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20th anniFURsary
5 months ago
It was this day 20 years ago that I remember being on MySpace and editing my profile while I had some downtime in college. Might have been after school actually. I remember while looking for specific links that I came across a rather intriguing picture: an image of a nude vixen (nude but not erotic). Up to that point, I thought I was one of the few people in the world who thought about creatures like that. I followed that image to this website. I can't remember the name unfortunately. Elven something? Winter maybe? I can't remember, but I do remember reading a bit of the website and seeing words like "anthropomorphic" and "furry". Furry used as a noun rather than an adjective, so I was confused as to what they were talking about.
I think it was later that day (or later the next day, but it was definitely on March 30th) when I decided to follow up on those words and that website. That's when I came across a website I think was called Human Truth [dot] info. There, they had an essay about about some called furries and the furry fandom. I decided to give it a read. I learned about those words I was curious about, and what the furry fandom was all about. I remember reading about halfway down when I was so excited and enamored by the idea of such a thing as the furry fandom that on March 30, 2005, 3:03pm, I declared myself to be a furry.
It wasn't the erotica that brought me in, though I will say that yiff is my favorite type of erotica. It wasn't the artwork either (though obviously I had a great interest in furries). It was the community. The idea that people with the same kind of interest as me could be so accepting, so nice, and so creative at times... it was as though a whole new world opened up for me. I had felt strongly as if I had found home. As though I had found where I belong.
But 20 years later, do those feelings still hold up? Do I still feel the same way as I did when I first?
Well...
Things change. Sometimes they change for the better, sometimes for the worse. Sometimes they change in such a miniscule way that it doesn't seem as though anything changed. I can definitely say that the fandom has changed here and there. It's had its ups and downs, but from what I've seen, they were probably mainly downs.
The fandom has gotten a bit more mainstream. It's not mainstream in that everyone is doing it or anything, but a lot more people know what it is now. I don't really agree with it being more mainstream, but I suppose it was inevitable. Surprising it took this long considering that the fandom is about 45 years old*.
Some people say the fandom started in the mid to late 70s. Some people say the early 80s. But I think universally, most people just say 1980.
Media had a lot to do with that I think, and that media coverage was not good a lot of the be time. Now it seems like every month of so, there's some new documentary, or some YouTuber that wants to go to a fur con and make a video about it. Videos about furries on YouTube are often hit and miss.
Politics also had a hand in really tearing the fandom apart. The community of furs has had its share of turmoil here and there, but once politically charged people started flooding into the fandom about a decade ago, the community really got destabilized. In my opinion, politics didn't do anything but separate and segregate people.
In my opinion, the greatest impact on the fandom is the general change of how people treat one another. Even when I joined back then, there were a few outliers when it came to how others treated one another. But it was only just a few. Things were generally positive, and those people were often looked down upon. People were generally accepting of most things with few exceptions, though you'd kinda always have that small group of people who were always against almost anything. When someone or something went after the image of the fandom, like a TV show or some talk show host, you could feel most of the fandom erupt in an almost connected feeling. It felt a lot more... family like.
But nowadays, it seems things have reversed. Nowadays, if someone goes after the image of the fandom, a lot of people will kinda just blow it off. Some of them will even make it worse by adding fuel to the fire with their commentary. Anything for views nowadays it seems. Of course you still have people that are nice and quite accepting, but so many more people seem to be to themselves now. A lot of people now seem to want to separate and ban everything now. It's much worse when moderators and administrators do it because that could really change or even destroy a website. It's one of the big reasons why I've been using FA less and less over the years. There seems to be this consistent witch-hunt, almost like a war effort, on finding people that "the fandom" doesn't like or accept. But it's much less to do with the entirety or majority of the fandom, and much more to do with the type of people who seem to operate purely on peer pressure, blackmail, and toxicity. Toxicity is something I'll touch on in another journal. I can totally understand now why a lot of people, especially new furs, think the fandom is generally toxic.
I understand that _philes of any kind are generally not going to be liked by a lot of people. Back then, those people were often just left alone, or their pasts and alternative interests were just not talked about. But nowadays, as I mentioned before, they are hunted. Sometimes literally. There's often extreme violence that follows. I've never agreed with that kind of thing. People say they ruin everything, but how often do you actually see any of those types of people? I've heard the narrative they they're everywhere, but they really aren't. Unless maybe you're the type of person to explicitly go out searching for them. Then of course you're always going to find them. Over the years, I've talked to a handful of zoosexual people. I was in the fandom for almost 17 years before I came across a pedosexual person. Hardly feels like "everywhere". I've talked to those people. I've gotten to know some of those people. The irony? Most of those people that I've come across embody the spirit of the fandom better than a large portion of the fandom does anymore. They try to understand, they are often very accepting, they're usually friendly. Friendly in their heart, not the false friendly face that too many people use just on the surface. I wonder how many people have actually ever come across a _phile before they started to trash them. In my opinion, really negative people are far more of a problem in this fandom than a person of a sexuality you'll rarely run into on the regular. I'm well aware that it's a wildly unpopular opinion, and I could have worded that a bit better, but it is my opinion. An opinion that was created from an attempt at understanding, from a bit of experience, from multiple observations, etc. Not one given to me by force for fear that I'll be physically attacked, or that my reputation will be critically damaged. Reputation is something I'll touch on in another journal.
