Automated Attack Monkeys, Scalpel Mines, & Acid

Did you know? February is Women in Horror Recognition Month. Horror is a fandom I have neglected of late, so I thought I jump on the bandwagon would use this opportunity to talk about it.

The thing is, horror is generally seen as a very het male genre. Women are there to be eye candy, not to be the protagonist. To be rescued, not to be the rescuer. To be passive, not active. Of course, this is the case across the entertainment industry, but it is even more the case in horror. But sometimes the horror industry does produce a female lead who is exceptional. Today, I'd like to talk about just one of them.

Ellen Ripley

It says a lot about how even our language is subject to the kyriarchy, that I want to refer to Ripley as The Daddy. Ripley is not a male lead played by a woman, nor is she an eye-candy screamer who survives by luck, she is an all-out all-woman heroine. She uses her brains and her muscles to outwit the men, the aliens, and the evil computers of her future world, and she saves the cat while she's at it.

She's intelligent without being irritating, assertive without being arrogant, capable without being cocky, strong without being strident, and sexy without being sexual. She takes everything that the dystopia she lives in throws at her, and throws it right back with a hearty fuck you.

But the best thing about Ripley is she's not perfect. Sometimes she screws up. The way she deals with her errors are what make her, as a character, for me. She's not a Schwarzenegger-like God character, she's a flawed human being, and she's the most real female horror lead I can think of.

The tragedy is that she really is one of a kind. Every generation should have a Ripley, and we've been waiting 31 years for the next one to come along.

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