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investigates, it is a major part of the film's underlying context. Ripley survives and defeats the alien therefore 'woman' is not punished or saved, and the 'fear' of castration is still apparent and never solved. If this Freudian theory of male fear is not solved, then the film takes on an appearance of empowering females within the context of the film, as the female is left with all the power and the dramatic action is entirely centred on her. Barbara Creed supports this in that she discusses how Ripley undresses at the end of the film. 'Ripley's body is pleasurable and reassuring to look at. She signifies the 'acceptable' form and shape of woman.' (Creed, 1993, pg. 23) This appears to reaffirm her sexuality but instead of being detrimental to her character's gender, it would appear, based on the relevance of narcissistic visual pleasure, that this is actually a celebration of the strong female role, and an underlying of that fact.

Counter-argument against Mulvey's thesis may ultimately come about because she doesn't account for the female 'gaze' and only relates to the male 'gaze'. Yet her argument against critics that made this point about her makes for an interesting interpretation of why Ripley's role, served usually by male actors, is pleasurable to the female viewer, and perhaps an answer why the strong female character must take on a level of masculinity to express her power. Returning to Freud, Mulvey says that according to the pre-oedipal and phallic fantasy stage of development which affects boys and girls in the same way, and is essentially masculine, means women must shed this active part of masculinity within themselves to achieve 'proper' femininity. Ripley's show of male-like dominance, power and masculinity is pleasurable for women because 'female spectators negotiate the masculinisation of the spectatorial position in Hollywood cinema, because it signifies for them a pleasurable rediscovery of a lost aspect of their sexual identity.' (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg. 355) Therefore from Mulvey's analysis we can argue that Ripley can indeed take on a level of masculinity while simply celebrating her own femininity - a 'lost aspect of [her own] sexual identity', and not a woman who is 'restless in her transvestite clothes' (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg 355), because Ripley reaffirms her own sexuality when she removes her clothes at the end of the film.

Carol Clover in her work analysing 'slasher' films and her theories of the 'Final girl' can explain this masculinisation

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