10 More Extremely Bizarre Phobias

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Agyrophobia

Fear of Crossing the Street

Agyrophobics have a fear of crossing streets, highways and other thoroughfares, or a fear of thoroughfares themselves. This, of course, makes it very difficult to live comfortably in a city. The word comes from the Greek gyrus which means turning or whirling as the phobic avoids the whirl of traffic. The phobia covers several categories, wherein sufferers may fear wide roads specifically down to suburban single lane streets, and can also include fearing jaywalking or crossing anywhere on a street, even a designated intersection. This phobia is considered independent from the fear of cars.

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Mageirocophobia

Fear of Cooking

The bizarre fear of cooking is called mageirocophobia which comes from the Greek word mageirokos which means a person skilled in cooking. This disorder can be debilitating and potentially lead to unhealthy eating if one lives alone. Sufferers of mageirokos can feel extremely intimidated by people with skills in cooking, and this intimidation and feeling of inadequacy is probably the root cause of the disorder for many. If you suffer from mageirokos and wish to develop some basic skills in cooking, check out ourTop 10 Tips for Great Home Cooking and Top 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Cooking.

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Pediophobia

Fear of Dolls

Pediophobia is the irrational fear of dolls. Not just scary dolls – ALL dolls. Strictly speaking, the fear is a horror of a “false representation of sentient beings” so it also usually includes robots and mannequins, which can make it decidedly difficult to go shopping. This phobia should not be confused with pedophobia or pediaphobia which is the fear of children. Sigmund Freud believed the disorder may spring from a fear of the doll coming to life and roboticist Masahiro Mori expanded on that theory by stating that the more human-like something becomes, the more repellent its non-human aspects appear. My apologies to those who suffer from pediophobia for the picture above.

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Deipnophobia

Fear of Dinner Conversation

Now admittedly some dinner conversations can be very awkward, but some people are so terrified of the idea of speaking to another person over dinner that they avoid dining out situations. In times gone by there were strict rules of etiquette that helped a person to deal with these situations – but they are (sadly) mostly forgotten. In today’s society in which rules and formality are out the window, it is possible that the more controlled nature of a dinner party may lie partly behind this phobia. For those amongst us who are interested in some tips for coping with fine dining, read our Top 10 Tips for Fine Dining (number eight is specifically about dinner conversation).

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Eisoptrophobia

Fear of Mirrors

Eisoptrophobia is a fear of mirrors in the broad sense, or more specifically the fear of being put into contact with the spiritual world through a mirror. Sufferers experience undue anxiety even though they realize their fear is irrational. Because their fear often is grounded in superstitions, they may worry that breaking a mirror will bring bad luck or that looking into a mirror will put them in contact with a supernatural world inside the glass. After writing this list I realized that I suffer from a minor form of this disorder in that I don’t like to look into a mirror in the evening when I am alone for fear of seeing someone (or something) behind me.

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Demonophobia

Fear of Demons

Demonophobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of evil supernatural beings in persons who believe such beings exist and roam freely to cause harm. Those who suffer from this phobia realize their fear is excessive or irrational. Nevertheless, they become unduly anxious when discussing demons, when venturing alone into woods or a dark house, or when watching films about demonic possession and exorcism. Sufferers are most likely to be recognized by the strings of garlic around their neck, crucifixes, wooden stakes they carry, and gun loaded with silver bullets. Okay – I made that last part up.

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Pentheraphobia

Fear of Mother-in-Law

Of all the phobias on this list, pentheraphobia is probably the most common. It is, as stated above, the fear of one’s mother-in-law. I am sure that most married people have, at one time or another, suffered from this terrible fear. This fear is one that is so common in Western society that it frequently appears in movies and other forms of entertainment. Of the many available therapies for this illness of the mind, divorce seems to be the most popular. A related phobia to pentheraphobia is novercaphobia which is a fear of your stepmother – the most famous sufferer of which is Cinderella.

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Arachibutyrophobia

Fear of Peanut Butter Sticking to the Roof of your Mouth

I must say that finding information on this disorder is extremely difficult – which does make me wonder if it is perhaps the figment of an over-active imagination, but it is definitely bizarre and fairly well known so it seems to deserve a place here. This disorder seems to be a fear that is quite easily worked around: don’t buy peanut butter. However, for a child who is forced to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day, one can see how it might cause severe trauma in later life. Here is the testimony of one alleged sufferer: “Whenever I’m around peanut butter I start to sweat excessively and my body starts convulsing. The roof of my mouth becomes coarse and itchy. I can’t live with this fear anymore. My thirst for peanut butter must be quenched without me going into a full blown panic attack.”

