Women, men, and a fear of spiders

A new study by David Rakison, a developmental psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found that a fear of spiders is not inborn, but that females may be genetically programmed to develop that fear more readily than males.

The study involves how long female and male babies (identified by genitalia, most likely) look at photos of spiders associated with either happy or terrified people, and somehow concludes that female babies do not have an innate fear of spiders, but are more prone to learn to fear spiders, a possible genetic adaptation that would help protect them and their offspring from potentially dangerous things.

Of course, the result of any study like this is bound to have exceptions in the real world. Of all the people I know who hate spiders, the person who is the most terrified--literally paralyzed with fear--is a man who has lived in a male-identified body with a masculine gender identity since birth (I used to say male-born man, but lately that's getting me into trouble).

He has to have his wife kill them for him. I have to have his wife kill them for me, too.

I know that I learned my fear of spiders. It was not inborn. I remember being about 3 or 4 years old, sitting on my grandparents' back step, letting grandaddy long legs crawl all over me and giggling because it tickled. If one of those hideous mutant aliens gets within ten feet of me now, I move to another part of the world. I learned the fear somewhere along the line, but I didn't unlearn it by transitioning.

When I was female, I would make the men in my life kill creepy, crawly things for me. Now that I'm a guy, I don't have that preconceived gender bias anymore. I make both men and women kill creepy, crawly things for me.

At first, I felt embarrassed by it. I was a man, so I should naturally be killing helpless but hideous little bugs. But the first time that I attempted to smash something scary, I got over that need to be macho real quick. Now I just accept the fact that I'm terrified of little things with a lot of legs, and that I need help getting them away from me.

And I tell myself that it takes a real man to admit his vulnerability. And I keep telling myself that--every time I see a spider.

I guess if females are truly genetically programmed to learn certain fears more easily than males, knowing that fact could allow for early interventions to change it, thus sparing the lives of more hapless spiders who wander inside from the cold.

But it's also important to remember that differences between the sexes can be illusion, and at least one of those baby girls in the study will probably grow up to kill the spiders that end up terrifying one of those baby boys when he becomes a man.

(Photo: me, staring with apprehension at a spider, no doubt)

(Story via AOL Health)