Queering The Terminator: Sexuality and Cyborg Cinema

Description

The Terminator film series is an unlikely site of queer affiliation. The entire premise revolves around both heterosexual intercourse and the woman's pregnancy and giving birth. It is precisely the Terminator's indifference to both that signifies it as an unimaginably inhuman monstrosity. Indeed, the films' overarching contention that humanity must be saved, rooted as it is in a particular story about pregnancy and birth that exclusively focuses on the heterosexual couple and the family, would appear to put it at odds with the political stances of contemporary queer theory. Yet, as this book argues, there is considerable queer interest in the Terminator mythos. The films provide a framework for interpreting shifting gender codes and the emergence of queer sexuality over the period of three decades. Significantly, the series emerges in the Reagan 80s, which marked a decisive break with the sexual fluidity of the 70s. As a franchise and on the individual basis of each film, The Terminator series combines both radical and reactionary elements. Each film reflects the struggles over gender and sexuality specific to its release. At the same time, the series foregrounds the intersection of technology and gender that has become a definitive aspect of contemporary experience. A narrative organized around a conservative view of female sexuality and the family, the Terminator myth is nevertheless a richly suggestive narrative for queer theory and gender studies. Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction: Everything you always wanted to know about desire, but were afraid to ask a Terminator......Page 12 Queer spectatorship as a mode of reading2......Page 14 Against textual poaching?......Page 16 Ideology and its discontents......Page 17 Bad dreams: Cameron, Ellison, and beyond......Page 18 Call that the conjugal: Queering the couple......Page 24 Oedipal patterns......Page 27 Primal scenes: Freud, heterosexuality, and sexual spectatorship......Page 29 Terminators and the primal scene......Page 36 Fight the future: Queer theory......Page 39 Chapter 2 “It’s just him—and me”: The Terminator......Page 42 Expressionistic nightmares......Page 45 Race and male bodies......Page 46 “Hey—what’s wrong with this picture?”: Degenerate masculinity......Page 48 “What year?”: Relinquishing male authority......Page 51 The gay hero......Page 54 The Awakening of Adonis......Page 57 Femininity and genre......Page 60 Dark mother......Page 63 Revisionist Christian allegory......Page 65 “You’re terminated, fucker”: Satan revealed......Page 68 Chapter 3 Cyborg masochism and homo-fascism: Terminator 2: Judgment Day......Page 72 The God in ruins: Schwarzenegger’s masochism......Page 77 Cyborgs or fathers......Page 79 Woman as Terminator, blacks as spectacle......Page 82 Fascist fantasies: The phallic mother......Page 85 Fascist fantasies: Homoerotics of the male body......Page 88 Pedophilic fantasies......Page 93 Cyborg Narcissus: Or, the queerness of cyborgs......Page 95 Chapter 4 Falling behind: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines......Page 100 All about Eve......Page 101 Vulnerable masculinity......Page 104 Queer Schwarzenegger in the gay archive......Page 108 Contemporary femininity: Or, the patriarchal daughter......Page 113 Perverse pleasures: The Terminatrix......Page 114 Behindness......Page 117 Political failings......Page 119 “Do you even remember me?”......Page 121 A tale of two Terminators: Allusions and simulacra......Page 124 Is desire irrelevant?......Page 129 Male pain: National narratives......Page 132 Masculinity, Deleuze, and the face......Page 135 “What are you?”: T4 and improbable masculinity......Page 137 Bulk without blemish......Page 139 Oedipal politics: Fathers, mothers, faces......Page 141 Becoming iconic......Page 145 Love story: Marcus/Kyle......Page 146 Chapter 6 Magnetic Connections: Terminator Genisys......Page 150 Where the Meanings Are......Page 160 Epilogue: Notes on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles......Page 164 Transmedia convergences and religious themes......Page 166 Shaking The Demon Hand......Page 170 Terminators and desire......Page 176 Chapter 1......Page 180 Chapter 2......Page 183 Chapter 3......Page 187 Chapter 4......Page 192 Chapter 5......Page 194 Chapter 6......Page 197 Epilogue......Page 198 Bibliography......Page 200 Index......Page 208