Abstract

The post-hardware heroine is argued to be the latest revision of action heroines since the 1990s, emerging into a parodic postmodern paradigm that recalls compensatory reactions exhibited by the “beefcake” cinema of the 1980s that is inextricably caught up in nostalgia and desire. For Yvonne Tasker, muscular, built male bodies the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone are reactions to a then-new male encounter with the cinematic gaze, while Scott Bukatman argues they are reactions to technology and the rising posthuman. Post-hardware heroines, as such, are not only imbued with a nostalgia for the hardware heroines that first subverted male action roles of the 1990s, but actively parody the iterative history from which they appear in a fashion evocative of the waning postmodern moment. Contemporary action films Atomic Blonde (2017), Anna (stylized ANИA, 2019), Gunpowder Milkshake (2021), and Jolt (2021) are argued to mark the emergence of the post-hardware heroine and represent the new parodic paradigm in which they operate. By transgressing and subverting narrative roles occupied by gendered performances, these films look toward an action cinema that blurs the boundaries of gender and leaves behind the visual pleasures of the body.

摘要

后硬件女主角被认为是 20 世纪 90 年代以来动作女主角的最新版本，进入了一种戏仿的后现代范式，让人回想起 20 世纪 80 年代“牛肉饼”电影所表现出的补偿性反应，这些电影不可避免地陷入了怀旧和欲望之中。对于伊冯·塔斯克来说，施瓦辛格和史泰龙等肌肉发达的男性身体是对当时新男性与电影凝视的反应，而斯科特·布卡特曼则认为它们是对技术和崛起的后人类的反应。因此，后硬件女主角不仅充满了对首次颠覆 20 世纪 90 年代男性动作角色的硬件女主角的怀旧之情，而且积极戏仿了她们出现的迭代历史，以一种令人回想起日渐式微的后现代时刻的时尚。当代动作片《极寒之城》（2017）、安娜（风格化ANИA，2019）、火药奶昔（2021）和乔尔特（2021）被认为标志着后硬件女英雄的出现，并代表了她们运作的新戏仿范式。通过超越和颠覆性别表演所占据的叙事角色，这些电影将目光投向了一种模糊性别界限、抛弃身体视觉愉悦的动作电影。