Phobia

According the Oxford Dictionary (online edition), a phobia is an “extreme or irrational fear or aversion to something.” Oxford Living Dictionary gives a list of phobias. As I read these, I find that I possess several:

• Zoophobia – a fear of animals. I’m not sure that my aversion to animals counts as a phobia, but I am not one to run up to a dog to pet it (technically cynophobia); when a bat comes in the house I run screaming like a little girl (sorry if that phrase is sexist); I would never want to sit on a park bench and feed the pigeons (which is technically orithophobia).
• Electrophobia – a fear of electricity. I suffer from this big time. On those rare occasions when I replace a light switch, I pull the main circuit and cut off the power to the entire house. This is much easier than trying to get the electric company disconnect my service from the utility pole.
• Acrophobia – a fear of high places. This is ironic, since the word derives from the Greek word akron, meaning summit, and I am from Akron, Ohio in Summit County. Actually, my fear is not of heights as much as it is falling from them.

I am surprised to see how many things have a phobia attached to them: touch, poverty, metal, Italian/German/ Scottish people, vomiting, and a list of others (pinaciphobia is a fear of lists). When I think of the things about which I am phobic, I realize that they are irrational. Much of the fear stems from a failure to understand the nature of the thing. For example, those who understand and work with electricity know how it works and work around it with ease. I do not understand these people.

Unfortunately, we tend to use words without paying close attention to their meanings. A phobia is an extreme and irrational fear. This describes how I feel about high places and roller coasters – extreme and irrational. Now, however, the word is used in our culture as a label for those who may hold differing opinions about hot button issues. One of the most misused words in this context is homophobic. That word appears on the list in the Oxford Dictionary as a “fear of homosexuals.” I imagine that there are some who have an irrational fear of anyone who is homosexual, transgender, or whatever happens to be the preferred descriptive initial.  But I object to labeling people as “phobic” because they disagree based on either moral or religious convictions. If I – as likely the majority of people in our country – believe that gender is binary, or that one’s sexuality is defined by gender, does that make me phobic? I realize that we live in a culture that allows free expression, even if that expression is in ways that I would not endorse. Does my lack of endorsement equate to an irrational fear? Call me unenlightened if you will, consider me hopelessly out of touch if it suits you, but don’t call me phobic. I certainly do not endorse, agree with, or support many things that our political leaders are doing – some of whom I voted for and some I did not. Does that make me politicphobic (a real phobia, by the way)?

Please allow for rational disagreement and discussion about such a powerful issue as same sex attraction without reverting to pejorative epithets, regardless of your position.  I have had rational (I hope) conversations with people about these matters. They haven’t usually ended with consensus, but I don’t consider those who disapprove of my position as heterophobic. Neither of us is phobic. Just stop it.