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A grade paper for eng 102 on Furry stereotypes
13 years ago
Eng 102.1045
24 September 2012
What the Fur
Furries have been looked down upon by the social media and have been exploited by many different stereotypes. Sadly some of them are true, but most of them are false and developed and strengthened by the media and others known as haters .The media has used a court case to get an interest in this culture, but the media was hungry for more to see what we are and why we are part of the culture. I have been part of the furry community for over ten years and am proud to be one. In my time of being a furry, I have seen many stereotypes and many have used that information to condemn me without knowing who I was. We were told we could of been anything, but is it truly right for someone to castigate others for who they turned out to be?
What is a Furry? "No standard definition exists but generally furries are people who have a fascination with anthropomorphic animals. These are animals that are given human traits, like walking and talking. They can be anything from cartoons characters like Bugs Bunny to computer game personalities like Pokemon." (Winterman). The standard definition does not exist due to the unorthodox way this culture has developed. On the other hand, I have found that most people describe being a furry as someone that has an interest in anthropomorphic creatures. Being a furry started out as an idea through art and imagination. The community around furries and the internet helped increase the population. This, in turn, became a fandom and then progressively developed into a culture. No one knows when furries first appeared or even started. We can see through history that the werewolf is closely related to the designs the people of the culture had in mind. Disney's Robin Hood can be used to show an example of how these creatures are generally portrayed.
A fursona is considered a furry's identity portraying who they are, their personallity, their appearance, gender, and thier species. People chose their fursona by chosing an animal that portrays themselves from the personality of the animal. Furries do tend to follow the animalistic characteristics of the animal and are stereotyped as so. Fursuits have been created to take the concept of the fursona further by creating and wearing the fursuit to be better in touch with their character. Due to these fursonas, social medias and the furry culture have found stereotypes that go with certain species. Foxes, for example, are considered to be mostly male, usually male even if the fursonas are females, and are portrayed and exploited as sluts.
Sadly, the social media has persistently portrayed the furry community as bad due to the massive increase in the population in the society. Wikifur was created in 2005 by furries to show people all over the world what furries are and the site even lists all the stereotypes that furs have encountered. One of the stereotypes that Wikifur shows is that being a furry is a "sick fetish" (Parry, "Furry Stereotype"). This is not true for the whole fandom. The media downgrades the community by showing that it is all about sex. An article, disappointingly, agrees with this by posting this as the headline,” Welcome to the world of “furries”: the thousands of Americans who’ve gotten in touch with their inner raccoon, or wolf, or fox. Judging from the Midwest FurFest, this is no hobby. It’s sex; it’s religion; it’s a whole new way of life." (Gurley). Those who are into this use the term yiff to represent anything sexual in the furry community. The culture is not about sex, otherwise we would be known as yiff or yiffers ourselves and not known as furries. During the time of my involvement, I have been accused of this stereotype because of how the social media shows us as being different. The famous sentence Yiff In Hell FurFags has been spread out all over the internet. People, mostly males, having sex in fursuits were linked to this sentence and have been exploited as an abomination by saying that we are into bestiality. Many have linked me, and many others, to bestiality because a furs outer appearance resembles an animal. This is not true due to the fact that the characters still have the anatomy of a human.
The amount of males and females in the community are equal to each other, but the media has shown that there are more males and hardly any females in the community. Csi shows an episode called “Fur and Loathing” and portrays that there are only males and males dressing up as females at the convention. This episode goes into detail that agrees with Gurley’s article about the community only being about sex, but, in turn, shows that the fandom is misunderstood. One detective goes through scientific explanation to explain to the other detective that there are things that causes people to do what they do. Sadly, the detective that disagrees only strengthens her own arguments through the entire show by seeing old males dressed up as female characters and having sex with other males. Wikifur lists a few things on this saying that there are no females and the males in the community are usually overweight, gay, bisexual, or transgender. This has never been true in the fandom because there are many artists and furs that are not overweight, gay, bisexual, transgender, nor has the fandom ever been dominated by only males. Furaffinity.net is where the majority of the furry artists join to commission and sell their art to other furs and non-furs alike. A famous furry artist is actually from Nevada, and her name is Marena Shade.
