it felt like a fool's errand. A fool is also a jester, one who jests, often and well, and is kept in a king or nobleman's household, which is indeed true, as my long List of addresses in the past three years indicates. From Arlington Avenue and the Pony Express stop, to Camp, Irving, and Stuart Street, to the oasis that was Tassajara, to the joys of IOth, Cascadilla, Fell, Noe, Magnolia, and Payne Avenues, and always retuming to Raglan, I have been kept and kept well, and for this 1 have many people to thank (to those 1 forget, I will not forget you, 1jest not). Starting with (in vaguely chronological order) Bridget, Peter, Leo, Margaret, Noel, Matthew, Adrienne, Alex, Galia, Alex, Nick, Rebecca, Seth, Ellen, Kira, Carl, Helen, Malcolm, Aaron, Daniel, Patrick, Joan, Jon, Marti, Papa, Bill, Aileen, Victoria, Jean, Dave, Beth, Gretchen, Andy, Sekai, Sabrina, Jonathan and Justus, all of whom provided much appreciated support, whether emotional, hancial, or physical, and more often a combination of two or three, 1offer up a heart-felt th& you that cannot be stated in words. Whether 1was beùig hardy or merely foohardy, 1 know 1could not have made it through these long years without all of you. And lest 1forget, 1 must mention and thank those people in the Film and Video Department at York University who made al1 this possible: Brenda, Janine, John, Lorraine, Grace, Lynn, and George. Since back in the early minutes of January 1998 when 1 was in a fool's paradise, to now, when 1 am much closer to nirvana, 1have leamed much. And although at tirnes 1felt like 1 had been fed fool's parsley, 1never gave up. No matter how ndiculous the situation may have seemed, every time 1 got thrown off the horse, I merely got back on and kept riding. Frorn each ride and each fall, there was a lesson, and if 1 were only a fool 1would never have gained so mu& from them. But instead, 1 have learned much, much more than I ever would have guessed the writing of a master's thesis could teach me, not just about muscled women, but about academia, psychology, personality, politics, office politics, love, responsibility, family, friendship, boyfriends, happiness, sadness, humiliation, joy, samsara, sadomasochism, pedagogy, hard work, insanity, codependency, desire, confidence, insecurity, consistency, inconsistency, reâson, unreason, timing, consideration, loyalty, power, Iris Murdoch, education, GERD (Gastro- Esophageal Reflux Disease), hospitals, death, Ashtanga yoga, meditation, Zen, INTRODUCING IMAGES OF MUSCULAR WOMEN The body is not an object to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be considered as the subject of culture, or in other words, as the existentid ground of culture. Thomas Csordas' The urgency of the politics of the body have corne about through the unfolding of a political stniggle. Whether this is a revolutionary struggle, 1 don't know [but] the importance given to the body is one of the important, if not essential questions. Michel ~oucàull The mainstream cinema of the 1980s and 1990s witnessed the striking emergence of a new physique and a new "subject of culture": the muscularized fernale body. The spectacular display of this physique is centcal to the bodybuilding competition in Pumvin Iron II: The Women (1984), to Linda Hamilton's defined musculature in Terminator 2 (1991), and to the star image of Demi Moore in GI. Tane (1997). These films' female stars embodied the perfect mix of beauty and brawn, and evidenced the growing desire for the muscularized female form in culture and cinema. By the mid 1990s, a transphenomenal cultural trend that began in isolated action films and niche bodybuilding documentaries moved to the center of media culture. Consider how Madonna built a virtual dynasty by showcasing her well-defined body, first in music videos and later in films like Tmth or Dare.