Raped And Ruined: Themes Of Sexual Assault And Reproductive Coercion In Alien (1979)

Raped and Ruined: Themes of Sexual Assault and Reproductive Coercion in Alien (1979)

Exploring underlying anxieties around sexual assault, loss of bodily autonomy, and forced impregnation in Alien (1979) - a film where fear of rape and forced birth is applied to every character, not just female characters oversexualised to titillate the viewer.

A facehugger in Alien (1979). Via IMDb.

From Merriam-Webster:

Rape: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person’s will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception

Sexual assault: illegal sexual contact that usually involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent (as because of age or physical or mental incapacity) or who places the assailant (such as a doctor) in a position of trust or authority

After a short preface, in this piece, I’m going to watch through Alien (1979) and do a close reading of the text, exploring and analysing themes of and including:

Rape and Sexual Assault

Reproductive Coercion

Pregnancy and Reproduction

Loss of Bodily and Personal Autonomy

The Body as a Resource — in regards to Labour and as a Worker, but also as a physical trading resource — in a society that desires profit

If any of these might be upsetting for you or you don’t feel as if you can stomach them at the moment, it might be a good idea to bookmark this piece and come back to it at another time.

This piece is going to go through the film Alien (1979) and talk in-depth about particular scenes in chronological order, with quotes from the script and screencaps throughout, so there will be spoilers for the whole of the film.

Read in full here!