It is quite important to understand that these things are not a furry or a fandom thing. They are a people thing. If you switched furry for goth, gaming, sci-fi, anime, etc., you would still have most or all of the same issues. It's a societal thing that trickles down into these fandoms. While most of the time it wasn't that big deal in the past, nowadays, it feels like people just don't care.
I fear that the furry fandom may one day end up like the Goth fandom if it continues. If you're old enough to remember, gothic stuff and people were often at the helm of many people's harsh criticisms and attacks. Often perpetuated by the media, and fueled by pure ignorance. Their music, their looks, etc. No one cared or understood their community. It was all so superficial. I call them "hate trends". They often last for many years, sometimes decades. Eventually, people started to sexualize it and turn it almost into a fetish. Then some companies started to dig their hands into it. Now whenever you hear about or see anything goth, what do you usually see? "Big tiddy goth girls". "Sexy Goth girls". Tight black leather fetish wear. You hardly hear about any actual Goth persons. That's what the fandom was seemingly reduced to. You often see it in the gaming and anime fandoms as well. Now granted, gaming and anime are industries, but they have massive fandoms too, and the same trends are definitely there. I just fear that with the furry fandom often being so destabilized, usually on purpose, these save things will happen. Far too many people already think it's a fetish. And these same reasons are why I was so against FA being acquired by IMVU, or any company not from the fandom attempting to infiltrate the fandom.
Overall, I think things are alright, but it depends on where you engage with the fandom anymore. Being in for 20 years, you would think I've experienced everything here, but not at all. I've yet to go to a fur con. I don't have a fursuit. I've only met a handful of furs. And I've surprisingly drawn or created very little furry artwork. Still, the fandom is where I call home. Though I do worry about the future of the fandom. It's like living in a peaceful neighborhood that suddenly got taken over by loud, obnoxious, often aggressive people. I mean, I don't want to leave my home but, but at what point do you say "it's time to go"?
Even if I may not engage with the fandom in the future, in my heart I am a furry. It's not a fad to me. If I could be my character in real life, I absolutely would (not the character usually shown here. That was created explicitly as a stand-in. Though I wouldn't be opposed to being that character). I don't know for how much longer I'll be around (I'll... also get to that in another journal), but I hope to be able to do the things I haven't been able to do before. Who knows, 2025 might be the year I can wear a suit.
Be kind and understanding to one another, people.
Be the kind of person you wish to see more of in the fandom, or the world.
During a time where everything's falling apart, at each other's neck is a horrible place to be.
I think it was later that day (or later the next day, but it was definitely on March 30th) when I decided to follow up on those words and that website. That's when I came across a website I think was called Human Truth [dot] info. There, they had an essay about about some called furries and the furry fandom. I decided to give it a read. I learned about those words I was curious about, and what the furry fandom was all about. I remember reading about halfway down when I was so excited and enamored by the idea of such a thing as the furry fandom that on March 30, 2005, 3:03pm, I declared myself to be a furry.
It wasn't the erotica that brought me in, though I will say that yiff is my favorite type of erotica. It wasn't the artwork either (though obviously I had a great interest in furries). It was the community. The idea that people with the same kind of interest as me could be so accepting, so nice, and so creative at times... it was as though a whole new world opened up for me. I had felt strongly as if I had found home. As though I had found where I belong.
But 20 years later, do those feelings still hold up? Do I still feel the same way as I did when I first?
Well...
Things change. Sometimes they change for the better, sometimes for the worse. Sometimes they change in such a miniscule way that it doesn't seem as though anything changed. I can definitely say that the fandom has changed here and there. It's had its ups and downs, but from what I've seen, they were probably mainly downs.
The fandom has gotten a bit more mainstream. It's not mainstream in that everyone is doing it or anything, but a lot more people know what it is now. I don't really agree with it being more mainstream, but I suppose it was inevitable. Surprising it took this long considering that the fandom is about 45 years old*.
Some people say the fandom started in the mid to late 70s. Some people say the early 80s. But I think universally, most people just say 1980.
Media had a lot to do with that I think, and that media coverage was not good a lot of the be time. Now it seems like every month of so, there's some new documentary, or some YouTuber that wants to go to a fur con and make a video about it. Videos about furries on YouTube are often hit and miss.
Politics also had a hand in really tearing the fandom apart. The community of furs has had its share of turmoil here and there, but once politically charged people started flooding into the fandom about a decade ago, the community really got destabilized. In my opinion, politics didn't do anything but separate and segregate people.
