Gender And Sexual Politics In Ridley Scott's Film Alien

In Ridley Scott’s film Alien, I observed how the film for its time was unique, in the sense that it comprehensively dealt with gender and sexual politics in a direct manner through its content and text which in contemporary films still remains rare. One of the most obvious way Ridley Scott dealt with gender was by having a strong lead female character. Ellen Ripley, the protagonist of the film, who still currently stands out as a top action hero as her character refrains from falling under the cliched portrayal of women in horror films. Most classic Hollywood film often associate women as the secondary, weak and passive characters, who are often killed or rescued by the typical strong masculine lead. A common trope about female characters within Classic Hollywood horror film typically involve two endings which include either death as punishment or marriage to the masculine male protagonist as salvation. However, in Alien the roles have reversed, the character who makes active, wise decisions and survives the attack of the monster is a female,

As he inspects one, a “Facehugger” jumps out, gets through his space helmet and attaches itself to his face and Kane passes out. A few scenes later an Alien pops out of Kane’s chest known as a “Chestbuster”. This scene fascinated me as it could be a seen as male entering a woman without her permission hence it could be referred as raping the woman. However, the roles have reversed once again. It is the male character who is the passive one and gets raped by the “Facehugger” as it implants an embryo within Kane, which later comes out of his chest as an infant and in the process kills him. It again creates this notion of how the mother does not need a male figure for the child hence killing