Fear of cotton

Posted by ESC on December 25, 2001 at

In Reply to: Hatred of clowns posted by R. Berg on December 25, 2001

: : : I do not like clowns! They give the creeps. I am 45 years old - you think I would have outgrown this by now, but I haven't. The odd thing is that when I went into a room full of people, nearly 40% of them agreed that they didn't like them either. Anybody have any information as to why people tend to dislike clowns?

: : They're big and loud and they have painted-on faces so you can't tell their true expressions. For starters, that's pretty creepy. Merry Christmas.

: Hatred and fear are different things, of course, but fear of clowns is a recognized phobia. The phobia site linked below (if link is missing, use www.phobialist.com/ notes.html) has some interesting things to say (go rather far down the page) about the common aversion to clowns.

Believe it or not, I have a friend who is afraid of the cotton balls that stop up aspirin bottles. She doesn't like the feel of the cotton and makes someone else take it out of the bottle. Good news for her, I think the industry is going to discontinue that practice. She'll have cotton-free aspirin. As for a name for the clown phobia, I didn't read the whole page. But how about Bozophobia.

• Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns. Bruce Kahl 12/25/01
  • Coulrophobia R. Berg 12/25/01
    • Coulrophobia Bruce Kahl 12/26/01