Furry Stereotypes

[phoxxz]

Though I'm sure this has been done to death. I feel the need to vent on the subject personally.

Lately, I've been watching alot of TV where furries have appeared. And its been bothering me only for one reason - they're always portrayed yiffing. or talking about yiffing. So to the complete stranger to the FurWorld, we're nothing but sex-crazed perverts. Sure, every fandom has the perverted/sexual fantasy part. But NO ONE is portraying the part that its also just a healthy hobby. Why does it have to be sexual? Like that Jimmy Kimmel excerpt. We (as a community) looked like idiots. And the little correspondent or whatever kept saying "They go to cons to meet and then have sex, and more sex. aaaaaaand more sex."

I'm sure I don't have to describe to anyone the CSI episode with furries. Again, portrayed as having furpiles and sexing all the freaking TIME. Great, now the mass population hears "furry" and thinks of murder, sex and semen-stained fursuits.

Anime followers don't seem to get the kind of perverted flack that we do. Conventions of theirs are just seen as "dress up" and exercising the imagination. (from what I see) Why is fursuiting perverted compared to dressing in scantily clad leather and armed with fake weapons. We're dressing up as freaking "teddy bears" and cuddly animals! Yet we're the sex-crazed maniacs.

Where's the national video expose` on the furries who go out and stand infront of Petsmart and Humane Societies putting their suits to good use to draw in crowds to adopt animals. I've seen alot of pictures of furries hugging kids and playing peek-a-boo to make them laugh.

I'm sick of seeing the slander. Because it just makes it harder to explain to friends what I belong to and the conventions I attend. (I know I dont have to tell them its none of they're business etcetc but I'm proud of it and have it on my myspace and other public websites. I cant help but feel people look at that and see a sick pervert when I dont treat it as such an extreme perversion.)

Anyone else feel similarly/ care to vent as well?

[TheGru]

This topic has indeed been done, probibly to death by now, my advice: just let it go, don't let the slander bother you, move on with your life and don't even think on dwelling on it, for if you do then all your doing is feeding their stereotype.

[phoxxz]

This topic has indeed been done, probibly to death by now, my advice: just let it go, don't let the slander bother you, move on with your life and don't even think on dwelling on it, for if you do then all your doing is feeding their stereotype.

True, you do have a point. I just wish there was a way to publicly show we're not that way. Y'know? Juuuuuust wishin.

[TheGru]

Trust me I know how those outside the fandom think, I used to be one of them, but oddly enough the negative stereotype made me more curious. I try to keep an open mind about many things, though even now that I'm in I can see some negative elements, (I shall not name, or even speak of them.) But in contrast I've seen positive elements as well. So far the positive ones have touched me enough to convince me to stay.

[kitetsu]

Protip: Buy yourself a high-end car, and drive through everything related to said issue.

[Hakar]

Media: Either it's sensational, or we don't show it.

[phoxxz]

Media: Either it's sensational, or we don't show it.

Quite true. I'm pretty much stopped watching the major news channels. I'm sick and tired of the fear and paranoia they show. Some guy gets shot in Michigan. (making that up) That sucks but honestly does it warrant a 10 minute broadcast with updates??

If its horrible and makes you hate more people then the news is gonna show it.

[Poink]

I have a furry stereotype:
Furries who whine because of 4chan/7chan

Wait
seem like it's not a stereotype anymore ?
Discuss.

[TheGru]

I have a furry stereotype:
Furries who whine because of 4chan/7chan

Wait
seem like it's not a stereotype anymore ?
Discuss.

That's a completely different thread, not going to bring that in here, sorry Poink.

[HyBroMcYenapants]

I have a furry stereotype:
Furries who whine because of 4chan/7chan

Wait
seem like it's not a stereotype anymore ?
Discuss.

Does 7chan even function anymore? I mean really.

[Poink]

Not pretty sure of that X)

And yes, 7chan does work
well it works for me.

[Fiz]

7chan works.

Anyways, here's my thoughts on this. Stereotypes are true to a certain extent, because a group has created the stereotype, intentionally or not. There will always be people that will fall into the stereotype, and there will always be people that rely on a stereotype to describe a group.

There isn't anything you can do about it, except changing the stereotype itself, which is gonna be oretty much impossible now that the stereotype has been created and is now "main-stream".

If any of that makes sense.

[M. LeRenard]

My take is, at least we're still a small, relatively unknown group. Probably with most people, they saw that CSI episode, went, "Well that was bizarre," and then went on with their daily lives. Kind of like I did after seeing the ER episode with furries before I knew what fursuiting was (and which I didn't remember until I read some brief mention of it on a furry forum). I doubt the average Joe would dwell on it if he had no reason to.
At least there's no Matthew Shepard of the furrydom, in other words. When we start becoming victims of hate crimes, then you should start worrying. Right now we're in good shape.

[Leahtaur]

This is only half on-topic, but why is sex so negative? Sex or having a sex drive is generally seen as part of being healthy. Even moreso, being sexy is synonymous with being "cool". Sex is good.

So if they think all these furries do is get laid, that's like being cool, right? A common negative comment I hear on some people's photo submissions is "haha, he's so ugly, probably lives in his mom's basement and has never gotten laid. Probably just faps to Krystal all day long." So if they think all you guys do is have sex... why is that bad? Sounds good to me. :P

[sgolem]

This is only half on-topic, but why is sex so negative? Sex or having a sex drive is generally seen as part of being healthy. Even moreso, being sexy is synonymous with being "cool". Sex is good.

