Patty Jenkins replies to James Cameron

Ripley is pretty much a unisex character. Besides moments with Hicks, and Alien 3 being all about her being female, the character could have been a man. Same goes for Sarah in T2. The thing that Cameron did with those characters in the sequels was basically have a male character and added a little bit of vulnerability. I think Cameron comes from a place where the man has to do most of the heavy lifting until the woman is backed into a wall and alone.