• bloop [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Does anyone really have a genuine fear of clowns? It’s always seemed to me like something people just say because it’s popular

    • RNAi [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      99% of IRL clowns are creepy

      • Ideology [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I think it's because the look hasn't really been updated in...100 years. Modern clowns go for a really cheap look that somehow simultaneously makes them both child-friendly and child-unfriendly. Most people who get into the clown aesthetic stuff online seem to have figured out how to integrate it into modern fashion.

        • Awoo [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Most people who get into the clown aesthetic stuff online seem to have figured out how to integrate it into modern fashion.

          I have legitimately no idea what you're talking about, any examples?

          • GundamZZ [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ND___y21FIM/maxresdefault.jpg
            https://i.pinimg.com/originals/54/7d/65/547d65f46819366eaeb667c87fdaef41.jpg
            https://64.media.tumblr.com/87a8b4ba985fdd0994e6a7b35c72340f/tumblr_pmsa9wXL8y1r7ofyk_540.jpg
            https://i.pinimg.com/originals/17/0a/28/170a280d5319d759dd90cf82616d3069.jpg
            https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2f/fa/da/2ffada0f0bc24833d41c291db1c0d578.jpg
            https://i.pinimg.com/736x/97/02/8d/97028d0d9f3fa02bcf6d348fa0311d99--female-clown.jpg

    • Commander_Data [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Probably not anyone born after 1985, but hearing about Gacy messed people up for a minute.

    • Owl [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Sometimes very young children are afraid of clowns, along with people with masks on, and other things that obscure a person's face.

      For anyone older than that, I have to assume it's influenced by media.

    • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      not like a full on one, but a clown does set me on edge a bit

      weirdly the "creepy clown" stuff doesn't, just the normal clowns for like kids parties and stuff

      Edit: Think i figured it out, it's probably the "enforced fun" thing

      • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I seriously think my little brother watched Goku be scared of needles and somehow managed to make himself afraid of needles too. As a little kid he thought they were cool even if painful and tolerated it all the way up until after school vaccinations the year he started watching dragonball z.

        • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah that happens sometimes. My family never had problems with needles til one sibling somehow did, then we all did.

      • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The horror movies created the fear. Stephen king wrote It about an evil clown (inspired by John Wayne Gacy) because he wanted to explore the predatory horror of a character that children love harming them. He wrote a corrupted clown terrifying because it transgressed. Then it got popular and a bunch of other fiction writers lifted a good idea, as artists tend to do.

    • TrudeauCastroson [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I think it's the same with kids and broccoli, especially since kids in different countries have different stereotypical child-hated vegetables.

      In Japan they changed scenes in inside out that featured broccoli to instead feature green bell peppers as the vegetable children are forced to eat.

      I always thought I'd hate Brussel sprouts as a kid because of Rugrats, but turns out like most vegetables they're good roasted.