Statues, Ankles and the Colour Yellow
Words by Kelsie Fitzgerald
Everybody is afraid of something or many things. There are some very real fears people experience daily such as the fear of death, heights, loss of a loved one and so on. For many of the more common fears there is a reason, an understanding as to why they cause us distress. Many fears are rooted in ‘nature’ and by nature, I mean human instinct and the need for survival. Humans for the most part are instinctively afraid of things which can cause us harm or even death like drowning, fire, suffocation etc.
However, it’s the irrational fears, or phobias that I’m interested in. While a person may have a very real reason to be afraid of something, to everyone else it makes no sense (in fact the more ridiculous the fear the better). Now this is not to say that I want to invalidate anyone’s fears through writing this, so if I mention something that you find terrifying, please know that I mean no harm and the last thing I want to do is invalidate your feelings.
My research for this article has been mostly from personal experience, speaking to loved ones and also doing a bit of online research.
On a personal level I have many ‘acceptable’ fears such as heights, and the dentist, when I tell people these fears it’s often received with nods of agreement or even a few mumblings of “me too” however it’s when the talk turns to more obscure fears is when I get a few raised eyebrows. One of my fears which I used to face semi-regularly while living in Ireland was mascots or indeed people dressed up as living statues. I have no idea where this stems from or what caused it, all I know is that it’s terrifying. The fear of mascots was one I encountered a few times while attending rugby matches and gave me the shivers every time I saw one on the telly. If you’re from Cork then you know the fireman, he appears on busy days usually located by Brown Thomas on Patrick’s Street. I applaud this man in some ways because he collects money for charity; and I imagine staying still for so long is no easy feat. But for me, the negatives far outweigh the positives. There’s something about him, painted like a statue and often holding a doll, staying completely still until suddenly moving. He scares the absolute shit out of me, and I will cross the road when I see him up ahead. I have come so far as to believe that he knows I’m afraid of him. He can see the fear in my eyes and observes the person I’m with either laughing at my misfortune or trying to convince me it’s grand and to stop being ridiculous.
Another questionable fear of mine is that of hydraulics cables, specifically the ones you see on trucks and help connect the truck to the cab, they’re often red or black. Much like with statue man, I have no origin story for this ridiculous fear and the earliest memory I have of it is from a childhood dream. I’ve asked my parents if I came across these cables or anything similar, but they’ve also come up blank. I can’t say for sure what it is about them that terrifies me, perhaps the fear of them failing only to have the back of a truck hurtling towards me. It could also be the fear of being choked by them - this would coincide with my strong dislike of things touching my neck, it makes sense. Fortunately, I don’t encounter hydraulics cables much in my daily life and when I do I simply walk a little further away.
On the flipside of never seeing hydraulics cables, every summer I encounter one of my lesser fears, the fear of ankles. Ridiculous I know, and perhaps due to seeing ankles everywhere during the summer I’m a bit desensitised to them but if I think about it too hard, I feel uncomfortable and just overall unpleasant. It’s possible that my strong dislike and almost fear of ankles stems from having weak ones myself but that doesn’t ease the flight instinct I feel when I think of touching someone’s ankle or indeed someone touching mine.
After acknowledging my own irrational fears, it was time to see what the internet had to offer, and oh boy did it offer some interesting and in some cases oddly specific things some people are afraid of.
While I’m lucky that I only get to see ankles during the summer months some people have geniophobia, the fear of chins. While this may be hilarious to some, I can imagine it’s a hard phobia to live with and navigate your daily life around, all the current mask wearing must be a small blessing in disguise.
Now while I don’t personally have this fear, I can actually understand why people are afraid of it. I never thought about getting crushed by automatic lift doors but apparently it’s a well-known enough fear. In my mind it reminds me of something out of Final Destination. However, when I came across this fear I quickly had to search and as it turns out, lift doors have sensors which will prevent this fear from occurring. Lifts or elevators in general are a very common fear, mostly stemming from other phobias like claustrophobia.
While I personally am a big fan of the colour yellow, some people are terrified of it. People who suffer from xanthophobia are afraid of the colour yellow and will often avoid the colour yellow as much as possible, causing it to interfere in everyday life. I would imagine having this fear on a sunny day would be hard to navigate.
When I was a child, I was afraid of the teenagers who hung out together outside the shop. I’m sure in most cases they were fine and just doing their own thing but I always assumed that when I was a grown up I would no longer be afraid of teenagers, I would be the adult. Unfortunately, at the age of 28 I am still not comfortable walking past a group of teenagers. I don’t however have the phobia known as ephebiphobia which is the fear of adolescents or the youth.
One of the most bizarre fears I’ve come across however is itself, a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fear of phobias is known as phobophobia, an anxiety and fear caused by fearing fear itself. While often considered alongside general anxiety disorders it can greatly impair people’s lives and people who have this fear will avoid any situation wherein, they might fear anything.
While there are standard fears like the dentist, heights and spiders are widely known, we don’t often come across the weird or bizarre side of things. The most important thing to remember however is that every fear is valid. No matter how big or small your fears are, everybody has them.
So readers, I’ve shared some of my own less common fears and phobias, I’ve also shown some of the phobias and fears you can find online. All that’s left to know is what’s your irrational or bizarre fear?