In my opinion, the greatest impact on the fandom is the general change of how people treat one another. Even when I joined back then, there were a few outliers when it came to how others treated one another. But it was only just a few. Things were generally positive, and those people were often looked down upon. People were generally accepting of most things with few exceptions, though you'd kinda always have that small group of people who were always against almost anything. When someone or something went after the image of the fandom, like a TV show or some talk show host, you could feel most of the fandom erupt in an almost connected feeling. It felt a lot more... family like.
But nowadays, it seems things have reversed. Nowadays, if someone goes after the image of the fandom, a lot of people will kinda just blow it off. Some of them will even make it worse by adding fuel to the fire with their commentary. Anything for views nowadays it seems. Of course you still have people that are nice and quite accepting, but so many more people seem to be to themselves now. A lot of people now seem to want to separate and ban everything now. It's much worse when moderators and administrators do it because that could really change or even destroy a website. It's one of the big reasons why I've been using FA less and less over the years. There seems to be this consistent witch-hunt, almost like a war effort, on finding people that "the fandom" doesn't like or accept. But it's much less to do with the entirety or majority of the fandom, and much more to do with the type of people who seem to operate purely on peer pressure, blackmail, and toxicity. Toxicity is something I'll touch on in another journal. I can totally understand now why a lot of people, especially new furs, think the fandom is generally toxic.
I understand that _philes of any kind are generally not going to be liked by a lot of people. Back then, those people were often just left alone, or their pasts and alternative interests were just not talked about. But nowadays, as I mentioned before, they are hunted. Sometimes literally. There's often extreme violence that follows. I've never agreed with that kind of thing. People say they ruin everything, but how often do you actually see any of those types of people? I've heard the narrative they they're everywhere, but they really aren't. Unless maybe you're the type of person to explicitly go out searching for them. Then of course you're always going to find them. Over the years, I've talked to a handful of zoosexual people. I was in the fandom for almost 17 years before I came across a pedosexual person. Hardly feels like "everywhere". I've talked to those people. I've gotten to know some of those people. The irony? Most of those people that I've come across embody the spirit of the fandom better than a large portion of the fandom does anymore. They try to understand, they are often very accepting, they're usually friendly. Friendly in their heart, not the false friendly face that too many people use just on the surface. I wonder how many people have actually ever come across a _phile before they started to trash them. In my opinion, really negative people are far more of a problem in this fandom than a person of a sexuality you'll rarely run into on the regular. I'm well aware that it's a wildly unpopular opinion, and I could have worded that a bit better, but it is my opinion. An opinion that was created from an attempt at understanding, from a bit of experience, from multiple observations, etc. Not one given to me by force for fear that I'll be physically attacked, or that my reputation will be critically damaged. Reputation is something I'll touch on in another journal.
It is quite important to understand that these things are not a furry or a fandom thing. They are a people thing. If you switched furry for goth, gaming, sci-fi, anime, etc., you would still have most or all of the same issues. It's a societal thing that trickles down into these fandoms. While most of the time it wasn't that big deal in the past, nowadays, it feels like people just don't care.
I fear that the furry fandom may one day end up like the Goth fandom if it continues. If you're old enough to remember, gothic stuff and people were often at the helm of many people's harsh criticisms and attacks. Often perpetuated by the media, and fueled by pure ignorance. Their music, their looks, etc. No one cared or understood their community. It was all so superficial. I call them "hate trends". They often last for many years, sometimes decades. Eventually, people started to sexualize it and turn it almost into a fetish. Then some companies started to dig their hands into it. Now whenever you hear about or see anything goth, what do you usually see? "Big tiddy goth girls". "Sexy Goth girls". Tight black leather fetish wear. You hardly hear about any actual Goth persons. That's what the fandom was seemingly reduced to. You often see it in the gaming and anime fandoms as well. Now granted, gaming and anime are industries, but they have massive fandoms too, and the same trends are definitely there. I just fear that with the furry fandom often being so destabilized, usually on purpose, these save things will happen. Far too many people already think it's a fetish. And these same reasons are why I was so against FA being acquired by IMVU, or any company not from the fandom attempting to infiltrate the fandom.
Overall, I think things are alright, but it depends on where you engage with the fandom anymore. Being in for 20 years, you would think I've experienced everything here, but not at all. I've yet to go to a fur con. I don't have a fursuit. I've only met a handful of furs. And I've surprisingly drawn or created very little furry artwork. Still, the fandom is where I call home. Though I do worry about the future of the fandom. It's like living in a peaceful neighborhood that suddenly got taken over by loud, obnoxious, often aggressive people. I mean, I don't want to leave my home but, but at what point do you say "it's time to go"?
Even if I may not engage with the fandom in the future, in my heart I am a furry. It's not a fad to me. If I could be my character in real life, I absolutely would (not the character usually shown here. That was created explicitly as a stand-in. Though I wouldn't be opposed to being that character). I don't know for how much longer I'll be around (I'll... also get to that in another journal), but I hope to be able to do the things I haven't been able to do before. Who knows, 2025 might be the year I can wear a suit.
Be kind and understanding to one another, people.
Be the kind of person you wish to see more of in the fandom, or the world.
During a time where everything's falling apart, at each other's neck is a horrible place to be.
