According to Steve Ramos, reviewing “Teeth,” a new dark-comedy/horror film, in Indiewire
...in countless psychiatrist offices everywhere, there are people describing their fear of vaginal dentata, the belief that women have sharp teeth lining their vagina.
Can this possibly still be a phobia, let alone a plausible fear? It seems a bit of a stretch that it ever might have been, but Ramos says
I can’t say with certainty if anyone with that fear was sitting in the audience watching actor-turned-filmmaker Mitchell Lichtenstein’s “Teeth,” a silly, splatter movie about a teen girl with G Spot canines. But there were enough screams, as well as nervous laughs, to conclude that everyone has some queasiness when it comes to bodily fluids and orifices. If [filmmaker and famous-artist’s son Michael] Lichtenstein’s aim with his mixed-bag horror comedy was to bring the fear of vaginal dentate to life, he succeeded fantastically.
I guess what confuses me about the phobia (which Wikipedia says relates to various symbolic concerns about patriarchy and its related castration anxieties) is that as far as I know it never crops up in relationship with fellatio. Where you’d think actual teeth would be a bigger cause for concern.
I’m just sayin’
Submitted by 1174 (not verified) on Sun, 2007-01-28 19:13.
A vagina is more powerful than a jaw, hypothetically.
More importantly, a man knows that a woman has teeth in her mouth. A vagina dentata is a trap, a snare. He thinks he's going in for some sex, when suddenly her teeth are bared and castration ensues.
The fear of being bitten during fellatio is a rational fear. The vagina dentata phobia is irratonal.
[Good point about the difference between rationale and phobia, Shakes. Thanks. --fl]
Submitted by 1174 (not verified) on Fri, 2007-02-02 02:36.
Um...I lack experience I know, but I have never met a man afraid of teeth in a vagina, but I have met one with irrational fears about condoms, catching a disease and losing his erection. I sort of think my male friends would laugh at me if I asked them about this.
However, I imagine that putting your most sensitive part in a place that you cannot see might be scary. After all, it is really dangerous to put your hand under a bit of wood in the forest etc without looking. Maybe that is just the view of a simple girl brought up in a remote area with lots of scorpions, venomous spiders, snakes etc.
[I... I guess I just can't imagine putting my sensitive parts anywhere I haven't kissed, caressed, and explored with all my senses first. Preferably over and over. Irrational mental phobias I can imagine, fear of the unknown just seems terminally incomplete. thanks, Avalon. --fl]