[Editorial] Medusa’s Man: Examining Brad in Teeth (2007)

Teeth (2007), directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein, is a refreshing coming of age tale starring the underrated Jess Weixler as the virginal Dawn who has been cursed (or blessed, based on your perceptions) with the folkloric vagina dentata (a vagina filled with teeth). Her journey throughout the movie is emotional, as time and time again she is sexually assaulted by men whom she should be able to trust whether it be a boyfriend, a doctor, or a lover. Yet, there is one man in her life who is different, and that is her stepbrother Brad (John Hensley).

After an incident as kids in a pool while playing a game of “I show you mine, you show me yours”, the tip of Brad’s finger is lacerated off by an unknown cause. This is the origin of Brad’s obsession and fear of Dawn. Dawn is representative of the monstrous feminine, the Femme Castratrice, and Brad is vagina fearing, forever captivated by this childhood moment that changed his life forever. Though his parents never did find out what happened (his assault on Dawn), Brad remains transfixed; he refuses to have vaginal sex with his girlfriend, Melanie, and sticks only to anal sex.

He has all the trappings of either a sexually traumatized adult or a hormonal young man (ie: a jerk): substance abuse, high risk sexual activities, anger management issues, violent tendencies, depressive, and exhibits issues with intimacy either familiar, or romantic. Brad listens to aggressive, loud music, keeps his bedroom in darkness (where he spends all of his time) and displays pornographic posters of nude women all over his walls. He has little patience for women and is abusive, as well as misogynistic, towards them.

Dawn learns more about her condition through books on Greek mythology and the figure of the monstrous Gorgon Medusa. This is revisited at the end of Teeth where Brad is seen watching 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) which also features Medusa. Medusa, the woman from myth, who was the victim of rape; in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 AD), Medusa (one of three Gorgons), transforms from a beautiful woman to a monster after having been sexually assaulted in a temple. She was “ravished”or as the story actually goes: “And seiz’d, and rifled the young, blushing maid. But on the ravish’d virgin vengeance takes, Her shining hair is chang’d to hissing snakes.” Punished for this event, Medusa’s gaze turns men to stone. Her decapitated head is used by Perseus in battle, taking advantage of her forced monstrousness. In some readings, her image is used by the goddess Minerva as a symbol of power, and Medusa’s transformation is seen as less of a punishment/curse, but a blessing of protection against men. Lustful, inappropriate, greedy, violent men are turned to stone. And in the seminal book The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (1993) by Barbara Creed, she states that the “Medusa’s visage is alive with images of toothed vaginas, poised and ready to strike”. And strike she/Dawn does.

Brad abuses another woman in his life, Mother, his Rottweiler (another castrating bitch). She is a backyard dog, not a pet; she is aggressive, which is highly entertaining to Brad and he doesn’t even take the dog seriously. He teases Mother with a dog treat and then teases Melanie with the same canine snack. This could be a parody of his feelings towards his step-mother as he is tantamount to her death. He ignored her cries for help, eliminating all empathy and compassion to a woman that helped raise him, and is terminally ill. Brad continues to anally have sex with Melanie without a care in the world - screw that bitch, right? He lacks respect for women of all species, except for Dawn, because he fears her.

He is regularly dismissive towards women, yet there is a difference with Dawn. There is a stark dichotomy between them - dark/light, repressive/obsessive - yet he often shows a softness and patience towards her as evidenced by one of the few scenes they have together:

Dawn: “We’ve never been close, never been like brother and sister, I don’t know why”

Brad: “Sure you do. You know why.”

Dawn: “I really don’t. I would like for that to change.”

Brad: “ You know all that abstinence bullshit, we all know who you are saving yourself for. And I’ve been real patient. Do you know what it’s like living here with these assholes?”

Dawn leaves the room, exasperated. Later, we find him sucking his old injured finger, the one that Dawn maimed, while laying on his bed. This is something he does often, contemplating, and fantasizing about Dawn’s mysterious power that she holds over him. Though many myths of the vagina dentata tell the tale of a (male) hero conquering them which allows him to mate with the cursed woman, Brad is more the Perseus of this story; Perseus set out to destroy Medusa, and in her death, he exploited her power. By taking Dawn into his arms, Brad will not only tame her, but become one with her; something that, as far as he knows, she has never experienced before.

What’s absolutely beguiling, bewildering, and vexing, is that whereas the other men in Dawn’s life harm her - Toby (boyfriend) rapes her in an isolated cave, her family Doctor violates her during a physical exam, and Ryan (lover) drugs, assaults, coerces and manipulates her - Brad desires her full consent and actually waits for her to oblige. We see vulnerability, passion, and sensuality from Brad, not from any other man in the film. With Dawn, it’s less about the sex, and more about the connection. Dawn isn’t a monster, yet a woman.

At the end of Teeth, their relationship comes full circle in a fleeting moment of intimacy that he has been yearning for for years. The final battle between Brad/Perseus and Dawn/Medusa begins. After learning that Brad was directly responsible for the death of her mother, Dawn applies her warpaint (make up) to confront him. She walks into his dank bedroom while donned in a virginal white dress, his demeanour changing when she sits on the bed; he is fearful, insecure, unsure. As her hand trails down his chest to his waist, he stops her and wonders why she is doing this now? She asks if he is afraid, and gets on top of him -- a controlling position -- but he stops her and immediately puts her into his preferred, more animalistic position (his usual), but they end up with him on top. Dawn shows him underneath her dress - he is soft, curious, tender.

And as Brad enters Dawn for the first time, he says “See what we’ve been missing?” - Dawn having sex with Brad, and Brad with vaginal sex; something he has always wanted, and believes that she has, too. As tears form in Dawn’s eyes, Medusa’s dreadful gaze is upon him and the vagina dentata gets to work. Mother becomes restless in her cage. CRUNCH. The fantasy and nightmare comes true and what Brad feared for years is now reality. Pain, truth, betrayal. He doesn’t scream, yet engages with the pain inside of Dawn.

Once finished, Dawn gets up and Brad lets Mother out to attack her, but she doesn’t - from one castrating bitch to another, they smell their own kind - and Mother eats his severed penis. In this re-telling of the classic Greek story, our Medusa figure doesn’t die and is left to live in myth, but is liberated and becomes legendary.

Feel the wrath of Medusa!

1.Media Kit on Sexual Assault: Consequences https://www.inspq.qc.ca/en/sexual-assault/understanding-sexual-assault/consequences
2. The Medusa Myth and it’s Meaning: The Real Story of Medusa https://austinhackney.co.uk/2016/10/26/the-medusa-myth-and-its-meaning-the-real-story-of-medusa/