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Becoming More Accepted, to Becoming Less Accepting.
9 years ago
General
(I re-read my previous journal whining about artists, and opted to delete it despite stating I would not. The reason prompted the following journal entry.)
There is this thought I finally found the words for (for the most part) today.
The fandom is not nearly as hated as it used to be. Sure, the furfag thing still goes around, it is not nearly as common. A lot of people are realizing that we're (mostly) a harmless bunch. Of course, it should be an obvious good thing to be more accepted by non-furries, right?
But it actually worries me.
Furries, from day one, were a group of outcasts come together not only by love of anthropomorphic animals, but also by the being an outcast. Members could feel a strong sense of community in the fact they all understood the pain of being thrown to the side. Thus (but not always) people in the fandom cared about each other a lot.
But now, since furries not longer have as much scrutiny put upon them, and thus the idea of being one becomes less stigmatic, more 'normal' people can join. When 'normal' people join, then the fandom just becomes another version of real life where people tend to defecate (metaphorically speaking) on each other on a daily basis.
This has happened with geek culture. The stigma of being a geek is basically gone these days so now, tentatively using a "No True Scotsman", the proportion of ""real"" (note my usage of quadruple quotes) geeks to people who just have a casual interest, or want to be 'cool'. So thus, there's not really much community in being a geek anymore. It is just another idle interest.
I see the beginnings of this happening with furries. Even if it does not become as severe as the case with being a more general geek, it would still significantly change the subculture.
I really, really do not want this. I remember when furries would call eachother their second (sometimes only) family. Now, that mentality is so much more uncommon. It is really disheartening.
I'm not even entirely sure what I am getting at, I suppose, but I can summarize the idea as follows (aka, tl;dr):
I kind of wish furries were still really hated by the general public, offline and online, so that the ingroup sensation was stronger and people cared more about fellow members.
There is this thought I finally found the words for (for the most part) today.
The fandom is not nearly as hated as it used to be. Sure, the furfag thing still goes around, it is not nearly as common. A lot of people are realizing that we're (mostly) a harmless bunch. Of course, it should be an obvious good thing to be more accepted by non-furries, right?
But it actually worries me.
Furries, from day one, were a group of outcasts come together not only by love of anthropomorphic animals, but also by the being an outcast. Members could feel a strong sense of community in the fact they all understood the pain of being thrown to the side. Thus (but not always) people in the fandom cared about each other a lot.
But now, since furries not longer have as much scrutiny put upon them, and thus the idea of being one becomes less stigmatic, more 'normal' people can join. When 'normal' people join, then the fandom just becomes another version of real life where people tend to defecate (metaphorically speaking) on each other on a daily basis.
This has happened with geek culture. The stigma of being a geek is basically gone these days so now, tentatively using a "No True Scotsman", the proportion of ""real"" (note my usage of quadruple quotes) geeks to people who just have a casual interest, or want to be 'cool'. So thus, there's not really much community in being a geek anymore. It is just another idle interest.
I see the beginnings of this happening with furries. Even if it does not become as severe as the case with being a more general geek, it would still significantly change the subculture.
I really, really do not want this. I remember when furries would call eachother their second (sometimes only) family. Now, that mentality is so much more uncommon. It is really disheartening.
I'm not even entirely sure what I am getting at, I suppose, but I can summarize the idea as follows (aka, tl;dr):
I kind of wish furries were still really hated by the general public, offline and online, so that the ingroup sensation was stronger and people cared more about fellow members.
[hugs]
I hope your friends come to at least accept you.
Furries are a much narrower definition and have always had their own tendency to be stand-offish. I doubt that you're going to see people rushing to become Furries in droves anytime soon. As a community, Furries are rather more dozens and dozens of communities that semi-cohere to one another, and sometimes barely at that.
That they've born animosity from the public, justified or not at several points, isn't what made the community or defined it. Fearing the loss of that animosity seems rather absurd, considering that Furries aren't as nebulous as Geeks, since many people in the mainstream already touched upon at least the outer fringes of Geekdom, or were in some manner or another Geeks without knowing it. Car Geeks, Train Geeks, Gun Geeks, you'll find that a surprising number of people who you may not even suspect of it are taken in by the minutiae and esoterica of at least one topic or area.
Furries, fetishistic or not, fur-suiting or not, are still not something that people just wander into becoming, anymore than hardcore Geeks are made overnight. Sure you'll get people who dance along the fringes or never really get as much into it, but the community would have to white-wash itself before major media, corporate marketing, or the general population would embrace it as a casual pastime or label. I rather doubt that Furries would stand for that.