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| Sunday, March 26, 2006 |
| A Whale of a Phobia |
Did you ever see the Hitchcock film, Marnie? Marnie, played by Tippi Hedren, was the main character. She had a deep, dark secret that caused her to be compulsive and edgy. It caused her to steal. It also caused Sean Connery's character to take great romantic interest (I guess he liked "fixer-uppers") in Marnie. But the most mysterious component of the movie was that every time Marnie saw a flash of the color red, she would become terrified and lose all sense of reason. (I call that a panic attack, but that's another post. Buy a ticket to that one.)
Is there an image that immediately evokes fear in you? I don't mean a still shot from The Nightmare on Elm Street or a graphic photo depicting the horrors of the Holocaust. Just an innocuous, unobjectionable image? Say you were flipping through the pages of a magazine and that image was to suddenly appear on the page, would it cause a tightening or sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach or a slight ringing in your ears?
I've never seen a photo, drawing, or television scene of a whale without having those responses. Especially seeing a whale in the deep of the ocean can induce an uneasiness; an irrational fear. I suppose it would be categorized as a phobia, although I don't have to flee the room like people do on talk shows when they're confronted with their phobias. But, yes, I think whales are frightening creatures. They're big, scary, sea monsters. There. I said it.
I can't imagine that any fear is completely unfounded. It must have its roots in something, even if only a wrong perception in one's mind. My fear of whales is probably a throwback to the first time I saw Disney's Pinocchio at the theatre. I do vividly recall the scene with Monstro the Whale barreling through the deep water, a great menacing leviathan crashing down upon Pinnocchio and devouring the tiny puppet. I hated the movie. I still don't like the story, either. It's creepy.
It seems like an act of wisdom to take out our fears every so often and examine them under a microscope in the clear light of day. Poor Marnie could've saved herself a lot of grief if she had tried that. Some kind of de-sensitization process could've been helpful, like people who go to tall buildings and ride elevators all day long to get rid of their fear of elevators. Maybe I should tack up pictures of whales all over my living room, or induce dreams about whales by falling asleep to the sound of whale songs, or go on a whale watching tour. Maybe Pinnocchio himself could've used de-sensitization therapy. I wonder if, after he became a real boy, he ever woke up screaming in the wee hours with night terrors about whales. And I wonder if poor, old Geppetto was unable to comfort Pinnocchio, because he himself was passed out cold from a night of drunkenness to forget his own whale nightmares... |
| posted by Joye @ 2:19 PM |
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| 26 Comments: |
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Any and every snake picture or thought I could ever have gives me the willies!
I love Alfred Hitchcock films. I haven't seen "Marnie" in years. I thought Jimmy Stewart was in that one??
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Jimmy Stewart was in Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, & Vertigo.
For some funny reason, I don't have a problem with snakes. Maybe Uncle Walt never used them in a disturbing way in his movies?
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My mother-in-law talks about how afraid she was of the witch in Snow White from when she was little girl. She said she was mortified! I'm surprised she doesn't have a fear of apples!
Thanks for the article, too. I have linked it on my site. Amazing. (and sad)
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If you look in to the eyes of a whale you'll see a gentle creature.
Those kind of whales (in your picture) always remind me of a giant pickle.
One time I was up in Seattle and took a boat trip out on the Puget Sound and we saw some killer whales. They were great. And the best of all was there was a little baby whale. He was so cute. A little black and white pickle.
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I must have inherited your fear of whale images. It's not a fear of whales, though. I've been whale watching (though without much success) and it didn't bother me. I don't like pictures of sharks or ugly deep sea fish, either. They all bother me.
My main one is larvae, grubs, maggots, caterpillars, or any pre-legged insect. Just thinking about them makes my throat close up and my spine tingle. I would LOVE to be a gardener, but I can't. I tried to rake up a spot for the children to plant some flowers, but spotted some grubs and had to drop the rake and run inside, leaving a bewildered Zach to finish the job. If I see a maggot in the trash bins or a grub in the garden, I feel like they're crawling all over me. My instinct is to strip down and jump into the shower. It's so stupid.
Speaking of desensitisation, I saw a BBC documentary about that. One woman was DEATHLY afraid of birds. She couldn't even leave her house. They showed her a picture of a bird and she screamed in horror and ran out of the room. I felt so sorry for her.
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Rose, you're so funny. A giant pickle!
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I am terrified by whales. the fact that they are so big and can move so well in the water, you're pretty much helpless if one comes up next to you. I think my fear started because of a string of freaky whale related dreams.
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I hear ya, Anonymous. And evidently, so do lots of other phobics! Since I posted about fear of whales over three months ago now, I've had SIXTEEN hits on my blog from people all over the world who Googled "fear of whales." Who knew it was such a common phobia?
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OMG!
I have finally found people who have the same fear as me!
I cant stand people talking about whales or making me watch them!
I was in my media studies class and we had to watch a clip from a natural world video... It was all about whales. I couldnt look at the tv and my teacher thought I was just a bit weird! My friends didnt help either, they were laughing at me so much.
Ive also had many whale related dreams... Such as surfing and gettin licked my a giant killer whale! It was mad!
Anyone know what the name of this fear is?!
