Vagina dentata: Difference between revisions
Dream Focus (talk | contribs) one reference was to a book where a medical doctor specifically mentions this. The other references include an actual photograph. This information is in the Dermoid cyst article as well |
WP:Dummy edit: My concern are mainly the other sources and how this text is presented. Most anatomists/experts would state that there is no such thing as vaginal teeth. Vaginal teeth also are not mentioned at Dermoid cyst. See talk page. |
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[[Image:Venetian-chastity.JPG|thumb|225px|right|A spiked Venetian [[chastity belt]].]] |
[[Image:Venetian-chastity.JPG|thumb|225px|right|A spiked Venetian [[chastity belt]].]] |
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'''''Vagina dentata''''' ([[Latin]] for ''[[tooth]]ed [[vagina]]'') describes a [[folklore|folk tale]] in which a woman's vagina is said to contain teeth, with the associated implication that [[sexual intercourse]] might result in injury, [[emasculation]], or [[castration]] for the man involved. |
'''''Vagina dentata''''' ([[Latin]] for ''[[tooth]]ed [[vagina]]'') describes a [[folklore|folk tale]] in which a woman's vagina is said to contain teeth, with the associated implication that [[sexual intercourse]] might result in injury, [[emasculation]], or [[castration]] for the man involved. |
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==In folklore== |
==In folklore== |
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Such folk stories are frequently told as [[cautionary tale]]s warning of the dangers of unknown women and to discourage [[rape]].<ref name=WhatsUp> |
Such folk stories are frequently told as [[cautionary tale]]s warning of the dangers of unknown women and to discourage [[rape]].<ref name=WhatsUp> |
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Revision as of 23:51, 25 October 2015
Vagina dentata (Latin for toothed vagina) describes a folk tale in which a woman's vagina is said to contain teeth, with the associated implication that sexual intercourse might result in injury, emasculation, or castration for the man involved.
In folklore
Such folk stories are frequently told as cautionary tales warning of the dangers of unknown women and to discourage rape.[1]
Erich Neumann relays one such myth in which "a fish inhabits the vagina of the Terrible Mother; the hero is the man who overcomes the Terrible Mother, breaks the teeth out of her vagina, and so makes her into a woman".[2]
The legend also appears in the mythology of the Chaco and Guiana tribes of South America. In some versions, the hero leaves one tooth.[3]
Hinduism
In Hinduism, the asura Andhaka, son of Shiva and Parvati (but not aware of it), is killed by Shiva when he tries to force the disguised Shiva into surrendering Parvati. Andhaka's son Adi, also an asura, takes the form of Parvati to seduce and kill Shiva with a toothed vagina in order to avenge Andhaka, but is also slain.[4]
Shintoism
In Shintoism the Ainu legend is that a sharp-toothed demon hid inside the vagina of a young woman and emasculated two young men on their wedding nights.[5] Consequently, the woman sought help from a blacksmith who fashioned an iron phallus to break the demon's teeth.[6][7] The legendary iron phallus is considered that enshrined at the Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki, Japan, and there the popular Festival of the Steel Phallus error: {{nihongo3}}: Japanese or romaji text required (help) is held each spring.[8][9][10][11] Also, prostitutes considered that praying at that shrine protected them against sexually transmitted diseases.[12]
Māori mythology
In Māori mythology, the trickster Māui tries to grant mankind immortality by reversing the birth process, turning into a worm and crawling into goddess of night and death Hine-nui-te-pō's vagina and out through her mouth while she sleeps. His trick is ruined when a pīwakawaka laughs at the sight of his entry, awakening Hine-nui-te-pō, who bites him to death with her obsidian vaginal teeth.
Metaphorical usage
In her book Sexual Personae (1991), Camille Paglia wrote:
- The toothed vagina is no sexist hallucination: every penis is made less in every vagina, just as mankind, male and female, is devoured by mother nature.[13]
In his book The Wimp Factor, Stephen J. Ducat expresses a similar view, that these myths express the threat sexual intercourse poses for men who, although entering triumphantly, always leave diminished.[14]
Medical
In rare instances, teeth may grow in a vagina. Dermoid cysts are formed from the outer layers of embryonic skin cells. These cells are able to mature into teeth, bones or hair, and these cysts are able to form anywhere the skin is or where the skin folds inwards to become another organ, such as in the ear or the vagina. Dermoid cysts usually occur in ovaries. If they rupture there, the teeth may migrate through the vagina.[1][15][16]
See also
- Castration anxiety
- Emasculation
- Moon Over Soho, the second book in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, features an assassin with vagina dentata
- Penetration Angst, a horror film on the topic
- Penile spines
- Penis captivus
- Rape-aXe, a South African anti-rape device
- Snow Crash, the 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson, in which the character Y.T. wears a dentata.
- Teeth, a horror film in which the protagonist has a vagina dentata
- Saga of Pliocene Exile, a science fiction novel series by Julian May, in which an alien sub-species, the Firvulag, have vagina dentata
References
- ^ a b Rankin, Lissa (2010). What's Up Down There?: Questions You'd Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend. St. Martin's Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-312-64436-9. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
- ^ Neumann, Erich; translated by Ralph Manheim (1955). The Great Mother. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 168.
- ^ Leach, Maria (1972). "vagina dentata". Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend. entry by Erminie W. Voegelin. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 1152. ISBN 0-308-40090-9.
- ^ O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger (1981). Śiva: The Erotic Ascetic. London & New York: Oxford University Press. p. 188. ISBN 0-19-520250-3. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
- ^ "Kanamara Matsuri 2014: What You Should Know About Japan's Penis Festival (NSFW PHOTOS)". huffingtonpost.ca. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
- ^ Chamberlain, B. H. "The Island of Women". Aino Folk-Tales, 1888. pp. vii, 37.
- ^ "Metropolis - Japan Travel: Kawasaki - Heads up". web.archive.org. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
- ^ "Dammit, we missed The Festival of the Steel Phallus in Japan this weekend - Cosmopolitan". cosmopolitan.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
- ^ Dominique Mosbergen (2014-04-07). "Japan's Annual Penis Festival Is As Phallic As You'd Expect (PHOTOS)". huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
- ^ Times LIVE. "Japanese festival celebrates the penis - Times LIVE". timeslive.co.za. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
- ^ "BBC - Travel - Slideshow - Ten events not to miss in April". web.archive.org. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
- ^ "Kanamara Matsuri: When Does Japan's Penis Festival Start? (NSFW PHOTOS)". huffingtonpost.ca. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
- ^ Paglia, Camille (1991). Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. NY: Vintage. p. 47. ISBN 9780679735793
- ^ Ducat, Stephen J. (2004). The Wimp Factor. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 115–149. ISBN 978-0807043455.
- ^ "Dermoid cyst of the ovary - Stock Image M850/0464 - Science Photo Library". Sciencephoto.com. Retrieved 2014-07-31.
- ^ "Dermoid cyst of the ovary definition - Medical Dictionary: Definitions of Popular Terms Defined on MedTerms". Medterms.com. 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2014-07-31.