Hell Hath No Furries

[Kindrift]

The media sneaks into another event and returns with an honest review of the occasion.  Presumably if you don't admit you're a member of the press, furry's best and brightest won't stumble over each other trying to show off their crusty stuffed toys.  However it happened, the Hartford Advocate came away with a positive impression of FurFright, shown in their article Hell Hath No Furry.  Without Xydexx and 1200 pounds of Dorsai for escort, nor Stalking Cat making a sloshing dash for media attention, reporter Jennifer Abel was able to manage an honest interview:

"It all varies," he said. "Some people just like anthropomorphic art. As for people relating to animals, it ranges from 'I think they're cool' to 'I have traits in common, like I'm quiet as a mouse,' to 'Yes, I am a wolf in a human body and I must run free with my furry brothers!'"

I laughed. "Still beats being a Klingon. So what makes you a skunk?"

"I like the striking colors ... and I was a maladjusted kid. When a skunk walks into the room, everybody leaves."

If I'd peeked behind every hotel-room door I probably would've found something, but that's true at any gathering of hundreds of people far from home. The Furry convention wasn't a sex thing but the exact opposite: an innocent world of children's-book animals, where a 3-year-old can roam with impunity and a maladjusted kid can enter the room with nobody leaving.

And somehow the sexual parts of furry take care of themselves, even without labcoated adult supervision.  In all an honest and accurate snapshot of the furries.  We'll see if they're banned from next year's convention.

[ProvincialTwit]

I think the important thing to remember, here, is that FurFright (at least, when I went a few years ago) is absolutely minuscule compared to the major dramafests.  It's also in the middle of nowhere, Connecticut; though I don't think it falls particularly close to any of the more populous cons date-wise.

There seem to be multiple critical mass levels at furry conventions.  When they're particularly small, only the locals and the totally devoted are going to show up; additionally, small tends to equal new, so chances are the real nutjob populations haven't even heard of such a con.  As the yearly attendance surpasses these critical mass levels, the con itself attracts a greater number of crazies.  Pop. > X, and fursuiters show up.  Pop. > Y, and the bondage crowd makes an appearance.  Pop. > Z, and the babyfurs invade.  The big-name cons like KageFest in PA and LamePunCon in the Bay area have surpassed all known critical mass levels, and as such, every freaky sub-sub-culture of furry is represented en masse. 

So, yes, it's an overly kind article that paints the fetish culture in a shining positive light.  Have that reporter come back in a couple years and, without the anti-media-blitz spin-doctoring* skills of our favorite gay cockroach, I'm willing to bet the article won't be quite so kind.


*(Is that what his Ph.D. is in?)

[ProvincialTwit]

The front page?  Oh, right.  Goddamnit, Fatalisthaven.


Anyway, I suppose I'll give them that.  Wrangling 3000 furries into some sort of semblance of organization is by no means an easy task.  I can't help but find it a tad despicable that Conway drags his folks there.  (OTOH, they could be considered the oldest atrocity tourists in the fandom fetish culture)

[ProvincialTwit]

This thread has gotten just a touch off topic.  We're talking about reporters infiltrating FurFright, not being sycophants for Conway.

The point I was attempting to make before we got dragged into Cousin Larry's Funtime Con Facts Hour was that, because FurFright is small and new, a reporter can, as demonstrated, just waltz in and find semi-normal people.  Conversely, AC is so huge and has attracted so many freaks that Conway, et al, have to enforce a paranoid media blackout, in order to make their spin doctored family-friendly "facts" the only info available.

[Kindrift]

This story proves you don't need a Kage, and can in fact get along much better with the press if you don't have one.  Of course, that isn't always the case -- the MFM media incident proves some conventions will need a little media management.  You need to be smart.  I personally believe Kage does some good but is outright lying about what goes on at conventions.  When the news catches sight of the adult wing of the dealer's room they unintentionally ask but what else are they hiding?  The details of who's running the convention and who's paying for it is a little off-topic but whatever.

fursuiters being run over, mistaken as coyotes and shot, or contracting the plague and vomiting green bile in the middle of the headless lounge.

Oh, come now.  Even we know CSI was largely fictional!