Document Type
Review Essay
Abstract
[First paragraph]
Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith's recent book, AlienWoman, is a truly fascinating analysis of the relationship/conflict between the female protagonist Lt. Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, and the monstrous feminine Alien throughout the Alien saga consisting of: Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien3 (1992), and AlienResurrection (1997). Lt. Ellen Ripley introduced viewers to their first self-reliant and successful female hero. The authors claim an important site for discussion on the changing ideas about gender, sex, and the female body is created by the Alien saga.
<2> Insightful scene-by-scene analysis reveals race, gender, and class distinctions operating in each of the four Alien films. Each of the four chapters is dedicated to one film. In "Can't Live with Them, Can't Kill Them," Gallardo and Smith argue that the male-female dichotomy is broken down in the Alien films, and women as well as men are "raped" to serve as wombs for the symbolic mother-destroyer Alien. The authors claim the Alien saga was the first science fiction film to approach what it means to be human on the basis of biological sex and gender roles. As males are penetrated, impregnated, and give birth, everyone is feminized. The authors describe space as a sexual enterprise where monstrous generative mothers threaten to devour men. Gallardo and Smith credit the first film with setting up the conflict between the female protagonist and the monstrous feminine that operates throughout the Alien series.
Repository Citation
Williams, Stella. "On Gallardo and Smith's AlienWoman (2004)." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 4, no. 4, 2004, pp. 1–3. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol4/iss4/10