How's your Swedish?
Does it help if I tell you that fobi is Swedish for phobia? Not really? Fine:
Swedish tabloid Expressen revealed Wednesday that government officials have been ensuring in advance that all places frequented by Gender Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg are free of bananas — due to the minister’s strong phobia of the yellow fruit.
....“Paulina Brandberg has a strong allergy to bananas, so it would be appreciated that there are no bananas in the areas where she will be staying,” states one of the emails.... “It’s sort of an allergy, you could say,” Brandberg told Expressen on Wednesday, then added, “It’s something that I get professional help with” in a follow-up email to the news outlet.
The Swedes seem to be taking this in stride. If it were happening here Brandberg would probably be assaulted with showers of bananas by MAGA enthusiasts every time she appeared in public.
Anyway, I wonder how she handles grocery shopping? Unless you forsake all fruits and vegetables, it's a little hard to avoid the sight of bananas. I expect that eventually AI-powered virtual reality glasses will take care of this.
I think that I may be reading too much into this story.
They seem to be conflating phobia and allergy…
I guess saying it's an allergy would be less stigmatizing than calling it a phobia. Or there's a good deal of denialism going on.
You could say that a phobia is like a psychological allergy.
I wonder how she handles grocery shopping?
Swedish Instacart?
Probably gives the bananas a wide berth. That's what I'd do if that were my phobia.
Is she able to deal with plantains? …
What about other similarly shaped produce, like cucumbers and zucchini?
Have you seen the cat videos where the owner hides a cucumber or zucchini and when the cat sees it they jump up and away. Something about cats not liking snakes. The videos are pretty funny, unless you’re a cat…
Parents watched too many slapstick comedies when she was young?
I can sympathize. I also have a phobia of a certain category of things. I know it's not rational, but I can't really get rid of it either. I don't want to touch or go near the thing I'm phobic of, and its presence makes me uncomfortable. Pictures of it bother me too. I certainly appreciate it when those who care about me keep it out of the environment I'm going to be in.
This sounds like a person who should not have a government job.
Why on earth not? Does a bias against bananas have any effect on her work? My phobia doesn't affect the quality of my work.