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Cathisophobia

Fear of Sitting

Cathisophobia (sometimes spelled with a ‘k’) is a terror of sitting down. This disorder can be sparked off by a particularly nasty case of hemorrhoids but in some serious cases it can be due to physical abuse relating to sitting on sharp or painful objects. Sometimes, the sitting fear is due to some punishment in the school days, or it may be an indication of some other phobia like sitting in front of elite and influential people. Cathisophobia is characterized by sweating, heavy or short breathe, and anxiety.

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Automatonophobia

Fear of a Ventriloquist’s Dummy

I think we can all see the merit in this disorder – the very act of ventriloquism seems particularly nasty to me. It involves a man with his hand up a dolls butt which he then proceeds to talk to. Sufferers of automatonophobia need not seek treatment – it is a perfectly valid reaction to a perfectly revolting concept. I think that is enough said on this topic.

JAMIE FRATER

Jamie is the founder of Listverse. He spends his time working on the site, doing research for new lists, and cooking. He is fascinated with all things morbid and bizarre.

10 Things You Know About Pirates That Are Wrong

Pirates really did have their own nautical lingo, and we still use many of these rebellious seafarers’ phrases today. “Learn the ropes” is a phrase that today means “become familiar with the way something should be done.” This comes directly from needing to literally know the complex network ofpulleys and ropes that controlled a ship’s sails. Being able to tie the proper knot and pull the correct rope to open or close a sail was important know-how for any sailor.

We can find pubs called “Three Sheets to the Wind” all over the English speaking world. Today it means to be drunk, but the phrase doesn’t come from drunken pirates. The sheet is the rope which controls the sails. If multiple lines ran loose, the sails would flap at the wind’s mercy and pirates would lose control of the ship. This is why the phrase now refers to a drunk—an out-of-control drunk.

Not only did pirates integrate nautical jargon into their cultural language, they also mixed languages. Pirating was a multinational and borderless culture of the sea.

9Gay Pirates

The lasting mythology of pirates has painted them as a special breed of man who were sexist, womanizing, bearded hooligans with a taste for strong liquor and gold. Ever hear of the idea that sailors have a woman at every port?

The truth may be more interesting than the fiction. Pirates rejected puritan society and were socially very liberal. They openly welcomed homosexuality and even had their own form of gay marriage. Matelotage was a civil partnership between two male pirates. Matelotage partners openly had sex with each other. The men shared their property, had the other as theirnamed inheritor, and lived together. It just wasn’t always a strictly monogamous enterprise.

Just as today, sexuality is a spectrum, and the relationships were sometimes bisexual. When the French sent hundreds of prostitutes into Tortuga in the mid-1600s, they were trying to counter matelotage. The result was not what they expected. The fluid sexuality of the pirate community welcomed the prostitutes and many engaged in threesomes with the women.

8Black Sailors

The freedom in economic pursuits and movements allowed among pirates is a powerful example of how their social progress was ahead of its time. Piracy was a challenge to the systematic oppression that allowed slavery to be a legal enterprise. We can’t forget the stark inequalities that blacks faced, holding the lowest positions on mixed race ships and being “shipped off” by slave owners to make money for them, but other pirates lived by a different code. They judged people based on their skills, because they didn’t live under the same flag as the colonists. Free black men served aboard pirate ships.

Black Caesar was one notorious such pirate. His tale began in Africa, where he was a chief. He was tricked onto a slave ship, but during a tumultuous hurricane, he escaped in a longboat. He escaped with a friend—one he later killed because the two vied over the same woman. Eventually, Black Caesar became a seasoned pirate, capturing and controlling multiple ships.

He joined up with Blackbeard and was working alongside him when Blackbeard’s ship was attacked in 1718. Black Caesar almost evaded capture, but his life ended in Williamsburg, Virginia at the end of a hangman’s rope.

7Democracy

Contrary to popular belief, pirates were not anarchists who just wanted to rebel against any kind of order. The truth is, pirates were big fans of democracy. Those cast out by those sects of society were welcomed into a different social order, that of the pirates. Ships were egalitarian.

In order to maintain a good lifestyle while at sea for months, pirates realized the best conditions came via democratic channels. Most of the time, crews elected their captains. This practice of democratic elections guaranteed that the crew liked their leader and reduced the chances of mutiny. The quartermaster was also an elected official. The captain did have total power in certain situations, such as battle, but he otherwise had little unchecked control over the ship.

6Female Pirates

On the sea, you could freely cross culturally and historically constructedgender boundaries, and a great many female pirates fought on ships. Yet to first join a crew, many women had to crossdress. For some, passing as a man was most certainly an integral part of their personal identity, but for others it was a gender barrier they had to cross in order to fulfill their desires to be a sailor.

