So DH and I have spent the last few evenings watching all of the 'Alien' franchise on Film 4. I haven't seen the films in years and it struck me what a great character Ripley is.
She is not conventionally 'beautiful', there are no heaving breasts or arse hugging shorts, but Ripley is absolutely all woman and a total badass.
When she strips down to her vest and knickers at the beginning of the first film, it's actually integral to the plot, so that she could get into her spacesuit to decompress the cabin and kill the alien.
There isn't much 'romance' in the films, but the sexual tension that is there, she is very much in control of. Hicks is mesmerised by how well she can hold her own, and when she shags Charles Dance in the third film again its on her terms as much as his.
In fact all the female characters in the films are great. The sole survivor of the colony in Aliens is a little girl, there are several female secondary characters (Marines, pilots) who are not there as 'women' but just as 'another character' if you see what I mean. Short hair, not 'gender conforming', but absolutely women who hold their own as well as the men.
There are some Bechdel test moments too, with Ripley and Newt and Ripley and Winona Ryders character in Alien Resurrection.
Also in Alien Resurrection the theme of Ripley being a 'Mother' I noticed being shown as a powerful thing. Up until this point her being a woman was almost irrelevant (apart from in Aliens 3 when she is up against all the rapists) she is just a strong character.
I don't know, it feels like it was ahead of its time in terms of strong female characters. I am struggling to think of any films since which have similar - am thinking Katniss Everdeen, but even she is quite sexualised at points and there is the romance thing as a distraction.
Sorry that was long, and I may be over thinking, but I have loved watching these films over the past few evenings!