Jennica Wragg Supplemental Post #5: Gender Portrayals in the Terminator 2

I was at a session on Friday night through the Cinema School in which females who had done well in their representative industries spoke about their experiences and stereotypes pinned against them due to their gender and it somewhat reinforced what I saw going in by some of the representations of the female lead in The Terminator 2. The first moment I remember clearly of Sarah’s character is when she is yelling in her prison cell. All of the men are staring in at her observing her and subsequently dehumanizing her. 

Not only is the way Sarah framed by the camera does it illustrate a powerless relationship with her son but her psychological instability when her son has to be the voice of reason and rescue his mother- this relationship dehumanizes Sarah and she is portrayed as crazy when her son is seen as perfectly rational and powerful

However, I was thinking that these characteristics Sarah displays including aggressive and argumentative behavior appears to be purposely set up and filmed in such a way that the viewer sees her as insane yet on the contrary T-1000 is running around town killing everyone in his path to try to get to John yet for some reason this behavior didn’t come across as aggressive as Sarah’s behavior in her prison cell. Similarly, quite quickly Sarah is set up as some sort of psychotic patient in desperate need of treatment and rescue, however, it is also illustrated that her son John has many of his own challenges illustrated by the way he talks to his foster parents and runs away from home yet I don’t feel like his personal backstory is conveyed in the negative way Sarah’s history is. Through these couple of examples female and male characters exhibit similar behavioral characteristics and behaviors yet the way these are portrayed to the audience and framed by the camera differ substantially by gender. For example, Sarah is often portrayed through the little glass window in her jail cell as a subject, whereas when we look at the way Arnold Schwarzenegger is framed we often see low camera angles emphasizing his strength and power a direct reflection of his power and masculinity whereas Sarah’s strength merely gets her strapped to a table as this strength is portrayed as abnormal for females.  

The angle of the camera frames the character in such a way that provides him with a sense or power and authority that Sarah is never given onscreen

Even the lines by the camera illustrate the subordinate relationship between the female human and the male robot as Sarah is framed horizontally while the robot stands completely erect in the photo above.

Similar depiction here with the camera techniques being used to illustrate power and perhaps can be used to understand the power of the patriarchal structure

Sarah is the human and she is being subjected to being treated as a test subject when the actual robot is framed as completely normal and able to enjoy the complete human experience. Because this film is so male dominated I think it’s very interesting to compare the ways in which the robot (Schwarzenegger’s character) is portrayed as completely sane in contrast with Sarah who is entirely human who is portrayed as the “monstrous” individual largely because she denies representing characteristics that align with the traditional gender binary. By looking at the way actors and stars are framed on screen we can see the ways in which their gender plays a role in the way we are taught to understand ourselves and the structure in which we live in which I feel is only reinforced through the gender portrayals played out in this film.