Alien As An Allegory For Rape Culture

I recently posted this insight I had about the Alien movies.

Just realized something about the successive themes of the Alien movies. 

Alien: sexuality and conception
Aliens: maternity
Alien 3: death and the afterlife
Alien Resurrection: rebirth

Circle of life I guess.

I thought I was being clever, but one of my friends expressed discomfort at my describing "the number one rape horror film of all time" as simply "sexuality."

We had a little back on forth about it. I tried to point out that there were sexual elements in the film that weren't restricted to the xenomorph, but as I thought about all of it put together, I realized he was right. It was more accurate to describe the film's theme as "rape and unwanted conception" rather than sexuality, which is a much broader term. Honestly, the rape allegory in this film is so much more dense than I even considered. Perhaps its my own recent education about the intricacies of rape culture that have recently come to light on a massive scale that has helped me see it.

The film opens with the characters coming out of their sleeping pods, which many have described as "coming out of the womb" given that the computer is named Mother and the humans are all almost naked. Once they get settled, they learn about an alien signal that they are compelled to follow. They find an alien ship, which depending on who you ask, is symbolic of two legs and a vagina, or two penises. I would argue that its actually both as the characters are tempted into wandering into the hole, only to get throughly shafted by two different creatures.

The rape subtext of this sequence is even stronger once you include what is happening back on the Nostromo. Ripley, a woman, is the only trying to understand the alien signal, and she deduces that its not actually an invitation, but a warning to stay away. But when she tries to alert her crewmates, Ash simply tells her there's no point. On top of that, the only member of the expedition team that says they should leave the ship is Lambert, a woman. So before any aliens show up, we have male characters misinterpreting a warning as an invitation, entering an orifice containing eggs, while the women try to tell them to stop, only to be shut down by their male coworkers. It's then that the tables get turned. Rather than a woman getting violated by an act of reproduction, it's a man, and the crew is powerless to stop the process once it's begun. Their only defense was to not go onto the ship in the first place, a window of escape that is now closed.

Let's talk about the xenomorph itself as an avatar for wonton masculinity. It's certainly not a coincidence that in it's larval form, it's very phallic shaped. As it matured into an adult, it's smooth eggplant shaped head, with an elongating proboscis that spits sticky goo everywhere, all personify men who think with only their dicks. And the best thing about the creature is that it's extremely scary. 

The middle of the story pivots away from rapists as an entity. Instead the emphasis is on the consequences of the rape, including the unwanted offspring. Obviously the crew has numerous ideas on what to do about the monster that's loose, but I think the most important voice for this discussion is that of Mother. When asked, Mother tells the crew to "insure return of organism for study" and "all other considerations secondary." It may sound all businessy and official, but the voice speaking calls back to conservative pro-lifers who maintain that fetuses must be preserved at all costs, even those conceived by rapists. 

It should be no surprise that it's that this point in the story, Ripley looses her shit. Frustrated at men who didn't heed her and an authority that won't support her, she lashes out. Ash responds by trying to shove a cylindrical object down her throat (the filmmakers seemed to have a bit of an oral fixation). What's important from this is that someone whom she thought was an ally really wasn't, and when challenged, he sprays milky white fluid all over the place. Many rape victims have commented on how difficult it is to find support from family and friends after it happens, and I suspect the sequence with Mother and Ash is meant to evoke that. 

During the climax, the film shifts back into sexual assault territory. As the crew moves to escape, Lambert encounters the alien. The creature very creepily puts its tail up between her legs, which she allows because she is too scared to do anything else. Her reluctance to do anything to defend herself, including running away, gets both her and another crewman killed. 

Once Ripley manages to get away and starts to feel safe, she starts to undress, only to find an unwelcome guest in her sleeping pod. She has to put on very thick clothes and use a weapon in order to make it clear that she wants the alien to GTFO. Finally, with the threat expunged, she returns to her sleeping pod, i.e. the safety of the womb, having learned that the world is a scary, violent place.

There are a few things about the production of the film that I find fascinating when coupled with this analysis. One, everyone on the creative team (director, producers, writers) was a man. I'm not sure how much of this symbolism was deliberate and how much was accidental, but I think the results were an insightful representation of the real life source material. Especially when you consider that the Hollywood culture at the time was a lot more mysogonist. Two, Ripley ending up the hero was a very subtle trick the writers played on the audience at the time. We know now that Sigourney Weaver is the hero of the franchise, but at the time, she was the least famous member of the cast. If you look at the first half of the film, Ripley comes off as the rules lawyering naysayer who doesn't care about anyone else. Captain Dallas, with his rogue behavior and selfless courage, fits the description of a more traditional hero. His apparent death was shocking to audiences who suddenly became uncertain who would save the day. Surprise, surprise, it was the woman who everyone should have listened to all along. 

Lastly, there are two deleted scenes that, while I agree needed to be cut, give the material some interesting richness. One is a sex scene between Dallas and Ripley. This definitely needed to come out because the last thing the film needed was to introduce consensual sex while talking about rape. The second is the famous nest scene in which we see the male crew members that the alien kidnapped being turned into eggs. I think this is meant to represent men getting co-opted by rape culture and perpetuating the cycle. It kinda begs the question on whether there is any redemption to be had for those who were going with the flow of those in power. I personally don't like to include the scene in repeat viewings, but that's purely because it clashes with the continuity of Aliens. If its added to the film in isolation, it makes the piece stronger.

Returning to my original post, I've since revised based on comments from my friend and others. 

Alien: Rape and undesired conception
Prometheus: Unwanted children
Aliens: Maternity
Alien 3: Death and the Afterlife
Alien Resurrection: Rebirth 

Of course the individual films have their own flaws and this sequence in no way removes them, but I do think it ties these films together into what the original impetus of every film has:

A lifecycle, albeit a tragic one.