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of the female lead character. She claims that male and female spectators identify bisexually and she separates out the differences between appearance (sex) and behaviour (gender). Examining narrative she states that the 'Final Girl: the one girl in the film who fights, resists and survives the killer-monster, [is the one who] acquires the gaze, and dominates the action, and is thus masculinised.' (Clover, 1992, pg. 357) In Alien, Ripley acquires the gaze by being the only one left alive, and dominates the action by defeating the alien. Clover argues that by openly playing on the difference between 'sex' and 'gender', that the 'theatricalisation of gender' feminises the audience because the woman is her own saviour making her the hero, at which point the male viewer gives up the last pretence of male identification. (Clover, 1992) Like the 'slasher' film, Alien's Ripley displays many of the narrative characteristics which Clover discusses, and Clover is adamant the modern horror film 'adjusts gender representations and identifications' (Clover, 1992. pg 378), something Hollywood wasn't doing pre-1960 according to Mulvey. What Clover appears to be arguing is that through the 'Final Girl' modern horror cinema is largely a feminist movement because 'the male gives up the last pretence of male identification'. Whilst gender roles can differ, the masculinisation of a character such as Ripley, only serves as a celebration of feminism, and instead of, as Mulvey claimed, women being 'passive and powerless', they are now being empowered at the expense of men.

Barbara Creed closely analysed Alien using Freud as a basis, and using one of her arguments regarding what she teems the 'archaic mother', it is possible to examine Alien's femininity from a totally different approach to that of Laura Mulvey and Carol Clover.

Using Freud's notes on the 'primal fantasies', and his ideas that children either view their parents having sex or have fantasies about seeing them have sex, a child may perceive 'whether in reality or fantasy, the primal scene as a monstrous act it may fantasise animals or mythical creatures taking part.' (Creed, 1993. pg. 18) She uses this idea of 'sex' and the 'monstrous' and relates it to the film Alien. Instead of seeing female characters from their role within the narrative, or their appearance, Creed suggests that the very 'monster' and 'monstrous' within the film is feminine in nature, and this therefore totally disparages Mulvey's claims of the 'passive'

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