Fifty More Horror Clichés That Should Be Left to Spoil

#13: Snakes Are Inherently Evil

Note: For this part of the editorial I sincerely thank the World Health Organization (WHO), Emborapets.com, Futurity.org, and PBS.org for the research needed to better develop my point. They were great resources of information that helped me out a lot in providing factual information for this part.

For a majority of the human population, ophidiophobia or the fear of snakes, is basically an accepted part of our society. After all, according to most people, snakes are the root of all evil. Their scaly, legless bodies are apparently a terror to look at and a complete impossibility to view without screaming. Snakes apparently to these people are huge sacks full of venom ready to infect and kill any innocents that come its way. They are apparently vicious upon confrontation, flicking their devilish tongues in fury at innocent humanity. Indiana Jones is famously apparently justified for fearing these creatures in all four of his cinematic adventures, with ophidiophobia being his most well known character flaw. Snakes to most people are metaphors of evil, nothing more, nothing less.

However, this public opinion about snakes, especially the way they are depicted in horror media, is far from the truth. Snakes in reality are fascinating creatures that are the beautiful byproduct of evolution for the past few hundred million years. They are survival experts, and view humanity no differently than any other creature. Calling a snake evil is like labeling the same title to a cat, a subject I have gone over before in the previous horror clichés editorial book.

First off, not all snakes are venomous. According to WHO, The World Health Organization, out of the existing three thousand snake species out there, only six hundred are venomous. That is a mere 20% of snakes, most of which you will only get a true glance at in a zoo somewhere. As for the other 80% of snakes, their bite is far from harmful to humans. A great example of a safe snake species is the corn snake, whose bites are basically as harmful as a simple cat scratch. They are far from aggressive to humans and make for excellent pets.

As for snakes being hostile to humans, they are only acting out of nature 95% of the time when aggravated. Like any other animal, they are more afraid of the potentially threatening human approaching them much more than the person in question. Their fangs are merely a defense mechanism, like the horns on a rhinoceros or the talons of a hawk. They are just being animals, much like any other species existing on Earth.

Snakes additionally don't have legs for an interesting evolutionary reason that is far from unnatural. All the way back one hundred million years ago, snakes during development just simply stopped developing full limbs. The reason is a mutation in a pacific gene, interestingly called Sonic hedgehog, that halts the development of limbs for snakes. This same gene is the one responsible for giving certain humans six fingers and toes, due to a mutation that causes the gene to go into overdrive. Snakes don't suffer any negative side effects from the gene and thus never evolved a need to overcome this developmental occurrence. That is the only reason snakes are legless at all.

Finally, snakes are actually quite important to the survival of the planet. They eat many mice and rats in the wild that could spread disease or eat important crops needed for human survival. The non-venomous snakes also play a big part in reducing the population of venomous snakes that could harm people, eating their venomous brothers. Without snakes existing in the environment, the prey population would grow too high, creating loads of issues that are worse than just the consumption of crops. Surprisingly, these creatures are secret guardians protecting us in their quest to survive in the wild.

The only reason people actually fear snakes at all is due to accidental parts of our evolution. Because ancient humans tended to stray away from snakes they deemed venomous or poisonous, an instinct in most people developed to avoid the creatures at all costs. It is a glitch in our evolution that has been engrained into our minds, creating the almost universal mindset in popular culture that all snakes are evil. Meanwhile, snakes are just acting completely on their instincts and are actually helping humanity in pretty significant ways.

Snakes are victims of misconception in not only the public mind, but in popular culture as well. The biggest contributor to snake misconception in popular culture is the horror genre, where the creatures are usually seen assisting the main antagonist of the narrative. Like with cats and to an extent dogs, this wrongful ideology just needs to stop. I am not saying to treat all snakes in fiction as if they were saints. I am saying that snakes are just regular wild animals that get a wrongfully bad reputation in fiction.

Next time you write a horror narrative of any kind, keep in mind that snakes are not the evil animals we wrongly assume them to be. They are just like any other creature on Earth who are just trying to survive in the end of the day. Respect them for what they are and not for what they could potentially be.