Femininity and the Film Alien

In the cold, impartial, deadly vacuum of space we find Ripley being born into a family in which power and authority seemed no longer based on sex, but rather on the ability to do their job. Ripley, a woman, has set aside her dominate female traits and developed more masculine ones. This freedom has allows her explore the possibilities of what woman are capable of. Monstrosity in the eyes of Ripley is the thought of living a life with the sole purpose of motherhood and reproduction. To live in a world where woman must obey men, are thought of as weak and not given the opportunity to try is the true terrifying monster in Ripley's mind. Not everyone in Ripley's life is willing to accept this type of woman so she is going to have to fight for her life to maintain it.

Ripley is the warrant officer on the Nostromo, a cargo ship sent out to space by The Company to mine for minerals. She is on board with six other crew mates, Dallas; the Capitan, Ash, Kane, Parker, Brett and Lambert, the only other female. With more males than females Ripley begins to realize that the male crew mates will not accept her masculine strength and begin to treat her like she is a just a woman. The ships computer system, Mother, encounter a distress call from a nearby planet and the ship must take a detour to investigate it further. After landing on the foreign planet the Captain, along with three other crew mates explore the planet in search of the signal. After the Capitan has left the ship Ripley assumes her role of senior officer and takes charge reminding the crewmembers, Brett and Parker to get back to work. But Ash under minds her authority by telling her "no" when she wanted to warn Dallas that the signal was a warning, and again by overstepping her and allowing the crew back on board after she urged them to follow the contamination rules. Ripley's female authority was not relevant in this situation and the fear in her mind that she will be disregarded as a figure of authority due to the fact that she is a woman is brought on board as Ash claimed that he "forgot" that she was in charge.

When the crewmates came on board, a new breed of life came with them. An alien had attached itself to Kane's face effectively incapacitating him. This alien did not fit into any of the animal families that the crew was familiar with. While the alien helped Kane maintain his vital signs, it rendered him completely dependent, like that of an overbearing mother. The crew tried to cut the alien from Kane's face but its blood was made of a deadly acid, and corroded everything it came in contact with. To Ripley, when a woman decided to become a mother is corrodes the possibilities of being anything else. When Ripley confronted Ash and questioned his motives for allowing the alien on the ship Ash refused Ripley any kind of respect, telling her "you do your job, and let me do mine". Making it known that according to him she had distinct job to perform. The alien then released itself from Kane's face and the face hugger fell dead from the ceiling. Landing on Ripley's head, it made a true physiological connection to her. Ripley's estimation that they should dispose of acid bleeding alien was disregarded by both Ash and Dallas. When Dallas walked away Ripley struggled to gain his attention, repeatedly requesting him to listen to her. When he finally responded he addresses her as "my dear" degrading her line of questioning, reminding her that she is just a female, and her insecurities about his decision are not his problem. Dallas reminds Ripley that they are to "do whatever they are told to do", reminding Ripley that she is not to think for herself. At this point Ripley's feels invisible, smothered, left with no voice, much like how the near asphyxiated alien masked Kane's face suppressing his ability to speak. Ripley's male crewmates were the source of her fear because it was their constant lack of attention towards her that gave her anxiety. It was a male crewmate, Kane, which gave birth to her fear in the physical form of a baby alien. The males allowed this new breed of monster on board. A monster that represents the woman Ripley feared to become and the woman the males only saw her as. Now this manifested alien had only a single objective; its sole purpose was