Fear as a Space

We interact with different spaces on a daily basis even though sometimes we do not choose to. Every city has their bad neighbourhoods or rough parts of the city in which many people try to stay away from, but we are sometimes forced into them, due to our daily routines. Each individual has their own fears, as well as children have different fears then adults. While adults are worried they might get mugged or rapped when going threw a ghetto neighbourhood, children are more concerned with sleeping in the dark and trying to fight off the bogey monster.

Fear is not something that is present; we alleviate fear in our minds to construct something that we are scared of. Also I believe that our society along with the media make us believe that certain areas are dangerous and they make us believe anything they want. For example, Jane and Finch, has been labelled as one of the worst neighbourhoods in all of Toronto for crime because the news deliberately makes a point of mentioning that area every time an incident happens. In some cases, even crimes in which took place ten minutes from that specific area are labelled on the news as another crime at Jane and Finch. Even children in today’s society, which have probably never been to Jane and Finch know that it is a bad area because either their parents had told them or they have heard it through the news. I am not suggesting that Jane and Finch is a great neighbourhood, but I am suggesting that the media and our society pin point certain areas of our community and label them as bad or good communities. The media has constructed a fear to the public in which most people can say they feel uncomfortable passing through ghetto neighbourhoods.

Our society manipulates certain communities and labels them in order to warn individuals for their safety. Each of our towns across the GTA has been labeled due to violence, religion or culture. Certain parts of Toronto are known to have different cultures segregated to one area, some are known to have gangs, and some are known as having gated communities to keep the poor away. Each of those areas conflict a certain fear into our society one way or another.

Congregation and Segregation can also be another way people view certain spaces as a fear. When a person of another race enters a neighbourhood such as little Italy, Chinatown etc, they might feel uncomfortable because in that neighbourhood they are a minority. The reason we have different cultural communities spread across Toronto is because people of the same cultural backgrounds like to be associated with people who carry the same traits and speak the same language as them. Fear has everything to do with being comfortable in the environment you are in. If you are walking down an alley late at night, naturally, you will be scared because you are not in a familiar territory and you start to consider everything you’ve heard on the news.

Our perception of being feared by certain objects or communities has been perceived by the media and television. Through the news we are able to pick at certain communities and label them as bad or good neighbourhoods. Also television shows or movies strike fear into children and make them believe in fixations such as monster and clowns. From watching a scary movie we can convince ourselves that their might be a chance it could happen to us, so after you watch that movie, you might sleep with the light on or with one eye open. Our society plays a big role in labeling certain spaces as fears in our lives, but we are the ones who determine if it’s a fixation or not.

Thomas Marchese