Weird Myths About Women

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History was written by those in power. And since those in power usually tends to be men, history is usually dictated by them. This has led to some bizarre, outrageous or just plain hilarious myths about women. And the weirdest part was, people actually believed these stories. The public at that time must have been really gullible to believe some of these stories.

Here are a few weird old myths about women.

The Migrating Womb
Once upon a time, doctors and healers were clueless about the female body. To mask their ignorance whenever a woman fell sick, the Grecian healers came up with a really weird phenomenon. They claimed that the uterus, attracted by fragrant smells, detaches itself and wanders throughout the body, taking temporary residence in different body parts. This made things really easy for them since they could attribute almost every illness faced by a woman to her migrating womb.

Shunamitism
This myth was definitely created by a bunch of perverted old men. Based on the biblical story of King David, this practise claims that if an old man shares a bed with a nubile virgin, then he will regain his youth and virility. Numerous scientific physicians in the 17th and 18th Century prescribed this treatment to their patients. Needless to say, nobody's youth was preserved. But the old men probably did not complain all that much.

Venomous Venusians
We have the Greek physician Galen to thank for this outrageous myth. He claimed that if women did not have frequent intercourse, her body will start storing a substance called 'female semen'. If this substance accumulated and festered inside her body, it would turn venomous. This venomous semen was used to explain each and every disease affecting a woman during his time.

Fewer Teeth
Greek scientist Aristotle might have been one of the founders of life science, but he had some really bizarre notions. He believed that women had fewer teeth than men. Considering the fact that he was married twice, its a mystery why he did not think to check if his theory was true. The sad fact is, people actually believed this myth for centuries.

Fanged Vaginas
This is a pretty widespread myth, prevalent in places ranging from ancient Rome to the tribes of South America. The myth postulates that certain women have teeth in their genitals which could bite off a man's penis if he tried to force himself on her. This biologically implausible phenomena was widely believed, and more than one lady scared off an unwanted suitor by this insinuation.

Hazards of Reading
In a very transparent attempt to keep women from pursuing knowledge and attaining education, another myth was propagated. In 1873, Dr. Edward Clarke who was a Harvard professor came up with a theory that humanity's survival depended on a woman being deprived of a higher education. His theory was that, intense thinking drew blood to the brain, away from the uterus, stunting a woman's reproductive growth. Their brains would swell, while their bodies shrivelled up and they lost their power to procreate. Men were miraculously exempted from this phenomenon.

Considering these weird myths, its a wonder that female empowerment even took place!