[Jaws] is the ritual retelling of an essential patriarchal myth—male vanquishment of the female symbolized as a sea monster, dragon, serpent, vampire, etc.—administering a necessary fix to a society hooked on and by male control. The purpose of Jaws and other myths of its genre is to instill dread and loathing for the female and usually culminate in her annihilation. (p. 305)

The great white shark in Jaws,… actually represents the primordial female and her most dreaded aspects. (pp. 307-08)

When Jaws hit the international market the French translated its title as "Les Dents de la Mer," (The Teeth of the Sea), a fact which can easily lead us, not only to the idea of castration, but to the consideration of two related themes—the mythological motif of the vagina dentata (the toothed, i.e. castrating vagina) and male obsessive fear of abortion. (p. 312)

[It] is the...