Many female pirate stories mirror that of Mary Lacy. She left her home of Portsmouth at the age of 19 and dressed as a man, assuming the name of William Chandler. She had an intimate relationship with another young woman living aboard her ship. When she finally returned home, she told her parents about her adventures. Later a family friend told the world that William Chandler was actually a woman, and she was allowed to continue working, though she eventually abandoned the seafaring life because of itsphysical demands.

The lives of these women were externally defined by a male dominated society, and the fables that came from their experiences warned against attempting to go against the grain. Mary’s story ended with a supposedly happy marriage to a hardworking man named Mr. Slade. This happy ending may well have never happened and was just added by the publisher of her autobiography.

5Workers’ Compensation

Photo credit: Halibutt/10

Nautical Lingo

Pirates had workers’ compensation schemes for their crew members, with payouts depending on the injury’s severity. Losing a foot was worth more than losing a couple of fingers. Losing your dominant arm could be worth more than losing the other. The pirates similarly pioneered workers’ insurance.

They also embraced disabilities—pirate costumes include an eye patch, a wooden leg, or a hook for a hand for a reason. The macho persona of piracy encouraged pirates to continue working with debilitating physical disabilities. They, like war veterans, were elevated above having problems and instead were seen as courageous. At the same time, pirates did not live in an individualized society, so codependency was a part of life. Therefore, losing a limb did not necessarily change your status aboard the ship.

The disabilities of pirates celebrated in stories by the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson were groundbreaking. They presented powerful and relatable disabled people in literature—and history.

4Becoming A Pirate

A job at sea is unruly and dangerous even now, and it was far more so in the age of sails and no electronics. Four main groups of people earned a living by sailing the high seas: merchants, naval crew, pirates, and privateers. Privateers received licenses from their governments to raid and pillage enemy ships, making them legal pirates. Merchants traded and sold goods, and naval forces were part of the military. Everyone at sea had to make major sacrifices and that combined with deplorable conditions created a dissatisfied working force.

Many people believe that pirates were just criminals on ships, but the truth is that many people turned from legally sanctioned work to pirating. Pirating was a much more lucrative and democratic career. Booty was equally distributed amongst the crew and the living and working conditions for pirates were significantly better than merchant and navy ships.

Rather than deserting their ships to become pirates, many merchant sailors got the opportunity when their ships were captured by pirates. The pirate captains had a tradition of asking merchant sailors if they’d like to join their ranks. Even though the Golden Age is considered at time of sea war, the situation for people who worked as pirates was much better than previous time periods.

3The Pirate Code

Pirates of the Caribbean starts off with one of the main characters invoking the right of parley. This is a real term, but not one used among pirates. Yet pirates did have a code. Pirate ethics were born from a collective and diverse culture influenced by an egalitarian life at sea. The basic ethics included equal distribution of wealth, democratic group decisions, honesty to comrades, and loyalty.

The other side of pirate code was revenge. It mainly involved vengeance against people and places of authority that dominated others through violent means.

2Alcoholism

We all know that pirates partied hard. Boozing was such an important part of pirate culture that alcoholism was the norm and social pressure forced every single pirate to imbibe. For some, the promise of unrestricted drinking was more enticing than the riches they might get.

Alcohol was the connecting tissue between pirates, and anyone who wouldn’t drink was looked at suspiciously. It was considered the cure for many ailments, from food poisoning to scurvy. Rum was an important commodity in the Caribbean and when a pirate ship looted a merchant ship that held boozy cargo, it was near impossible for the captain to persuade his crew to not get wasted right away.

Gambling was a related favorite pastime. Although some ships banned gambling while at sea, it was a huge part of life on land. The biggest port city aside from Boston was Port Royal, Jamaica, where 20 percent of buildings housed either gambling, pubs, liquor stores, or brothels. A sad ending for more than a few former sailors was a lonely homeless life as a beggar in Port Royal. Excessive drinking and gambling could drive hard working men into despairing situations. Pirate partying wasn’t all fun and games—it was an addiction-fueled lifestyle that left survivors in squalor by the end of their lives.

1Recruitment

Volunteers made up the bulk of pirate crews. It was a dangerous and unpredictable life, desertions and death were common, and ships constantly needed new people. As with any jobs, recruitment meant showing potential members the glamor of the job. Current pirates had to dress sharply and be clean to put on the external appearance of a life well lived. And if they couldn’t get enough volunteers, pirates weren’t above using force to get new crewmembers.

Pirates saw an increase in the number of people seeking work after 1713, when privateers turned to pirating. When European nations were fighting at sea, privateers were able to work and earn a significant income. In 1708 they were even allowed by the English to keep everything they stole from other ships. A mere five years later, the Treaty of Utrecht brought relative peace to the ocean and thousands of privateers lost their jobs. Instead of turning to the land and becoming thieves, most joined pirate crews where they could put their skills to use.