FA+
Shop
Cub vs. Shota vs. ... Whatever.
15 years ago
General
I can't help but notice how the term "Shota" crept into the furry vernacular.
Don't get me wrong... whatever helps popularize and "make cool" age disparity in relationships is fine by me, so it's not a huge deal. It's just that everytime I hear it, my OCD side feels a little off. It's like having someone pinprick you on the shoulder repeatedly: While it doesn't cause lifelong damage, it's something you wish would stop.
Seriously. Shota, although I'm a big fan of it, is not a term historically used by furs to describe furry cubs, cublovers, or anything "furry." Back during my days as Treehouse administrator on Taps, we simply just called it "cubs." Back during the early FC conventions, the rest of us cublovers would hang out on a Friday evening and have pizza, and never once would "shota" escape our lips.
(Incidentally, I can't begin to tell you how hilarious all the "OMFG THE FURRY CUB PEOPLE ARE HAVING A SECRET MEETING" rumors were back in those days. Meanwhile, here we were just kicking back and having pizza. God, I love conspiracies. Little would I know that 7 years later I would be helping Jery form 100+ person open-door Softpaw room parties with pizza at AC. Ain't it weird how life is sometimes?)
Anyways, the problem with the term is that it's coming from another fandom whose perception of "shota" is completely different. Not that that's bad; I always love a little trade of ideas between cultures. What's different? Well, let me ask you: what's the difference between the mainstream media's interpretation of "furry" versus what we really are?
The concept of "being a cub" and "being a boy" is just as different as "being a furry" and "being a human." That is to say, the internal, psychological feeling you get, separating yourself from the human race through trans-human expression is the element that's missing from "shota."
So again, I guess my real beef is that "human" is creeping into "furry." It's just seeping in little by little as we grow and become more "cool" to everyone else. As this happens, we as a fandom are losing bits and pieces of what we once were. So then I guess it all comes back to that OTHER old argument of "is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
The newer furs coming into the scene don't see the difference, and they don't know their own fandom's history. While it's all about having fun and being accepted, what's considered "acceptable" vs. "taboo" is changing. And it's changing all because what people think of as "furry" is changing, and I'm afraid of us "oldfags" losing our home that we once knew simply due to someone else's ignorance over where they came from and what was given to them. This little world we know as the furry fandom gave me a place for me to start feeling good about myself and being able to talk freely about who I am and what I am, and it's slipping away for the sake of being cool and fitting in.
But then again, I guess I'm just "getting old" so I deserve to be shoved out with the mail like the generation before me... oh wait, I forgot. We didn't shove the 1980's generation furs in the 1990's. We respected them. Or at least *I* did. (With the exception of those nasty burned furs...)
"What's a burned fur?"
... Ugh, forget it.
Don't get me wrong... whatever helps popularize and "make cool" age disparity in relationships is fine by me, so it's not a huge deal. It's just that everytime I hear it, my OCD side feels a little off. It's like having someone pinprick you on the shoulder repeatedly: While it doesn't cause lifelong damage, it's something you wish would stop.
Seriously. Shota, although I'm a big fan of it, is not a term historically used by furs to describe furry cubs, cublovers, or anything "furry." Back during my days as Treehouse administrator on Taps, we simply just called it "cubs." Back during the early FC conventions, the rest of us cublovers would hang out on a Friday evening and have pizza, and never once would "shota" escape our lips.
(Incidentally, I can't begin to tell you how hilarious all the "OMFG THE FURRY CUB PEOPLE ARE HAVING A SECRET MEETING" rumors were back in those days. Meanwhile, here we were just kicking back and having pizza. God, I love conspiracies. Little would I know that 7 years later I would be helping Jery form 100+ person open-door Softpaw room parties with pizza at AC. Ain't it weird how life is sometimes?)
Anyways, the problem with the term is that it's coming from another fandom whose perception of "shota" is completely different. Not that that's bad; I always love a little trade of ideas between cultures. What's different? Well, let me ask you: what's the difference between the mainstream media's interpretation of "furry" versus what we really are?
The concept of "being a cub" and "being a boy" is just as different as "being a furry" and "being a human." That is to say, the internal, psychological feeling you get, separating yourself from the human race through trans-human expression is the element that's missing from "shota."
So again, I guess my real beef is that "human" is creeping into "furry." It's just seeping in little by little as we grow and become more "cool" to everyone else. As this happens, we as a fandom are losing bits and pieces of what we once were. So then I guess it all comes back to that OTHER old argument of "is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
The newer furs coming into the scene don't see the difference, and they don't know their own fandom's history. While it's all about having fun and being accepted, what's considered "acceptable" vs. "taboo" is changing. And it's changing all because what people think of as "furry" is changing, and I'm afraid of us "oldfags" losing our home that we once knew simply due to someone else's ignorance over where they came from and what was given to them. This little world we know as the furry fandom gave me a place for me to start feeling good about myself and being able to talk freely about who I am and what I am, and it's slipping away for the sake of being cool and fitting in.
But then again, I guess I'm just "getting old" so I deserve to be shoved out with the mail like the generation before me... oh wait, I forgot. We didn't shove the 1980's generation furs in the 1990's. We respected them. Or at least *I* did. (With the exception of those nasty burned furs...)
"What's a burned fur?"
... Ugh, forget it.
Also, people use shota AND loli interchangeably to also describe "cub" because the idea is the same, only "cub" is shota/loli with young animal kids. Yes, it sounds trivializing, and it probably is, but that's just how it is.
"Damn kids and their neo-modern jargon and Octo Core computer video games"
The fandom has become what its community has made of it; if there are aspects you think should be preserved then all the more reason to have a more gated community of your own where most people have little interest in crashing in on, I think.
Case-in-point, werewolf fandom community forum gets a megathread years ago talking about the validity of silver or the role of the moon or whether or not Lon Cheney's werewolf is worth mentioning at all and how all of the aforementioned topics are shitty Hollywood inventions compared to historical records. Fast-forward half a decade, and you got a dumb kid making a new thread saying something like "WHICH 1 IS BEST - CLASSIC OR MODERN (read: Twilight) WEREWOLF".
Keep it open, alright... But at least have someone slam it shut once in a while.