Blog Post 3

The Thing’s Critique on Gender

Rasif Choudhury

There has been an obvious change of critique on gender as the horror genre progressed throughout the years. When viewing the horror genre in its inception, observers can notice an obvious representation of a strong male society. Males are portrayed as strong, dominant, and the apex of the social structure. However, as the genre progresses into the sixties and seventies, we are introduced to a different critique. Scholar, Vivian Sobchack, explains how, “…in the late 1970s…the genre begins to overtly interrogate…patriarchal power” (Sobchack, 152), and states it as a, “…weak and ineffectual…” (Sobochack, 152). Movies in the horror genre begin to critique males, and their lack of power within society. When observing the monster within the film, The Thing, one can notice how the monster causes the men in the movie to alter from a strong military group into a disheveled group who lose complete trust with one another. This will illustrate how the movie is critiquing men’s loss of control within society.

     There is an obvious critique on gender as the movie begins. The film opens up with several foreign men chasing and shooting at a dog. As the chase ensues, they reach a military base where they encounter a group of military men. As the dog enters the base, the foreign man begins to fire on the military men and the dog. As the madness is occurring, the general of the base, breaks his window, and shoots the foreign man before he causes any more damage to his men. There is an obvious critique that the movie is making about gender within this scene. The scene illustrates how the dominant male social structure is under threat. The military men and the base represent the social structure of a male dominated society, while the foreign men and the alien serve as the other or the unknown threat that will disrupt that structure. The actions of the general seem as an act of repression of the other. The general shooting the gun, is an exemplar of the male dominated society protecting itself from being changed by the unknown that is entering his social sphere.

As the movie progresses, we are introduced to the alien that will end up breaking apart the social structure within the military base. Observers can notice how the alien has no definite form, does not speak, and only has the goal to create terror. Scholar, Julia Kristeva, would argue the alien is an abject creature. This means that the alien is something that, “…cannot be assimilated. It beseeches, worries, and fascinates desire, which, nevertheless, does not let itself be seduced. Apprehensive, desire turns aside; sickened, it rejects” (Kristeva, 1). This implies how the abject is something that will not be able to abide by society’s rules and norms. Kristeva goes on to depict the abject as something that is neither a subject nor object. This means the alien is something that will not comply with the rules of a male dominated society, and will be a threat to its structure. This explains the havoc the alien creates throughout the movie. As the alien infiltrated the base, there is an obvious loss of leadership and structure. One would think a military base would have men that trusted one another as a unified brotherhood. However, the alien caused all the men to lose that trust, and question who should lead the group to defeat the alien.

This represents the movie’s main critique on the male gender. In the sixties and seventies, society had a different idea in how the world should operate. There was a move away from the patriarchal or male dominated society to a more individualistic one.  The alien represents something foreign and unknown, which poses a threat to the dominant male structure, such as the military base. The movie demonstrates how there is a loss of dominance of men within society, and that the times are changing with new ideas and beliefs. However, the movie's use of the protagonist, MacReady, is the film's suggestion in how a male should act, in order to gain control of the situation. The film is implying that men need to obtain a strong leadership like MacReady, in order to maintain the status quo of the male dominated society.

Works Cited

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. 
     New York:Columbia University Press, 1982. Print.

Sobchack, Vivian. “Bringing it All Back Home: Family 
     Economy and Generic Exchange.” The Dread of 
     Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. 
     Barry Keith Grant, Ed. Austin: University of Texas      
     Press, 1996.