Sigourney Weaver not only challenged gender roles in general with Ripley, but she done so in the world of science fiction and horror, and that was a pretty big role to play which she did remarkably well. It's probably her best role to date and not only was she a woman in space, she was the last woman in space, as she outlived her crew after defeating the alien. There was something oddly empowering about the famous quote "get away from her you bitch" because it's essentially one female saying it to another in a 'cat fight'. Obviously,'bitch' is probably the last thing that you'd want to call a terrifying alien when it's trying to kill you, but Ripley pulls it off. She understand the ship and how it works, she can take care of herself, defend her crew and fire a gun. Oh, she also killed all of those alien things. Ripley 1- Alien - 0.
