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Horror

Primitive Masculine Dread

On Sex Education, the Monstrous Feminine, and Teeth

Tom Humberstone

• 3 min read
Primitive Masculine Dread

Teeth (2007) Dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein

High school student Dawn discovers her body has an innate sexual defence mechanism.

“The myth springs from a primitive masculine dread of the mysteries of women and sexual union. Fears of weakness, impotence. It is a nightmare image of the power and horror of female sexuality.” - Dawn O’Keefe

Content Warning: The film has scenes of Sexual Assault and there will be some discussion of that here.

When Promising Young Woman came out, there was a lot of disagreement about who, exactly, the film was for. It wasn’t for women who had experienced sexual assault - the film very intentionally withholds any feelings of catharsis from the audience (unless you somehow trust the police to do anything at the end), and the kind of men who probably need to see it, weren’t going to go and see it. The most likely answer, I think, is that it’s a film for people who think of themselves as allies but continue to prop up rape culture through inaction or more insidious means.

A film that absolutely does not withhold a dose of catharsis - is Teeth. Mitchell Lichtenstein wrote, directed and produced this and if you’re thinking “Lichtenstein? Like Roy Lictenstein?” You’re not wrong. Mitchell is Roy’s son. As a comic artist with a deep suspicion - nay, active dislike - of Roy Lichtenstein’s appropriation of comic artist’s work, that didn’t fill me with confidence about this nepo baby’s work.

But… Teeth is good stuff. This is a film principally about consent and the inadequacies of American sex education. When there is no consent, we’re treated to bloody, severed penises.

I want to be clear here. While there’s a certain campy, playful and comedic tone to the film, it also takes pains to treat the moments of grim SA with the seriousness and care the issue deserves. It just follows it up with a bloody, mutilated dick after.

Be prepared for some tonal whiplash.

Jess Weixler is excellent in this. She largely has to carry this film on her back and manages to do so with aplomb. A film like this lives or dies on reaction shots and she has some of the very best. I’m surprised I haven’t seen her in more things since.

“Who, surprised and horrified by the fantastic tumult of her drives (for she was made to believe that a well-adjusted normal woman has a… divine composure), hasn't accused herself of being a monster?” - Helene Cixous

Teeth fits into the Female Monsters category of horror where female sexuality is often the site of abject terror. But where a lot of the women in those horror stories are punished for their desires or awakenings, Dawn is not. At various points through the film, she is being taught the wrong lessons about sex and her body. By the patriarchal abstinence-only religion she’s a member of, by the school that censors medical diagrams of the female body, and by almost every man around her who have completely broken understandings of consent.

“Horror, more than any other film genre, deals openly with questions of gender, sexuality and the body.” - Shelley Stamp

It’s not perfect, and I can understand critiques of the film that maintain that Dawn is still upholding the punished, sexually active monstrous woman trope in horror. But I think the film is trying, at the very least, to subvert that convention.

And there’s a scene where a dog eats a severed willy.

Where can I watch it in the UK?

You can rent it for £2.49 or buy it for £5.99 on amazon.

Pairs well with

It’s hard not to talk about overlooked horror films about the monstrous feminine without bringing up Jennifer’s Body (2009, dir. Karyn Kusama, available to stream on Disney+). For a long time, this film was completely, and unfairly, written off. That’s very much not the case these days and there have been plenty of excellent videos/articles/essays/podcasts that have resuscitated the film’s reputation. Still, if you have yet to see Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody’s horror masterpiece, stop reading this and go watch it now!

Further Reading
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