As an English Major with a particular interest in feminist literature, I couldn't help but to comment on the overall portrayal of women in Blade Runner. It seems as if every woman is characterized as inferior to men. All of the replicant women are ultimately created by a creepy and geeky man, Tyrell, who makes replicants out of the personal fantasies he has for what women should be like. On an even weirder note, he gives one of the replicants, Rachel, his niece's memories as if he's attempting to recreate his niece in a sexier body. Rachel is basically a replicant created by men and is considered to be their newest and best model. Everything is perfect about Rachel including the fact that she doesn't even know she's a replicant. Once Deckard reveals to Rachel that she's not a human, she gains a sort of trust in him which he clearly takes advantage of. Deckard is an alcoholic feeding on the vulnerabilities of a poor replicant woman. Deckard is aggressive with Rachel and forces her to repeat various sexual phrases for him. Deckard clearly uses Rachel to get over his loneliness even though she saved his life. Rachel is obedient to Deckard and expresses her love to him even though he never verbally reciprocates it.
Another female replicant we meet is the stripper with the fake snake. Out of all the occupations that could be available in futuristic Los Angeles, why is she a stripper? Yes, I understand that there are strippers in the world and that it might be a good cover for her, but I believe that there were a lot more options that the filmmakers could have gone with. Lastly, Pris is another great example of the portrayal of women in Blade Runner. Pris is portrayed as one of the perfect female replicants who wears too much makeup causing her to resemble a doll-like figure. Although Pris and Roy are supposedly a team, Pris never acts without his consent. Pris loves Roy and follows all his instructions and goes along with his plans. The only contribution Pris made to the team was luring J.F. Sebastian with her sexuality. Pris seduces J.F. Sebastian well, but that's all she really brings to the table. She depends on Roy to find her more life and Roy is ultimately the one who executes the plan of visiting their "father" for answers. Pris eventually dies while Roy lives because her dependency on him to find more time in life failed.
So in retrospect it seems as though Blade Runner didn't care to give women any strong roles. Whether this is on purpose or just out of habit due to the fact that Blade Runner was made in the earlier 80s where it wasn't common to give female strong roles, I'm not sure. However, considering that the film is supposed to take place in 2019 it does say a lot about the way the filmmakers thought women would progress in the future, which clearly isn't at all.
The gender roles that the human creators project onto their Android creations reflect the predominant errs of popular gender misconceptions. Both Roy Batty and Leon Kowalski are physical brutes while the Zhora and Pris are both sexually objectified (think "beauty and the beast: she's both" and "standard pleasure model"). These projections stood out to me as well, however I think that Blade Runner aims to make a point about the social constructions of gender (in addition to the constructions of humanity and race) rather than to blindly reinforce them. The dying moments of the female replicants would be a fascinating place to start a discussion on this topic, considering Zhora falling through multiple sets of glass and dying amongst mannequins and Pris dressing up as a doll prior to her death.
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