#or imagery of spiders
I can understand people being afraid of spiders. I can understand wanting to avoid spiders. But I love spiders. And one thing I can’t stand about a lot of people scared of spiders, is the irrational hatred of them. The urge to have them killed. I’ve had people look at me like I was disgusting for saying I liked spiders.
Here’s the thing. I understand fear of an animal. I am petrified of scorpions and bats. Now I’ve never actually been near a scorpion, but they wig me out even in imagery. Bats are another issue. Where I live trees are often home to fruit bats, massive winged devils that like to randomly drop from trees on my nightly commute home. Loud miscreants that like to screech and chitter outside my windows at night. They make the hair on my arms stand on end.
But I will never say I hate bats. I will never say I hate scorpions. I would never want the death of one simply because they existed in the same vicinity as me. I would never tell someone enthusiastic about either of these animals that have as much right to live on this planet as I do, that they were gross or weird for liking these animals. But I get so many negative comments when I say I like spiders. Even from some of my closest friends. I talk about how I think the cobalt blue tarantula is a pretty spider and how I’d like to see one up close one day, I get told that I better wash my hands after if I touch it. I get told if I bring a spider near them they’ll kill it.
I understand fear. But I don’t tolerate turning fear into a reason for hatred, in any sort of way. And that stems beyond spiders and scorpions and bats. If you justify being hateful and cruel to something or someone because of fear… I don’t think we’d be friends.
