A view from above of the lunar lander landing pad opening, as it prepares to receive the lander. The rectangle of lights shows an emphasis on the horizontal and thus the conscious and the male,[a][b] but the partially-open enclosure gives the appearance of a vagina dentata; thus, the pad represents a trap for the male.
In 2001, Kubrick is depicting the aliens as symbolizing a specific subset of women that are inherently evil. The fact that the aliens are evil is why the alien individual aboard Discovery One (in the ship's circuitry) works with Satan in the latter part of the movie ('via' working with HAL) to defeat Bowman and Poole. The alien wants to unite its own feminine essence with Bowman (should he defeat HAL), instead of allowing Bowman and Poole (as yang and yin) to themselves 'unite': At a fundamental level, the alien is jealous. Due to the observation that the aliens are feminine in nature, certain things in the movie now fall into place: the fact that the aliens are stealing diamonds - "diamonds are a girl's best friend"; the fact that the alien life forces 'infuse' men's minds and control their thoughts and actions, and cause fighting among them (at TMA-1) - this is actually Kubrick's depiction of the idea that some women tend to manipulate men.
Heywood Floyd talking with his daughter on the space station telephone.
Also explained is the emphasis Floyd placed on the word "telephone" while talking with his daughter, the reason the daughter wanted a telephone for her birthday, the fact that the mother was out shopping at the moment that Floyd called, and the idea of the daughter's caretaker (Rachel) being in the bathroom at the time of the call - these are references to the idea of some women being frequent phone-talkers, shoppers, and bathroom-occupiers. Also explained is Floyd's becoming somewhat emotionally 'touchy' during the space station meeting, when asked about the (supposed) epidemic at Clavius.
Naturally, the aliens planted the monolith with an emphasis on the vertical, and thus the unconscious, which in the case of a man (here, Bowman), is said by Jung to have feminine characteristics.[c] The implication is that the aliens' 'feminine evil' wants to control humanity's destiny. Also, recall that it's the presence of the monolith that enabled our ancestor to discover how to use weapons.
Recall that in the Clavius lecture room, the presence of evil itself was represented by a man. It was Kubrick's belief that the 'female evil' we've been talking about conspires with very evil men in doing its work.
It must be the case that the aliens enlisted the help of men to steal the diamonds, for the simple reason that the aliens themselves consist of pure energy, not having physical bodies, and are thus unable to move physical objects. Therefore, they used human beings' (specifically, men's) bodies to mine the diamonds, and they (the aliens) want the diamonds transported to Jupiter. The fact that the aliens represent a feminine presence, ties in with the reason they needed men to carry out the diamond 'heist': What's being symbolized is some women's inability to do 'heavy' work. Kubrick is also using this scenario to convey a belief, that some women 'use' men to do 'real' work, or the idea that these women don't 'carry their part of the load', or etc.
The aliens must have originally intended that the three astronauts who were placed aboard Discovery One in hibernation, would have physically moved the diamonds to their final destination (on Jupiter). The fact that HAL kills the three of them (while they're in hibernation) thus indicates that in the end, he cheats the aliens.
This light on Discovery One indicates that the hibernating astronauts' life functions have been terminated.
a. Jung links vertical height with the unconscious, and he links the horizontal (i.e., width) with the conscious: Jung, C.G., The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 12, Princeton University Press, 1968, paras. 287, 291. Google Books. URL = https://books.google.com.
b. In a male (here, David Bowman), the conscious mind has masculine characteristics.
c. Jung, C.G., The Collected Works, Vol. 12, para. 320. Google Books. URL = https://books.google.com.
