[machine ghost]

Alien is one of my all time favourite films, my older brother took me to see it for my 13th birthday and I haven't been normal since. I bought a Starlog magazine shortly after seeing it that had an article entitled "Dissecting Alien" written by a Psychologist, this guy saw things in the movie that I don't think the average person caught. He saw the whole movie as a misogynist rape story:
All of the male characters show little or no respect to the female characters. Ripley seems to suffer the most from the male egos on board the ship, the maintenance workers turn on the steam vent while she questions them to interfere with her job. Ash overrides her orders that Kane, Lambert and Dallas remain isolated when Kane is "infected". He also pointed out something along the lines that even the idea of Kane being infected was a warping of the female role of "giving birth".
Then there is the Alien himself that is a walking phallic symbol (its' cranium is definitely penis shaped) and when it kills it 'unsheaths' its' teeth and 'penetrates' the victim.
Next there is the very unusual scene where Ash attempts to murder Ripley after she questions Mother - I never caught this until after reading this article and rewatching the movie; Ash picks up a 'girlie' magazine, wraps it up into a tube quite violently in front of his crotch then tries cramming it down her throat! Very unique way to kill someone. Ash is then taken out of action when his head ahem.. comes off ... so to speak.
Then there is the scene where Parker is taken out and the Alien turns on Lambert, Ripley listens to the whole thing over the intercom and we see the Alien's tail sneak up between Lambert's legs then it cuts to Ripley and sounds of sreaming, panting and sex like noises.
When Ripley faces the 'Rapist' in the escape pod she strips down to her panties and when she is most vulnerable the Alien makes his prescense known to her and instead of climbing out of the ventilation and murdering her it actually stays put and terrorises her by showing off his 'equipment'.
This is just scratching the surface of the article but I think he made some pretty well founded points. Whatta you guys think?