Abstract

The Alien films are steeped in the horror of sexual violence and the effects that it can have on survivors. The films place male viewers into a position they are not usually forced to confront in their own lives, during which they can only wonder what it would be like to have to worry about sexual violence just as much as women. This chapter looks more closely at what it is like for women in both the real world and the world of the Alien films. It shows that rape is more likely to be under reported for male survivors than for females, but the gulf between sexes is still likely to be pretty large, even taking this into account. While the men in these films direct their ugly comments towards female characters like Ripley or the hypothetical colonists' daughters, the aliens themselves are far less discerning.