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I've heard a lot about Alien in regards to feminism, but I haven't heard much solid beyond Ripley being originally a masculine role, and how Ripley is one of the first non-feminized female protagonist (especially in a horror film where it's always a female love interest). The only critique I've heard has been about Ripley going back for cat-- fulfilling the "mother" role women are often shoved into. I expect a male protagonist would also go back for the cat, because it's a sci-fi horror film and pets are rarely left behind in sci-fi movies... but that's my personal theory. It's a cute cat, come on. Also they needed a reason to send Ripley back into the ship. The piece at the end was a little gratuitous with the cat being shushed, but it really felt like she was comforting herself.

Ripley is really interesting in comparison to Lambert, who is every inch the hysterical woman-- one can't blame her given the circumstances, but she still fulfills the stereotype and it's a bit agonizing in comparison to Ripley's cool-headed behavior.

I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid, so I didn't pick up on a lot of things. Like the computer being called Mother, but Mother's behavior (being a computer) is incredibly impersonal. When Dallas asks, "what are my chances?" Mother says, "does not compute," and later that the crew is expendable. Mother! Saying that the crew is expendable. Ripley screaming out, "MOTHER!" when the ship is about to self-destruct, and then calls her a bitch. This sexless, emotionless piece of machinery.

And most of the movie onboard the ship is full of heartbeats, either mechanical or faux mechanical (air vents? Not sure...) like the ship is Mother's womb. Or maybe I'm going too far with that, but I couldn't help but make the connection of this dark, damp space, industrial and impersonal, as a womb. It wouldn't surprise me if it was intentional, though, given Giger's style.

Ripley's behavior isn't masculinized, for all that the role was written for a man. It just lacks the extrenuous female bullshit-- Ripley panics exactly as a male protagonist would in almost all cases, except for the instance where the facehugger falls and she's behind Dallas, clinging to him.

Then again, after Dallas dies, and Ripley is (rather calmly) taking control of the situation and Parker calls her hysterical-- I wonder if they added that in because Weaver took the role? A man would never have been called hysterical in such a position, but the accusation of hysteria is often used to dismiss women, whether or not they're acting hysterically.