Vagina Dentata

A LITTLE HISTORY
Vagina dentata, the unconscious belief that a woman may eat or castrate her partner during intercourse -- literally, the "toothed vagina" -- is a classic mythological symbol of men's fear of sex. It appears in the mythology of countless cultures and societies down through the years.
• One Native American myth states “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.” • The Yanomamo said one of the first beings on earth was a woman whose vagina became a toothed mouth and bit off her consort's penis. • The more patriarchal the society, the more deeply rooted the fear seems to be. Men of Malekula, having overthrown their matriarchate, were haunted by a Yonic spirit called "that which draws us to It so that It may devour us." • Chinese patriarchs said women's genitals were not only gateways to immortality but also "executioners of men." • Moslem aphorisms said: "Three things are insatiable: the desert, the grave, and a woman's vulva." • Polynesians said the savior-god Maui tried to find eternal life by crawling into the mouth (or vagina) of his mother Hina, in effect trying to return to the womb of the Creatress; but she bit him in two and killed him.
Looking into, touching or entering the female orifice seems fraught with hidden fears, signified by the confusion of sex with death in overwhelming numbers of male minds and myths. Since vulvas have labiae, "lips," many men have believed that behind the lips lie teeth. Christian authorities of the middle ages taught that certain witches, with the help of the moon and magic spells, could grow fangs in their vaginas. They likened women's genitals to the "yawning" mouth of hell. How’s that for romantic?