Do You Have Coulrophobia? **

** Fear of Clowns.

[the Ben-Ali Shriner Clown Patrol/Sacramento, CA]

In doing a close-up look at these particular clowns, I found at least one area of Fear Factor in each face. Actually, I believe this photo was taken *after* the adult beverage portion of the banquet had begun.

I noticed how standoffish my children are around clowns. While not claiming to actually *fear* clowns, they are very wary. Older son and daughter state they don't really understand clowns. They don't find them funny. Some of the slapstick they've seen is hilarious to them, but it's not because the clowns perform it. It's the slapstick that's funny. They think the Shriner's tiny cars are hysterical, but it's because big people drive them. Not because of the clowns. As a child, I remember feeling very uneasy around clowns unless it was at a great distance. Running distance, usually. Safe margins and all ... :o) Stephen King's "Pennywise" of IT fame clinched the fear cinch nice and tight.

There was a UK article about a very naughty clown, just this week. A young boy decided to turn tables and poofed some paper confetti toward a clown. The clown ... just as in nightmares ... turned on the boy and beat him senseless. Clown's in jail. Boy's okay. My 8 year old made a comment just today about not judging people by how they look. We had been discussing Martin Luther King Day, autism, other things. Then I happened upon the story about the evil clown.


I started pondering .... what *is* it about clowns that leaves some people wishing they had those big floppy feet - in order to RUN the other way real fast? I thought about masks, facepaint, things that hide intent and/or expression, the Shriners. The Shriners? Anyway. I thought about how much we rely on facial expression or subtle shifts in expression to help us intuit true intent on someone else's part. Some public figure types spend mega money and time in learning how to project poker face. I think I'm more fearful of politicians than clowns, but who's to say which is which? :o)


These thoughts pondered also led me to think about my children who often back off from or fear some people for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's simply someone we pass on the street. I would guess their intuitive abilities are highly intact. But, that's for another post. I think on one of the blog we frequent, clown fear was listed by quite a few of us. Here are some interesting bits and nibbles about the subject:


COULROPHOBIA

An irrational fear of clowns.~~~ by Michael Quinion

"....Clowns represent anarchy, the personifications of unreason, and a force of nature out of control. Who knows what really lies behind their unchanging painted faces and outlandish costumes? These are all good enough reasons for even the strongest and most adult of us to feel unease in the presence of a clown. Some children are terrified by them and a surprisingly large proportion of adults confess to finding them creepy and disturbing, so much so that this word for their condition has had to be invented. It’s not old — perhaps from the 1980s — and has been taken from Greek kolon, a limb, which seems strange until you find the related kolobathristes was a stilt-walker. This seems to have been the nearest its coiner could get to a suitable classical allusion, since ancient Greek didn’t have a word for a clown in our modern sense."


Can't blame the Shriners ...


Coulrophobia is most commonly triggered by a traumatic experience in childhood, said Steven Luel, a psychologist in New York specializing in anxiety and phobias.

Clowns have been around for thousands of years, serving a unique role in many societies. In Egypt and China as far back as 1800 B.C., court jesters were permitted to mock and criticize kings when no one else could. But it is precisely this ability to act outside normal social boundaries that makes some people uncomfortable around clowns, experts say. “Clowns can pull off your wig or squirt you in the face with water and generally make fun of you without suffering any consequences,” said Derek Lee, a coulrophobe living in New York.

On ihateclowns.com, one of the many Web sites dedicated to the phobia, an anonymous writer admitted that his fear of clowns stemmed from once being ridiculed by one.


(I hate clowns . com? ... lol)

“I was at a circus when a clown came up to me and said, ‘Would you like to see the monkey I have in my box?’ Well, of course I did, so I said yes. When I looked into the box, there was no monkey ... only a mirror.”


