Comments on: Harpy Cinematical Society: “Teeth”

By: Harpy Cinematical Society: Solo Edition - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Harpy Cinematical Society: Solo Edition - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:18:22 +0000

[...] those days, I managed to finally watch Teeth, which SarahMC and reader bluebears already dealt with, but I also happened across two feminist indies, both recent, both set in/around Los Angeles, that [...]

By: SarahMC

SarahMC — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:55:41 +0000

Ocean_breeze, I’m glad you pointed that out. Guys act like movies such as Teeth are uniquely violent or offensive because male bodies are targeted by women (usually in retaliation for sexual violence against women). But the countless depictions of rape and other sexual violence against women in films doesn’t make them bat an eye. And the former (penis-choppers) isn’t even a common occurrence in real life like rape is.

By: Ocean_breeze

Ocean_breeze — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:58:22 +0000

I happened on this movie when a male friend of mine said he watched, “some movie about a chick with teeth in her you-know that bit off dicks” and it “was creepy and fucking scary”.

So I with good faith went out and found it. What I found interesting was he never mentioned that it had some intense rape scenes. So that’s not scary or worth mentioning at all, right? I had a chat with him after watching it with subtle warnings not to tell everyone he knew to watch this. I was myself a victim of molestation as a child. This does become hard to watch at several points and I reminded him that some women have things happen that they don’t talk about so a fair warning of things in graphic nature should be given.

On to the movie… The thing that stood out the most to me was the, “who’s afraid of the big bad penis” syndrome. Has anyone noticed how the penis has been used in many cultures and different time periods to represent everything from the start of life to a weapon to strength? I brought this up to him and commented how it seems almost hard wired into mens heads that using their penis is a quick way to cause someone harm, belittle them or break them. For me it was funny to watch their own weapons in this movie suddenly used against them.

This spawned a whole slew of questions from him if I’ve ever heard of such a thing and is it possible? I told him (granted not being very kind) that if you think about it STD’s have similar if somewhat slower effects. So if you think about it there are plenty of vaginas out there “with teeth”.

But I also added that penises do too. So not only do we have the “big bad penis” running around but sometimes they have tiny little invisible shanks that we don’t see till it’s too late. Still not very fair, you can get raped AND have something horrible for the rest of your life.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:03:53 +0000

I have never been sexually assaulted but this movie was very difficult for me to watch. I know she gets revenge against her rapists, but the rape scenes were so graphic that they made me cry. It didn’t matter that she got revenge later. The scene with the doctor was the worst. I almost left the theater several times. I laughed a few times during the movie and it certainly was interesting, but I will never, ever watch it again.

I would NOT recommend this movie for survivors of sexual violence, or for people like me who can’t stand watching it, even though it’s supposedly all ok in the end.

By: WaltzingMatilda

WaltzingMatilda — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:03:45 +0000

As always, I love the Cinematical Society. And, Teeth is now #1 on my queue. Thanks, all.

By: Shil

Shil — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:43:48 +0000

Personally, while I found the movie interesting and thought some moments provided refreshing critiques of the patriarchy, I didn’t find it anywhere near as subversive and/or feminist as SarahMC and bluebears seemed to.

I also thought (and I may be overthinking it here, as has been known to happen) that Dawn’s vagina dentata would actually be a fairly useless protection against rape and sexual assault. Not only does it only help against penetration, whereas there are many other forms of sexual assault, but it actually required her to have been penetrated to have any effect. A protection against assault isn’t much of one if it requires the assault to actually have occurred before it can be used.

And for what it’s worth, I think it could easily be triggering for some people.

By: theorchidthief

theorchidthief — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:03:19 +0000

Thanks everyone. I think I will skip it. The stepbrother thing especially hits a little too close to home. Love the movie reviews, btw!

By: bluebears

bluebears — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:42:21 +0000

@theorchidthief: it could be triggering because there’s a rape scene.

By: SarahMC

SarahMC — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:22:40 +0000

DirtyLaundry, after the doctor molests Dawn, she seeks comfort in the arms of this other kid Ryan. He gives her a pill he claims helps his mom with anxiety (I am unsure whether he was being truthful) and Dawn gets touchy feely with him. They have sex a couple of times and everything is fine until he tells her (while they’re doin’ it) that he had bet his friends he could get her into bed. That’s when her teeth take a chomp.

Then she decides to injure her step-brother (who had molested her years earlier) by offering to fuck him.

She realizes her teeth work against bad people. I think it’s sort of a mind/body combination that controls them.

By: DirtyLaundry

DirtyLaundry — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:40:33 +0000

How exactly does she find out she has control over her teeth, since she was waiting until marriage to have sex? Does it say exactly how she has control over her teeth, is it mind power or physical power?

I have only seen about 30 mins of the movie but from what I saw she knows she can use it again intruding men, but she never has consensual sex?