Meaning of vagina dentata | Babel Free

Definitions

The mythical toothed vagina; often related to castration anxiety.

Examples

“This notion also associates the vampire more directly with the primal uncanny. The long quotation that Moretti uses from Marie Bonaparte's writings on Edgar Allen^([sic]) Poe includes reference to the mythical vagina dentata, the ‘strange’ notion that the vagina ‘is furnished with teeth, and thus a source of danger in being able to bite and castrate’.”

“My relationship towards tulips is inherently Lynchian. I think they are disgusting. Just imagine. Aren't these some kind of, how do you call it, vagina dentata, dental vaginas threatening to swallow you?”

“Perhaps one of the most recognizable and acknowledged contemporary images of vagina dentata appears in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). […] Indeed, Gieger^([sic]) himself wanted the creature to be an embodiment of the fear of rape, making it a perfect match for the film.”

CEFR level