I will note that whenever I screened "Alien" for my Science Fiction and Horror class at a Taiwanese university, this scene would always incite a round of nervous laughter, perhaps because of the incongruity of watching such a scene at school, or the sheer “tiny-ness” of the panties. (I always worried a bit it might get me in trouble screening it.)
The nature of the shot, especially when it moves from a medium to almost full shot (and then when she leans over for the “plumber's crack” shot [1:14/3:52]), always reminded me of the POV killer (voyeuristic) shot, a kind of formalistic genre signal that all is not well.
Final note: To me, that shot is also a clear example of the “male gaze” (Mulvey, 1975), how Hollywood structures females as objects of desire for male spectators. For the meme, the juxtaposition of it being on a male body in “Dune” (then montaged onto the “Alien” shot) also contributes to the humoristic element in the meme (What are we “gazing” at, and more importantly, why?”)
M)
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16, 6-18.
Michael, I stand corrected. You are absolutely right that male vs. female body is an opposition that I should have included. Thank you! On the male gaze, also agreed, there is a voyeuristic aspect to the whole thing, but I think a complication is this: I read somewhere (wish I could remember where) that we (spectators) share the xenomorph's perspective, in this scene. If I remember well, they are hermaphrodites (although I could swear Ripley refers to it as "she", but I don't have the energy to look it up). In any case, my point is not obviously male. So, more than a male gaze, I see it as a predator gaze.
The "Predator" gaze is (or can be, perhaps) sexual as well; the sexual violence of the alien is hinted at strongly during Lambert's death scene earlier in the film (referred to often as insinuating a rape or violation). Thus the setup by the end suggests the Alien kills males in a different fashion than females; as a result, Ripley is in double danger.
I will note that whenever I screened "Alien" for my Science Fiction and Horror class at a Taiwanese university, this scene would always incite a round of nervous laughter, perhaps because of the incongruity of watching such a scene at school, or the sheer “tiny-ness” of the panties. (I always worried a bit it might get me in trouble screening it.)
The nature of the shot, especially when it moves from a medium to almost full shot (and then when she leans over for the “plumber's crack” shot [1:14/3:52]), always reminded me of the POV killer (voyeuristic) shot, a kind of formalistic genre signal that all is not well.
https://youtu.be/iW5OvI6NOl8?si=Ml0L3E6REj1OEAcf
Final note: To me, that shot is also a clear example of the “male gaze” (Mulvey, 1975), how Hollywood structures females as objects of desire for male spectators. For the meme, the juxtaposition of it being on a male body in “Dune” (then montaged onto the “Alien” shot) also contributes to the humoristic element in the meme (What are we “gazing” at, and more importantly, why?”)
M)
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16, 6-18.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6
See also the great Gayln Studlar, as regarding the position of the female spectator
STUDLAR, G. (1985). VISUAL PLEASURE AND THE MASOCHISTIC AESTHETIC. Journal of Film and Video, 37(2), 5–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20687658
Michael, I stand corrected. You are absolutely right that male vs. female body is an opposition that I should have included. Thank you! On the male gaze, also agreed, there is a voyeuristic aspect to the whole thing, but I think a complication is this: I read somewhere (wish I could remember where) that we (spectators) share the xenomorph's perspective, in this scene. If I remember well, they are hermaphrodites (although I could swear Ripley refers to it as "she", but I don't have the energy to look it up). In any case, my point is not obviously male. So, more than a male gaze, I see it as a predator gaze.
The "Predator" gaze is (or can be, perhaps) sexual as well; the sexual violence of the alien is hinted at strongly during Lambert's death scene earlier in the film (referred to often as insinuating a rape or violation). Thus the setup by the end suggests the Alien kills males in a different fashion than females; as a result, Ripley is in double danger.
https://youtu.be/P1S6jse93xE?si=J3joxBFFMu9DqhD5
Ha ha, it's not "corrected" at all; it's added to! I love the original post and the meme analyses you've been doing!