by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

Like many people with a uterus who live in the United States, I am furious with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. It has been hard not to wallow in my sadness and grief. It is easy to feel powerless in these situations, so I often turn to horror, and specifically the monstrous feminine characters who manage to find power and autonomy in a patriarchal society. So many of these characters inspire me and I wanted to pick the perfect representation of my deep well of anger to create a very pointed Women Who Kill piece this month. And if the government wants to try to control our bodies, maybe our bodies need to find a way to bite back. Oh yes, vagina dentata, nature’s response to cis-male oppression. While I think this is a topic that should be in more horror, I am excited to let Dawn from Teeth shine and strike some fear into the hearts of those who think they can make decisions about our bodily autonomy.

Dawn (Jess Weixler) is one of the leaders of a Christian teen abstinence group. She spreads the good news about waiting until marriage to have sex. While doing this work, she meets Tobey, a boy she is very attracted to and begins to fantasize about. After a day of swimming, the two find themselves alone and begin kissing. Tobey becomes aggressive and begins to rape her. However, Tobey and Dawn are surprised to find that his penis has been eaten off by Dawn’s vagina. Dawn begins to do more research and finds the legends of vagina dentata and realizes that is exactly what she has. As Dawn tries to figure out the implications of her newly discovered teeth, she is confronted by problematic and misogynist men wherever she goes; from her creepy gynecologist, to a “nice guy,” to her problematic step-brother. Dawn begins to embrace nature’s gift and see what it means to be a woman with a terrifying power.

I remember when this film came out. It was 2007, I was in high school and had probably just become sexually active myself. I remember sitting at a male friend’s house and watching clips from the film which I thought were goofy and campy at the time. I did not see the full film until years later, when I became a full fledged horror fanatic. I did not have enough appreciation for characters like this until I was older and had met many such creepy men in my own life. There is something that is so inspiring about a woman that does not have to fear being alone with men, can go for a walk outside at night without worrying about what could happen, and has a defense mechanism against violent men. In 2022 America, when a woman who aborts her pregnancy could go to jail significantly longer than her rapist, characters like Dawn are powerful figures.

Why does Dawn kill? Initially, she does not think she is able to control this power she houses. It is a surprise to her when she bites Tobey’s penis off and finds that he has died due to shock. It also seems out of her control when she goes to the gynecologist and he proceeds to assault her but goes away with 4 less fingers. It is not really until Dawn’s interaction with Ryan that she realizes she has control. Ryan pleasures her with a vibrator and they later have consensual sex in which her teeth do not engage. However, when Ryan brags to his friends that he won the bet to have sex with Dawn that she is able to control the teeth and use they to leave Ryan castrated and screaming for his mother. It is here that Dawn begins to realize this is not a curse but a gift. Her body has found a way to defend her against all of the evils men do. It is with this knowledge that she is able to confront her creepy step-brother Brad, who has lusted after her for too long. Brad has been a terror to the enter family for years and when Dawn confidently goes to seduce him she is able to control her teeth and bite him exactly when she wants to. Dawn kills to right the wrongs of men. At the end of the movie, Dawn is confronted by yet another horny mediocre man that wants her for her body, and she now has the confidence to give him exactly what he wants and rid him of the power to do more harm. In this way Dawn is the superhero figure we need at a time like this.

Dawn is often portrayed as a fantatic because of her religious beliefs and her refusal to engage in sexual intercourse like many of her other classmates. It is only now that I realize Dawn may have leaned into this life of abstinence and God as a way to shield and hopefully protect herself from people like Brad, whose leering eyes she cannot escape. Brad clearly thinks of her as a Jesus freak, but at the same time wants to be with her, and potentially even loves her in his own disgusting way. Classmates like Ryan also see her as an uptight prudish character, but see this as a challenge and make her more interesting prey because she will not give it away as easily as the other girls. She is seen as a sexual object by the majority of men in the film, and if you are a woman who has been around for awhile it is very likely that you have felt very much like Dawn, choked by the constant looks and sexual aggression of men who think you are less than. This ultimately makes them easy prey for Dawn when she realizes the power that she holds between her legs.

In a world where many men feel that they have a right to take and abuse women vagina dentata is the ultimate horror to them. Imagine a woman who had a built in defense against rape. It is clearly such a big fear that you can find folklore about these terrifying teeth across a variety of cultures. While the term itself was coined by everyone’s favorite psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, the stories date back much further. You can find these stories in India, South Africa, Japan, Chile, Russia, and even in Indigenous stories of the USA. Wherever men feel entitlement over women’s bodies, there is a slight creeping fear that these bodies might just find a way to bite back. When Dawn bites off the fingers of her gynecologist he exclaims “ It's true! Vagina dentata! Vagina dentata! Vagina dentata!” The absolute horror of this realization is one of the most satisfying parts of the film.

These stories have also become points of empowerment for women and people who had a uterus. They have even invented anti-rape tools that are inserted like a tampon and when someone decides to assault the person carrying it the are confronted with barbed edges leaving their precious tool in need of medical attention. There are even rape-revenge films like The Ladies Club in which a group of women decide the best way to deal with the trauma from their sexual assault, and those of others they love, is to castrate the men who have harmed them. If nature hasn’t caught up, I guess technology is the answer right? Not all of us can be a Dawn. I ultimately love this character because there is something very feminine about her and her method of killing. She does not have to become a cold ice pick wielding killer like Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct, she can literally let her body do the work for her.

In very troubled times like this, my mind constantly goes back to Dawn and these myths leave men anxious about what could happen if they meet the “wrong woman.” While it might be impractical to wait and hope nature finds a way to combat societal ills like white supremacy and the patriarchy, it does help me turn to things we could be doing to fight a system that is centered around taking our power to make choices about what we do with our bodies. Voting is not enough. We need to fight, we need to make sure these people do not have a restful night of sleep, we need to have the vigor and courage of someone who has teeth between their legs. Let’s fight this together. And in case you read this not expecting to be confronted with the rantings of an angry feminsit, horror is political and if I can’t stop thinking about these things that are happening to so many people in this country, you shouldn’t either.