Neutral Female Image In Science Fiction Film Alien Franchise

The study on female images in mass media has always been a focus of scholars home and abroad. These studies criticize the negative and stereotyped portrait of female images from sociological and communicational perspectives and point out they are prejudice and discrimination on females. However, they rarely mention how to build positive female images in mass media. Based on the feminist theory and by analyzing the neutral female image portrayed in Alien franchise, the author points out that this neutral female image is a progressive image of female, which can be reference to the deconstructing of negative and stereotyped female images and constructing of positive and healthy female images in the mass media.Firstly, the thesis introduces the feminist theory and reviews the situation of female study from the perspective of feminism to show that portraying of female image in mass media should be under the guidance of requirement of time and the development of feminism.Secondly, combining the gender neutral phenomenon in real life and the term "zhongxinghua" used by Chinese scholars, the author defines "neutral female" as a female who is gender vague on appearance and androgynous on personality.Then, by detailed analysis of Ripley's image in Alien franchise, the author declares that Ripley is a female image who is gender vague on appearance and androgynous on personality. Contrasting Ripley's neutral image with the female images in the mass media at present, the thesis concludes that the neutral female image portrayed in Alien franchise is a reform of negative and stereotyped female images in the mass media.In addition, the author points out that with the rising feminism awareness and an increasingly tolerant culture environment, constructing neutral female image in main stream mass media is not only fit to the requirement of time but also helpful to the females' development as individuals. Therefore, the author also suggests the mass media to consult on the ways the Alien franchise portraying neutral female image, such as, broader activity space, gender neutral appearance, and complete body and integrate personage and androgynous personality and so on, so to rebuild the female images in the mass media.Finally, the author concludes the thesis and points out the limitations of her thesis and provides suggestion for future researches.