Facehugger
1 media/Facehugger_thumb.jpg 2020-04-13T11:15:28-07:00 Clayton Meyer 9f8f32a5f41ed8ced76f54c2672bfdcc44a67d85 37182 3 A "face hugger" attaches to its host to implant a xenomorph embryo. plain 2020-05-14T20:27:53-07:00 Clayton Meyer 9f8f32a5f41ed8ced76f54c2672bfdcc44a67d85This page is referenced by:
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Alien (1979)
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An Extraterrestrial Embodiment of Primal Sexuality
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Ridley Scott's Alien is akin to a slasher flick set in deep space. In this science fiction classic, the crew of a ship called the Nostromo awaken from cryogenic slumber in order to respond to a distress beacon from a nearby planet. When the Nostromo arrives on this world, a member of the crew is attacked by an alien creature that latches onto his face. This alien implants an embryo, which develops and bursts forth from the crew member's chest. The Xenomorph then kills the other crew members one by one, until Amanda Ripley is left isolated with the monster.
The Xenomorph was designed by H. R. Giger, who gave the creature an armored, mechanical design that represents the union of the biological and the mechanical. This design suggests that the Xenomorph is an embodiment of the potential threat of technological advancement. Giger also created the Xenomorph to appear phallic in nature. The alien's elongated head and second, smaller mouth that protrudes forth when it is about to kill its victim indicates that the Xenomorph is the embodiment of primal male sexual desire that essentially penetrates its victims to death. The lack of apparent sensory organs like eyes, ears, and a mouth reveals that the creatures operates on the most feral level, existing only to eat and reproduce.
The implantation of the embryo into the unsuspecting crew member by the first alien, referred to as a "face hugger" is a metaphor for sexual assault. In this assault, however, the roles are reversed, with a male crew member being impregnated by a creature that is yonic in appearance. This inversion is expanded when one considers the mechanism of the face hugger's initial attachment to the crew member, when the face hugger shoots out of an egg toward its host. The alien's initial state is therefore female in structure, being an ovum, but male in action, shooting its young at a target that can host its offspring.
