It seems many female Japanese and some male Japanese over 13 under 50 are terrified of bugs. It sounds like a gross overgeneralization, I know I know. Could just be me.
I don’t remember seeing nearly as many bug-petrified women in China or the US, where I used to live. Having grown up a city girl and now living in buggy inaka, I’ve never had an issue with bugs unless they sucked my blood.
When I taught in universities, a couple of female students said they used be interested in bugs, but now they were just disgusted or terrified. Hmmm…
Every summer, in parks all around Japan, you see swarms of children fervently chase after bugs with their Daiso nets. And then what happens?
So my tentative hypothesis is that it’s considered civilised, cute or feminine to hate bugs, and many people are socialised into their reactions.
What do you think?
39 comments
I think you’re reading way too much into it.
I suspect you’re way overthinking things.
I think it is a gross generalization based off nothing other than your limited experiences.
I think it’s more crucial to ascertain which of the age bracket you state actually *are* bugs. Like literal insect people, and they’re just projecting so you don’t find out their dark secret
Nope. I saw a huge ass spider climbing up a book and told my female coworker to watch out because there was a spider near her. She looked at it, smiled, then cupped it into her bare hands and walked outside to set it free into nature.
That was the most gangster shit I ever saw.
It’s probably the other way around.
It’s not considered childish to have an overly dramatic reaction to seeing a bug. In my country you’d get some weird looks if you screamed over seeing a spider, man or woman.
Part of it is probably connected to what you say though. since women here are expected to act like little children in a lot of aspects.
Yeah I also find people overreacting around bugs… Pretty disproportionate and annoying lol
It’s like the myth that all Japanese females are simpering gigglers. The shy, hand-over-mouth tee-hee girls.
I remember the first time I saw and heard a group of Japanese women in a coffee shop roaring and laughing like a lesbian rugby team on its third keg.
These were not lumberjack types. They looked like secretaries and school teachers.
What kind of bugs makes a difference, too. I’ve known a few people who were freaked out by butterflies flying around, but thought the big stag beetles were cute.
A lot of the kids chasing bugs are trying to catch the big beetles.
Tbh, no female I have dated here was ever scared of bugs🤷 guess if you surround yourself with a certain type of female then you would get that reaction.
For junior high schools in the greater Tokyo area, this seems accurate. When I was an ALT I saw a lot of students, especially girls, freak out over completely harmless insects that would get in through the perpetually-open windows. Whether it’s trying to be cute or just trying to fit in by showing that they think “bugs are gross,” I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s probably a phase that most of them grow out of, which may be why so many other posters are disagreeing with you–because they’ve probably been interacting mainly with adults.
Yes, every time you see a bug, you must scream “kyaaa” a hundred times in order to be considered cute.
It’s a bit silly, but people do it in the U.K. too. Some Japanese insects are legitimately nasty (suzume bachi hornets, mukade giant centipedes) so I’ll cut people some slack for freaking out.
Generally speaking, many Japanese people are germophobic, and adults tend to avoid bugs much more frequently than Westerners.
However, we don’t view it as cute behavior. We simply dislike what we consider dirty. Very simple.
OP should bring a bug with you on a date
I ridicule them mercilessly. Most people laugh. Especially when they are afraid of butterflies.
my wife will freakout at moths.
snakes, bees and rodents no fear. She says it’s the fluttering she can’t stand.
My 2 year old kid picked up a dead earth worm from the ground. My wife yelled and ran away from him.
I repeat, she abandoned her duties a mother because her kid picked up a dead insect.
This was the moment I realized she was not just useless, but she also will never be able to go fishing.
Can confirm, being afraid of insects is not cute in Japan.
I think it’s just normal, whether you’re male or female. I was once hanging out with a guy, he saw a spider (like 3cm circumference spider) on his guitar case. I was waiting for him to catch the spider and throw it outside but he just stood there hesitating and I figured out he was scared. When I caught the spider with my bare hands he was almost in awe. Explained that people usually use bug sprays here instead of handling the insects directly
No, not particularly.
I don’t think it’s *being afraid of bugs* specifically, so much as appearing helpless that is, in a sense, fashionable–not that these people are faking it.
