Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf ?

[venta]

At the weekend, I was at a minor folkfestival. I briefly left the scene of the hedonistic dancing to buy myself some pie. Bowling up to Waitrose' deli, I asked for a slice of chicken-and-ham pie, and was slightly surprised when the guy serving pulled his white hat further down over his eyes, and muttered "Of course. So long as they don't come back."

They were walking past behind me at the time: two teenage members of Abingdon Traditional Morris Men. White shirts, white trousers, green-and-yellow baldricks, bells on their legs, flowery hats.

I assumed that the 18(ish) year old behind the deli was merely exhibiting the average English person's despisal of the country's traditions. It seemed a shame that his embarassment that people might choose morris as a hobby could make him hide so far behind his hat, but certainly not uncommon.

"I'm scared of morris men", he added as he lifted the pie onto the counter. I pointed out that I was nearly as bad, being a sword dancer, just that I was mostly in plain clothes at the time. "It's not like that" he added, as he weighed my slice of pie. "Why can't I have normal fears like other people?"

At which point I realised it. He really was scared of morris men. By this time, they had formed a queue behind me, and he was desperately trying to keep the brim of his white hat between his eyes and them. My pie was packaged up in a very slow, drawn out manner as he desperately tried to get the bloke selling cheese to swap counters with him 'for five minutes'.

And I felt somewhat guilty, because initially I'd assumed he was joking about being scared of morris men. I mean, you might find them irritating, or unpleasant, but clearly no one could actually be scared of them ? Of course, the thing about phobias is that they're irrational. Just because there's no reason why being near a morris man can harm you (any more so that any other man) doesn't mean people can't be genuinely terrified by one.

I don't think arachnophobes realise how easy they have it. You say "I'm scared of spiders", and everyone accepts that, even if they themselves are quite fond of them, spiders are a normal and reasonable thing to be scared of. Likewise heights, closed spaces, and so on. Yet if you happen to fear something which is largely regarded as benign by the rest of the world - like balloons - then suddenly no one will take you seriously. People will laugh at your fear, spend useless time explaining to you why you shouldn't be scared, or find it funny (and acceptable) to put you in situations where you're confronted by what you fear.

Incidentally, courtesy of my uncle, I now have a new word. He and I are both batophobes. Disappointingly, this doesn't mean scared of bats :) From dictionary.com:

bat·o·pho·bi·a
n.
An abnormal fear of being near an object of great height, such as a skyscraper or mountain.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't know - I guess I also find it slightly odd that someone who's adult would still be clownphobic.

I could understand an adult not liking clowns, or even being scared of them, but actual flat-out really-can't-deal-with-them-if-you-have-to I find more surprising.

[diffrentcolours]

I certainly think of them as very unnerving. Possibly reading "It" at a tender age has something to do with that. Then again, even before that, my parents had a picture of a clown at one end of the hallway, and at night I'd go downstairs to use the loo rather than walk towards that picture on the way to the bathroom.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I certainly think of them as very unnerving

Well yes - but if you were (for example) working on Waitrose deli, would you be unable to cope with the idea of serving a clown ?
(Assuming there was a circus in town, and thus a good reason for clowns to be wandering local emporia.)

It was more the level that surprised me than the existence of the fear.

[diffrentcolours]

It all depends. If the clown acted like a regular customer in a clown getup, I think I could cope. If he asked me if I wanted a nice red balloon, I'd freak out and throw my knife at his head.