The Role Of Feminism In James Cameron's Film Aliens
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James Cameron’s film, Aliens, was released in 1986 towards the end of the second wave of feminism, which strayed from focussing on women’s legal rights, instead broadening to a wider range of issues such as ‘sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities’ . The effect of this wave of feminism can be seen clearly in the Alien films, which are drenched in reproductive imagery through the use of the Alien Queen’s role as not just a mother in the film, but the mother of the aliens. The film also includes the struggle to be a feminine woman in a male dominated environment, which can be seen through Ripley’s inclusion into the Marines. These struggles are brought together by paralleling the Alien Queen and Ripley, comparing and contrasting them in a way that allows us to see how…show more content… The Alien Queen is depicted as an ‘amoral primeval mother’ . She is animalistic and primal, viciously protecting her offspring without thought of the consequences and caring only about the survival of her children. This characterisation also allows the audience to interpret her as a character that exists solely for her role as a mother and is reduced to nothing more than her reproductive organs. She is described as having an ‘egg-filled abdomen’ , giving her no other purpose than to produce more children. Her mothering role is taken to the extreme and, in doing so, demonises motherhood and childbirth through the violent way in which the Aliens come to fruition. The birth of the Aliens themselves strongly resembles human pregnancy and birth, causing the audience to