NC Johnny Guitar/Two Mules

Otherness, or alterity, allows viewers of both films to see the idea of the alpha male cowboy demonstrated through a unique way. Each of the main character's is a woman and take the lead roles throughout the films and has a male counterpart that works with them as a woman would traditionally serve a man in the Western genre.

In Johnny Guitar, Vienna manages a saloon and becomes involved with The Dancin Kid. As she seems to be the only one, the other townspeople suspect her to be part of the bank robbery plot and go after her. Emma Small, someone who hated her even before The Dancin Kid, leads the group against her, burning down the saloon and trying to get Vienna hanged. Vienna runs to The Dancin' Kids fort, which results in the Kid's and his groups deaths. Emma and Vienna duel with Vienna being the victor.

The way this film is designed, the men support the women, not the other way around. Women truly serve in the alpha 'male' roles as much as is possible during this film even though men still hold important key roles, as Johnny saves her as a good cowboy should and The Dancin' Kid still plays the traditional villain. The problem is that Emma seems to be a bigger villain yet because tradition is stretched in this film, new situations and conflicts arrive that may put Vienna in new situations yet must deal with them as a cowboy would. This film was made during early feminism.

In Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sister Sara poses as a nun but is in fact a prostitute. As Tompkins discusses, Christianity represents the feminine, so to symbolically pose as the feminine, it can be seen that the real Sara can be compared to John Wayne in the respect that she is hard-boiled. As a woman, she asks Hogan to protect her and bring her to a Mexican Camp and help fight the French. He obliges, but they make it to the Mexican holdout working together; each helps the other on the way. She reveals the truth to Hogan at the end of the film, which separates her in some respects from the male cowboy by being more expressive than the norm, but it is done out of necessity so it does not necessarily take from her given masculinity.