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Raitt 1980 Vagina Dentata
Raitt 1980 Vagina Dentata
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to explore two primordialimages
which have provided a foundation for the caricaturesof woman that
are dominant in Christian theology and practice, the images of the
uterus
vaginadentata("vagina-with-teeth")and that of the immaculatus
divinifontis("immaculatewomb of the divine font"). In her treatment
of the vagina dentata, which she interprets as an expression of the
universalmale fear of the "castratingfemale," the authorconsidersthe
manifestations of the image in Christian church history, what has
happenedto women who have been the objects of the fear represented
by the image, and how the male-dominatedchurchhas neutralizedthe
female threat.
While one might initiallysuppose that the immaculatus
uterusdivini
fontis provides a positive counterpartfor the decidedly negative image
of the vaginadentata,the authorasserts that it is in realitya symbol of
woman as an utterlypassiverecipient.
In the last section of the article, the author argues that the use of
the metaphorof the perilousjourney to describe life derives from the
myth of the vaginadentataand from the myths of birth and rebirth
related to it. She goes on to consider the possibility of viewing life
through an image drawn from woman's experience of herself and
suggests that the cosmic egg might be such an image. Finally, the
articleexplores the implicationsof this image shift.
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n thisessay,I shallexaminetwoprimordial
imagesthatunderlie
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Then Coyote said: "We will make a woman of a deer." Then they
killed a deer. They put it undera blanketof tules. It was entirelycovered.
When the morningstar came it got up. It was a person (yokots) now. It
was a woman. Coyote said: "I will sleep with her." That night he slept
with her. In the morning he was dead. The woman was not hurt. The
prairiefalcon took a sharp water kress (kapi). He said: "Stick it in his
anus and he will get up." One of them put it in. Coyote got up hurriedly.
"Ah, I was sleepy," he said. He said: "Thatis not good. It is not sweet.
All men will die. We shall have to do it differently."Then he killed her.
He left her under the blanketover night. Then he said: "To-nightI will
try it again." Then he slept with her. In the morning he got up early.
"That is all right." he said. "This is good. We will let it be like that."
This is how peoplecame to be: deer was the mother. (Long:220)
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Maori, this was the cause of the introductionof death into the world.
(Hinenui-te-po was the goddess of death. If Maui had passed safely
through her, then no more human beings would have died, but death
itself would have been destroyed.)We express it by saying, "The waterwagtaillaughingat Maui-tiki-tiki-oTarangamade Hine-nui-te-posqueeze
him to death." And we have this proverb,"Men make heirs, but death
carriesthem off." (Eliade:142-44)
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women because, perhaps,they are from women. And they may prove to
be congenialto the whole human race, male as well as female.
Even our church history preserves some of these insights. The
amazing twelfth-centuryrenaissance owed much to the rediscovery of
nature and the celebrationof microcosm-macrocosm,or the little circle
concentrating within itself, like the cosmic egg, the contents and
complexities of the larger circle of the universe. The twelfth century
owed as much to this development as it did to the destructivecrusades.
The mystics saw this and, breakingimages, spoke as did Bernardand
Juliana of Norwich, of God the Mother and Jesus the Mother. Later,
out of the same microcosmic-macrocosmicinsight, Jacob Boehme saw
the beauty of wisdom, Sophia, and the primordiallypositive role of the
female. It is not as though women had to leave behind everything and
start totally afresh. We can explore creativelythose myths and symbols
which we sense are true to our own nature. Then we can begin to own
our past, our psyche and ourselves as women and so lay a solid
foundation for the creative work to which we are urged by increasing
numbers of our sisters and some of our brothers.
Imagine what such a round relationalmodel would do to our stories
and ways of envisioning life./8/ It would mean that the "hero" would
cease to mount his chargerand, spear in hand, gallop off to conquer,
overcome, and snatch a trophy (virgin and treasure) as a reward.
Instead, to be human would mean to unfold the potential in each one
within society. It would mean protectingand developingthe gifts of each
in relation to others. There would be no competition because there
would be no individual prize. No one would be able to benefit at
another's expense because each would understand that it is only in
relational and contextual development of the whole that each one is
enriched. This sort of model would support the basic notion of the
mystical body of Christ in which each member is vitally affected by the
injuryor development of other members.
Our language, our culture, our fairy tales, the fundamentalshapers
of our consciousness as we grow up, might then speak of mutual
development of talents rather than of competition; of growing in
relation rather than "getting ahead." Then the story of creation might
sound something like this one which I wrote four years ago,/9/ without
fully understandingwhere it came from, and with which I conclude.
In the beginning was the all-encompassingDiversity who felt
compassiongrow powerfullywithin her. Order,yet unenlivened,searched
for being. Diversity called Order to her and embraced him. Of her
compassionand Order'sneed, life stirred.
