Sexual imagery in prometheus (spoilers)

Appart from the caesarean, the only thing I noticed was that Vickers was really horny. : P I think this movie is more about parent/children relationships then about hidden sexual messages.

This should be in the spoiler section, right? If you've not seen the film and don't like spoilers, stop reading. I've been puzzling over the sex and gender issues myself. Alien Resurrection ends with a metaphorical but very pointed abortion: baby-zen is suctioned away from Ali-Rip and dies. In Prometheus we have an actual abortion. The film carefully describes it as a caesarian (No doubt to pacify Fox's many friends on the religious right) but its an abortion: Shaw tries to kill Cuddles when it is removed. How this reflects on Shaw's supposed Christianity is - like so many other issues and plot points - something the film would rather not address. The Aliens series had a tradition of portraying strong women. Shaw is more complex, more dependent, and not as well developed in the script. She is a hero in her own way, but exists for most of the film as the lesser part of a dyad (described at one point as "the scientist and his girlfriend".) The film did seem to be linking an infertile woman conceiving (a monster) with Christmas and its mythology of virgin birth. Using sex as a vehicle for transmission rather than rape might be seen as a post-AIDS update of Aliens mythology. There are lots of other transformations as well, but they all are standard (and cliched) horror tropes. But at least the Alien universe now has zombies. It can stand up proud. And in the other sexual encounter, well Vickers has casual sex and doesn't survive, just like in all the other b-grade American horror movies that Prometheus copies from. She should learn to run sideways. Prometheus/Lost, In Space keynotes David Lean and Stanley Kubrick, but it ends up channelling Friday the Thirteenth part 17. It all seems a bit reactionary. As well as confused.

the scene features the most explicit oral rape scene or really rape scene in general ever seen in a movie complete with pelvic thrusting.

Other obvious exampes from the movie: The explicitly penis shaped 'cobralien' that turns into an angry vagina and penetrates Milburn. The vaginal entrances to the 'derelict class' ship is seen even more clearly than in the original alien.

What does Shaw giving birth to Cuddles then trying to kill it have to do with her Christianity? lol I'd think that whole incident, being as it was unexpected and most definitely traumatizing, would throw religious beliefs out the window....depending on the person's will, of course. Never mind the fact that the Vatican has claimed that they'd be more than happy to baptize extraterrestrials. Shaw does seem to harbor some significant religious ideology of sorts. It's easy to assume it's Christian because most Christians are identified as people who believe in God (sometimes known as the God of Israel, though). Anyway, it's past 2AM where I'm at and I need to go to bed. Sorry if what I said here either made no sense or struck a nerve (being as I replied to something regarding religion).

I hadn't thought of how that related to all the religious imagery... interesting. As for saying that there wasn't much else in the way of hidden sexual meaning... i found it blatant. Just about every creature impregnates its victim by forcing a phallic-shaped body part (or in the case of the snakes... its whole phallic body) down their mouth. So interesting that in this movie shaw was impregnated with an alien by having concentual sex with a human male. Also interesting that you mention how this is a post-AIDS influence. But mostly the interspecies interaction is sexual.. especially towards the end when shaw's giant squid baby forces its penis into the space jockey's mouth before pinning him to the ground in some bizarre, messed up carress. I have to disagree with your comments on the portrayal of the women in this movie. Vickers is very much an independant, strong woman. I think they put her in because they realised the alien movies tend to portray only men as evil and women as good. Shaw was also pretty strong and indepedant, I felt (I mean, her boyfriend dies in the first few scenes and she is the one that rescues him). The major difference between her and ripley that i could see was that she was a scientist and saw science as more important than protecting life (when she grabs the head out of the windstorm). Ripley is the other way round.

[quote]The vaginal entrances to the 'derelict class' ship is seen even more clearly than in the original alien.[/quote] Yes, it was very obvious. I think it was when shaw was lowering david's body out of the derelict ship... the opening she was lowering him from was unmistakeably vaginal in shape. I'll have to reply again on this in a few days after i see it again so i can point out the rest of the sexual imagery.

rape scene

Dave - just making a side point that Shaw's Christianity is pretty anodyne in the film.

Folks, I understand the nature of this thread, but let's keep it clean. I can see this one getting out of hand very easily. If you have any questions as to our rules, please refer "Read the Forum Rules" before posting. thank you kindly, Freeze.

the 'cobralien' is a facehugger without the back and arms, no? all facial orifice belong to alien, it's a repro mechanism "Vickers, are you a robot?" then comes the best one-liner in the movie. Now, that's sexual imagery.

i think u guys need to take things a little more at face value, not everything has such hidden messages. all this rape talk, yea that might be wat it looks like cos its the only thing u have to compare it to. they are aliens so they are gonna work differently to humans, in all aspects of life.

Why is everyone so scared of alien's sexual side? its so blatantly obvious.... even the production team, way back to the original alien, said that it was a major conceptual backing. When i say sexual, I don't mean sexual as in the human understanding of like, lust and sensuality and all of that. I mean sexual reproduction. If something forces itself down your throat and impregnates you against your will.. thats it having sex with you, thats the way that it copulates, and you are its female... as its obviously against the host's will, its rape. But not rape in the human sense, rape in this other-wordly sense. The sex is in terms of the survival, evolutionary aspect of sex. But, as its from a human perspective, it shows the human reaction to getting caught up in the relentless rampage of evolution and life. The human reaction is... well, you know how we view sex. The messages aren't hidden, theyre blatant, deliberate, important to the philosophical aspect of the film, and interesting.

@[b]nysalor[/b] It's okay. I was way tired when I posted that comment, and at the time Shaw's religious beliefs came to mind, but I was too tired to come up with a more intelligent post. Although, often times, sex and religion go hand-in-hand.....but really that depends on the person.

I'll take a crack at this and say that this time around the film is about gender and the war of the sexes and the results thus far. There are many examples, here's just a few: the ship's surgical machine isn't designed for women, no need or desire for them. Weylander has replaced his daughter with a son. Vicker's isn't interested in sex with men, as she makes clear to the Captain. "Do you think I travelled X miles if I wanted to get laid?" We don't see them have sex. They don't have sex. It would be totally out of character for her to consent to having sex with a man. Their conversation was used to make it clear where Vicker's stood sexually. This is true for the Engineers as well. They are a technologically advanced, masculine culture, where the squid creatures are clearly female. Both species 'culture' is dying, they need to find/create life somewhere else because it ain't happening on their planet. Enter earth. When they finally do reproduced it's an oral rape by the squid creature towards the end of the film. (A commentary on the nature of oral sex?) The moral of the film? When men and women are at war, as they are in our day and age, society dies, and turns into the misery we see aboard the Prometheus and on the Engineers planet. At it's best we can have a civil stand-off, at it's worse we have rapes that result in Alien monsters.