The motif of ‘vagina dentata’, or ‘toothed vagina’, is found in folklore around the world. This myth suggests that a woman can castrate a man, using her toothed vagina as a weapon. Here is a round up of some of the best

Thread

There are many of these myths in Indian folklore. In the state Madhya Pradesh, one story tells of a Brahmin who couldn’t marry his intended because her vagina had fangs. He hired three men to kidnap the woman & pull out the teeth so he could marry her https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/16/the-stories-men-tell-to-convince-themselves-that-rape-is-okay/?outputType=amp

Other Indian folklore tells of the demon Śukra who is punished by Śiva by being crushed in a vulva with fangs. Other versions tell of the demon Āḍi taking the form of Pārvatī/Umā & placing sharp teeth in her vagina, in order to deceive Śiva and kill him. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed26/9fbf0c3b5d08538fed08a1beda998cd970db.pdf

In Japan, the Kanamara Matsuri festival (or metal penis festival) celebrates the legend of a woman who destroyed a toothed demon living inside her vagina that castrated her husband. She did this by fashioning a metal dildo to break it’s teeth. https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/shinto-festival-japan-celebrates-big-metal-penis

In Māori folklore, the demigod Māui tried to make humans immortal by turning into a caterpillar & crawling inside the goddess Hine-nui-te-pō's vagina. But she woke up & crushed Māui inside her massive toothed vagina & humans stayed mortal. (Māori carving of Hine-nui-te-pō & Māui)

In The Handbook of Native American Mythology, the Ponca story "Teeth in the Wrong Places" tells of sisters who have been cursed with vagina dentata by a witch. A trickster coyote kills the witch & saves one sister but kills the other when she bites him https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IsyQu1kDK-kC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=coyote+vagina+with+teeth&source=bl&ots=YIy7p8Q41k&sig=i71Vae7ELVVSicAVHuQS2id_2O0&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=coyote%20vagina%20with%20teeth&f=false

According to the Waspishiana and Taruma Native Americans, the first woman had a carnivorous fish inside her vagina.

It is very rare, but teeth really have been found growing inside the vagina. In 1989, The American Journal of Forensic Medicine & Pathology reported a benign embroid tumor containing teeth growing in the wall of a woman's vagina. (CW graphic content)

https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/2013/03/04/pulling-teeth-ovarian-teratomas-vagina-dentata/

Sleep tight, everyone.

It popped up in a google image search for ‘vintage Christmas erotica’. I have no idea where it’s from or what the hell its about, but I wrote the entire thread just so I could use it. If anyone has any clue where it is from, please let me know.

The Vagina Dentata continues to be a popular motif in feminist art today. This is Allyson Mitchell’ “Hungry Purse: The Vagina Dentata in Late Capitalism”, (2006)

This is Oona Ratcliffe’s Untitled (Vaginal Odyssey 1), 2009

Peter Saul, “Relax Sonny” (2009)

Vagina dentata, by Marina Luk