Ana Sofa Gonzlez Saravia Pea

Seminario de Ciencia Ficcin

Reading Gender in Science Fiction: Exploring the Construction of the Female in The
Hunger Games and Alien

Behind every work of science fiction, lays the same narrative, being re-told and reimagined over and over again: the story of the encounter with the other. The portrayal of
this encounter, however, entails the deconstruction and constant definition of the self.
Therefore, just as with most works of literature and cinema, the narrative of the sf story
almost always points to the search for the elements that constitutes an identity. Nonetheless,
the main difference between science fictional identity-driven narratives and others found in
different genres is that in sf works, the construction of a characters identity usually stands
for the construction of a social paradigm. Whereas most fictional narrative is focused on
the creation of characters, sf is built on the extrapolation of concepts, and these are
reflected in a characters struggle to come to terms with difference.
Identity, as many philosophers and critics have pointed out, is a fragmentary, unstable
concept that is constituted by the intersection of many different elements: as Stuart Hall
has argued, identity is a matter of becoming as well as being (1997: 52). A becoming
subject is one that is not fixed and determinate: its diversity allows it to contain multiple
rather than singular possibilities for the articulation of identity. (Wolmark 156) Many of
these possibilities are the result of power relations that determine arbitrary standards which

a subject is expected to fulfill. Gender, nationality, race and class are some of the most
significant of these social constructs and, therefore, have become central in the production
of more contemporary science fiction. In this essay, I will examine gender issues; a topic
which has been explored with great potential in the genre. I will focus in two of the most
popular female protagonists in science fiction: Ellen Ripley, from the cinematographic
series Alien (1979), and Katniss Everdeen, from the popular YA novel (2008) and movie
(2013) The Hunger Games .
Both characters are a complex and interesting examples of the way gender constructions
can be portrayed and analyzed in sf. They illustrate the way most gender issues found in
feminist theory are exemplified using the tropes of the genre. According to Sarah Lefanu,
feminism has a close relationship with sf because
One of the major theoretical projects of the second wave of feminism is the
investigation of gender and sexuality as social constructsThe stock
conventions of science fictiontime travel, alternate worlds, entropy,
relativism, the search for a unified field theorycan be used metaphorically
and metonymically as powerful ways of exploring the construction of
woman. (qtd in Roberts 91)
Since sf conventionally alters social interactions by portraying alternate realities, topics such
as genderwhich is built on power relations and binary, hierarchical discourse of
male/femaleare easier to explore. As we will see further on, female characters in sf
whether intentionally or notare always a reflection of this social structures. These
characters often embody the contradictions and complexities of gender constructions since
they simultaneously comply with and transgress stereotypical gender roles. However, in the
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case of Katniss and Ripley, their transgression is stronger than their compliance, and even
their compliance must not be read as a sign of ignorance or subjugation, but of complexity
and depth.
The first and most obvious way in which the two of them defy gender stereotypes is the
representation of their agency. The subvert the stereotype of women as passive characters.
Both are portrayed as strong women who can act, think and take care of themselves. They do
not fall under the damsel in distress trope which is so common to classical adventure and
science fiction works. They take the role of the action hero and transgress it by being female.
Their development in their narratives is not subordinated to the actions of a male character
because the narrative is driven by them. However, being female and a protagonist in an
action-filled sf narrative does not transgress conventions on its own. True agency in a female
character is not defined just by being a heroine, but by being portrayed as a character that is
not created to satisfy the male Gaze.
Both Ripley and Katniss escape from the convention of the femme fatale that has
characterized a great deal of female characters in sf. That does not mean that the femme
fatale cannot be complex or transgressive. For example, Caprica Six from Battlestar
Galactica (including all her different personae) is a subversion of this trope. Portraying
female sexuality in sf can be very tricky, since the line between objectification and agency
can sometimes be very thin. When a character is visually and narratively dependent on sex,
she becomes subordinated to a role as a fulfiller of male fantasies (or anxieties). If a female
character expresses her own sexuality in her own terms, not as an essential element to her
conception, but as something that is natural to her complexity, then sex becomes a part of
her humanity, rather than the definition of her identity. When these characters have a sexual
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encounter, like the one Ripley has with Clemens in Alien 3 and Katnisss experiences with
Peeta and Gale, it does not become a fulfillment of their role or a threat to their partners
manhood and power, but an act that springs from a human need of contact and encounter, or,
in Katnisss case, of enjoyment and survival.
This is the case with both characters. Neither of them is visually exhibited on order to
please the male gaze and, even though their sexual encounters are few and brief, they do not
follow under the opposite extreme of the femme fatale; that trope which is closely related to
what Vivian Sobchack calls The Virgin Astronaut. Both characters can be described as
astronauts (Ripley literally, Katniss thematically), if we understand the astronaut in sf as an
archetype that is a continuation of the cowboy of the Western: yet, astronauts are clearly
those figures who centralize and visually represent the values and virtues common to all the
male protagonists of the genre in a single archetypal presence. (Sobchack qtd. in Pibmley
6) The astronaut is portrayed as asexual since, because it is implied that he is male, his body
and sexuality are never shown. That is why both female protagonists subvert the archetype
of the astronaut, because both are consciously female, and their bodies and gender are
graphically shown to thee spectator . Neither of them hide or try to cover their gender, nor
they try to emulate men; they are not overly sexual, nor are they not virginal and pure.
This denial of binary discourse is necessary in the construction of interesting female sf
characters. As Adam Roberts puts it, this celebration of the hybrid is one of the main
strands of strong female SF, and in part it provides a direct access to the poetics of alterity.
(104) Understanding hybridity demands a deep understanding of alterity, which is the key to
a complex analysis on the way social constructs shape identity. By having protagonists who
share both male and female traits, the idea of the natural woman/man is put into question.
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If womenwho are the protagonist the audience is supposed to identify withcan be

