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When writing about the link between the monstrous feminine and the Alien series, Barbara Creed directly links the loss of boundaries to the monstrosity of the ‘archaic mother’ who represents;
“The abyss, the cannibalising black hole from which all life comes and to which all life returns that is represented in Alien as a source of deepest terror”
The theories of Freud suggest that woman is castrated in that, “It is her lack that produces the phallus as a symbolic presence; it is her desire to make good the lack that the phallus symbolizes. ...
The monstrous feminine and the fear of the maternal desire are clearly represented by the alien. While many of the aliens in the film are not attached to a gender, the ‘Queen’ alien is explicitly coded as female, and the ultimate adversary, because she is the agent of reproduction, propagating the threat. Victims are ‘cocooned’ - an analogy to the spider, a symbol often associated with deadly femininity. The nest of the alien is an organic space formed by secreted resin, an area of the terraforming station which has become a part of the aliens body. ...
Amy Taubin supports this argument in that the Alien series is concerned with monstrous representation of the female body despite a female lead;
“Granted the terror of being raped and devoured by the monster loomed large for both the sexes, Aliens was a basically male anxiety fantasy, that a man could be impregnated was the ultimate outrage. ... ”
Maggie Humm also suggests that the woman supplies the horror in the Alien series and many other films, but it is the representation of the female productive powers which really terrifies;
“Many contemporary films resonate with the fear of women’s bodies (Alien) and women’s reproductive power (Carrie).
Approximate Word count = 1340
Approximate Pages = 5.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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