The Thing

The Thing is a very interesting movie to watch for its perspective on men and women. The movie has no women in the actual cast and in a way represents a society run by men (much like the real world). The movie starts off with the creature in a dog form running from men shooting at it. It shows no aggressiveness towards its new home until provoked. The other dogs attack it. The thing never even attacks the man who takes care of it (even though they are alone alot). The creature is passive, or reactionary. What is the significance of the thing representing a woman?

kristeva says, "Excrement and its equivalent stand for the danger to identity that comes ffrom without; ... Menstrual blood on the contrary, stands for the danger issuing from within the idenity. It threatens the relationship between the sexes within a social aggregate." The Thing threatens both identity on the outside and inside. It threatens death and life. It creates a false copy of a person. This abjection must be purged from the group or the group will fail. What is the significance of this abjection?

The Thing has many female traits, the only way to stop it is to use fire which symbolically represents male strength. The group of men are very close minded and do not even try to understand this creature and its need, but only exterminate it. The Thing only attacks when provoked or in order for its survival. (women represent procreation and thus survival of a society) What is the significance of this abjection being purged?

In my opinion, the effort the men take to purge themselves of this threat causes them to go craxy, not trust anyone, and to lose their grounded idea of identity. This (female) Thing has completely destroyed the men's unity as a group. It is funny because woman can often break up groups. It is also interesting that a passive figure caused all. The Thing did not arrive on camp and start attacking everyone, but the men started to feel threatened and reacted on those feelings. (and they say women do not think things out) What is the significance of the end to this movie?

In the end only two characters survive the camp blowing up. One of the characters may be the thing, but you never know. They will both either freeze to death (cold eventually overpowered the fire), or the thing will theoretically hibernate and survive the cold and live to move onto another society, reinforcing the idea that it is an abjection in society that still must be purged to save male identity.