There is a local furry group called the “Sierra Nevada Furs” that covers all of the Sierra Nevadas, and currently has 107 members, including Marena, within the community. The site shows all the characters and people involved within the community and what they do. There have been donations to the SPCA by holding, what is known as, a convention named PawFur. This was Nevada’s first furry convention and it took a huge hit to help prepare for the next upcoming convention. There were furs that came all around the United States to attend this convention, but most of the non-local furs came from California. The name currently selected for this next convention is “Biggest Little Fur Con 2013”; there have been plans to donate to the SPCA to help the furry critters of the organization, and to help them find a new and loving home.
Being a furry has never been easy, nor has it been easy for anyone else in the culture. Through news media, social media, and television programs we have been portrayed as a sex society and a culture dominated by males. These, fortunately, have not been true and have been proven many times not to be true. Unfortunately, there has been no standard way to describe what a furry is, due to the unorthodox way the culture developed, because furries were not built upon a strong foundation other than an animal with a human anatomy. The stereotypes have been exploited in the community and it keeps expanding through the media by other users of the internet. It is safe to say that there are always stereotypes within each community and culture, but it does not define the community and culture of which you follow.
Work Cited
“Fur and Loathing.” CSI. CBS. 30 Oct. 2003. TV.
Fur Affinity. Ferrox Art LLC. 2005. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Gurley, George. "Pleasures of the Fur." Vanity Fair Mar. 2001. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Parry, Laurence. “Furry Stereotype.” Wikifur. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Sierra Nevada Furs. phpBB, 2007. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Winterman, Denise. “A court case where the two defendants met on a “furry” website has put the spotlight in the little-known world. So what is a furry?” BBC News Magazine 13 Nov.
2009. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
24 September 2012
What the Fur
Furries have been looked down upon by the social media and have been exploited by many different stereotypes. Sadly some of them are true, but most of them are false and developed and strengthened by the media and others known as haters .The media has used a court case to get an interest in this culture, but the media was hungry for more to see what we are and why we are part of the culture. I have been part of the furry community for over ten years and am proud to be one. In my time of being a furry, I have seen many stereotypes and many have used that information to condemn me without knowing who I was. We were told we could of been anything, but is it truly right for someone to castigate others for who they turned out to be?
What is a Furry? "No standard definition exists but generally furries are people who have a fascination with anthropomorphic animals. These are animals that are given human traits, like walking and talking. They can be anything from cartoons characters like Bugs Bunny to computer game personalities like Pokemon." (Winterman). The standard definition does not exist due to the unorthodox way this culture has developed. On the other hand, I have found that most people describe being a furry as someone that has an interest in anthropomorphic creatures. Being a furry started out as an idea through art and imagination. The community around furries and the internet helped increase the population. This, in turn, became a fandom and then progressively developed into a culture. No one knows when furries first appeared or even started. We can see through history that the werewolf is closely related to the designs the people of the culture had in mind. Disney's Robin Hood can be used to show an example of how these creatures are generally portrayed.
A fursona is considered a furry's identity portraying who they are, their personallity, their appearance, gender, and thier species. People chose their fursona by chosing an animal that portrays themselves from the personality of the animal. Furries do tend to follow the animalistic characteristics of the animal and are stereotyped as so. Fursuits have been created to take the concept of the fursona further by creating and wearing the fursuit to be better in touch with their character. Due to these fursonas, social medias and the furry culture have found stereotypes that go with certain species. Foxes, for example, are considered to be mostly male, usually male even if the fursonas are females, and are portrayed and exploited as sluts.
