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12 years ago
General
After reading a few journals on this topic, I believe it is my turn to opine on the state of the fandom.
When I joined this group over a decade ago, I was a socially awkward, introverted, prepubescent teenager. I had always had an affinity for disney animals and Looney Toons to an almost unhealthy obsession. And I suppose that my obsession along with the majority of the fandom that are twenty and thirtysomethings was the reason that in the late 90's and early 2000's the Furry Fandom and conventions were labeled as nothing but a bunch of degenerate sex parties.
Nowadays with the hard work of many of the group members, we are being seen in a much more positive light. People who have alternate views on humanity and life itself, but are mostly harmless and just want to have fun. What bothers me though, is that while I like the fact that I can be open as a furry to most of the people around me, a lot of people who know nothing about furry are going to the other extreme now. Many people I know are seeing this side of furry that is all cutesy animal costumes and friendly hugs and when they explore the fandom on the internet they see a bunch of anthro animals screwing each other.
I apologize for being lewd, but I am just speaking my mind. At FCN I was approached by a normal family and took pictures with them, while everyone was tripping all over themselves to explain what the fandom was to them, I noted that everyone was absolutely reluctant to talk about sex, or anything adult in nature. What good does this do for our fandom? We know that it exists, we know that a lot of our characters have been drawn sexually? Why is this? Because it is an extension of ourselves!
So when it was my turn to talk to a normal person about the fandom in general, the middle aged man asked me about the taboo topic of sex in the fandom. And my simple response was, "It's everywhere man, in every facet and every subgenre of any type of pop culture, I mean have you read some Star Trek fanfiction lately?"
Guess what? Did the guy run away screaming because I had affirmed there was sex in the fandom? No, he nodded thoughtfully, had a chuckle at my offhand joke and went on his way.
So I guess the TL;DR of this rambling journal is, yes we are achieving the innocent and vanilla status that we have so long sought after, but is it the truth? I dunno.. thoughts anyone?
When I joined this group over a decade ago, I was a socially awkward, introverted, prepubescent teenager. I had always had an affinity for disney animals and Looney Toons to an almost unhealthy obsession. And I suppose that my obsession along with the majority of the fandom that are twenty and thirtysomethings was the reason that in the late 90's and early 2000's the Furry Fandom and conventions were labeled as nothing but a bunch of degenerate sex parties.
Nowadays with the hard work of many of the group members, we are being seen in a much more positive light. People who have alternate views on humanity and life itself, but are mostly harmless and just want to have fun. What bothers me though, is that while I like the fact that I can be open as a furry to most of the people around me, a lot of people who know nothing about furry are going to the other extreme now. Many people I know are seeing this side of furry that is all cutesy animal costumes and friendly hugs and when they explore the fandom on the internet they see a bunch of anthro animals screwing each other.
I apologize for being lewd, but I am just speaking my mind. At FCN I was approached by a normal family and took pictures with them, while everyone was tripping all over themselves to explain what the fandom was to them, I noted that everyone was absolutely reluctant to talk about sex, or anything adult in nature. What good does this do for our fandom? We know that it exists, we know that a lot of our characters have been drawn sexually? Why is this? Because it is an extension of ourselves!
So when it was my turn to talk to a normal person about the fandom in general, the middle aged man asked me about the taboo topic of sex in the fandom. And my simple response was, "It's everywhere man, in every facet and every subgenre of any type of pop culture, I mean have you read some Star Trek fanfiction lately?"
Guess what? Did the guy run away screaming because I had affirmed there was sex in the fandom? No, he nodded thoughtfully, had a chuckle at my offhand joke and went on his way.
So I guess the TL;DR of this rambling journal is, yes we are achieving the innocent and vanilla status that we have so long sought after, but is it the truth? I dunno.. thoughts anyone?
There needs to be a space for family-friendly stuff.
I honestly agree that we shouldn't be afraid to say there is an adult aspect to it since well..there's adults in the fandom. But we have to make sure that all the adults agree where and when is an appropriate time to have drawings of dog-men going at it out in the open.
And you can only see the porn on this site if you both sign up...and click that you WANT to see it.
But when people ask me about furry....I just simply say, some people do enjoy it on a sexual level. It's no different than dressing as a sexy schoolgirl or a police officer.