VOICES OF SEXUAL DISTORTION - RAPE, BIRTH, AND SELF-ANNIHILATION METAPHORS IN THE ALIEN-TRILOGY

The immensely popular science fiction series sometimes referred to as the Alien Trilogy is analyzed for its mythopoetic critique of gender i dentity. The basis for this critique resides in the movies' embodiment of the literalized myths of gender and family and its subsequent deco nstruction of this framework through metaphoric ambiguity. By destabil izing the conventional frame through which the rhetorical subject is c onstructed, the movies question reified social practice. Such a readin g revises the feminist challenge to these texts, locating them in a br oader cultural tension revolving around reproductive practice.