Sadly, the social media has persistently portrayed the furry community as bad due to the massive increase in the population in the society. Wikifur was created in 2005 by furries to show people all over the world what furries are and the site even lists all the stereotypes that furs have encountered. One of the stereotypes that Wikifur shows is that being a furry is a "sick fetish" (Parry, "Furry Stereotype"). This is not true for the whole fandom. The media downgrades the community by showing that it is all about sex. An article, disappointingly, agrees with this by posting this as the headline,” Welcome to the world of “furries”: the thousands of Americans who’ve gotten in touch with their inner raccoon, or wolf, or fox. Judging from the Midwest FurFest, this is no hobby. It’s sex; it’s religion; it’s a whole new way of life." (Gurley). Those who are into this use the term yiff to represent anything sexual in the furry community. The culture is not about sex, otherwise we would be known as yiff or yiffers ourselves and not known as furries. During the time of my involvement, I have been accused of this stereotype because of how the social media shows us as being different. The famous sentence Yiff In Hell FurFags has been spread out all over the internet. People, mostly males, having sex in fursuits were linked to this sentence and have been exploited as an abomination by saying that we are into bestiality. Many have linked me, and many others, to bestiality because a furs outer appearance resembles an animal. This is not true due to the fact that the characters still have the anatomy of a human.
The amount of males and females in the community are equal to each other, but the media has shown that there are more males and hardly any females in the community. Csi shows an episode called “Fur and Loathing” and portrays that there are only males and males dressing up as females at the convention. This episode goes into detail that agrees with Gurley’s article about the community only being about sex, but, in turn, shows that the fandom is misunderstood. One detective goes through scientific explanation to explain to the other detective that there are things that causes people to do what they do. Sadly, the detective that disagrees only strengthens her own arguments through the entire show by seeing old males dressed up as female characters and having sex with other males. Wikifur lists a few things on this saying that there are no females and the males in the community are usually overweight, gay, bisexual, or transgender. This has never been true in the fandom because there are many artists and furs that are not overweight, gay, bisexual, transgender, nor has the fandom ever been dominated by only males. Furaffinity.net is where the majority of the furry artists join to commission and sell their art to other furs and non-furs alike. A famous furry artist is actually from Nevada, and her name is Marena Shade.
There is a local furry group called the “Sierra Nevada Furs” that covers all of the Sierra Nevadas, and currently has 107 members, including Marena, within the community. The site shows all the characters and people involved within the community and what they do. There have been donations to the SPCA by holding, what is known as, a convention named PawFur. This was Nevada’s first furry convention and it took a huge hit to help prepare for the next upcoming convention. There were furs that came all around the United States to attend this convention, but most of the non-local furs came from California. The name currently selected for this next convention is “Biggest Little Fur Con 2013”; there have been plans to donate to the SPCA to help the furry critters of the organization, and to help them find a new and loving home.
Being a furry has never been easy, nor has it been easy for anyone else in the culture. Through news media, social media, and television programs we have been portrayed as a sex society and a culture dominated by males. These, fortunately, have not been true and have been proven many times not to be true. Unfortunately, there has been no standard way to describe what a furry is, due to the unorthodox way the culture developed, because furries were not built upon a strong foundation other than an animal with a human anatomy. The stereotypes have been exploited in the community and it keeps expanding through the media by other users of the internet. It is safe to say that there are always stereotypes within each community and culture, but it does not define the community and culture of which you follow.
Work Cited
“Fur and Loathing.” CSI. CBS. 30 Oct. 2003. TV.
Fur Affinity. Ferrox Art LLC. 2005. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Gurley, George. "Pleasures of the Fur." Vanity Fair Mar. 2001. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Parry, Laurence. “Furry Stereotype.” Wikifur. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Sierra Nevada Furs. phpBB, 2007. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
Winterman, Denise. “A court case where the two defendants met on a “furry” website has put the spotlight in the little-known world. So what is a furry?” BBC News Magazine 13 Nov.
2009. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
I also got an A in anthropology 101 for turning in a final paper about how "Furry" is a culture. Explained that through the organization of similar interests and most stick to it as a life style and a tradition for most parts and then show off by having rituals as having their characters show or wear a suit x3 mwahahhaaahaha i brain fuck peoples