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Fear of Clowns


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Do you have a fear of clowns?

What reasons do you think people have a fear of clowns?

(Second Life specific): How would you react to a clown character in Second Life?

I don't have an innate fear of clowns, but as a toddler I was scared of clowns invited to my 2nd birthday party - I believe I was frightened simply because of their outgoing nature.

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I never had a fear of clowns until I saw movies about scary clowns -  especially that creepy one in the American Horror Story series!

I don't think I'd fear one in SL as everyone has a costume. I think some fear clowns in RL because we don't know what's really behind that mask and so don't feel safe. The unknown is scary to many. 

Edited by Luna Bliss
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For me it came after reading "It" when I was 12.  Watching Poltergeist didn't help much either.

Something that has stuck with me for years was seeing a happy faced clown remove his makeup to see an unhappy sad man behind it.  That ruined the "happy clown" illusion for me and has reinforced the thought that you just don't know who or what is hiding behind the facepaint masks.  Kinda like how watching a documentary on Ron Jeremy ruined porn by seeing what a lonely and unhappy man he is in reality.

Clowns in SL?  Scream and derender...AND YES ORWAR I AM LOOKING AT YOU!!!!!

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36 minutes ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

Do you have a fear of clowns?

   I get turned on by clowns.

36 minutes ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

What reasons do you think people have a fear of clowns?

   I don't think, I look at the appropriate studies and reflect on their findings. Coulrophobia was quite recently declared to have surpassed arachnophobia as the most common phobia, and researchers believe that the causes for this have to do with the 'clown sightings' in recent years, along with the reboot of the It movies. The reason why people fear clowns is believed to do with the uncanny valley effect - of something appearing human, but also being unhuman. The effect also tends to kick in with mannequins, certain types of dolls, masks, and modern androids (the people-robots, not the phones). 

41 minutes ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

(Second Life specific): How would you react to a clown character in Second Life?

   Points to his forum profile pic.

   Both my avies has a collection of clown makeups, noses, and various accessories for clown getups. 

 

Besten i mig

 

KillerKlownRingmistress

Snapshot-092.png

   Aren't they cute?!

   I even had 'coulrophilia' written in my profile for a while. Just aren't a whole lot of kinky clownettes around the grid. Sighs.

3 minutes ago, Jordan Whitt said:

AND YES ORWAR I AM LOOKING AT YOU!!!!!

   Can't take your eyes off, huh? Winks playfully.

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1 hour ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

Do you have a fear of clowns?

What reasons do you think people have a fear of clowns?

(Second Life specific): How would you react to a clown character in Second Life?

I don't have an innate fear of clowns, but as a toddler I was scared of clowns invited to my 2nd birthday party - I believe I was frightened simply because of their outgoing nature.

I don't fear clowns.  I do find them incredibly annoying, though.

ETA..thought I better add, not you Orwar.

Edited by RowanMinx
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4 hours ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

Do you have a fear of clowns?

What reasons do you think people have a fear of clowns?

(Second Life specific): How would you react to a clown character in Second Life?

I don't have an innate fear of clowns, but as a toddler I was scared of clowns invited to my 2nd birthday party - I believe I was frightened simply because of their outgoing nature.

I don't fear clowns but I dislike them and dislike circuses in general. And all because of an early childhood trauma.

One day my parents took me to the circus. I don't recall my brother there and I think he wasn't even born yet so I couldn't have been more than 2-3 years old, it is among my very earliest memories. The build-up was great. We got the cotton candy and the popcorn. My dad had somehow secured seats in the very front row, ring side.

And we watched all the amazing acts, the fire-breathers and the men on the flying trapezes and the funny clown with the big hat. I don't remember them hardly.

What I do remember is what happened when two circus actors went racing around the ring on their trick ponies, doing various things like hand stands.

And all of a sudden one man fell off. Hard. With a terrible thud. Quite a distance. And was knocked unconscious, and just lay there, crumpled in the sawdust.

All of us looked on in horror. It was a moment when I realized that everything that was nice about the world, Mom and Dad, and circuses, and candy and clowns, could develop a horrible crack in it and break wide open and go all terribly wrong. People could fall off trick ponies, although they were never supposed to do that. 

The sound of that thud reverberates to me across 60 years and I never forgot it. Several years later when my parents took me to an animal fair and wanted me to sit up on the pony and be led around on a pony ride I cried and cried and pleaded to be taken down. I did not want to fall like that circus actor.

The End Of The World

 
Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot
The armless ambidextrian was lighting
A match between his great and second toe,
And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting
The neck of Madame Sossman while the drum
Pointed, and Teeny was about to cough
In waltz-time swinging Jocko by the thumb
Quite unexpectedly the top blew off:

And there, there overhead, there, there hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark, the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the cancelled skies,
There in the sudden blackness the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing — nothing at all.
 
By Archibald MacLeish
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2 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

I don't thinks infants have an innate fear of clowns at all. They have an innate fear of anything that isn't mommy. Also, you can brainwash anyone into thinking anything is scary. Maybe clowns are easier than other subjects, because you can plunge them into the Uncanny Valley without too much effort.

This picture hung in my childhood bedroom. If I didn't have an "innate" reason to fear clowns, this gave me a reason. (Sorry about the flash.)

image.jpg

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I don't fear clowns. not even when IT came out.

I think some people fear them because of the outlandish makeup. Its so different, so shocking to them that it makes them question the person wearing such bright colors. People don't like shock and change and being surprised as much as  some people might want to believe they do.

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I am not scared of clowns, but their appearance does make me feel sorta uncomfortable. I liken it to when you see someone wearing a mask, and you see their very human eyes in contrast to whatever the mask is trying to portray. It's a bit "Uncanny Valley" I think because you are unable to read facial expressions due to their exaggerated  makeup. I also don't think it helps how Clowns have been portrayed in recent times with the likes of Pennywise, The Joker and Pogo (JWG). I also get the same feeling when I look at AI robots like Sophia.

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