representation of women in james camerons 'aliens'

Representation of women in James Cameron's ‘aliens’As a sort of director trademark, James Cameron always seems to have physically and emotionally strong female characters present in his films. Examples of this are films such as terminator 1 and 2, titanic and abyss, but none more so than aliens. Sigourney weaver depicts Ellen Ripley, a warrant officer who must once again confront her fears of the menacing alien threat.

One of the more probable reasons that Ripley goes against most stereotyped female leads in horror films is the fact that her character was written as unisex, allowing a male or female actor to be cast without needing the script to be altered. Despite her first name being Ellen, she is almost always referred to as Ripley. This dissociates her with being female, which makes the audience perceive her as stronger and less vulnerable. Even when entering and exiting hypersleep (which must be done in underwear) she wears a tank top, covering her body up considerably. Her appearance is often simple; she does little with her hair and is often wearing overalls or a jumpsuit, a unisex item of clothing.

 

As Ripley has been in hyper sleep for 57 years, she has lost her daughter to old age, leaving a void in her life. Initially this void is filled with Jones, the cat from the ship nostromo. This theme is included to show Ripley's vulnerabilities, and the fact that she is female. Dogs are considered a man’s best friend, for Ripley it is a cat, showing the other end of the spectrum. This is Ripley's weakness, she has to have something to care about to take her mind off of events. This void is later filled by the young girl newt, which Ripley cares for like she is her own. Newt and Ripley form a maternal bond, and the void in Ripley's life is filled.

Despite Ripley's fear of the antagonists of the film, the aliens, she puts her maternal bond with newt first, not only risking her own life, but the lives of the remaining crew as well. This portrays Ripley as someone who will stand and confront their fears, but also makes irrational choices, something that is stereotypically associated with women. An example of this is at the films climax, where she opens an airlock to space in order to eliminate the alien queen. Doing so not only puts he own life at risk, it also endangers newt’s safety, as she too almost gets sucked into the void of space.

Another strong female character is the marine Vasquez. She is a strong willed soldier, complete with very short hair and an untypical muscular physique. In her first scenes she is seen doing pull ups alongside the other male marines, showing that she is equal in strength, breaking the stereotype of physically weak inferior women. While she is doing pull-ups, the male marine Hudson quips “hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?” her response “no, have you?” not only shows she is of equal intelligence, but is a subtle foreshadow to later events. This is because Hudson shows the female stereotype of mental weakness and hysteria when he gets injured. He is clearly scared, evidence of this with dialogue such as:
   Hudson: Seventeen days? Hey man, I don't wanna rain on your parade, but we're not gonna last seventeen hours! Those things are gonna come in here just like they did before. And they're gonna come in here...
Ripley: Hudson! 
Hudson: ...and they're gonna come in here AND THEY'RE GONNA GET US!
And other lines such as: Hudson: That's it man, game over man, game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do? 
Furthermore, Vasquez shows that she is intelligent when Hudson says “Maybe it's like an ant hive?” she quickly corrects him with “Bees, man. Bees have hives!”Vasquez outsmarting Hudsonhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eycDq4NW88o&feature=related

 

Another representation of a strong ‘female’ character is the alien queen. She is very powerful, dominating creature, represented by her huge size in comparison to the regular aliens. The alien queen’s role is similar to that of a queen bee, as both produce eggs in a hive and have many lesser types of her species under her control. The queen then removes herself from her egg laying sac (ovipositor) in order to chase Ripley and newt. This represents the queen dissociating itself from the female gender, as without it, the queen is not much different from a regular alien. In the resulting chase the queen shows signs of intelligence when it uses a switch to call an elevator, which goes against the stereotypical viewpoint for females.
The queen removing its ovipositor ( from 9.42 onwards)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H649RmR-3Gg&feature=related

In the films climax, Ripley and the alien queen fight, signifying a battle between two maternal figures. Despite Ripley being a strong willed and powerful woman, she is no match for the queen on her own and must utilize a ‘power loader’ exosuit in order to defeat it. This shows her stereotypical female weakness, despite all of her unconventional strengths.

Ripley vs. the queenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqzHdKqZAmo