How did the word “beaver” come to be associated with vagina?

Question

What is the etymology of the word beaver as it relates to a woman's vagina?

Answer 1

Etymology Online offers that beaver in the gynecological sense is British slang dating from 1927, transferred from earlier meaning "a bearded man" (1910), or from the appearance of split beaver pelts.

Answer 2

It's almost certainly just the hairiness of both. Probably originally more associated with pubic hair anyway, which is why you now find split beaver used at an even lower level.

Answer 3

Green's Dictionary of Slang concurs with HaL's answer, and in addition offers a limerick, which it dates from 1927...

There was a young lady named Eva
Who went to the ball as Godiva,
But a change in the lights,
Showed a tear in her tights,
And a low fellow present yelled "Beaver"

Answer 4

In colonial times it was thought that prostitutes spread veneral diseases through contact with their pubic area, so the women were made "bald" in that area for health reasons. However, their clients did not like that look and business began to suffer. Therefore, pubic wigs, called merkins, were manufactured for the prostitutes. These merkins were made out of beaver pelts. Hence the term beaver. Learned this on a historical tour of Philadelphia.