ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how Sylvester Stallone's star image has evolved, in response to Rosalind Coward's provocative comment that, "In spite of the ideology that women's sexuality is an enigma, it is in reality men's bodies, men's sexuality which is the true 'dark continent' of this society." It demonstrates this relatively unscrutinized male body has provided a privileged representational space for the articulation of tensions between fantasies of power and powerlessness. The chapter argues that it is "the ordering of social hierarchy" that both regulates and functions through discourses on and images of Stallone's body. In First Blood, Rambo and his masculinity are defined in relation to nature - which is in turn defined as the space of Rambo - and civilization constructed as its opposite. Praise for Stallone's achievements typically focuses on two interconnected elements of his image in this film: Stallone's weight gain and his acting style.