How comfortable are you with non-human life forms? I regularly meet children in Canada who want to pet every animal they see. I know ladies who can't fight the urge to cuddle every poodle and stroke every cat they meet.

I also know many women who are scared of seemingly harmless insects, and absolutely petrified of creatures like lizards or rats. I know because women seem OK with admitting those fears; but how about us men? Do encounters with animals scare us? And if they do, are we able to honestly admit it and objectively examine it?

From my experience and observation, it seems that men are more likely to respond with violence and aggression when faced with a strange animal. I'm wondering if men use this anger to just hide the fact that we're also afraid. Let me start with myself. Personally, I am not very comfortable around animals and I think the feeling is mutual. Yes mi friend is so di thing set; but I'm not sure if I hate them or fear them, or hate them because I fear them. How about you? I grew up thinking for example, that dogs had a special dislike for boys. Whenever I see one of those four-footed fellows nowadays, I can still painfully remember the numerous times I've been bitten, chased and scared by some mangy mongrel.

General attitude

After embarrassing encounters with 'foreign' critters - a raccoon and a squirrel - here in North America, I've been trying to come to term with my general attitude to non-human animals. I've been asking myself: Is it an attitude based simply on fear? Could the fear be based on just plain ignorance and or unfamiliarity? Mi nuh know! What I know for sure though, is my attitude could be summed up in the words my mind screams in response to most non-human beings 'kill it before it bites you!'

'Man thing'

That is my response to the smallest insect and the largest mammal. When I encounter fly, bug, rat, or beaver a part of my primordial masculine impetus is to conquer it if I can; subdue it. If I can't, I chase it away. And because I fear it may come back, there is the urge to get rid of it for good. I think it is a 'man thing'. Man nuh pet nar powder! Many Jamaican men I know, are only interested in 'stroking a cat' if the term is being used as a figuratively sexist reference to intimate contact.

Speaking for myself, the truth is I really am scared of animals. I fear them immensely. My Jamaican socialisation dictates however, that as a man I should not experience or express fear. But the fear persists and gets translated into anger and aggression. When this fear emerges I am irritated with myself for being afraid, I am disappointed and upset that I'm failing in the performance of my gender expectations and letting down the team. I turn the anger then, towards the being that creates this situation that disrupts my sense of esteem and position. I strike out against the perceived or imagined threat in pretty much the same way I figure that a racist xenophobe responds to the presence of someone from a different ethnicity or culture. What you think?

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