A Fear of Kites
In looking around for the fancy “-phobia” word signifying a fear of kites, I ran across three things that this entry is not about: an episode of “Malcolm in the Middle” in which Dewey apparently puts to rest his dad’s fear of kites; the title of an episode of what appears to be an anime cartoon entitled “Marsupilami”; and a song by one Selma Booking entitled “A Cloud’s Fear of Kites.” I was unable to find the fancy word I wanted on the Web or in any of my books about strange words. Some “fear” words I did find that are of interest if not particular relevance include the following:
- sophophobia. the fear of learning, which I don’t have
- myrmecophobia. the fear of ants
- maledictaphobia. the fear of bad words
- phalacrophobia. the fear of going bald
- pogonophobia. the fear of beards, which I’m inclined to say I don’t have, as I have a beard, though it may simply be the case that I’m too frightened of it to shave it off
- taphephobia. the fear of being buried alive
- bromidrosiphobia. the fear of body odor, which I keep at bay by using lots and lots and lots of deodorant
- lepidophobia. the fear of butterflies
- nephophobia. the fear of clouds
- hypophobia. the fear of a lack of fear
- arachibutyrophobia. the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth
- bathysiderodromophobia. the fear of subways or underground trains
When I mention a fear of kites, I don’t mean that I have a fear of any of the following things listed in the American Heritage Dictionary under the entry for kite:
- Any of the light sails of a ship used in a light wind.
- Any of various predatory birds of the hawk family Accipitridae, having a long, often forked tail and long pointed wings (ok, if I saw one of these up close with its talons going for my eyes, I’d probably be afraid of it, but I’m not generally speaking afraid of these birds).
- A piece of negotiable paper representing a fictitious financial transaction and used temporarily to sustain credit or raise money.
- A bank check drawn on insufficient funds to take advantage of the time interval required for collection
- A bank check altered to show a larger amount
- (Ok, these last three freak me out a bit too, but they’re still not what I’m ultimately talking about.)
It’s the standard definition I’m thinking of: The diamond of paper held rigid by two sticks and followed by a tail of bows; or the standard arrow-shaped kite you can get at your neighborhood drug store in April. Or, in my case, a big multi-colored parrot kite complete with fluttering tail feathers. It is this kite that I flew today, the first time I ever remember successfully flying a kite.
I do remember going out to the practice football field of the high school I lived near when I was a kid and flying kites with my family. On one such outing, I was stung by a bee and found myself treated to a poultice of saliva and tobacco. I was too young to manage a kite during these outings. And I don’t remember ever getting a kite very far up in the sky on later outings when I had my own kite (gray and black like a jet with discongruous eyespots on the wings that in retrospect I imagine would have made such a real jet a pretty easy target).
Today, we were entertaining the almost-four-year-old child of a couple friend who just had another baby. It had been windy last night, and we had the kite (an out-of-the-blue (figuratively speaking, though it could be taken literally) birthday present from a couple of years ago) in the car, so we decided to hit a park today and try to fly it. Mleeka flew it for a few minutes before landing it in a power line. Enter fear number one. I was sufficiently indoctrinated by the power company’s crudely-drawn cartoon commercials when I was a child to know that if you screw with power lines by doing such things as flying kites into them or attempting to get kites out of them, you’re looking for a cooking. This power line was thin and bent at the slightest provocation, so I wasn’t keen on tugging at it with the kite string lest it snap and fall down on me snakelike. So I cut the string. Luckily, the kite fluttered down a few minutes later thanks to a gust, and we retied the string and had another go, this time at a substantially greater distance from the power lines. It was my turn.
And I made a pretty good go of it. I got the kite pretty far up there, getting string burn on my hand as I paid out the line and guided the kite to prevent it from taking nose dives (of which it did several with what would surely have been catastrophic, beak-altering results for a real parrot). Now when I say I got it pretty far up there, I don’t mean that I got it way way up there. It was maybe 100 or 200 feet high, and I hear tell of people who get their kites so high that they’re unrecognizeable dots in the sky. The kite was high for me, but not high by a kite’s standards.
And the higher the kite went, the more apprehensive I became. I wasn’t afraid of kite as object. I wasn’t even afraid so much as increasingly uncomfortable about something I couldn’t and still can’t confidently put a label on.
I’m partially inclined to think my apprehension had to do with a perceived diminution of control: The higher the kite goes, the more influence smaller movements have on it; and the harder it becomes to steer; and the less attached it seems to the string, while at the same time it feels as if it must (or perish the world) stay on that string and in my sight and under my control. But I’m not sure that’s my issue. It may also have partially to do with my long-held notion that the reeling in of a kite is a Sisyphean task, that we tend to be reluctant to bring in the line when there’s a good wind, but as surely as we begin to bring it in, the wind picks up, the result being a kite in flux, never quite high enough and never home but always needing to be reeled in. Essentially, by flying a kite, you’re setting yourself up either to have to reel in a whole bunch of slack line once the string breaks at a point six miles from your spool or to keep up an Old-Man-And-The-Sea scale epic battle with the kite.
I suppose it’s uncertainty that gets my goat. That seems to be the unifying gotcha of both of my primary theories about this little neurosis. The closest thing to this in my phobia book is “kakorrhaphiophobia” — the fear of failure.
eric said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I have the same phobia…what a trip.