Do you know what? I’ll be honest.
I was ready to attack you and tell you you’re overthinking it, then I realised in my office this is actually a thing yes, and it’s fucking annoying.
When there’s a tiny spider or something it’s like a competition who can act the most terrified and run away like purposely overacting to be cute.
Do you have something against Japanese women?
what the actual fuck no
No, it makes them come over as weak
I know what you mean. When I was living in China, my female students in high school actively tried to kill the insects including those disgusting murder hornets. I ran. Not afraid to admit it. Those demons need to be wiped out. I once had an electrician come fix my a/c in China because it wasn’t blowing any cold air. He opened it up and started working on it then said (in mandarin): here’s the problem! An entire wasp nest is inside your unit.
Then he threw the nest out the window three flowers and onto the street below. What the hell. Then there was a lot of buzzing in the ac and he started swatting the little shits. I took off. No thanks. If I could have burned that apartment to the ground I would.
I’m unsure, but I don’t worry about looking cute if one of the murder hornets is around me. Or big spiders , (never saw a huntsman spider in real life yet) and cockroaches, they’re scary too. Everything else is ok.
Well I’m an American woman and about have a nervous breakdown every time I see a cockroach or huntsman spider in or around my apartment, so there’s that. I grew up in a fairly rural area but never got over a fear of bugs.
yeah, it’s definitely a cultural thing. i’ve noticed the same, especially with kids and their reactions to bugs. society’s influence is strong.
noticed it too! I noticed it a lot stronger with girlier girls. That said i have also met many girls who were into the outdoors and not afraid of bugs, like at all. Wonder if it has to do with the media they consume. I remember seeing on tv they’d get these girl groups to do weird stuff involving bugs and the camera would zoom in on one of their faces and show this wild overreaction to a bug. And other non girl group people in the show would just be all hahaha. And perhaps that thought people that’s an appropriate reaction.
i don’t know. Maybe we should get all the cute females in this group to dress up in the same clothes and do a tiktok of them picking up bugs and all us not cute girls are giving them the thumbs up.
This phenomenon is due to Mothera. That is all.
I don’t know. My darling wife usually purges the unclean with that freeze spray.
There is so much involved here. Some random thoughts:
There are dangerous, venomous bugs in Japan like the murder hornets and the mukade. Being cautious isn’t a bad thing.
Overreaction, by boys or girls, gets a laugh. Some people do love the attention.
All over the world, we’re discovering people with sensory issues, and it’s becoming more accepted to let phobias hang out. My (mostly Czech descent) sister had an unjustifiable phobia of monarch butterflies flying into her hair. I became phobic of wasps after a wasp attack and it took me 20 years not to freak out. My daughter has a bug and cardboard phobia. My (Japanese) husband doesn’t shriek at bugs, but gets incredibly aggressive with the bug spray towards ants or fruit flies. Is it healthier to shriek and run, or healthier to bottle it up? IDK.
Bugs have a beloved place in Japanese culture. Fables, crickets in cages, summer cicadas . . . . A lot of boys and girls have no problems handling stag beetles & the like.
That said, I have witnessed some epic bug freak-outs. Mostly by children, once in awhile by adults.
Some boys really, really hate bugs, too. The phobia certainly isn’t gendered. The reaction might be.
Nah. My wife hates bugs. She doesn’t pretend. And it’s annoying for me because I always am the one to deal with them. Also sometimes she makes it seem like if there’s a bug in the house it’s my fault.
My wife freaks out at the sight of bugs
As a Japanese, no.
No, I find the opposite. All the Japanese women I know and have met have been fearless when it comes to bugs. I, on the other hand am terrified of bugs. Mocking people’s phobias is not kind.
It’s so hilarious to me. It’s a country
with these absolutely massive insects that are everywhere yet the second a mouthless semi enters your generally vicinity you see mostly girls freak out like they’ve never seen one. Not jus girls but fully grown women afraid of moths.
I don’t know if it’s an act or what but sure is annoying.
If you see girls scream or run away from bugs and find they cute, you like them, or it’s a fake reaction. If I’m scared of bugs and startled, I’m gonna scream the shit out of you. Can’t be cute or elegant with that lol.