Sophie's Choice - Blog Posts

HORROR'S NEXT TOP GENDER, ROUND TWO MATCH SEVEN: Winslow Leach (Phantom of the Paradise) vs. Ellen Ripley (Alien)

PROPAGANDA FOR WINSLOW:

"So when the movie starts Winslow already has major egg vibes with her artsy little turtleneck and “this is the longest i can grow out my hair without raising suspicion” haircut (although it was the 70s and i think longer hair was more common for men at the time. still counts tho). Then when she’s trying to sneak into Swan’s house so she can talk to him after she’s been kicked out, she puts on a dress and pretends to be one of the women there to audition!! there were other ways she could have snuck in but she chose to wear a dress. she doesn’t act ashamed or embarrassed either, and when she’s caught she seemed to not have been suspecting Swan and his guards/police to be disgusted with her. Then once she’s the phantom she puts on a cunty little outfit with a cape and black lipstick and heavy eye makeup!! The mask makes sense to hide her injury, but the rest of the outfit was completely unnecessary. she just wanted to explore her gender and be a creature of the night and slay while doing it. also says a lot that once she can’t sing anymore and is picking a singer to, in her words, “be my voice,” she picks a woman and gets incredibly upset whenever men are chosen to present her music. she’s also just generally more comfortable around women ,, every time i watch this movie i am more and more convinced winslow is transfemme"

PROPAGANDA FOR RIPLEY:

"The character of Ripley was originally meant to be played by a man. also pleaseeee if this competition is a bunch of white guys im going to lose it"

"She is so incredibly butch and cool, she has that butch mechanic thing going on"

"The character was originally going to be a man but Sigourney Weaver killed it at the audition so she was hired and not a single line of dialogue was changed. Also, overall, most of the films leave an implication that gender is not very important to the point of being a practically genderless society. Everyone in these movies is too stressed and too busy working under late, late stage capitalism. My point is that Ellen Ripley is definitely (however unintentionally) agender"