This is the first time
I had ever seen a film from the Alien series and surprisingly I loved it. I had
no idea that the main character was female. I had always thought that it was
like Rambo in space, big macho guys shooting down aliens to protect people.. or
something like that. However, Aliens wasn't like that at all. The main
character, Ellen Ripley, is a badass lady! The first badass lady in a huge
action/sci-fi film to be exact. This is much more normal to see in films of the
90's and today but in the 1980's, I'm sure it was a bit shocking. TIME magazine
was clearly very perplexed by this, as they put Sigourney Weaver on the front
cover with full make-up and her hair done, next to a picture of the
"She-Monster."
 |
| Sigourney Weaver on the cover of TIME magazine |
 |
| Sigourney Weaver in Aliens |
Jeffrey Brown brings up the fact that many critics were also put off and confused by this new kind of female action heroine. He states that several of them felt that lead female characters in action films were actually male impersonators or "really only 'boys' in 'girls' clothing". This bothers me for many reasons. Firstly this reinstates the sexist notion of the stereotypical women in films who are always passive and actually do not help the story line of a film at all. They are the ones needing to be saved. All the female characters in Aliens challenge this idea including the background characters, such as Pvt. Vasquez, who in the end decides to commit suicide rather than being captured by the aliens. She takes matters into her own hands rather than waiting for anyone (especially a guy) to save her. She is also very masculine in her appearance and how she acts but when asked the question "have you ever been mistaken for a man?" she rebuffs it with "no, have you?"
 |
| Jenette Goldstein as Pvt. Vasquez |
Another female
character in Aliens, the main villain of the film, is the Xenomorph Queen. I
feel like the film was clearly showing that she was a female alien. Which is
interesting because this was another uncommon appearance in the 80s, women as villains. There is an extremely tense
scene between the heroine and the female villain in the film and the viewer is
made to think that they have some sort of motherly bond or connection but in
actuality Ripley disregards the connection and lights the Queen's eggs on fire.
This to me was showing Ripley as an even stronger hero, that she is the ultimate
mother figure who protects her adopted daughter, Newt more than anything else.
 |
| Ripley and Newt |
This scene also leads
to the final showdown between Ripley and the Queen. The Queen comes back for
vengeance and Ripley comes back fighting in a robotic machine body. Again,
showing that the Queen is female, Ripley says "get away from her, you
bitch!" Which is an awesome moment. There is also a moment in Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows, when Molly Weasley says "not my daughter, you
bitch!" that completely echoes this scene. I feel like J.K. Rowling was influenced by Ripley's motherly
strength in Aliens while writing it. In fact it's another female hero vs. female
villain type scene which is interesting.
 |
| Aliens |
 |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 |
All in all, I thought Aliens was awesome. It portrayed women as strong individuals and the aliens were actually frightening. I'll definitely be watching the other films in the franchise very soon.
It's so odd that people could not fathom a woman being a hero. In the film, the females were very butch and acted like men. The women always have to have a love interest to show that some part of them is female but everything else is very masculine.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting, and kick ass to see all of the females in the film be so much more put together and with it then then the male characters. I mean the one female character was the pilot of the plane, Pvt. Vasquez was way more ready to kick ass and help out than both her commanding officer and blubbering Pvt. Hudson who just complained and got scared the whole movie, and even one of the last male characters Hicks is knocked out when the last battle is happening between Ripley and the Queen. This was definitely a movie of firsts and I'm glad to see it help paved the way for women to be in these types of action roles because as it is shown in Aliens, women have just as much kick assery to them as their male counterparts and they don't have to be love interests all of the time.
ReplyDeleteSo Ripley is a better woman than the butcher Vasquez or the monstrous xenomorph mother? Because she's both 'badass' in a masculine way but nurturing in a feminine way? You might have the makings of an argument here, but you need to flesh it out--it doesn't exactly go without saying, and it's kind of problematic. I agree that it's a problematic that the film itself sets out, but it's worth evaluating what you mean by feminine, masculine, and better here.
ReplyDeleteI never said she was "better"? I stated that all the female characters in the film challenge the idea that women are supposed to be passive including Vasquez and the monster.
Delete