assertive, dangerous, self-sufficient and vulnerable at the same time, it means that their value
as heroines do not rely on gender alone, since there is no intrinsical, heroic characteristic
that can be attributed to a specific gender.
Perhaps that is the reason most non-hybrid characters are killed in both movies. In the
Alien series, almost all male charactersstereotypical testosterone driven menare killed,
and the women who die are completely masculine women, like Lambert and Vasquez in
Aliens. The only people, who manage to survive besides from Ripley, are hybrids like her.
Newt1, for example, is just like Ripley. She is small, scared and vulnerable at first, but
survival toughens her and makes her an independent (for her age) girl. The same way,
Bishop survives because he is an android, portrayed with an androgynous rather than male
personality. The same way, in the fourth film, only Ripley and Call, a female android,
survive. The survival of Ripleys companions is also driven by one of the most important
themes in the movies, upon which we will look further on: the portrayal of Ripleys
motherhood.
In The Hunger Games, the death and personification of the tributes is based on the way
their identity is constituted accommodating gender stereotypes. More hybrid tributes, like
Katniss and Peeta, either survive or die in a meaningful, dignified way. For example, Rue,
Thresh and Foxface are portrayed as tributes which sympathize with Katniss because,
even though they are constrained by their genderRue and Foxface being small and weak
and Thresh being depicted as only strongthey escape those conventions by displaying
1 Even if they die in between films, I consider Newt and Bishop survivors because their deaths
were more of a narrative excuse to isolate Ripley in the third film rather than an intended killing,
like the rest of the characters were.
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values which do not comply with them (Rue and Foxface are smart survivors and Thresh is
merciful and even caring). However, the Career Tributes are depicted as a sort of gender
cartoon. Glimmer relies on sex and beauty to move around the competition, and Cato is
driven mad by expectations on him as a dominating, ambitious man. Clove, the girl from
District 2, is cold, calculating and merciless. All three of them die in painful, horrible ways,
unlike the others, whose deaths are given meaning through Katnisss actions.
Hybridity in the protagonists is portrayed by showing a constant tension between agency
and violence and vulnerability and fear. Both women begin as unaccepting subjects who
develop working in a field that is considered typically male (space trading and hunting).
Both are presented with an outer threat they most face, and the only way they can do that is
by overcoming fear and weakness. They are survivors, who are left traumatized after their
first experiences. However, they learn to overcome the initial trauma to become leaders, and
by doing so they begin to defy the system that orchestrates their oppression. They also learn
the value of self-sacrifice, as they become mother-like figures who take care of those they
feel the need to protect. Their identity is built intertwining two different discourses: on one
hand they are killing machines, aggressive and violent. On the other, they are scarred by that
same violence, and their main need is the protection and survival of those whom they care
about.
In order to be hybridized, both women most not only become survivors, but also mother
figures. However, this motherhood is also portrayed as a hybridized one. Their portrayal of
motherhood is not based on passivity but on aggression. Katniss becomes a mother figure to
her sister Prim, Rue and even Peeta. Yet, she is the active mother who kills, hunts, and
suffers stoically in order to protect her children. This image is contrasted to that of her
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own mother, who is depicted as a passive, weak woman who cannot provide for her girls.
However, both Prim and Katniss mother possess strength that Katniss lacks: nurturing and
healing. Thus, Katniss motherhood is, in reality, a hybrid of both the father and mother
figure by being the care giver and the provider simultaneously.
In Ripleys case, motherhood is more intricate since it is represented as the link between the
self and the other. As the series progresses, Ripleys relationship with the xenomorphs
becomes dialectic rather than binary, and the female aliens become a sort of mirror on which
Ripley is reflected. Xenomorphs differ from other alien species because they combine
terrorific and violent aspects of both male and female sexuality. On one hand, they are
phallic figures who forcibly impregnate humans. On the other side, they are a matriarchal
species where reproduction, fertility and motherhood are the main priority. Just as Ripley,
the xenomorphs (and more specifically the Queen) are monster-mothers who breed monsterchildren2, and their main priority is always the survival of themselves and their offspring.
Ripley needs to decide which aspect of her personality she should embrace. In Alien:
Resurrection, she chooses to kill her monster-child, to go against this macabre motherhood
in order to protect mankind.
Not only do these female protagonists defy gender stereotypes of the genre by existing
outside binary discourse, but by doing so they also depict the social dynamics that oppress
or control women in our society. Many critics have already written about sexual imagery and
rape in Alien, but to just analyze Ripleys identity construction under that light would be
2 Roberts describes this depiction of motherhood and femininity as monstrous as a way of
subverting gender roles since: The identification of the monster with femaleness inverts some of
the traditional sexist assumptions about what women are like. It is strong, violent, active rather than
passive, and the fetishisation of that very monster celebrates the bursting of traditional bounds.
(104)
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extremely limiting. Yes, in psychoanalytical terms, Ripley is portrayed as the feminist

