Fear of the unknown in antiquity often manifests itself in myths and legends and this trend carries over into the fear of the vagina. It is a dark, forbidden, unknown place with nameless, mysterious dangers. And it is a place most men have been warned to avoid even though it is so, so tempting. After all, in the androcentric medieval era, nothing was a fearsome as a female. The reason for the vagina dentata legend could be two-fold, with both options equally misogynistic: it could have come about as a male fear of the evil, unknown woman. Or it could have developed as a warning of what could happen if a man ventured too close to the vagina.
But first, let us consider teeth in general. Traditionally, teeth have been a symbol of both danger and seduction. We certainly don’t want to get started on the whole Team Edward sexy teen vampire fascination, but it does illustrate our time-honored interest in toothy, sexy romance. Teeth are linked to insatiable hunger, in the form of both gluttony and, more metaphorically, sexual hunger. In this sense, it is not hard to see how stories of teeth in a vagina could have developed. Much like the vagina itself, teeth symbolize both allure and threat.
The impetus for the vagina dentate myth may even have its roots in zoology. The sea-faring ancient Greeks surely encountered squid, a fearsome creature whose toothy mouth is rather misplaced. It is found at the crux of the creature’s legs where it could be easily confused for a vagina.
Vagina dentata plays on a deep-rooted fear of the both the unknown and of women. A female was, after all, just an inferior version of a man, yet she was inherently evil and untrustworthy, therefore she must be kept under tight control or lord knows what would happen. A woman is full of sinister secrets. If a man fell for her attraction and was seduced by her charms, he could find himself in terrible danger, at risk of losing his life, or more frighteningly, his manhood. By sticking his wanger into the unknown depths of a woman’s crotch, a man risked having it bitten off — chomp chomp — by the ravenous vagina dentata. And a man without his penis is, well, like a woman. Egad! Yes, an encounter with a vagina dentata can be emasculating, a fate worse than death!
Medieval men truly feared losing their dicks. In his book Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief, Walter Stephens notes that one of the numerous crimes witches were accused of was penis stealing. Here again we see anti-feminist over-tones coming into play. The malevolent female could take the manhood away from a fellow, in a sense elevating herself to a social status above the man. So horrible was this thought that severe punishments were doled out to women accused of penis snatching via witchcraft.
Vagina dentata stories could also be a sort of cautionary tale used as a fear-tactic to keep men from raping strange women. Medieval clergy wasn’t too keen on sex even when it was between husband and wife; therefore rampant sex outside of marriage was a big no-no. Perpetuating stories like the vagina dentata, the church and government authorities hoped to discourage men from forcing themselves upon women, not because they wanted to protect women. Instead, it was to protect themselves and other men. Because a woman belonged to a patriarchal authority figure, such as a father, husband, or brother, a crime against a woman’s vagina was interpreted as a crime against her owner… property damage, if you will.
The concept of vagina dentata as a rape deterrent has been reborn in the last decade. A South African woman named Sonnet Ehlers, a blood technician, sickened by the number of rapes throughout Africa and the spread of HIV via unwanted sexual penetration, was inspired to design an anti-rape device when a rape victim at her clinic said to her, “If only I had teeth down there”. The Rape-aXe is a barb-lined female condom that would snag on a penis during intercourse. Not only would this hurt like heck, but the barbs would remain attached to the penis until surgically removed by a doctor who, we hope, would alert the police. Even though it sounds revengeful, Ehlers’ goal was to prevent the spread of AIDS and other diseases and prevent pregnancy by rapists. So many people, mostly men, rallied against the product because of the damage it could inflict on a penis that it has yet to be mass produced.
Interestingly, vagina dentata legends are universal. Asian, African, South American and Native American lore all include references to dangerously toothy vaginas. In some tales, a hard-cocked hero must bang a woman with vagina dentata so as to knock out her teeth, thus making her suitable to bed other men. In another tale, the hero, who had been warned of the bite of his lady friend, tested the waters with his scabbard rather than his penis and noted the bite marks on his scabbard.
In Ainu folklore, an entire island was inhabited by women inflicted with vagina dentata. Basil Hall Chamberlain was one of the first Englishmen to translate the tale of “The Island of Women”. In this story, the ladies of the island sprout vaginal teeth every spring and so they must send their husbands away. They became impregnated when they bared their spread vaginas to the east wind, but killed all the boys they birthed as soon as they reached puberty.
Other stories found throughout North America are much less girl-empowering. In a nutshell, most of these tales find a warrior sacking a beautiful maiden with a bite to her bootie. Sex is painful and therefore not much fun, so the warrior over-powers the woman and forcibly removes her vaginal dentistry, which is very painful for her but he doesn’t much care. Now the path is clear for him to have pleasurable sex. This tale, and similar ones, demonstrate male dominance over women, both physically and sexually, and reinforce the idea that women should not find sexual penetration to be gratifying.
Conclusion
As we conclude our joint study of the vagina and the Middle Ages, it is our hope that the historical research and analysis of medieval gender attitudes presented in The Medieval Vagina has both entertained and enlightened the reader.
We also hope that the reader gleans from this book an appreciation of the role the vagina has played in the history, religion, health, culture, arts, and social structure of the Middle Ages. This most feminine of bodily organs has, despite its repression and minimization, succeeded in its dual purposes of progeny and pleasure. Yet is hasn’t merely succeeded; it has triumphed.
Rather than accept its fate as secondary to the dominate penis, the vagina has asserted its importance into the lifestyle and culture of the medieval era. It is only through the courageous efforts of numerous medieval women, some we have featured in The Medieval Vagina, who redefined the traditional role of women and pushed back against the walls of misogyny that the paradox view of women as both givers of life and givers of pleasure evolved. They have laid the groundwork for gender equality and an understanding of the complexity of womanhood and the importance of the vagina.
References
Amt, Emilie, ed. Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, 1993. Print.
Burton, Robert. Anatomy of Melancholy. New York Review Books Classics. 2011. Print.
Carter, John Marshall. Rape in Medieval England: An Historical and Sociological Study. Lanham, MD: U of America, 1985. Print.
Classen, Albrecht. Childhood in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the Results of a Paradigm Shift in the History of Mentality. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2005. Print.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, V. A. Kolve, and Glending Olson. The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue: Authoritative Text, Sources and Backgrounds, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Print.