Sonya Howard,
Liverpool
UK
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As of today, there've been 23 hits in 5 months on my blog, resulting from Google searches for "fear of whales." Read my post for Tuesday, August 22 where I wrote more on whale phobia.
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Hi - I just learned about 'cetaphobia' this morning from an e-friend on another website. I never knew it existed. How interesting! I am awed by whales, quite naturally, they are so imposing and have a healthy respect for them of course, could that be construed as a fear of them? I don't know.
markcouch@exascape.com
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I never knew there were others with a fear of whales! I got my fear from seeing the movie Cast Away, the part when he is on the little raft, I almost had a panick attack in the theatre! Everyone says it is such a weird fear, I am so glad I am not the only one! Thank you!!
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I read your other post about whales before this one, and commented on it. Then I read this one, well, not all of it, cause I had to move the page quickly cause I couldn't stand the picture, so I only got to read it starting from the middle... Why would someone with whale fobia link a picture of a whale anywhere...*cursing* Anyway, Thanks for these, it was nice to see I'm not the only one. Someone mentioned Castaway, and yeah, after that I've felt that my bed is a raft and i can't put my hands outside my bed when I'm sleeping :(
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appolonia, you are so right! After reading your comment, I went back and deleted the photo of the whale. I can hardly look at it myself. Since I continue to get comments on this post, I appreciate your observation.
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a yea i have a fear of whales i cnt look at the pictures or anything or my stomach turns yuck
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ah!
i have the same fear and i also believe it originated when i first saw pinocchio!
your description of it as a barrelling leviathan perfectly encapsuled my fear. ugh.
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I have a fear of whales also, but I actually think I know where it stems from...
I went to an amusement park in France many years back called "Futurascope". This park has many 3D cinemas (you can see what's coming). In one underwater scene a gigantic whale comes looming out of the darkness at you (I even feel uneasy writing about this). I was about 3 years old or something at the time and apparently I screamed and tried to run from the cinema, my Dad apparently held me in my seat.
Now if that's not where it comes from I don't know what, however I learned recently my Auntie has the same phobia.
The phobia is also warping my memories, I hadn't seen "Back To The Future 2" in years and I refused to because in my mind it wasn't a giant digital shark that jumped out on Martie, it was a whale.
To some up...
Nothing should be that big.
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I cant believe that after all this time i came across individuals that have the same fear of whales as i do. I have constant nightmares about them, at first it started with big whales like, blue and grey ones but now it has evolved to the more violent ones like killer whales only in my dreams the killer whales are the size of blue whales. They also can swim on land in my dreams which give me chills thinking about. So many things that others have said, about pinochiio and monstro are all things that i have thought about where my fear stems from. No one understand what this is, when the thought of them or a picture of them is seen it just stops you in mid sentence because you feel this uneasyness. Please let me know if there are any others that have this fear. I feel better knowing that im not the only one....
Yesenia-
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I have a phobia of whales too. I hate it. I hate whales. They are so creepy and large. I feel bad that Jonah (from the Bible) had to sit in a whales mouth for three days.
It's hard to find people that are afraid of whales too. My family already thinks I'm a bit on the strange side when I express that the rainbow is my favorite color.
To try and get me to "over come" my fear of whales my parents had me sign up for Marine Biology at my High School. When the time came for us to learn about whales in that class I wanted to cry.
Whales are very freaky. The only whale I've ever seen in real life, thank God, is a Baluga whale. I was 5 years old, and that was a VERY scary experience for me.
I really think that having a whale phobia is a serious thing and I actually started a club called "Whale Haters United" on a web page.
anyway, it's a comfort to know that there are other people with the same phobia out there.
Kelsey J.
Seattle, WA
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I think it is the combination of the ocean and the whale what makes the terrifying scene. I mean, the size of nhe whale makes it intimidating but the ocean itself is overwhelming as hell! Elephants or dinosaurs (though the latter are extinct) result intimidating, but they are terrestial beasts. The worst scene I can't stand is a whale in the ocean at night. When I think of Jonah's, Pinocchio's and Captain Ahab's experiences (though fictional), I really feel horrified.
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Wow. I honnestly thought that I was alone in having an irrational fear of whales. If one comes on the television, or there's a picture in a book - I inevitably look away. They scare the crap out of me and I get a terrible gutwrenching feeling.
Nothing should be that much bigger than I am. AND THOSE NOISES THEY MAKE. It's like the noises the Titanic made as it was sinking. And we all know how many people died there.
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All of you might benefit from checking out www.cetaphobia.com
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i'm pretty sure i have the most severe case of hating/being afraid of whales. i think they are a nuisance and i don't understand why people are so mesmerized by them. humpback whales, blue whales, sperm whales, fake killer whales... all stupid. they take up too much space in our oceans and get all this sympathy from retarded people.
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I have a fear of whales because of Pinocchio too
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hello to you all whales haters :) we seem to be quite a big gang. I understand your fear and frustration because this is my phobia too, and it is a BIG one. and thanks to you I can say it out loud and you get the serious part of it, not the hilarious one. may the whales never cross your sight!
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Any and every snake picture or thought I could ever have gives me the willies!
I love Alfred Hitchcock films. I haven't seen "Marnie" in years. I thought Jimmy Stewart was in that one??