Masculinity and Individualism: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Shifting Identity?

 The Susan Jeffords’ chapter “Terminal Masculinity: Men in the Early 19990s” discusses the relationship between (white) male masculinity and individualism in the early 1990s.  While written in 1994, Jeffords is really only focusing the bulk of her argument on the shift in masculine representation from the late ‘80s into 1991. Her chapter prioritizes the socio-political and cultural context, specifically identifying some of the residual masculine ideologies present during and after the Reagan era. The latter half of the chapter examines masculinity and the white male body in the early 1990s using Terminator 2 as a specific example. Jeffords argues that, the narrative of the film centers on “the reproduction of masculinity” and demonstrates the shift from “hard body (of the ‘80s) to the family man (156).” She uses fatherhood and individualism as themes/concepts to push forward an argument about a reworking of masculinity.

While I understand what Jeffords is attempting to argue, my issue with the chapter is that she seems to rush the conclusion without effectively tying the other aspects of her argument together. She ends the chapter on a rather ambiguous but open-ended tone, possibly as a result of being written prior to the end of the 1990s. I’m curious to note if we were to examine popular films released at the end of the ‘90s, would Jeffords’ claims still hold true? If we consider Jeffords’ claim that masculinity in this period reproduces itself through inversion rather than duplication, what are we to make of her positioning of Schwarzenegger’s shifting masculinity in relation to the role he later employed as governor of California or his more recent celebrity endorsements of the mobile game Mobile Strike (in which he embodies a similar Terminator masculinity)? Granted Jefford is discussing a specific political moment, however my personal experience with Schwarzenegger begins after 1991 and I could not help but try to understand his shifting identities politically from 1991 onward.

 This is an example of the Arnold we now see in popular discourse...I can't seem to get away from these commercials.