Bustin’ makes us feel good

As 2020 comes to a close I can’t help but reflect back on this year, a year certainly unlike any other. With the whole world seemingly falling apart month after month, turning to horror seemed to be the only way to center my thoughts and prepare me for it all. Out of everything I sat down to watch this year, and trust me I watched a lot, the images of Ripley from the 1979 film Alien and the four bad ass women that make up the fighting squad in the 2016 Ghostbusters. I think what speaks to me about these films are women facing adversity head on, calling the shots, staying safe, and being the last ones standing when the world seems to be crumbling around them. I wanted to explore these women through the lens of their most famous garments throughout the films, the jumpsuit. What makes this iconic one-piece coverall stand the test of time and bleed its way into popular culture? And what is it really saying about these women in “a man’s world”?

What we think of as the “jumpsuit” really had its first incarnation labeled as a “coverall” or “boilersuit”, making its first historical appearance in the industrial revolution of the late 19th century. These garments were designed to go over the workers street clothing and protect their clothing and skin from any harmful oils or spills that could happen when working on the machinery. Covering the body from the neck to the ankles, this stepped into piece having a zipper the spanned the navel to the neck and usually had large pockets for keeping tools for labor. Due to their unique genderless frame they became uniforms for anti-fascist radicals and leftist intellectuals of the 1920’s and 30’s. They became a symbol of gender war time equality as women graced the factory work force in place of men, most famously worn by Ms. Rosie the Riveter.

By the 1940’s the jumpsuit became what we know today as a flight suit. Worn by the various branches of the Airforce throughout WWII. Although the pilots that did any jumping where in two pieced garments that were later made into one piece. So the one piece suits that were more famous, never actually saw any jumping. These specially designed suits used compression technology to keep fighter pilots from passing out by pushing the blood from their legs back into their brains. These same suits are still in function today and are now used by NASA as well.

Winston Churchill can be the first lay person seen wearing the one-piece coveralls as a suit of leisure. Initially intended for civilians to just pull on when the siren sounds to head to the bomb shelter, “siren suits” became Churchills go to garment when walking about outside parliament, in fact very few civilians ever wore them to proceed to the bomb shelters.

After the war, the coverall fell off the radar until the mid-1970’s. This version of the suit was unlike anything that came before. Now a slim fitted “sexy” garment of the disco era, the now named jumpsuit had become the latest fashion. Since the 70’s we’ve seen a myriad of one pieced sets come in and out of fashion. I envy those long-legged women who can pull these off, alas I am to short, but I can admire from afar. So where does that leave us with Ripley and the Ghostbusters, two films about women saving the day and getting the job done but 36 years apart.

Alien came out in 1979, and stars Sigourney Weaver, who plays Ripley part of the crew on a commercial space craft called Nostromo. When they receive a distress call the crew decides to check out the spaceship in question. While off the ship one of the members is attacked by the mysterious alien and unknowingly brings it aboard, after Dallas, the captain, refuses to listen to Ripley and keep the oncoming crew in mandatory quarantine. After the alien, or xenomorph, becomes loose on the ship she starts picking them off one by one. Because of the setting of this film Ridley Scott, the director, works with his design team to really create a feeling of clinical isolation. They are a working ship, so it is no wonder that Scott calls upon Oscar award winning costume designer John Mollo, most famous for The Empire Strikes Back. John has an affinity for space ware, and even more so for military history. Just like the costumes he did for Star Wars, there is a uniformity to the crew aboard the Nostromo. Ripley is considered a final girl in horror movie rights, but she is not typically who we think of holding that title. Her name, her job, and her outfit all boast an air of gender neutrality, solidifying further the equaling of what the jumpsuit can do. As other final girls hold onto their femininity throughout their masculine fight to the finish. In essence she is “one of the guys” but over comes their short comings to outsmart them and be the last to survive. The only time we are hinted with her femininity is in the last moments of the film, where she strips off the jump suit to get into the escape pod. Now in her most vulnerable, a white tank top and white underwear, she is to face off against this creature one last time.

This is in stark contrast to the women of the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters. First I want to take a moment to say that while I love the original and it is in my heart and will be referenced going forward, I don’t think anyone will truly understand what it felt like to be watching that movie as a women. To see four women, whom I look up too immensely, fighting crime in way that before was only afforded to men. In this version of the story we meet Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) who is a professor at Columbia. We find out that her ex-partner Abby (Melissa McCarthy) is still trying to prove the existence of paranormal activity with her now work partner Holtz (Kate McKinnon). When paranormal occurrences start plaguing the city the three work together with the help of Patty (Leslie Jones) to stop a deranged man from opening a portal in the middle of Midtown Manhattan and releasing the ghosts on the city. Paul Feig one of the writers and director of this film has taken the classic story from 1984 with male comedy legends of the day and pulled it right into the 21st century with the female comedy legends of the day. His work with costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, to revive the original jumpsuits really set this design apart and made it very memorable. In the original film we aren’t alerted to how the coveralls come into their possession, we except the fact that hunting and busting ghost can be dirty work so you don’t want to get your regular clothing dirty. In this incarnation we learn that Patty has acquired, along with her uncles hurst, these old MTA jumpsuits that the women can use while they battle the ghosts. With flashy orange and silver high vis reflectors these suits get the much-needed update, and they tell New York that these ladies mean business. In this film, because their world mostly revolves around other women in STEM, unlike Ripley’s who only has one other woman on board with her, these suits seem to have a more feminine edge. Even though the cut and construction are the same for both films.

I also find it ironic that two films about women doing a traditional masculine work, even so far as having most of the internet being up in arms about women Ghostbusters, were both costumed designed by men. In my research it was hard to come across any interviews with either of these designers about the work they did on these films. What I did find was very vague. What I admire, however, about these designs was how even though they are men, they did not over sexualize these women. These were women simply doing their jobs, kicking ass, and getting the credit they deserved. They were not damsels in distress, and they took agency over their lives and these jumpsuits show that. Just as the original coverall intended and stood for a symbol of gender equality in the workforce, these two films are benchmarks in the way we look at women in horror and in film history as a whole. Alien has become a beloved film that has spanned sequels and gave an entire generation of women in the late 70’s something to strive for in STEM and beyond. Now four years since the release of Ghostbusters I know that these four ghostbusting women are doing the same thing for this generation. I know I cried when I saw it in theatres, passing not only the Bechdel test but solidifying that women are here and we are not going anywhere, no matter how mean you want to be on the internet.