Me said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I have the same phobia - just as you described. I was looking around for the word for it on the internet too, because my husband thought it was a really weird phobia to have. It’s always seemed extremely valid to me, however, so I figured there must be a word for it. It seems like a more logical fear than many. Apparantly, however, there are only the three of us. Sigh.
Rhya said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I had a fear of kites. I also have a fear of heights and I was afraid the kite would pull me up into the sky. I finally flew a kite and got over it. But my husband won’t let me hear the end of it.
moe said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
i have had this phobia for years now, and i too wanted to know if it had a title! cant explain what it is i am am actually afraid of about kites, all i know is that the thought of holding the string, or for that matter, even being close enough to someone else holding the string of a kite that i can hear it flapping, makes me feel quite sick! i even have nightmares about them! will keep dropping in on the website to see if anyone ever comes up with a name for our “problem”
Noleen said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Oh my God, I thought I was a freak! I’m afraid of kites too. I don’t know what it is about them. But I get really nervous and stomach sick. The higher it goes, the more nervous I get. I’ve tried flying kites but I just can’t get over it. I only realized recently that it was a fear that I have. And it’s completely irrational which I guess makes it a phobia.
The list of phobias that Daryl had there were funny though. I don’t think that fear of being buried alive is really a phobia… I mean really, who isn’t afraid of being buried alive?
Jeff Kraus said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Sorry about your fear of kites. I won’t even get into the Japanese sport of kite-fighting, in which contestants attach blades and glass shards to their kites’ tails to attack their competitor.
I don’t exactly fear kites, but I have always kept a wary eye on them since watching someone try to fly a kite one very windy day on St. Lucia Beach on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa. The guy had his wife hold the kite at a distance from him, then toss it up in the air. Quite often a wind gust would slam the kite back into the ground, narrowly missing the poor woman. That beach also has a notorious shark problem.
By the way, I found your site by looking up “bathysiderodromophobia”, which currently appears on ads in the New York City subways for Superpages.com. They claim they can find it for you. I tried it and got a list of psychotherapists! I knew that the word included “deep”, “iron” and “track”, but couldn’t put it together into “subway.” Oh well.
Paul said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Hi Fellow scaredy kites! I think we were alldoing the same thing, looking for a name for our fear to prove it is not just us. I remember saving up to buy a kite as a kid. I really wanted one with a long tail that could do tricks in the sky. And so I saved all my pocket money and that summer holiday in Scotland I got what my heart had desired so much. But my joy was soon short lived the feeling of the pulling on the string terrified me and made me cry. All my saving had been a waste of time. I have no idea why I was scared or really what I was scared off, I just knew I was scared. As Moe says I can’t even look at someone flying a kite without getting that feeling in the pit of my stomach. I am the same with holding umbrellas or balloons in the wind, so I have concluded that it must be the pull and the fear of being blown away. Yet I have no fear of wind if I am not holding something. As you will all know it is very hard to define but somehow the connection between being on the ground and attached to the air is the crux of the matter. Anyway enough of my ramblings, it is nice to know that I am not the only one.
Krysta said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Hi…My name is Krysta, and my poor mother has this fear…it doesnt bother her normal life..but it does bother her to be driving and see a couple of kids flying kites on the side of the roadshe calls people crazy everytime they fly kites..mr. paul..i think you and my mother have pretty much the same feeling…as goes for the rest of the people here….she is scared of looking up and being attatched to the sky…she shakes and shivers if i try to get her to hold a kite while im flying it…who knows?…she use to fly planes as a kid all the time…and kites..but nothing has ever happend for her to not like kites…ill have to get her to hold an umbrella or a balloon in the wind to see if it affects her…bye fellow kite-a-phobiacs…..thanks…you made her feel more comfortable knowing she is not alone…
maya said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Googled fear of kites, was afraid i was the only one…feeling “pulled” by the kite, afraid that i will let it go…I HATE KITES!!!! My dad’s best friend who would go to the beach with us was a kite freak and loved to have them tied to our porch in the outer banx…AAAAAAAAAHHH!!
eric said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
i have the same fear… i just get nervous and a nervouse feeling in my stomach!also when i hold a balloon, i have to grasp it very tight.i hate it
Elizabeth said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I have a sister, she actually has such a fear of kites that her husband made her hold one, and she pee’d her pants. Quite embarrassing. But she’s glad to hear others have the same phobia. (shes on the phone)
Ethan said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
My girlfriend is also a fellow Kite-o-phobic. We thought she was the only one. You guys should start your own club and have long in-depth discussions about your fear. And maybe, just maybe, you can all go out kite flying one day, together, holding each others hands, wearing diapers. But seriously, kite-o-phobics are awesome, i’m going to marry one some day.
Andie said,
May 22, 2008 @ 11:12 pm
Oh thank the sweet baby Jesus, it’s not just me. I have the same symptoms that the rest of you talked about — and something mentioned in the blog struck me — the loss of control. Maybe.. It just makes me break out in a sweat just thinking about it!
Maybe there is no word for it because the greeks and romans (the founders of our language) were smart enough not to invent kites?
Bruno said,
July 12, 2008 @ 11:53 am
Well, if they have a name for the phobia of peanut butter on your pallet, then they should have one for kites :S.
I’m just always afraid of letting the kite go, or of being pulled into the air myself.
I look up at the kite and get really uneasy and have to look down and hand the kite over before it gets too bad.I’m not even that afraid of heights, but when I see someone or something (especially if I’m controlling it)being somewhere high, it makes me sick :S.