Because it’s going to be hard. That’s the thing: it’s always going to be hard. It doesn’t end with you beating the creature, getting clear; there’s always a goddamned sequel. It ends with the monsters pouring through the door or the Hellmouth or the air ducts; it ends, sometimes, with you broke and unloved in a movie theater, clinging to the story because that’s all you have. It ends with you being disliked, still, being watched, still. Because you’re anomalous: always pathologized, always strange and frightening. Because as far as a lot of people are concerned, you’re not the heroine of this piece. You’re the monster.
—from Sady Doyle’s essay “Ellen Ripley Saved My Life” (via thewayoftheid)
(via karnythia)