7 of the Craziest Myths About Female Biology of All Time

by Lynn Parramore

Recently we’ve heard some world-class craziness on the subject of that wondrous creation, the female body. The GOP has long frowned upon sex education, and for good reason. A rudimentary understanding of biology would render nonsensical many of its cherished ideas about women’s anatomical functions. Congressman Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin of Missouri follows in the venerable footsteps of those throughout history whose deep-seated fear and suspicion of women has led to the circulation of absurd myths that would be amusing were they not so often deadly.

That Republicans manage to hold onto biological fantasies in the face of modern scientific methods and tools is truly a triumph of ignorance over truth.

Here's a list of some of the most whacked-out ideas that fevered minds have conjured about women’s bodies througout the ages.


1. The Wandering Uterus

What if your uterus suddenly decided to spring from its station in your midsection and take off running wildly around your body?

That’s just what Plato theorized in his famous explanation for the discredited, fantasy diagnosis of “hysteria” that was widely believed to plague women well into the 20th century. In his dialogue Timaeus, Plato, following other Greek writers, describes the uterus as a little animal with a mind of its own that wanders throughout a woman’s body, "blocking passages, obstructing breathing, and causing disease."

The myth of the wandering womb lived on for centuries.


2. The Toothed Vagina


http://www.alternet.org/gender/7-craziest-myths-about-female-biology-all-time