How does the film "The Thing" represent a fear of women and it's regenerative powers from Julia Kristeva's article, "Powers of Horror"?
Julia Kristeva writes in her article, "Powers of Horror", in a section -Fear of Women--Fear of Procreation- about the fear of women and how men fear this "power". She says, "It is this power, a dreaded one, that patrilineal filiation has the burden of subduing" (77). Her idea that men fear this "power" that women can procreate.
"The thing" in the film is representation of a woman's presence. The film has a group of men that are stranded in the middle of a frozen tundra and are being attacked by "the thing". "The thing" is a monster that replicates a person from within and is slowly taking over the men.
The men are going insane knowing that "the thing" could be anyone and they do not know who is effected by it. The "thing" replicates from within the body it has taken over, just like a women has children. The women gets pregnant and creates child, yet another human.
How does this relate to men's reactions to their fear of procreation?
Kristeva speaks of ritual impurity and the power of pollution. These are things that men do to prevent the cycle of procreations. The mental idea of men is, "if a woman undergoing her period touches fire, food cooked on that fire makes her ill and threatens her with death" (78). This mentality is that if you hurt the woman then she will subside, get hurt, and die.
This is strongly seen in the film "The Thing". There are flame torches that the men are using in the film. It is used to kill "the thing" every time it is seen attacking one of the men. The mens fear of it taking over makes them kill it where ever it is noticed even if it is part of one of the men. They light "the thing" on fire and watch it die. This gives them a feeling of resolution of it procreating with another member of the group. This all represents the fear of women and their ability to procreate that Kristeva speaks of.
