FA+
Shop
Disheartening to say the least
13 years ago
I'll open with a referenced blog entry from a Celebrity we all know. KEEP IN MIND IT IS AN OOOOOLD BLOG but it reflects a rather consistant flow out there of hypocrisy
Those of us who will cram thirteen of our friends into a hotel room for a weekend to geek out together have a place to go where not only will we not be laughed at for dressing up but encouraged to do it (except the furries; those weirdos are on their own.) We can invade a hotel for a weekend, pretend it's like the cereal convention in Sandman, and recover enough hit points to survive our real lives until the next one.
When asked if he was making a joke or if he was serious, his reply was... quite judgmental..
Furries give me the creeps, and I've had some random dude dressed up in a fucking fursuit try to hump my leg enough times to feel pretty comfortable saying that.
yeah... I am thinking the same thing. A bit contrived.
Now, I know that there are some members of the fandom that lack basic social skills now and then but generally, you dont see them often and a person such as this celebrity would be hard pressed to have repeated encounters.
What do I think? I think he met one over zealous fan, linked that encounter to all the media hype against furries and has suddenly branded furries as wierdos and pervs. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but some should show a bit more maturity and restraint when making such statements.
What really bothers me however, is this celebrity is so quick to judge furries. I am sure at his own conventions he has encountered various fans who have created equally awkward experiences... why furries are exempt from understanding is a bit hurtful. Almost hypocritical.
Celebrities fight a constant battle from tabloids. If they trip getting out of their car, suddenly they are on a drug bender, if they are seen with a friend, suddenly they are in a divorce battle with a misteress. If they say something off the cuff, suddenly they are a racist.. When they say "that is not the truth" they are hurt when the public does not believe them.. Sound kinda familiar?
Furries are not squeaky clean, we have some undesirable elements which go to great lengths to gain 15 minutes of fame, never once saying "Yeah, I am a perverted wierdo, but that is not the fandom... I am just effed up in the head and want to share my kinks/illness with the world. " rather than keeping things private that should be and keeping in mind who their audience is.
Its compacted by the fact that the media has no story on who we -really- are because its not interesting or shocking, so they will do everything they can to get sound clips they can splice together with some dark sinister music and publish the latest "the furry fetishist!" news story...
To this (and really all people) celebrity... I'm disappointed.. I'll remember this judgement the next time you are pleading with the public over some media contrived BS.
Seriously... not cool.
Those of us who will cram thirteen of our friends into a hotel room for a weekend to geek out together have a place to go where not only will we not be laughed at for dressing up but encouraged to do it (except the furries; those weirdos are on their own.) We can invade a hotel for a weekend, pretend it's like the cereal convention in Sandman, and recover enough hit points to survive our real lives until the next one.
When asked if he was making a joke or if he was serious, his reply was... quite judgmental..
Furries give me the creeps, and I've had some random dude dressed up in a fucking fursuit try to hump my leg enough times to feel pretty comfortable saying that.
yeah... I am thinking the same thing. A bit contrived.
Now, I know that there are some members of the fandom that lack basic social skills now and then but generally, you dont see them often and a person such as this celebrity would be hard pressed to have repeated encounters.
What do I think? I think he met one over zealous fan, linked that encounter to all the media hype against furries and has suddenly branded furries as wierdos and pervs. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but some should show a bit more maturity and restraint when making such statements.
What really bothers me however, is this celebrity is so quick to judge furries. I am sure at his own conventions he has encountered various fans who have created equally awkward experiences... why furries are exempt from understanding is a bit hurtful. Almost hypocritical.
Celebrities fight a constant battle from tabloids. If they trip getting out of their car, suddenly they are on a drug bender, if they are seen with a friend, suddenly they are in a divorce battle with a misteress. If they say something off the cuff, suddenly they are a racist.. When they say "that is not the truth" they are hurt when the public does not believe them.. Sound kinda familiar?
Furries are not squeaky clean, we have some undesirable elements which go to great lengths to gain 15 minutes of fame, never once saying "Yeah, I am a perverted wierdo, but that is not the fandom... I am just effed up in the head and want to share my kinks/illness with the world. " rather than keeping things private that should be and keeping in mind who their audience is.
Its compacted by the fact that the media has no story on who we -really- are because its not interesting or shocking, so they will do everything they can to get sound clips they can splice together with some dark sinister music and publish the latest "the furry fetishist!" news story...
To this (and really all people) celebrity... I'm disappointed.. I'll remember this judgement the next time you are pleading with the public over some media contrived BS.