Why should not the female genitrix be called Diversity, ratherthan
Chaos? Why should not Diversity be God, rather than Sky-Father?
What, after all, is Order all by its lonesome self? What poems were
writtenby Law?Why should anyone aspirefor greatnessunless there is a
potencyfor expression?Of what sex are the shapinghands of this world?
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a lineargeometrical
Order,afterthe Greekfashion,is considered
figure,
it mustlie inert,perfectlyuninspired
and uninspiring.
Whatit needs is
Diversityto makeit swell out of its closedmind.Diversityshall call
Orderforth.It shalllose its rigiduprightcontroland enterthe ecstatic
dreamof becoming,andso togetherthe two shallfindlife, andnew life
shallgrowin Diversityfromtheircomingtogether.
In the beginningwasDiversityandthe Ordering
Wordwaswithher
and in her, the daughterWisdomgrew to birth, springingto earth,
playingamongus, creating,callingus into beingandinto responsibility,
andthe gloryof growingintowomenand
offeringthe fruitof knowledge
men who know themselvesas images of the procreativeprinciples,
love.
DiversityandLogos,whotogetherarea godheadbreathing
NOTES
The author wishes to thank Wendy Doniger O'Flahertyfor her encouragement and generous help in locating texts, especially the Verrier Elwin
material, and for her suggestions for revision. Thanks are also due to Anne
JacobsonShutte, CharlesH. Long, and Lloyd Baileyfor their suggestions.
/1/
See, for example, Gen. 49:25: "blessingsof heaven above, blessings of
the deep that couches beneath." See Wakeman: 86-92, esp. 88. Wakeman
likens Tehom (The Deep) to Nahash as a sea monster. The ambiguity of
Tehom retains that of Tiamat, its mythical counterpart.Even though blessings
are invoked in Gen. 49:25, the "deep that couches beneath" is similar to "the
greatdragonthat lies (couches) in the midst of his streams"or the demon lying
at the door, sin lying in wait. (Ez. 29:3 and Gen. 4:7b). Tehom, however, is
feminine, in fact, the queen of the netherworld (Wakeman:89).My colleague,
Lloyd Bailey, suggested I consult Wakeman with regard to the Gen. 49:25
passagewhich was itself broughtto my attentionby WendyO'Flaherty.
/2/
Both Naomi Goldenbergand Carol Christhave expressed their profound
distrustof Jungiananalysisin Anima 3 (Spring 1977); see especiallypp. 15-16,
66-68.
/3/
Here I take exception to Nancy Friday'sMy Mother,My Self (New York:
Dell, 1977) and in general to the continual blaming of the mother for the
psychologicalproblems of her offspring.It is time, I think, for psychology to
take another look at parents, both of them, and their effect upon the children
without the burden of Freud's mother-complex or the nineteenth century
middle class familyas normative.
/4/
This may be the forerunnerof the custom today of the "right"of male
guests to kiss the bride. On gang rape and its uses, see Brownmiller,chap. 9:
"The Myth of the Heroic Rapist."
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/5/
Daly quotes Verzin's "Sequelae of Female Circumcision"in Tropical
Doctor (October1975), p. 163.
The biblical passage, Proverbs 30:15-16, has been a difficult one in
/6/
which biblicalscholarsfind ambiguitiesin the translationsof the Hebrew and in
Septuagint variations. Kramer and Sprenger would probably have used the
et quartum,quodnunquamdicit:
Vulgate, which reads: (15) Triasunt insaturabilia,
Sufficit! (16) Infernus,et os vulvae,et terra, quae non satiaturaqua; ignis vero
nunquamdicit:Sufficit!Cf. Migne, P.L. 28:1338. In the original biblical texts,
womb is modified in a sense which I take to mean barren. In the Hebrew
context, it is not "carnallust" which never says "Enough!"but the desire of a
barrenwoman to conceive.
/7/
Odyssey,12:85-100. Scylla is the ultimate nightmare,a female monster
armed with tentaclesand six mouths, each lined with three rows of teeth.
For the desirabilityof circularityover "patriarchalpyramids"see Neal,
/8/
especially p. 119: "we are beginning to feel the demand for a new symbol of
unity; a symbol that is circularand not pyramidal."Neal's point is that the
father is the cultural apex not only of families, but of business, politics, and
internationalrelations.
Partof my responseto a paperread at the Divinity School, Universityof
/9/
Chicago, May 1, 1975. I have changed "Matrix"to "Diversity"in this "myth"
after conversationswith Wendy O'Flahertyand Elizabeth Dobson Gray, who
honors Diversity in her book, Why the Green Nigger? (Wellesley, MA:
RoundtablePress, 1979).
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