2007-05-20 01:21:53 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
I'm a female and I LOVE spiders-love to photograph them, and keep them. I currently keep and breed over 50 species of tarantula. I'm a logic-driven person, NOT an emotion-driven person, so I tend to analyze things and determine if there is a REAL reason to be afraid of it, and 99% of the time, there isn't. Of the known species of spider on the planet, only a small percentage can actually cause bites of "medical significance" and a much smaller fraction of those can actually kill a human. ALL of them will avoid biting a human if at all possible, and will only do so when they have no other recourse. I'm not about to waste my life away being afraid of something that cannot hurt me, and is actually beneficial-spiders consume 60 times MORE insects, including harmful insects like mosquitos, than all the other insect predators combined!
As an adult who works daily with children(I'm a school teacher by profession) I've noticed that the ratio of girls to boys, with regards to fear of animals like spiders and snakes, is really the same. It's how they REACT to that fear that's different; the traditional cultural role of females has been to act helpless and dependent on the males for protection against scary or genuinely dangerous things, and the traditional role of males has been to act as protectors. Thus, girls or women have been expected to run away screaming and crying from the scary thing, while boys/males have been expected to come along and put on a brave(yeah, right)front and destroy or kill the scary thing. Regardless, it's still FEAR that motivates both behaviors, meaning that males are JUST as afraid as the females, but show it in a different way. Fear is still fear, and most of it is out of pure ignorance or even outright stupidity! A person who squashes a harmless Jumping spider is no more "brave" than one who runs away from it shrieking like a banshee!
2007-05-20 12:01:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
get this --- i used to sweep the steets of my local town -- and this car pulled up in peak hour traffic and this bloke emerged from his vehicle --- freaking ( his poor wife simirlaly ) and screamed out to me --- F---K : help i,ve got this spider thats just jumped at me --- can you please ! please !!!! HELP ???
i didn't find the spider ( he probably freaked out too !) but this bloke was in a frenzy --- so girls are not neccessarily the ones that are afraid of spiders ---- but where i live we are conditioned to living with poisonous animals such as taipans , crocodiles ,death adders , sea snakes , brown snakes ( the deadliest and most aggressive of them all ) --- spiders don't rate much at the end of the day -- but i live in north queensland --- where we accept anything and were pretty cruisy about it all --- but we feel for our southern cousins who have tiger snakes --- they're an aggressive mob
but thats life --- you live or you ???
and before the corrections committee come into the fore --taipans are the most deadly snake on land sea snakes will make a taipan look like a saint --- and tigers are bnad news --- but if you want a fight --- browns will strike ; strike and still strike .
where i live taipans --- rule --- but iv'e never known such a shy snake ( they run when they see you ) having said that --- when i first moved to nth qld and to ouyr property --- i thought i had left the hose out --- and because we didn't have real good lighting ( only some solar ligfhts ) i felt comppelled to bring the hose in --- but as a sixth sense , i did'nt recall leaving the hose anywhere near the spot i was on about --- of course not !!! because then only hose was a two metre taipan fully blown up ready to srtrike --- it is the closest thing i have come to death --- because that surely would have been my fate had that snake struck .
now what were we talking about --- oh ! yes --- spiders !!! --- and GIRLS --- love them --- hope you do to !
2007-05-20 09:09:43 · answer #2 · answered by bill g 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Probably because people are brought up to think that spiders are something to fear, especially for girls. All their friends hate them, so so do they.
I'm female, and I love spiders and all other animals. I know guys who are terrified of them.
There are also phobias, but for most people it's just a dislike, rather than a large irrational phobia. Phobias are horrible to go through by the way. :(
2007-05-20 09:37:53 · answer #3 · answered by chocoboryo 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Think about fears.
We may be afraid of frogs, spiders, frogs, snakes and the dark, but not say 2B penciles or sofas. Why is that?
Phobias ar strong irrational fears which can be so strong a phobic can be afraid of a photo of a spider, believing the spider in the photo may escape from the photo and attack them.
Phobias appear to genetic in basis.
Women are more likely to be scared of certain things, while men are more like to have phobias of other things. I know women have a higher likelihood of fear of rodents.
Also, we tend to be phobic of things we are exposed to. When I lived in northern Australia where the common tree frog is not just common it is everywhere, frog phobia is very common, but in other places psychologists can't believe that frog phobia is so common.
2007-05-20 08:29:32 · answer #4 · answered by flingebunt 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I'm a girl and I love spiders. Think you are generalizing here..or perhaps you are about 10 years old. For the record, my husband is terrified of spiders.
2007-05-20 13:27:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
i am a girl and spiders are my worst nightmare!
i know that people who afraid of spiders are called 'arachnophobia'. for me, because they are creepy, disgusting and ugly! imaging chewing the fat spider!!!
when i was small, my house was 'filled' with spiders ,i dont know why. and when i was sleeping, some spiders even crawl on my bed! i afraid of spiders since then.
2007-05-20 09:46:22 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
you are afraid of something bcause you dont know much about it. when someone says "'spider'', you think poison................some spiders are not poisoneous.
when you see a human walking the street, do you yell ''killer''. no because you already know enough about them to distinguish the psychos from the norms
2007-05-20 08:56:01 · answer #7 · answered by spydog5 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mostly because their mommy's and daddy's and big brothers reinforce fears. Lots of parents pass on negative attributes about a lot of things. Fear of insects is one of them. Mostly based on ignorance but also used as a controlling factor.
Sad, isn't it.
2007-05-20 08:35:53 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Because spiders are evil. They are direct descendants of the devil. I hate 'em
2007-05-20 09:09:55 · answer #9 · answered by justin b 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
How many girls do u know?!
You musnt know ant tough ones! For a fact i LOVE spiders and think theyre the cutest!!!!
2007-05-20 08:28:45 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