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Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
As the bodies of the biggest stars of 1980s American action cinema enter their sixth and seventh decades of life, they demand reinvention in order to maintain their cultural and economic power. Deepfakes, which use machine learning algorithms to replace the face and/or voice of one person with that of another, create composite images that reassert this power, revealing the persistence of the hegemonic power of the white male hardbody. Examining a subset of YouTube deepfakes videos that remix and reimagine the stars of 1980s hardbody action films, this paper argues that these videos not only continue to “reboot” white male hegemony, but they also function as an ideological reclamation of masculine power in the present through modified images of the (revisionist) past.
For example, YouTube artist CTRL SHIFT FACE has created a series of videos that exchange Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme in some of their most popular films. The resulting palimpsest, which layers the facial performance of one actor over the bodily performance of another, produces a mode of white, masculine identity that is essentially exchangeable and transactional. On the industry side, the three most recent Terminator films feature de-aged versions of Schwarzenegger. The ideological project of these films is to circumvent the process of aging, both of the actors and of the intellectual property. Both the franchise and the actors working within the franchise require refreshing, and digital de-aging and facial replacement work toward injecting new life into bodies and properties feeling the effects of fatigue.
Reinventing the Hardbody: Deepfakes, De-aging, and the Plasticity of White Masculinity
As the bodies of the biggest stars of 1980s American action cinema enter their sixth and seventh decades of life, they demand reinvention in order to maintain their cultural and economic power. Deepfakes, which use machine learning algorithms to replace the face and/or voice of one person with that of another, create composite images that reassert this power, revealing the persistence of the hegemonic power of the white male hardbody. Examining a subset of YouTube deepfakes videos that remix and reimagine the stars of 1980s hardbody action films, this paper argues that these videos not only continue to “reboot” white male hegemony, but they also function as an ideological reclamation of masculine power in the present through modified images of the (revisionist) past.
For example, YouTube artist CTRL SHIFT FACE has created a series of videos that exchange Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme in some of their most popular films. The resulting palimpsest, which layers the facial performance of one actor over the bodily performance of another, produces a mode of white, masculine identity that is essentially exchangeable and transactional. On the industry side, the three most recent Terminator films feature de-aged versions of Schwarzenegger. The ideological project of these films is to circumvent the process of aging, both of the actors and of the intellectual property. Both the franchise and the actors working within the franchise require refreshing, and digital de-aging and facial replacement work toward injecting new life into bodies and properties feeling the effects of fatigue.
Bio
Drew Ayers is an Associate Professor of Film at Eastern Washington University, where he teaches, researches, and writes on the subjects of cinema, visual effects, digital technology, visual culture, and nonhuman theory. Drew is the author of Spectacular Posthumanism: The Digital Vernacular of Visual Effects, and his work has appeared in Convergence, animation, Configurations, Film Criticism, and various edited collections. Drew also serves as a board member and programmer for the Spokane International Film Festival.