In Mitchell Lichtenstein's infamous 2007 film Teeth, adolescent Dawn discovers her vagina has teeth when raped by a classmate. In terror after the incident leaves her assailant, Toby, castrated and later dead due to the blood loss, Dawn sees a gynecologist in hopes of explaining what happened. Of course, Mr. Gyno attempts to abuse his power with his fingers during the exam, rendering him instantly fingerless on one of his hands. As he screams out, "VAGINA DENTATA!" Dawn further plummets into a panic: it must be true, the source to her sexual awakening acts as a bear trap to any visitors.
But, we soon learn that Dawn is able to have sex with consenting partners and she soon learns to use her "power" to punish those out to sexually assault her, just as the vagina dentata of myths from Native American, Japanese, Egyptian and Greek descent. Stemming from the psychological fear in many cultures of castration (and further, death by castration), Teeth instead offers a view that vagina dentata can be a form of female empowerment, to keep her from sexual deviancy and male predators. Not so far from this thought is the contemporary phenomenon of the Rape-aXe, an anti-rape condom with "teeth" inspired by the myth and developed in South Africa in 2005. Clasping tight on the penis through jagged hooks that prevent peeing and cause pain, Rape aXe doesn't puncture the skin or cause "fluid exposure," though it does require removal by a medical professional.
Vagina dentata (latin for vagina with teeth) does not exist in modern (or premodern) society. While medical sources say that a vagina could grow teeth (along with hair or bones) through a dermoid cyst, this is a rare occurrence that certainly could not be translated into a heritable condition or anything resembling that of the legends of the Ainu, Samoans, and other peoples. However, in the spirit of Halloween, let me indulge a few details of this ovarian affliction, as reported by the 1940s pathology text Diseases of Women:
"Dermoid cysts are usually globular in shape and dull white in color. The following is a partial list of tissues which have been found in dermoids: skin and its derivatives, sebaceous glands, hair, sweat glands, and bone, especially the maxillae containing teeth. Up to 300 teeth have been found in one cyst."
Nevertheless, one or 300 teeth in a dermoid cyst could hardly move voluntarily (or involuntarily) to "devour the male" or "cut the penis into three pieces." In the end of Anglo-American myths including vagina dentata, the heroic male must break off the teeth in order to tame and keep the female as their partner. Some cultures have interpreted this idea as a blueprint for clitoridectomy (excision), seeing it as the "twin" of circumcision" and an act to prevent the possibility of a female having equal sexual power. In fact, as reported in the American Academy of Religion, "Many of the stories indicate that when the 'teeth' are broken out, the woman no longer experiences sexual pleasure." Though historically accurate, equating the idea of female genitalia able to sever the penis through teeth in the vaginal canal with the mere existence of the clitoris (located above and outside the vagina) seems a bit of a stretch. Dermoid cyst growing a third head or button-sized erectile tissue? Hmm, let me check.
