Social Processes can also be reflected in genre innovations. Ripley, the female protagonist of Aliens, is a courageous, even aggressive warrior who also has a warm maternal side. This is something of a novelty in the science-fiction genre. Many commentators saw Ripley as a product of attitudes derived from the Women's Movement of the 1970s. Feminist groups argued that women could be seen as active and competent without losing positive qualities associated with feminine behavior, like gentleness and sympathy. As these ideas spread through mainstream media and social opinion, films like Aliens could turn traditionally 'masculine' roles over to female characters.
Such ways of looking at genre are usually called 'reflectionist,' because they assume that genres reflect social attitudes, as if in a mirror. Some critics would argue that reflectionist readings can become oversimplified. Once we look closely at a genre film, we usually discover complexities that nuance a reflectionist account. For instance, if we look beyond Ripley, the protagonist of Aliens, we find that all characters lie along a continuum running between 'masculine' and 'feminine' values, and the survivors of the adventure, male or female, seem to blend the best of both gender identities. Moreover, often what seems to be social reflection is simply the film industry's effort to exploit the day's headlines. A genre film may not reflect the audience's hopes and fears but the filmmakers' guess about what will sell.