In the spirit of Halloween and the need for gender equality and awareness on campus, the Women’s Center hosted a viewing of the movie Teeth in the Talley Green Room on Tuesday.

The film, directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein , centers around a high school girl who, after experiencing sexual male violence, finds her body has a strange way of defending itself.

Ashley Simons-Rudolph, director of the Women’s Center and a teacher for the Women’s and Gender Studies department, described the mission of the Center.

“We reach out to students, faculty, staff through thoughtful programming where we discuss gender-related topics. We also support students who are survivors of interpersonal violence…and provide services for them and their loved ones,” said Simons-Rudolph.

Facilitator of the event and Associate Head of English, Maria Pramaggiore , agreed to partner with the Women’s Center and selected the film Teeth.

“I have made a teaching and research career on writing about–thinking about–films. I think they’re extremely important,” said Pramaggiore . “I thought this would raise an interesting question about feminist representation.”

Based on the film’s graphic and sensitive content, the audience’s reactions were a concern.

Simon-Rudolph said, “Sometimes people can feel uncomfortable with ideas, so part of what the Women’s Center’s role is, and the film series specifically, is just to encourage us to have these conversations–what we call crucial conversations.”

Adrianna Harrell, the Program Coordinator, said she believes wholeheartedly in the environment the Center creates.

“I think some of the topics can be kind of controversial. But I think our goal at the Women’s Center is to create a safe place to hear conversations,” said Harrell.

After the film ended, the audience was encouraged to participate in a discussion led by Pramaggiore .

To get the ball rolling, Pramaggiore remarked, “[It is said] horror films reveal our deepest, most primal fears. [This film] takes a lot of horror film conventions and twists them to an extent.”

One audience member commented, “It was interesting how when a man rapes a woman, it’s [metaphorically] taking her womanhood, so [in the film] she literally takes their manhood.”

A guidance counselor, Angel Johnson, was asked to attend, in case students needed someone to talk to about how the film was affecting them.

“…When it came out, I remember I had a student who came in and said – this was a survivor of sexual assault – ‘I would have given anything, if I had what [the main character] had,” said Johnson, “There could also be that other side, where watching as a survivor, could be a very [negatively] triggering film.”

However, the film’s showing had a generally positive atmosphere, with the audience laughing at some of the more comedic aspects of the film.

Harrell added, “[The Center] is not just a place for women. We welcome men. We love to have men on board…to show their support for women’s roles on the University’s campus. It’s really important, I think, for women to have a place where we do come together, we do unite, and we do advocate.”

Teeth is the fourth in a six part film series the Women’s Center has organized. Not Just a Game will be showing on Nov. 8 th in the Talley Green Room, as well as Yesterday, which will be showing on Nov. 29 th .