Vivisector
Administrative Kit => Big Damn Welcome Message => Topic started by: Kindrift on October 28, 2007, 03:42:44 am
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Vivisector is a set of forums for the discussion of furries and the furry culture. These things are horribly intertwined. To explain:
Furry
As an adjective, furry things are about anthropomorphic animals. Anthropomorphic animals are not automatically furry, having originated with a specific part of sci-fi fandom in the late 1970's. People who are furry or who work for the furry culture produce furry works. If it was shown in a movie theater it was not furry (to date), if it was hosted on the VCL it was. If it's an animal suit dancing across a field during a football game, probably not, if it's dancing on YouTube to European disco it probably is. There's a certain sense of knowing furry work when you see it, an important part is the fan or amateur quality. Furry media is usually a bit more creative, personal, provoking, or just outright strange (and in an opinion this makes it far more interesting).
Furries
As a noun, a furry is a member of the furry subculture. They usually self-identify with this culture -- "I am a furry", "I like furry things" -- but sometimes just stick out despite denying it, drawing furry artwork or fantasizing about furry characters. Most every furry has one of these furry characters, a talking thinking animal often standing on two legs and (typically) dressed in Old Navy clothing, Matrix garb, or the latest anime trend. You might see them depicted most often naked, but that's arguably part of the charm. The actual animal doesn't matter, dragons and other mythological animals are pretty solidly furry as well. Plants, insects, and aliens are uncommon but occasionally humanized in the great furry machine.
There are many stereotypes about the real furry. To generalize, a furry is most often a white middle-class male between 16 and 30 years of age, females making about a 20% minority. The average furry is built about like the average American sci-fi nerd. The stereotype is there for a reason but not all are barreling past 180 pounds. Most young furries are sexually "bi-desperate" while online but not always sexual.
Furry Culture
Today's collective is not a fandom, by definitions. Fans of funny animals largely died out in the early 90's, though some particularly angry oldsters soldier on in the face of adversity. The furries are now fans of themselves and each other's work. It's likewise not a genre, though some may push the definition of a genre hard enough to show otherwise. What it is, is a fetish culture. It is a large group of people with a similar interest in a particular (not always sexual) fetish who laud each other's work and celebrate it on a near-daily basis. We're sharing more in common with the BDSM culture than anime here -- not that this is bad at all, unless you're trying to run a family convention. Any furries who deny the sexual aspects of the fandom are probably a little misguided. Of course, if you're here, you aren't new to the Internet and you already know this.
Vivisector
We like the furry culture, curious topic it is. Most of us here, anyway. Some of us are deeply embedded in it. We like to study the furries and examine the philosophies, the personalities of the culture. We are observers and sometimes thinkers. And most always atrocity tourists. That's something that's had a bad rep over the years, between furries confusing tourists with trolls and tourists leaving the attraction in a state more fucked up than they found it in. At Vivisector we embrace the culture, its good parts and bad, and attempt to provide a neutral resource for the Internet at large.
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Here in 2013, the demographics have shifted enough that the mainstream "typical" furry is no longer overwhelming. Cat ears and fox tails are becoming acceptable among the "mainstream". Being an inclusive subculture, advertising itself heavily through more mixed social groups as Facebook and Youtube, furry has attracted more minorities, more female creatures, and more skillsets beyond IT. (The most common skillset may be "none at all" at this point.) The cru looks more like the common college-age homoflexible youth than the 200 pound rackmonkey does, but is still only one face out of many. What furry once was is still strong, graying, talented, more cynical but deadly opinionated and frequently conservative-Libertarian. What furry is becoming is a massive horde of nothing in particular, closer to the demographic mix of whatever technologically connected state happens to be spawning a local community.