[shudder]
On my way to work this morning, I heard a story on the radio about a new study that found that clown therapy is associated with increased success rates for women undergoing in vitro fertilization.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh. Bad enough to endure the stress of IVF, but to add clowns to boot?! I really hope they were conscientious about getting informed consent on this one, because if I were in a clinic and they brought in a clown? I would run screaming from the room.
I actually quite liked clowns when I was a kid: I had a ceramic clown that doubled as a pencil sharpener; I got a poster at the Chester Flea Market of a teddy bear dressed like a clown (weird, I know; it was when I was going through my pink and purple phase, and the color scheme fit the bill, and I for whatever reason thought it was super-adorable). I don't know when I developed this total aversion to clowns; it wasn't because of a Stephen King story or anything like that, or a harrowing incident at the circus. But at some point in my adolescent or early adult life, I just began to find them creepy, and I've never gotten over it.
Apparently the lead researcher previously attended mime school, so I guess it makes sense that he would pick clowns for his research intervention. But I'd like to see a follow-up study (the conclusion of pretty much every research study is, "More research is needed...") that looks at whether a magician in street clothes, for example, would have the same effect. Or a massage. Or an episode of the Daily Show.
Because I feel like clown aversion is actually a fairly common thing, and I bet clown therapy would reduce the chances of conception among people like me pretty much to zero, because they'd be total basket cases. Nerdy me would now like to go read the actual study to see if the authors address this issue at all in their methodology or in their discussion of study limitations.
Can you tell I have a lot of work I don't feel like doing today?
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh. Bad enough to endure the stress of IVF, but to add clowns to boot?! I really hope they were conscientious about getting informed consent on this one, because if I were in a clinic and they brought in a clown? I would run screaming from the room.
I actually quite liked clowns when I was a kid: I had a ceramic clown that doubled as a pencil sharpener; I got a poster at the Chester Flea Market of a teddy bear dressed like a clown (weird, I know; it was when I was going through my pink and purple phase, and the color scheme fit the bill, and I for whatever reason thought it was super-adorable). I don't know when I developed this total aversion to clowns; it wasn't because of a Stephen King story or anything like that, or a harrowing incident at the circus. But at some point in my adolescent or early adult life, I just began to find them creepy, and I've never gotten over it.
Apparently the lead researcher previously attended mime school, so I guess it makes sense that he would pick clowns for his research intervention. But I'd like to see a follow-up study (the conclusion of pretty much every research study is, "More research is needed...") that looks at whether a magician in street clothes, for example, would have the same effect. Or a massage. Or an episode of the Daily Show.
Because I feel like clown aversion is actually a fairly common thing, and I bet clown therapy would reduce the chances of conception among people like me pretty much to zero, because they'd be total basket cases. Nerdy me would now like to go read the actual study to see if the authors address this issue at all in their methodology or in their discussion of study limitations.
Can you tell I have a lot of work I don't feel like doing today?
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