Fear of Clowns 2019
Today is October 25, 2019. At the time that I'm writing this, it appears that the clown scare of 2019 has not taken hold.
It's common around Halloween to expect a resurgence of Coulrophobia, fear of clowns. So far, this has not happened this year. I will note that we are still a week away from Halloween. So I think this Halloween will bring its usual amount of clown phobias, but not much extra. I'm confident that my local costume shop has plenty of scary clown costumes for sale.
This lack of clown hysteria is especially notable this year. There were two movies released this fall with clowns. Not surprisingly, both have clowns who are scary if not downright evil. I am talking about the Joaquin Phoenix movie, "The Joker," and the film with the latest version of the Steven King character Pennywise called, "It, Chapter 2."
I have no opinion on the quality of these movies. I haven't seen them. My comments here are strictly related to the perception of the clown characters in these movies and how they affect the way we discuss clowns in our culture today. Some of my fellow professional clowns look at October with a sense of dread. They anticipate the flurry of clown phobias that affects how we do our work. This dread is like expecting a storm. You prepare for the wind and rain and all of the implications that it may bring. However, it looks like this storm of clown fear may not be as bad as expected.
The first of these films," It, Chapter 2," was released in early September. The second, The Joker, was released in early October. Neither of these movies seems to have stoked more clown fear. I found this reality somewhat fitting. It parallels my experience of working as a clown over the past 20 years. I often encounter people who tell me that they "don't like clowns, "or they say something like, "I think clowns are creepy.” Any amount of conversation with that point of view is pointless. For each person who goes out of their way to tell me how much they don't like clowns, there are many more who find delight and pleasure in my clown work. So, the storm of clown phobia will come. And just like a rainstorm, there is nothing I can do to stop the rain and the wind. However, I know that eventually, the storm will pass. (It always has).
I suspect that one of the reasons neither of these films has added to the clown phobia this year is because extreme clown phobia is not in fashion this season. Clown phobia is still there, just not as popular. Coulrophobia is so …2017.
The best tool I have with this issue is being a good artist. I can work on my artistic skills and present them in front of an audience who wants to see them. Those who want jump scares and ghoulish masks can find them somewhere else.
