In science fiction cinema, particularly in the contemporary period, one can observe a proliferation of images of male bodies undergoing extreme transformations.
These monstrous masculine figures are a pervasive feature of popular film, and yet very few academic studies have been made relating to this phenomenon. Before expanding on the masculine aspect of monstrosity, it would be appropriate to briefly consider the relevance of the monster in cultural representation. The monster is “an embodiment of difference, a breaker of category and a resistant Other” (Cohen 1996: x) and thus is the canvas onto which we project the parts of ourselves that we would rather repress. They reveal the dark heart of the human —our deepest fears, anxieties and desires. This makes the cultural representation of monsters a fascinating and important area of research when considering the construction of social norms related to gender, sexuality, race, etc. When it comes to existing analyses of the gendering of the monstrous, there is an abundance of research available that discusses woman as monster in cinema.
Generally these studies apply psychoanalytical theoretical tools to their analysis, such as Barbara Creed’s seminal text The Monstrous Feminine, which argues that “every encounter with horror, in the cinema, is an encounter with the maternal body” (1993:
166), and so all monstrous bodies are, on some level, feminine. What I intitally realised was that the tools offered by this argument are not very helpful in analysing muscle-bound male monsters, and upon further investigation I ascertained that, contrary to the psychoanalytical view, most male monsters’ monstrosity stems from their embodiment
of masculinity, rather than the feminine. I then became determined to uncover what defines the monstrous masculine, as well as how and why men are portrayed as unstable monsters on screen.
Kirk Combe and Brenda Boyle, who in their book Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films assert that concepts of masculinity and monstrosity are central to a formulation of a predominating world view (2013: 6). The fact that these two concepts are central themes of a large number of popular cinema’s most successful releases suggests that the intersection of masculinity with monstrosity is an area ripe for investigation. Furthermore, if we are to understand that masculinity “becomes legible as masculinity where and when it leaves the white male middle-class body” (Halberstam 1998: 2), the monstrous male body is the perfect site on which to read and analyse masculinities. Equally, cinema appears as an ideal arena for the consideration of gendered representations, since as Halberstam observes “the seemingly banal pop cultural text, with its direct connection to mass culturally shared assumptions is more likely to reveal the key terms and conditions of the dominant than an earnest and
‘knowing’ text” (2011: 60). In fact, one can argue that film is as much an influence on as it is influenced by society: “Films do more than simply reflect or set up a model for imposing vacuity wherein the real world is reduced to a screenplay — rather they make varying and specific contributions to the nature of that reality”. (Adil and Kennedy 2009: 219-220).
This relationship between film and the ‘real’ is particularly striking when it comes to the representation of technology in popular, and perhaps especially Hollywood, cinema. Despite being inherent to the filmmaking process new or advanced technologies tend to be negatively portrayed —or at least regarded with suspicion— in these texts. When discussing the ongoing dialogue between cinema and the ‘real’ in his
book Technophobia!, which discusses the representation of technology in science fiction texts, Dinello uses the example of the Iraq war, stating that both the war and science fiction films dramatise a disturbing aspect of technology, which “is energized by a deadly alliance of military, corporate, and religious interests” (2005: 4). Thus,
“Drawing a vision of the future from attitudes, moods, and biases current among its artists and their audience, science fiction not only reflects popular assumptions and values but also gives us an appraisal of their success in practice” (ibid 5). This vision is overwhelmingly technophobic: machines are portrayed as powerful and threatening, while the fusion of the human with technology creates posthuman entities invariably depicted as monstrous. As Adil and Kennedy observe: “the paranoid gaze on/of technology […] not only articulates anxieties about the threat to the boundaries between self and Other, animate and inanimate and most crucially reality and illusion, but also marks an attempt to imagine a new kind of subjectivity” (2009: 224-225). As part of my investigation into the representation of monstrous masculine metamorphosis, I will take, then, into account the role of technology —or, the cinematic representation of technology— in the (de)construction of masculine identity, and the creation of posthuman corporeal and subjective forms. The thesis I argue here is that the figure of the monstrous metamorphosing man in popular science fiction cinema acts as a reflection of anxieties that arise from a discourse concerning the nature of hegemonic, or ideal, masculinity. Mainstream media propagates the idea of masculinity in crisis not only through debates directly related to what a man should be, but also through a proliferation of varied and often conflicting images of manhood. As a result, defining masculinity become increasingly difficult, and embodying an ideal masculinity almost impossible. Hence the male body under threat, undergoing constant change and fluctuation becomes an enduring image in popular cultural representations. Technology,
another great source of anxiety and fear in the contemporary period, plays an important role in the destabilisation of gendered identities and thus warrants an extended discussion of how masculine anxieties intersect with technophobic fears. It is my contention that technology is portrayed and perceived as a disturbing and subversive force that threatens to undermine borders and binaries relating to the human. The interaction and fusion of the male body with technological elements gives rise to identifiably masculine posthuman subjects who come to perform what can be termed
‘alternative masculinities’ —successful in their projection of masculinity, but not conforming to the hegemonic norm. In the following chapters we will see how the degree of deviation from the hegemonic ideal varies according to both the monstrous masculine figure in question and the period in which the films were released. I intend to establish whether these characters’ potential to offer attractive alternatives to hegemonic masculinity is linked to the category of monstrous masculinity they represent —mutant, cyborg, etc.— or if in fact monstrous masculine characters have become more, or less, subversive over time.