Just finished watching the film “Teeth” (2006), which was better than I originally expected. I’d only heard it compared with the film “Deadgirl” which sucked on so many levels as to be completely pathetic, so I assumed this would be a senseless violence flick as the other had been. But no. Instead, it has wonderful acting, a plot you can at least follow, and confronts a real issue young women are confronted with: sexual assault and mishandling. The premise is that the lead actress has “vagina dentata” where her vagina, by some weird mutation that’s never explained, has serrated teeth much like those of a shark. The leading lady isn’t going looking for trouble and is in fact a virgin when trouble finds her.
Trailer:
I liked this film considerably more than “Deadgirl” and not simply because the protagonist is female. Goes much deeper than that. “Deadgirl” was violent for the sake of being violent. In “Teeth,” the gal is trying to maintain her sexual purity in a culture obsessed with sex, fending off boys who otherwise would have left her as the weeping, powerless victim. In “Deadgirl,” the protagonist turns into a rapist and was in no way coerced into accepting that fate. “Teeth” is nice in that it presents a fantasy of sorts, not of possessing a toothed vagina but of being able to protect yourself to some extent against sexual violence. And it’s not as though the protagonist was attack-proof; her vagina just had the capability of biting off penises and fingers. Come at her with a gun and force anal sex and she’d have no greater means of protection than any other female.
It’s not about “hating” men or wishing harm upon them, at least not for me. It’s just that it would be nice if something, somehow, existed to thwart men’s brawny overpowering of women and made them think twice before treating rape like no big deal. Seems to me that men care more about an organ on their bodies than they do about womankind as an aggregate. Tell me, when did penises become of such supreme importance? You don’t see women running around worshiping our vulvae and uteri anywhere near to the extent that men commonly celebrate their penises. I just don’t get it. Seen a few penises, you’ve seen them all basically. The penis itself means absolutely nothing, IMO, if not attached to a man worth caring for. And I say this as a sex worker who has seen my fair share of penises, both in and out of the “hobby.” The novelty wore off for me long ago, probably back in my teenage years when I realized sex has everything to do with individuals and interpersonal connections and much less to do with one’s anatomical proportions. I wish more men would understand this.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and connections absolutely do matter. What our culture does to virgins is a damn shame, giving young people the impression that virginity is the last thing they ought to be concerned with protecting. Myself, I was 12 years old when I chose to have sex for the first time. My reasoning was simple: I wanted to get losing my virginity “out of the way.” Isn’t that a sad way of looking at things for people so young and impressionable? I used to not think so and, in fact, only began realizing the err of my ways in recent years. Not that a person has to be a Christian or a moralist to grasp that their body need not be shared with others who don’t genuinely appreciate it. It’s as if we have spite toward those who choose not to share themselves in full with whoever asks…’course we have spite for those who choose to as well. Seems you truly cannot win, not as a female, not these days. Sex is absolutely expected, and you are treated as abnormal if you decline or refuse.
Isn’t that odd? I find it very strange.
Not to mention the lies we tell one another to pressure for sex and attention. Too much sex on the brain, if you ask me. Seems we need to get lives that don’t revolve incessantly around what’s happening in our pants. Hormones matter, but not as much as we seem to think. Human nature matters too, but accepting this doesn’t negate the need for self-control. I’m tired of hearing people argue that we can’t expect better than violence, rape, competition, and underhanded manipulation tactics from our fellow man because we’re helpless apes driven by hormones and ‘human nature’ beyond our control. Bullshit. We didn’t develop this complex frontal lobe and a sense of self-conscious self-awareness just so that we could throw our hands in the air and pretend to be developmentally-challenged and incapable of discerning right from wrong. I don’t believe it. It’s little more than a scapegoat to avoid personal accountability.
That’s what rape is really…one person’s decision to behave very badly toward another, usually thinking it’s their right or entitlement, telling themselves and others that the victim had it coming and doesn’t really deserve sympathy. And yet, I’ve read a number of reviews professing deep pity for the rapist male characters in the film “Teeth,” whining about how NO man deserves that sort of punishment. But au contraire, rapists and asshole perverts surely do.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call this “feminist horror,” but it definitely gives you plenty to think about. Made me think about those anti-rape devices being used elsewhere in the world that I posted about on my blog last year. One looked like a spiked tampon that you insert. Let me see if I can find a pic…
It’s called Fem-Defense and is now available in Sweden.
Another method is the anti-rape condom pictured below:
Rapex brand is worn internally like a female condom and has rows of sharp teeth that somehow embed in the penis upon penetration and require medical aid to remove.
Men won’t be happy to learn that instruments to guard against rape are in the works and are designed to cause penile harm. Ah well. Can’t expect much sympathy if your original aim was to abuse a woman. Doesn’t seem fair that rape is as tolerated as it is, yet means to thwart or disrupt the frequency of rape come under fire as being unfair and/or dangerous to men. Some things I will never understand…living in this so-called “man’s world.”
What really upsets me is that devices like these would even be necessary in the first place. These are the times we live in, where women hide spikes in their vaginas to teach men that rape is wrong. Damn tragedy that we could come so far and yet still be unable to effectively communicate and respect one another’s wishes and now must resort to taking such drastic measures. “No” means “no”…and pussy spikes mean “no” too, in case that isn’t readily apparent for the dull and dim-witted.
This makes me nervous that other forms of violence toward women will escalate in response.
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