Clowns in Cross Stitch: Would You Stitch a Clown Motif?
One of my favourite cross stitch designers is Julie Hasler. She has written many wonderful books of designs. (I shall return to them in a future Blog.). One such book is called ‘Clowns in Cross Stitch’.
Julie writes that Clowns have gained a place in history because we enjoy laughing at them.
Clowns are also well-known for their funny antics, oversized trousers and shoes, undersized jackets and recognizable face-paint designs. What better design for a cross stitched motif for a child?
My young nephew has a bed-cover with cross-stitched clowns that delight him every evening. So - thank you, Julie!
When I think of clowns, I think of laughter, slapstick humour and smiley faces.
But not everyone thinks this way.
A recent British survey revealed that many children were frightened by clowns’ faces. Many adults apparently have “coulrophobia” (fear of clowns).
How could this innocent, laughing person produce fear?
It seems that Stephen King’s book called ‘It’ may have triggered reactions in adults that we may have passed to children. ‘It’ was made into a movie in 1990. It contained a child-murdering monster that appeared as a demonic clown.
Further clown films followed, including ‘Clownhouse’, ‘Mr Jingles’ and ‘In Fear of Clowns’, all with terrifying images of fearsome baddies hiding behind a clown’s face. Researchers state that it is the relentlessly comical face that can cause fears in the beholder.
Even Bart Simpson wept, “Can’t sleep - clown will eat me”.
What do you think? My view is that adults can instil fear into children by their reactions. Once the connection is made between an image and fear, it can be difficult to break.
Let’s hope that other benign characters in children’s literature are not transformed into gun-toting psychopaths, and children can enjoy their interactions with these delightful characters – and of course, we can enjoy choosing a cross-stitched friend for the children in our lives.
Happy Stitching!
Iona
