baserinstincts

How The Venus Flytrap Really Got Its Name

February 23, 2010 on 6:23 pm | In Freudianisms | Add Your Comment

I’m not even sure how I got to thinking about this topic, but it was probably due to a combination of watching The Bachelor: Women Tell All special last night and a discussion of  deconstructionist literary criticism in class today.

I know they seem unrelated, but stay with me here.

The Bachelor tell-all special was as ridiculous as I expected it to be (ridiculous though it may be, I like the show, don’t judge me) there was one particular point of interest, and it was that of the whole Roslyn sex scandal.

I’ll give a very brief summary. The show puts 25 women in a big house and they compete for the affections and engagement ring of  one one supposedly successful and ruggedly handsome bachelor. This season there were many controversies but the one that stood out the most was that one of the contestants, for lack of a better term, Roslyn, was kicked off the show because of an alleged inappropriate relationship with one the of shows former producers. I say former because he was fired. On the special, Roslyn was brought out to defend herself against these allegations, and it seemed she couldn’t complete a sentence without any one of the other women ripping her a new one, saying they saw this and they saw that and calling her a liar and judging her.

It was entertaining to say the least but I found myself wondering what the big deal was. So what if she slept with a producer of the show? In my mind, the other housemates were upset because Roslyn went out and got hers while the rest of them continued to compete for one man in the hopes of getting some.

Actually, Roslyn is starting to sound kind of smart.

But this tweet (actually, the clever hash tag) summed up what I was thinking way better than I could at the time.

Bingo! Cultural fear of female sexuality.

Making sense now?

We’re getting to the flytrap.

The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that traps and digests small insects. It’s a houseplant really, but looks more ominous because of the hairs that line it’s leaves and inner portions. They resemble sharp teeth. In short, the Venus flytrap is not to be fucked with. See the video below for evidence.

 

But why Venus flytrap? Why not call it the shark plant or something like that? Kinda looks like Jaws, if you ask me.

Let’s explain this by first understanding Venus herself. Yes, Venus is the second planet from the sun but the name also refers to the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Theory number one on how the Venus flytrap got it’s name is that the plant itself resembles the clam shell pictured in The Birth of Venus painted by Boticelli. Or because the flowers are really beautiful, or something like that.

The Birth of Venus

Um,  but I don’t really buy that one.

Let’s look closer.

Mr. Sigmund biology-is-destiny Freud, the father of modern psychology has some cooky interesting theories about sex organs. The theory of penis envy is one we all know well. I’d need a whole other post to express what I think about penis envy so I won’t discuss it here. But I will talk about castration anxiety. Castration anxiety, according to fraud Freud is the unconscious fear in men that they will one day lose their penis. When the young male first becomes aware of the difference in male and female genitalia, he assumes that the female’s penis has somehow been removed. He then worries that his penis will similarly be “cut off”, likely but his father; his arch nemesis according to Oedipal theories.

Now, as with penis envy, we’re speaking figuratively here. Men don’t necessarily fear physically losing their penis as they do fear losing what their penis represents (as evidenced in this year’s Superbowl ads). Just as women don’t necessarily want to have a physical penis, just the power that the penis represents.

And just how, you ask, does a man lose his penis?

Cherchez la femme.

The term vagina dentata literally translates to “toothed vagina” in Latin. It basically serves to warn men to be careful about where they stick their willies. Now, I’m sure most men don’t really think that there are razor sharp teeth in women’s vaginas that will lop their dicks off if they fuck them (or with them), although one could only imagine how different the world would be if that were true. However, many do fear losing something by becoming attached to a vagina.

Now let’s bring it home.

Look closely at our little Venus flytrap here. What does it look like? It’s not reaching to say that the plant resembles a vagina. And if we extend our understanding of Venus to mean a symbol for anything feminine, well then we can see what the man or men (for undoubtedly they were) who came up with that clever little name were really trying to say; that the vagina is a trap of some sort and something to be feared and avoided, and if not, controlled.

Hmmm. Sounds curiously like the state of women’s sexual and reproductive rights in the year 2010.

See, nothing’s really changed has it?