Somebody posted an article about fear of spiders; the young kids were just interested in spiders brought in, but in a couple of years, they were all terrified of them.
Poor Salma - that looked genuine to me, too - the way I’ll jump out of my skin to get a spider off of me.
You’ve genuinely never seen anyone that terrified before?
They were in Malibou Lake, Ca. I saw a pic last night on the ‘news’, looked a lot like a garter and, Googling, I see that California does have a giant garter snake that gets up to 5 feet. The one last night was big, but no 5 footer.
Course, Selma’s only 5’ 2", so with everything being relative…
Snakes, spiders, bugs…don’t bother me in the slightest.
But I’ll act like the maid from Tom and Jerry if a wasp gets in the house.
Well, not if the exposure is of the “omg snake right there whoa!” type. A well-controlled gradual acclimatization type of behavioral therapy, with a therapist present to talk with you and monitor you, has a whole lot better chance of success.
Ogre: Snakes are A-OK with me. Spiders? Freak me the hell out. I managed to get myself from screaming/running/hyperventilating, up to skin crawling like hell and may or may not kill it on sight, so I consider that progress.
I’m fine with bees as long as they’re not acting aggressive, but yellowjackets make me very, very nervous. I was stung a few times by them in my college years, including one incident where one got up the back of my shirt and got me about a dozen times on my back. That attack left me with very mildly restricted breathing. I don’t think I’m allergic, I think that was a very natural reaction considering the amount of venom and the location of the stings.
My understanding is that it’s instinct. We have a natural tendency to fear snakes; along with spiders and so on. It’s not universal because apparently this particular instinct needs to be triggered by some early experience to become active; but because it is an instinct the triggering event can be very small compared to the sort of thing that causes less hardwired phobias. Say, your parent when you are six is startled by a snake and yells; that trips the “snakes are to be feared” switch somewhere in your head. Even though you probably won’t even recall the triggering event.
But if you never happen to experience such a trigger event in your formative years, the switch never gets flipped and you don’t develop fear of snakes.
I like how Bello immediately moves to comfort Hayek and escape the snake. Adrenalin plus compassion is an attractive combination.
That, and would you pass up an opportunity to march on Salma?
Interesting bit about the learned-vs.-instinctual question: I have an aunt who used to be deathly afraid of snakes, until she had a son that decided he loved them. So this cousin of mine actually taught his own mother to be comfortable around them.
I’m that afraid of snakes. I set a new land-speed record while visiting my Dad’s place in Tuscon. My sister commented quietly “hey, a snake” on her way into the house to get another drink, (snake was minding it’s own business on the patio) and I hit the ground running, fleeing into the house. My husband turned the pool skimmer into a “snake flinger” and tossed it back into the desert/scrub behind the yard. I don’t like snakes.
Tho I have forgotten the specifics, I also recall reading that fear of snakes - and the ability to readily see them - are links to our evolutionary ancestors.
What about people who aren’t afraid of snakes? Did we miss out on the snake phobia gene?
Yeah, we have those around here! My daughter and her friend found one once while they were running around outside.
I don’t think she really started screaming until the idiot blonde (who was grinning the whole time btw) climbed on top of her and nearly pushed her over the railing. The chair was about to collapse, I would have screamed too.
Actually, no, I would have decked the blonde and fed her to the snake. But that’s me.
It really explains a lot about that dance. Except for Heather Locklear’s TJ Hooker exotic dance, this was the most unsensuous sensuous dance I’d ever seen. But Selma can get away with that. All she’s got to do is have that body, wear a minimal amount of clothing and move some. A lot of guys dig that.
Still, imagine how sexy that dance would have been if Tarantino had decided a wolf or a mountain lion or some other animal Selma wasn’t terrified of. Poor thing.
I saw it as Bello was startled too and jumped up on her chair, but then saw how freaked out Hayek was and tried to calm her down. Poor Wilma. At least Bello was shoeless. Selma still had her stompers on.
You do realize that’s a gag from a comedy show, right?
IIRC it was Rodriquez’s call
Snakes don’t bother me at all, spiders terrify me and most insects only bother me if they are in my house or running or flying at me, unless it’s a butterfly. So basically, no legs no problem; more than four legs, it’s a problem.
