They say that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. However tragedy is too grand; there is only farce here.
Michael Cogliantry is publishing a book which shows the "kinky intimate side of the furry subculture":
http://www.michaelcogliantry.com/index.php?/personal/furverts/This prompts 2-gryphon to type (note that he refers to furry fandom, rather than subculture):
http://2-gryphon.livejournal.com/209162.htmlFurverts
**Warning! Controversial opinion ahead!** (Expect some waah.)
A new book as been released called "Furverts", by Michael Cogliantry. It's all about the "secret" lives of furries where we put on animal suits and fuck each other blue in the face. I'm sure the book will sell pretty well because people who claim to have minds cleaner than the Virgin Mary's pap smears just looooooove to read about people so backward and twisted that they'd rather screw the high school team mascot than one of them. It's meant to be a train wreck. So much so, that the book even includes pictures of people boffing each other in fursuits that are *obviously* nothing a furry would ever wear. I suspect they just paid some poor college kids to pose in some store bought Halloween crap, just for effect.
Since the news of this book has hit the fandom, there has been a lot of bitching and whining. A lot of furs trying to defend the upright and proper character of the furry fandom. A lot of bawling that this book will make us all look bad.
Give me a fucking break.
This is OUR fault. You want the furry fandom to be an all-inclusive sub-culture? Well, here we are, welcome to it. You can't decide one minute that it's okay to tie an animal tail to any random fucking interest that walks up to the door and call it "furry", then, when people start pointing and laughing, stand up and complain that the fruitcakes we openly welcomed in don't represent us. It's ludicrous.
A grown man who just wants to wear diapers, a girl who wants to parade her leather slaves around, a guy who gets an erection from being wrapped in latex, a chick who makes her farm animals fuck her... slap a pair of ears on them and suddenly they're furries. And damn anyone who tells them they're not welcome in our group. Damn anyone who tells them they don't belong. But as soon as the cameras are pointed toward these people and they're fucking and sucking each other for the national media, we throw up our hands and reject them as "just a few weirdos we couldn't manage to keep out." We tell them it's not what furry is about. We say they don't represent us. One minute, it's practically a furry crime to ostracise anyone for any reason, and then next, we're whining that we're misrepresented because of the focus on the creepy bastards that we insisted on openly including.
We can't have it both ways, folks.
The furry fandom has become a catch-all for anyone with interests so weird that no other group will accept them. And it has happened because we don't have the nuts to set a definition to who we are and tell those who don't share our interests to find somewhere else to go. Anyone who knocks on our door, slinging around an erection for child porn or warm cheese mold is welcomed right in because we don't have the balls to say, "Sorry, but this is not who we are!"
The furry fandom is no longer about anthropomorphic animals, cartoon characters or mythical creatures. It's become a place where any crazy fuck on the planet feels entitled to be able to openly express whatever unconventional object or idea drives him to orgasm in his bedroom closet at night. And it has become this way because we invited them in! And it will continue to be this way until we find the responsibility to collectively seperate what is furry from what isn't.
Until then, none of us has any right to whine about bad press. If you don't like the way the furry fandom is portrayed in the media, don't blame the few weirdos they were interviewing because we're the ones who told those wierdos to come to the party.
(The book mentioned appears to be a book of fursuit photographs:
http://www.viisualpro.com/viewer.php?f=100314T9W by
This results in some of that old-time navel gazing about furry:
http://2-gryphon.livejournal.com/209162.html?thread=10984202#t10984202I wish I didn't agree with you, but sadly I do :[
When you let everyone in, the entire thing turns to shit, and then people only become hypocrites by complaining about it afterwards.
I propose a culling of the weirdos, and a return to form: CARTOON, GODDAMN ANIMALS.
http://2-gryphon.livejournal.com/209162.html?thread=10991370#t10991370I believe that being a furry shouldn't be as simple as saying "I'm a furry". Call me strange, but I think they should actually have an interest in furry things first.
Someone commented about how what 2 was saying sounded like the burned furs:
http://2-gryphon.livejournal.com/209162.html?thread=10990346#t10990346& 2 responded:
Maybe they were right.
Personally, I don't expect anything to be done about it. I'm just expressing my own feelings on the subject.
Misc. comments by various people which show the general tone:
"I miss the fandom where it was about people who just like anthropomorphic animals. Yeah, porn and sex were some times in there, but these days- the fandom is nothing but porn to me. We had this coming.
"
"I used to be a part of the furry fandom a few years ago. I'm ashamed to say it, but this issue you're bringing up was a big part of why I left the furry fandom. I was really into the whole furry thing back when it was all about "anthropomorphic animals, cartoon characters, and mythical creatures". Now lately it's pretty much Anything Goes. I have considered getting back into it, but I'm still a bit hesitant to do so because of some of the people who consider themselves part of the fandom."
"I've lately been accused of being 'elitist' simply because I have said standards. Perhaps I should go the whole hog and tell people "you know, furry isn't about your fetish."
"Seriously? This is the same shit we've been seeing for decades. People see a whole bunch of weirdos in animal costumes and say "They must be fucking in those costumes." And some moron in the fandom says "It must be all these fringe groups that gave them that idea. They must have found out about the queers, the latex, the diapers, the blah blah blah." And it's always blindingly obvious upon examination that no, moron, it's the pictures of sexy animals, and the animal noises, and most of all the animal costumes."
"Perhaps a lot of the problem is coming from what I will call agent provocateurs. Furry is known more and more to the mainstream. Someone sees a show where furry is defined as "people who dress up like animals and have sex." They think it's hysterical, so they go out and purchase a cheap novelty store/Chinese-made fursuit. They go around humping everything in sight going, "Look! I'm a furry!" The myth perpetuates."
""what is your interest in anthropomorphism?" If you can't get a straight answer follow it up with "then what are you here for?" and if their answer does not include even a passing interest in any directly furry-related interest or activity, then they are not furry, not interested in furry and should not be included. Make up an RP character with a good description, and you're in, basically."
I was reading some stuff on some sites about the history of the science-fiction and fantasy fandom/subcultulre(?) in America. They were having navel gazing episodes about "Fandom is a way of life", "Fandom is just a goddamned hobby", conventions and drama over people faking deaths, paedophiles and so on back in the 1930's, except it was a bit slower because they had to do it via letters and fanzines.
