Private Vasquez

Vasquez firing a weapon. Note (and admire) her arm musculature.

Vasquez in a military pose. Note her serious, unsmiling expression. Women are often expected or told to smile; not smiling can be seen as unfeminine, or coding for butchness.

Private Vasquez was a Latina Marine in the movie Aliens (played by actor Jenette Goldstein). Vasquez was killed on the colony LV-426 in battle with the aliens.

Analysis

Unlike many women in film at that point, Vasquez was noticeably muscular. She also had one of the best lines in the film:

Hudson: Hey Vasquez, anyone ever mistake you for a man?

Vasquez: No. Anyone ever mistake you for one?

Here, the character confronts sexism with a sharp retort. It's clear from the comment made to her in this future, tough women in the marines can still occasion comment, although they are not necessarily a rarity.

Female characters who were visibly muscular and strong were a rarity in commercial US film releases at the time of "Aliens" (1986); they were still rare enough five years later that Linda Hamilton's buff appearance in "Terminator 2" (1991) also excited notice.

Vasquez is laudable in many ways: by including her, it is apparent that Sigourney Weaver's character Ellen Ripley isn't a one-off, the rare exceptional woman among men. At the least, Vasquez' character suggests that such women aren't uncommon (although still not, perhaps, commonplace).

Coding her as physically strong or butch was at that time -- and twenty years later, still is -- also a rarity, and a welcome portrayal on the screen.

And the presence of a Latina woman -- again, still, today, underrepresented -- was likewise welcome.

However, while all these things are true, it is also true that there is some sort of disproportionate representation of kick-assery among women of color; as if it is safer (for white male creators) to confront the traditional images of femininity in a woman of color. This pattern can also be seen in the numerous representations of Black warrior women, and it suggests that racist views of women of color -- particularly women of African descent -- affect the casting and characterization of female roles. Sigourney Weaver was butched up for this role, but not as significantly as Vasquez; as the only two adult human females in the episode, this strongly suggests some comparisons between the two.