I *really* felt sorry for this guy. For a sensitive child, trusting an authority figure (adult clowns included) who then not only dashed the hope of seeing a Real Live Monkey but made the child *feel* bad about himself - well - no wonder we have so many f*cked up adults. So, the child is hurt, confused, and betrayed in that situation. Then, the *whole* momentary "world" joins in on the laugh. Take another child having the same experience. One might holler back at the clown and say "Hey! You lied! There's no monkey in there! I'm not a monkey!" Or another child might laugh hysterically at the joke and the situation. Why? What makes each of us different and more or less able to "get" the joke or tolerate that kind of humor? A thousand different factors. What can we do? Clowns can be funny without making fun of a child, don't you think? Lose the monkey in the mirror joke you Bozos! And you sir! At I hate clowns dot com! Get over it, lad. You're a big boy now. Next time ... don't raise your hand when the clown calls for a volunteer. My motto since childhood "Never trust a clown." lol

The response among those who make their living as clowns has been one of dismay. "It hurts to hear I put the fear of God into people," said Mike Jeynes, a full-time clown who has worked in Sarasota for more than 20 years. “I got into this gig to make them laugh, not to make them upset.”

In one case, though, truth was more shocking than fiction. John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted in 1978 of sexually abusing and murdering 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area, would often perform as “Pogo” or “Patches” at children’s parties and hospitals. His favorite subject when he took up oil painting while on death row was also clowns.

With a Name Like Pipsqueak, You Must Be a Little Weird ....

Clowns say kids do NOT find them scary

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)

LONDON (Reuters) - Unhappy clowns from around the world say a study that reported that children didn't like them has wiped the big smile from their faces, and have been falling over their large shoes to put their case.

A poll by researchers looking at what decor to put in hospital children's wards found that youngsters do not like clowns on the walls and even older ones think they are scary.

"We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable," said Penny Curtis, senior researcher at the University of Sheffield which questioned 250 children aged between four and 16.

But their findings, published in a nursing magazine on Wednesday, has put the red noses of the clowning community out of joint.

In a deluge of emails to Reuters, they say they misrepresent just how popular they really are.
"The 'universe' of 250 children used for the Sheffield University study was miniscule compared to the 250,000 one-to-one bedside visits made by Clown Care to hospitalized children annually," said Joel Dein, director of communications at the Big Apple Circus in New York.
The Clown Care programme has involved two million hospital bedside visits since it began 21 years ago, employs more than 93 professional "Clown Doctors" and has been copied across the world in countries such as Italy and Brazil, Dein said.

Other individual clowns pointed out how much children, especially those who are ill, are cheered by them.

"I have clowned in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, day care, corporate events ,telethons and am a part of many charity events," said Elaine "Daisy D.Dots" Vercellone, who has been clowning for 21 years around New York.

"It gives people, kids and adults a reason to be silly, to imagine and gives their minds a vacation if only for a moment."

Heather Myers, aka PipSqueakTheClown, said while many of those in hospitals and nursing homes appreciate their fun antics, there are of course those who are scared.

"There are those who are afraid of clowns, this is unavoidable, the same way that there are those afraid of dogs and spiders," she said.

"It is the responsibility of the clown to know his environment, and take the necessary steps when confronted with a phobia."

The necessary steps?? Like run away fast in those big floppy shoes? Take the pie in your own face? Stop, drop, and roll? What *do* they teach Pipsqueak, Bobo, Chuckles, and Bubbles at
Clown School? Personally, I now add this to the portable diaper bag:

Some people claim the Shriners are to blame. I don't know if it's so. But my first circus experience *was* at the Shriner's Medinah Temple in Chicago ... and I remain wary of the little cars. And how *do* they get so many inside those little VW beetles? And how *do* they walk in those big floppies? And how come their eyes don't burn and cry from those pies in 'em? How *do* they get water out of a silk flower? Hm? How. I think they must be from a parallel world. :o) Seriously, I think it's exactly what has been stated. The Mask Effect. What or Who is *really* underneath it all? Are you afraid of clowns? If so, do you know why?