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Passages
3 years ago
General
It's been a somber week for many reasons, but the reason hitting closest to home for many of us was the passing of 
jace Brian "Jace" Harp, one of the vanguard of furry artists from the turn of the millennium. I remember how much fun I had drawing his character https://www.furaffinity.net/view/1785718/, but I'm not here to wax nostalgic.
The furry fandom has evolved from what it was 25 years ago. Nowadays "furry" isn't so much about art and stories as it is about fursuiting and genderfluidity -- that is, as an expression of identitarian politics. There's a generation gap in the fandom, as there is in the wider world, as there was between the WW2/Korean War generation and their boomer kids. Millennials and Gen Z-ers tend to be bored and cynical with boomers, just as we graymuzzles were bored and cynical with our elders when we were younger.
People form their opinions from what they access on their phones and devices. Younger people have grown up using them, whereas many boomers were approaching middle age when this technology was invented. These folks still think of traditional media, especially print journalism, as the gold standard of accurate information, and legacy media functions under the supervision of gatekeepers whose ideas of "objectivity" are under attack from all sides.
It's never easy having your beliefs come under fire. The great TV series Mad Men (2007 - 2015) was about that very thing, one generation's shock and disbelief at being pushed aside by the next. Flux and change. Passages.
jace Brian "Jace" Harp, one of the vanguard of furry artists from the turn of the millennium. I remember how much fun I had drawing his character https://www.furaffinity.net/view/1785718/, but I'm not here to wax nostalgic.The furry fandom has evolved from what it was 25 years ago. Nowadays "furry" isn't so much about art and stories as it is about fursuiting and genderfluidity -- that is, as an expression of identitarian politics. There's a generation gap in the fandom, as there is in the wider world, as there was between the WW2/Korean War generation and their boomer kids. Millennials and Gen Z-ers tend to be bored and cynical with boomers, just as we graymuzzles were bored and cynical with our elders when we were younger.
People form their opinions from what they access on their phones and devices. Younger people have grown up using them, whereas many boomers were approaching middle age when this technology was invented. These folks still think of traditional media, especially print journalism, as the gold standard of accurate information, and legacy media functions under the supervision of gatekeepers whose ideas of "objectivity" are under attack from all sides.
It's never easy having your beliefs come under fire. The great TV series Mad Men (2007 - 2015) was about that very thing, one generation's shock and disbelief at being pushed aside by the next. Flux and change. Passages.
...or do you think it's inevitable and it is better to just accept it and move on rather than trying to reconcile two distinct fandoms?
Thus, I fear I for one find it an impossible gap to bridge, when the younger crowd's issues feel to the older as remote as can be, and we, older fans are either resented for our lack of ability to identify, or worse.