Posts tagged phobia

Snakessss alive…

August 10, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Now this is not a rational thing. But since ophidophobia (or a fear of snakes) is one of the more widespread fears, perhaps it is something that government could, please, give some thought to.

I have never liked snakes. Actually, i remember nightmares about them and, once into my teens, i would drop books that had snake pics in them.

I would skip pages with snake pics.

And i would avert my eyes if a snake hissed its way on to TV.

I have not watched “Snakes on a plane”. I intend never to do so. And i wasn’t exactly happy about the appearance of Nagini in the latest Harry Potter.

Much as i love trans activist and Cambridge Councillor Sarah Brown, i am not sure i could possibly ever pay her a return visit…after discovering, first time around, that her flat is also home to several…how to put this politely…footless reptiles. Ugh! No.

The boy happily explored and made friends with the hissing denizens of Sarah’s flat. I cowered on the sofa.

SO why…oh why, oh why…must Cameron, on returning to take charge of events, have to meet with a large Cobra? Eeeyuw! The very idea makes my flesh crawl.

So, OK. It stands for something as anodyne as Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (and not some Boy’s Own wankronym like Command of Operations Beyond Reasonable Ability).

But still its a snake. And a poisonous one, to boot.

And yes: i’m sure it gives some military types a bit of a buzz to be dealing with a body named after a vicious venomous beast. But not only does it fail to fill me with confidence: it actually makes me even more worried.

So here’s an appeal. Surely, given the brainpower at work in the Cabinet Office it would not be beyond the wit of assorted civil servants to come up with something less horrid.

Maybe CUDDLE (Cabinet Urgently Dealing with Dastardly Lawless Events) would be a bit extreme. And the headlines would be appalling:

Cameron, Clegg, Osbourne go into Cuddle Huddle

But in a world that is so often harsh, grey – and filled with revoltingly venomous serpents – maybe something a bit warmer would be more re-assuring.

jane
xx

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Phobed? (Part I)

August 8, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

I was cheered, slightly, last week by another excellent piece from Paris Lees: this one about how she dealt with curiosity that, if not exactly transphobic, was certainly rude in the extreme. Game, set and match to Paris, I think.

But then there are different issues, as i found out on thursday and friday, when the phobia is maybe better disguised and you end up not quite sure what it was you’ve just experienced.

Property hunting

Thursday night was property night. I am looking for a place to share with my daughter close to home. She needs to move out: but i am less than ecstatic at the idea of her coping “toute seule” just yet. So ideal solution is somewhere i can also live and work, whilst simultaneously close enough to home base to minimise disruption. It would also help with the declutter, since we are committed to selling the current property just as soon as we can coat it in some paint and tidy up a little: so finding somewhere reasonably close by with storage space seemed ideal.

Until i went round to look at it. Possibly i was just TOO business-like. After a somewhat hands off tour of the property, our guide said she could tell us about terms and conditions – but first she’d need to phone the office. She returned, five minutes later, fixed me with baleful glare, and started with the somewhat unfortunate suggestion that she intended to “speak plainly”. Huh? A telling off? Already?

For what? Ah. Apparently she wasn’t too clear as to the basis of my renting the property, had assumed the worst – i think – and since the letting agent had previously permitted a pair of 18-year-olds to trash the place, were fearful that they were about to repeat their performance. Still, the manner of the encounter wasn’t too hot: i don’t take kindly to being lectured and…if there’s a contract, deposit, terms and all the rest of the legal folderol, what business of the letting agency is it how i run my tenancy?

Either there are explicit terms and conditions they wish me to adhere to (fair enough) or they have some secret agenda that they’d rather not put down in writing (in which case, no way). I said as much: added that i was no stranger to legal action; and watched in perplexity as the woman imploded before my eyes.

Major implosion by small letting agent

Oh. No. I can’t handle this. This is too much.

Huh? (Again!) Were we or were we not having a straightforward business conversation? She would put forward her views, I mine, we’d identify differences and then haggle? Apparently not. She couldn’t go on. She was only there to show people round – which sort of leaves the question of why her boss thought her capable of having a terms conversation in the first place. This was all too much.

How strange! I hadn’t raised my voice, used rude words, stepped toward her or…well…done ANYTHING remotely threatening, but it was more than she could take. I felt completely weirded by this peculiar reaction…and then started to run back over the whole encounter.

She’d been offhand when we met: wouldn’t meet my eye; was pretty poor at making small talk. You’d think that someone who did this sort of work for a living would have slightly better social skills. Was she just having an off day? A trainee? Or…and here’s the rub…here’s the problem: was she totally phased by the presence of a six-foot tranny?

Hard to tell…but hard, given that i don’t ordinarily have this sort of effect on first encounter…to wonder if that isn’t what it was.

Can transphobia really be a phobia?

I remain bemused. Which of course is the issue. Quite unable to tell whether this was sinple poor performance, or something else. A genuine phobia, with the poor woman terrified of a close encounter of the third kind with an ET (that’s “exceptional transsexual”, in case anyone’s taking notes).

Any insights? Anyone else had this sort of effect on someone? And if so, did you reach any conclusion as to what the issue was?

jane
xx

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