Despite only appearing in a single film in the Alien franchise, during her short time on screen Jenette Vasquez manages to tear apart more alien assholes that Captain Kirk did in an entire season of Star Trek. Along with gushing over how impossibly badass she is, fans of the character have argued for years about whether or not she’s gay, something the actress who played her, Jenette Goldstein has long maintained is nobody’s fucking business.
You see, although Vasquez’s sexuality is never commented upon or even mentioned in Aliens, many fans assumed that the character was gay. In fact, since the release of Aliens Vasquez has become something of an icon for gay women with Jenette Goldstein reporting that she is constantly approached by gay fans wanting to thank her for giving them an alien dickhole smashing role model to look up to.
The thing is though, Goldstein has also been approached by straight women who similarly saw themselves in Vasquez who wanted to thank her for representing women with an atypical, muscular body type on screen.
Then you have women who’ve approached Goldstein just to thank her for portraying a female character who is shown as being just as capable as the men around her without her gender or sexuality ever being brought up by those around her.
When asked about her opinion on why they character had such a wide appeal, Goldstein opined that it likely had a lot to do with the fact she never tried to play Vasquez as gay or straight. She simply tried to make Vasquez as awesome as possible and show that she was a strong woman who didn’t take any shit, was loyal to a fault and enjoyed blowing away aliens with a giant gun. Something that apparently resonated with a lot of fans.
In regards to Vasquez’s sexuality, Goldstein explained that in her opinion, the character would never tell anyone whether she was gay or not “because to her it was nobody’s business” but her own. Goldstein’s interpretation of the character and her motivations was that she simply did not give a shit and felt that what or who she did on her own time was a personal matter. As a result, Vasquez is, as Goldstein puts it, “universal” because anyone can look up to and see themselves in a character who’s defining character trait is simply that they’re a fucking badass.
