IS JAWS TO BLAME FOR FEAR OF SHARKS?
We all know that Chief Brody has a fear of water in Jaws, what's it called? Drowning, he deadpans to his wife.
But what about fear of sharks? It's actually a very real condition, and it is called Galeophobia.
A whaaat?
That doesn't mean that you have it if you jump at the Ben Gardner head scene in Jaws (I mean, who doesn't?) or raise your feat of the floor when the shark goes by the Orca.
Galeophobia is classed as an abnormally large (25 feet, three tons of it) and persistent fear of sharks.
Those suffering from the finned fish phobia experience anxiety even if they are safe on a boat, in an aquarium or feet firmly on a beach.
People have feared sharks long before Peter Benchley's book or Steven Spielberg's film: HOW WE CAME TO FEAR SHARKS... LONG BEFORE 'JAWS'
For thousands of years man has feared fish with giant pointy teeth - unless it is carrot teeth from the Universal backlot tour.
It's a primal fear, like the fear of the dark or or tigers, and Jaws just tapped into that.
Films like Jaws though have had their part to play in heightening this fear, which would probably go some way to explain why people are still fearful of sharks even if they are on a boat (that didn't help much being on the Orca), acquarium (hello Jaws 3D, The Meg and the glass smashing sequence in Deep Blue Sea) or being on the beach (RIP Alex Kintner taken in the shallows near a crowded beach in broad daylight).
Such films are thrillers or horrors and often show sharks as calculating monsters just waiting in the murky shallows for humans to make an appearance and then strike, like Jack the Ripper.
No surprise then when researchers from the University of Australia found that 96% of all shark films portray sharks as a threat to humans: JAWS AND EFFECT: DO SHARK FILMS GIVE THE SPECIES A BAD NAME?
Of course, that's not a sharks MO at all, they aren't stalking man, they are just swimming and eating, and sometimes bump into us, and take a bite. Sharks are opportunists and will eat what is in the water, and sometimes, just sometimes, that might be us.
Although the chances of that are less likely than being killed in a car accident, by a cow or even by falling whilst taking a selfie, the fear still persists. And just as much to blame is the media: Media's Feeding Frenzy on Shark Attacks
What can people do to help them get over Galeophobia?
For some the fear of sharks can be treated through exposure therapy, which means someone is slowly introduced to sharks, so that could be through pictures, then moving images and then the likes of going to an aquarium or even going in the water with them.
The latter, which is offered by some theme parks and aquariums, a bit like zoos offer holding spiders who have arachnophobia.
For some, this may be a step too far, but the important thing is that everyone can progress at their own pace.
Others may benefit from hypnotherapy or psychotherapy to help find the root of the fear.
For most, that won't include a close encounter or attack by a shark, but for some it might. And some may be put off about getting close to or going back in the water, others will want to get over their fear.
Have you ever had a fear of sharks?
Words by Dean Newman
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