When You See Me

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Representations of Women in Aliens 1. How has the representation of women changed in Aliens (1986) in comparison with Dr No (1962)? Use examples to explain your answer. The view if a woman’s value in society has changed greatly from the 60’s to mid-80’s. In Dr No, women play very little importance to the narrative and are simply represented as either sex objects or dominated by men in the workforce such as Miss Taro or Miss Honeypenny as the secretaries. However in Aliens, the female characters are strong and in many ways dominant over the men in the film such as Vasquez who is the leader of the marine, and Ripley who directed the whole battle while Gorman was too nervous and afraid of Aliens. These differences reflect the views society had regarding the roles of women at the times the films were made. 2. What role does the context in which Ripley is travelling (i.e. with the ‘macho’ marines) play in the film? How does this help the establishment of the representation of the different women onboard? 3. Compare and contrast the representations of Ripley and Vasquez using two symbolic, and two technical codes for each woman. Technical codes • Framing: 1. The focus on Vasquez’s muscle as well as strong dark body. 2. Ripley on the background when Vasquez was fitting. These areas of Vasquez’s body emphasize her physical contrast with Ripley who looks thin and weak. When Vasquez asked ’who’s the Snow White’, and the camera moves to Ripley on the background, the difference of skin colour as well as implied character is clearly highlighted. • Composition 1. Vasquez was in the front of the team holding a gun. 2. Ripley in the controlling room plays the role of commander. this shows that Vasquez is the leader of the marine and Ripley is the leader of the whole
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