heroine who fights against phallic sexual dominance and oppression, but, as we have
explored in the previous paragraph, the alien is a hybrid; as feminine as it is a phallic figure.
That is why, as Ripley gets to know the xenomorphs better, she realizes that they are not her
enemy; they are just an unstoppable force of nature. The real threat is the Weyland-Yutani
Corporation which, having no regard for human life, sacrifices its employees, colonizers,
military people, etc. in its attempt to control and weaponize xenomorphs.
Ripleys hatred for the corporation shows the spectator the political and economic
structures that are responsible for the system that oppresses peopleand more especially
womenin the world. Rape, violence and the constant policing of womens bodies are not
the result of a personal action, but of a complex system that sees life as nothing more than
profit. This is also the case in The Hunger Games, as Katniss understands that her true
enemies are no those other tributes who are trying to kill her, but a government who, through
military, media and economic oppression, has driven them to murder. Because they are
female, both Katniss and Ripley become more aware of these controlling entities since they
belong to a gender who has, traditionally, been more vulnerable to this kinds of regulating
systems.
Genre is also crucial in this depiction of the controlling system because, as Patricia
Mezler states: the ambivalent and diverse portrayals of female bodies within feminist
science fiction point to the contradictory effects technology has on womens lives and to the
continual necessity to explore conflicting positions within this debate. (184) Technology
becomes extremely important as a representation of an oppressive tool; a tool which is very
much related to the way womens bodies are controlled in society. In Alien, Ripleys body is
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turned, against her will, into a monster factory and a weapon. Through genetic
experimentation, she is forced to become the mother of the monster, as well as a perfect,
indestructible warrior. This is a reflection of real-life rape and forced impregnation of
women, which has always been an strategy of control and a genocidal weapon in most
ethnic and civil wars. Katniss body, on the other hand, becomes the property of the media.
She is modified, made up and controlled in order to satisfy an audiences expectation of
gender, and her survival depends on fulfilling that stereotype.
By creating hybridized and complex female leads, these sf works show the structures that
construct a gendered society. Their hybridity is built on the transgression of binary discourse
that limits identities to a hierarchical logic in which only men can become the active agents
of a narrative. Even though this is common to most fiction which is preoccupied with
gender, sf feminist texts stand out from the rest because, as we have seen, the dynamics of
the genre allow them to create alternate realities in which things we have taken for granted
can be explored under a different light. That way, social constructs, such a gender, which
have been so firmly ingrained in our collective subconscious, are destabilized. All the
different Ripleys and Katnisses that exist in popular fiction are there for a reason: to show us
where the real strength lies, not in perpetuating a war against that monstrous alterity on
which we project our identity, but in embracing that hybrid alien whom, when we look
closer, should shows us the things we are made of.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Roberts, Adam.Gender in Science Fiction. London : Routledge 2000. PDF File.

Mezler, Patricia. The Anatomy of Dystopia: Female Technobodies and the
Deathof Desire in Richard Calders Dead Girls in Alien Constructions: Science

Fiction and Femenist Thought. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. PDF File.
Pimley, Daniel. Representations Of The Body In Alien: How can science fiction
be seen as an expression of contemporary attitudes and anxieties about human
biology?.

2003.

Consulted

at:

http://www.pimley.net/documents/thebodyinalien.pdf. Web.
Wolmark, Jenny. Time and Identity in Feminist Science Fiction in A Companion
to Science Fiction. Ed by David Seed. USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. PDF

File.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. 2008. PDF File.
Alien. Dir. Ridley Scott. 1979. Film.
Aliens. Dir. James Cameron. 1986. Film
Alien3. Dir. David Fincher. 1992. Film
Alien: Resurrection. Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet. 1997. Film

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