Seriously... not cool.
the furry fandom is easilly the hardest to describe... ask 10 people and you'll get 15 different answers...
Hate will die. It may take longer than we'd like, but it will.
"Those of us who will cram thirteen of our friends into a hotel room for a weekend to geek out together have a place to go where not only will we not be laughed at for dressing up but encouraged to do it."
And somehow furries are exempt from this?
I mean, yeah, at this point it's pretty much par for the course with furries. But why do our 10% of fuck-ups make us the media's scapegoat when the 10% of fuck-ups in the Star Trek, Star Wars, comic book, steampunk, anime, WoW, DnD, and MLP communities get overlooked in favor of these shiny examples of fans coming together to celebrate a similar interest? There's literally no difference between the furry fandom from any other fandom except for whatever it is the interest is about.
Still, I'm not seeing why we are the exception to every list.
Sure, you may call me a hypocrite, seeing as I attend said conventions. But, seeing the things I've seen, well, this bear stands by his assertions.
I won't fault Mr. Wheaton for simply calling a spade a spade.
Also, if the general public doesn't realise that we equally disapprove of such behaviours as he's alleged happened to him (and it does happen, we know that), that's kinda our bad. As a community we have to address our flaws as well as our positives, and the fact is that as much as I love a great majority of the fandom, we do have some truly messed up people who have no boundaries or sense of personal ettiquette. This really is a case where actions speak louder than words, and while I very much doubt that any furry will have a chance to befriend this particular individual and show him the fact that most furs are regular people who just have an interest in anthros, that would probably be the only way to change his mind.
Hypocracy... okay, maybe he is being hypocritical insofar as his own celebrity status has garnered him criticism, and he's had to ask his fanbase/public for support. I'd argue that it was his own perogative to show his fans that he wasn't the kind of ass that people were showing him to be, and that's exactly what the fandom needs to be able to do. We need to be able to put enough distance between ourselves and those elements that make us look unjustifiably icky, so that when someone says "Ugh, furries." someone else will correct them and say "Don't you mean 'Ugh, people who do 'THIS' and happen to be furries.'
Then I find out about this. As you said, it's a bit disheartening.
It's nice that he finally (nine years later!) clarified, but it's kinda like having hate for furries a front page headline of a newspaper and then burying the correction on the bottom of page A12. Stereotyping the fandom was really a dick move. It's Not A Furry Thing, It's An Idiot Thing.
I actually stopped, for whatever reason and remarked to one kid, who looked I dunno, 8-12? I suck at judging age.. "So.. this has gotta be like Disney Land came to town for you huh?" and he said "No way, this is WAY better than disneyland!"
It does suck to see the negative press however, I don't know where all this leg humping stuff comes from, I've never seen it.
Whaaaat!? D:
Seriously though, what's to be expected. =/ If he doesn't throw us under the bus, then he'll have a lot more problems than a 'divorce scandal'. So it's really no surprise to me.
Which to be clear I am not saying all furries are screwballs, certainly I have my fair share of furs whom I hang out with or otherwise talk to and I respect as people, not just as furries. When you have all these sites, and events where a little selectivity in who attends/joins is not a matter of concern and any person who is a total creeper can join, then naturally there is going to be some eyebrow raising. Sometimes when I think on these places, it's not a matter of interest dignity, but rather a matter of total member/attendee counts that are important. Which is sad, like it should be a popularity contest. Of course I wonder how many of the admin themselves (on any site not just here) were quite unpopular, and see the members number as a means of some false sense of being popular and worthwhile to make up for some sort of unresolved grade school issue or insecurity.
Point is, if you accept just any Johnny to come on in, with his weird joys like wearing crap filled diapers or beatting off to animal vaginas, and then claiming they're also a furry, then you're going to get people who will think we're fucking weird because we'd even associate with them. If I was friends with a person who was an open, or previously convicted pedophile then I would get the stink eye just for associating with him, and we as such will get the same treatment for associating with weird fucking people. As far as I'm concerned though, I am no such kind of person. If some stranger or celebrity jerk off doesn't like me then fuck him. If he wasn't my friend in the first place then what difference does it make to me? Still, other people's opinions aside, there is some personal awkwardness in associating with a group that accepts pretty much anyone, and I do my best to avoid those crowds which are just fucked up or gross to me. It may not save my reputation in the eyes of MTV or some internets troll, but at least I respect myself for standing my ground on what I like and what I don't.