This is what Cixous argues against, saying that female writing and experience cannot just be summed up as an “anti-phallic” experience. “It is not by accident that Freud linked the sight of the Medusa to the equally horrifying sight of the mother’s genitals, for the concept of the monstrous-feminine, as constructed within/by a patriarchal and phallocentric ideology, is related intimately to the problem of sexual difference and castrations.” (2) They become images or symbols for the phallus. For example, a woman carrying a cane or, as Creed points out, the image of the witch as having long fingers and a long nose. Phallic mother -> a mother figure who possesses, embodies, or displays a phallic image/metaphor. Either something is being pushed into the mouth (as with Amnion) or the close up on the mom boss always shows the screaming mouth (as with Helen Grady). There is a focus on the mouth in some way. Otherwise, think about the monster-moms in the Silent Hill series.
Vagina dentata -> a vagina ringed with or filled with teeth that will castrate a man upon penetration. “The female monster, or monstrous-feminine, wears many faces: the amoral primeval mother ( Aliens, 1986) vampire ( The Hunger, 1983) witch ( Carrie, 1976) woman as monstrous womb ( The Brood, 1979) woman as bleeding wound ( Dressed to Kill, 1980) woman as possessed body ( The Exorcist, 1973) the castrating mother ( Psycho, 1960) woman as beautiful but deadly killer ( Basic Instinct, 1992) aged psychopath ( Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, 1962) the monstrous boy-girl ( A Reflection of Fear, 1973) woman as non-human animal ( Cat People, 1942) woman as life-in-death ( Lifeforce, 1985) woman as the deadly femme castratrice ( I Spit On Your Grave, 1978).” (1)
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