"Who's Zoomin' Who?": On "Passing" and the Intersection of Race and Humanity in Alien Resurrection

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                Neale

David S. Neale

Lewis Gordon

AA 10

August 9, 1999

"Who's Zoomin' Who?":  On "Passing" and the Intersection of Race and Humanity
in
Alien Resurrection

This paper will detail an observed theme of "passing" in Alien Resurrection (AR).  In this film the two characters who pass are Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Call (Winona Ryder).  But instead of passing as a racial other—at least in terms of how we think of phenotypically racial characteristics on the body—Ripley and Call pass for human.  Lewis Gordon's reading of Pico Della Mirandola's scheme of humanity assists recognition of this observed theme of passing in AR.  In addition, the information about the history of racial passing in Naomi Zack's Race and Mixed Race is of useful comparative value; for as this paper will show, the structuring paradigm involved in human passing in AR seems to correlate, both positively and negatively, with that involved in racial passing.

To understand the observation detailed herein, a definition of passing is necessary.  For the purpose of this paper, passing refers to:  1) the phenomenon of pretending to be something or someone that one, by definition, is not; and 2) successfully fooling an audience that one really is his/her feigned persona, and not an imposter.  I call attention to the phrase “by definition” in the first requisite above because historically the term passing has popularly held a racial significance in the United States.  As such, to pass racially depends on discrete definitions of race (e.g., the "one drop rule" to determine blackness) as a foundational frame within which passing may operate.  One historical application of passing would be those individuals who were, by definition, black (per the “one drop rule”), but who, because they may have appeared white, successfully passed for white in the public arena.  While there are many other forms of passing (e.g., a pre-operation transsexual seeking to pass as the opposite sex), such forms, I believe, are a reapplication of, or "sequel" to, a foundational definition of passing that finds its origins in a discourse of race.  One of these "sequels"—passing for human—occurs in Alien Resurrection.

To assist recognition of this theme in AR, consider Lewis Gordon's reading of Pico Della Mirandola’s schema of humanity:

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In his famous Oration of the Dignity of Man, Pico Della Mirandola constructed a schema that is instructive for the understanding of race and racism.  According to Pico, the human being stood between the gods above and animals below. . . .  Pico’s schema becomes instructive, in that the implications of a superior race and an inferior race fall onto the schema, in terms of which each group is pushed in relation to the gods and animals.  The teleological implication of a superior race is its closer place to the gods, and the implication of an inferior race is its ...

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