DRAMA - No Mimes!

Loren Coleman, who took over as celebrity authority on the Mothman field, goes after “Phantom Clowns”, formerly known in the 80’s as “Killer Clowns”, bizarre urban legends personifying the fear of strangers with motives most dark.

In the October 2008 incidents, a man wearing clown make-up and a wig is using balloons in an attempt to lure children into his vehicle on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. Police issued an alert about a week after a man with a similar description was spotted on the West Side.

Full link HERE

As someone with an aversion if not phobia to/about clowns, I recall hearing much about the 80’s “killer clowns” scares and urban legends, and it’s interesting that they are gaining in popularity again. I wonder if they are widespread like some of the stuff we get here, or it’s very localized.

There’s a good example, namely toys, of what I feel is at work, at least partially, with coulrophobia (the fear of clowns), as well as other non-human figures; the lack of visible emotions, and emulation of but not apparent member of the human race. The little known fear, automatonophobia, is the fear of any lifelike figures, usually humanoid, which are not human (ie. artificial; dolls, puppets, CGI characters). This is also part of another less clinical term, the Uncanny Valley, which also refers to the disquieting feeling people get when viewing human-like figures which are artificial and not actually human.

I personally believe these terms potentially extend to any moving or still lifelike figures, not just humanoid, such as large realistic toy dogs, rubber snakes and even figures that are vaguely human-like but which are obviously not human-like, such as animatronic bears or rats (like some restaurants have) or other animal or creature with exaggerated and obviously non realistic features. I also believe there is at least a correlation between these and fear of mascots (like the San Diego Chicken) and mostly concealing costumes which are out of the ordinary and non-human looking, and whose intentions, emotions and body language are unreadable, even though there is a human in them, such as Darth Vader, etc., which I believe then also includes and leads back to clowns and mimes, which again, are unpredictable because we can’t “read” them. It is also hypothesized to be related to maskophobia,
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Is it just me, or this a fairly disturbing thing? Not necessarily the idea or “content”, but the fact it is a lifeless, artificial, human-like automaton, replicating and mimicking human behavior, speech, etc. To me that is kinda mime-like, sort of a blank face, and everything else in turn seems weird, whether there is talking or not, moving or not - it all just seems alien, and one really has to adjust to being around something so beyond the norm.

From Telegraph.co.uk:

Another interesting phenomenon are what could be called “complimentary” phobias which sometimes, but not always, accompany the fear of clowns and/or Mimes. Below is another list, this one of other fears that are typically also mentioned by Clown- and Mimeophobes:

* Dolls (especially moving ones; life-like eyes, talking, etc.)
* Toy monkeys (especially cymbal monkeys)
* Marionettes/Ventriloquists’ Dummies
* Jack-In-The-Boxes
* Becostumed people (mascots, Santa Claus)

Firstly, dolls are definitely a recurring object of fear and loathing. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what kind, sometimes the kind that walk or talk, or whoese eyes close when you lay them down. The Animated Doll phobia has been capitalized on in the media, and provides tension and horror in countless movies. As one writer told me, “I can just see them coming to life in the night and killing me with a knife! Yikes!” Yikes indeed, but where does this fear come from? All of these objects are of the “chicken or the egg” variety - are people afraid of dolls now because of the movies they have seen, such as “Child’s Play”? Or is that WHY those type of movies are so popular, because people are naturally afraid of dolls and the like?
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Okay now, we deal with what is really at the heart of this irrational(?) phenomenon which has been dubbed Clownophobia (or Coulrophobia, as some people call it, using the closest Greek counterpart they can, which turns out to roughly translate into “Stilt/Limb Fear”), the mentality and psychology of both Clowns and Clownophobes. Putting all kidding aside, just for the moment, anyway, I think it would be well to really examine this phenomenon in an impartial and objective light. In order to provide an example that I am familiar with, I will share my own “Evil Clown” experience, and try to pick out what I feel are important aspects or telling features of it, as it relates to my own Anti-Clown sentiment, in order to bring this fear out of the darkness of ridicule and juvenile ignorance and into the harsh, cleansing and empowering light of truth and acknowledgement. My experience, and my notes relating to it, can be found by clicking here, which takes you to my page which will be filled with only guest-submitted stories or opinions.
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