So if they think all these furries do is get laid, that's like being cool, right? A common negative comment I hear on some people's photo submissions is "haha, he's so ugly, probably lives in his mom's basement and has never gotten laid. Probably just faps to Krystal all day long." So if they think all you guys do is have sex... why is that bad? Sounds good to me. :P

Especially considering how many of us don't get any. >_>

Just saying.

I've always thought that if a friend can judge another close friend because they found out they're a furry, it's their problem. Real friends shouldn't let that stand between them.

And if you don't know them? Well, then you don't have to care about them either, so fuck 'em. I mean that literally, by the way. Dress up as a foxskunktiger with purple hair and fuck them.

[phoxxz]

This is only half on-topic, but why is sex so negative? Sex or having a sex drive is generally seen as part of being healthy. Even moreso, being sexy is synonymous with being "cool". Sex is good.

So if they think all these furries do is get laid, that's like being cool, right? A common negative comment I hear on some people's photo submissions is "haha, he's so ugly, probably lives in his mom's basement and has never gotten laid. Probably just faps to Krystal all day long." So if they think all you guys do is have sex... why is that bad? Sounds good to me. :P

You're right. And its odd that furries get punished for it. I guess its because of the types of sex and fetishes we're associated with. Zoophilia, Plushophilia, Beastiality, Fursuit sex. etc.

And its not necessarily a good thing that I'm associated with having mass amounts of sex. Especially when one of my closest friends that likes the furry community is younger and its pretty damned impossible explaining to her parents what a Furry Convention is.

[themocaw]

Reposted from another thread:

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/264/ironyny2.png

In other words, why do people have a sexualized image of furs?

Because, when furry started out, the fandom made no effort to separate its sexualized side from its more family friendly side.

Even with the prevalence of hentai at the last anime expo, there were efforts made to keep it under wraps. Sexual materials were kept under wraps, away from young eyes, and a vendor was required to be present at all times to monitor young'uns. Dress codes were in place to prevent overly sexualized costumes: still, there were a couple that got through (like the girl who cosplayed Sexy no Jutsu wearing basically a bikini and some cotton balls. XD) Finally, and most importantly, the fandom ITSELF made a concerted effort to change its image. I remember when anime was just taking off, there were scandals all over the news media about these "new porn cartoons" targeting children with images of tentacle rape and extreme violence: the fandom responded by emphasizing the fact that unlike American cartoons, which were generally oriented for children, anime encompasses many genres from child-friendly entertainment to the raunchiest porn, and made a deliberate effort to separate one aspect from the other. The end result: being an otaku is generally seen as being weird and nerdy but generally acceptable, enough so that the creators of Everwood felt comfortable enough putting a Tenchi Muyo poster up on Ephram's bedroom wall.

Now compare that to the furry fandom. The fandom faced a similar problem to anime fandom: the fact was that an image generally associated with childhood innocence in American culture (the talking animal) was being sexualized. The furry fandom, however, went to VERY bad routes: one was to preach acceptance and refuse to ostracize or separate the more extreme aspect. The second was to take the route of the Burned Furs and insist that the more perverted aspect CHANGE ITSELF to match their idea of what furry could be (this would be like a mainstream anime fan attacking and trying to change hentai fans because they don't like the sexualized nature of that aspect of the fandom).

The end result of these two forces was that:

a. many of the more deviant sexual fandoms gravitated towards furry as a kind of uber-fandom because this was a community where you could indulge your most perverted fantasies without fear of retribution, and:

b. The aspect of furry that wanted to keep it clean was marginalized for their lack of tact and quite simply asshole-ish tactics.

End result: furry is a fetish, not a fandom. The aspect that wants to stay clean marginalizes itself by refusing to be thought of as furry. This is like someone who likes anime refusing to call themselves otaku because the hentai fans have taken over, and it's nearly impossible to find an anime site that does not feature massive pictures of eight-titted women being raped by boytaurs.

Sorry, guys, that's just the way it is.

[Khimaira]

Wait, CSI series, furries in that series? liek OMG i want to see it!!

[M. LeRenard]

I thought this was a good article, somewhat pertaining to this subject.

[Carbon]

Change the stereo-type and something will just replace it.

We need organization. This is why we place blues, purples, and some greens in the cool category, and reds, oranges, and yellows in the warm category.I don't care if you're a dark slate, you're still a blue.

[Seratuhl]

I salute to you, themocaw, for posting my thoughts on furries via intellectual graphic representations.

>_> My explanation would've been dreadfully tedious...

[phoxxz]

End result: furry is a fetish, not a fandom.

I don't believe that. I consider myself a furry - and I am not attracted to fursuit sex or beastiality. At all. And if you look at the post in General Chat "What is your fetish" You'll see that maybe 3 or 4 people actually said that Furries were their attraction. I know theres a fetish aspect to furryism but I dont think that it's everyones motive to be a furry.

Also, 'furry' is way too vague to be classified as a singular fetish. There are, like mentioned above, sub-fetishes to the fandom. Yes, it can be an attraction but...not a fetish itself. That's my belief anyway.

And yes, there is a huge erotic side to furryism, every fandom has it. but there are also A LOT of kids and people who aren't a furry for the porn. If you browse DeviantArt (because they have less furry porn and more general art. FA is pretty biased to erotica.) and type in the search box 'furry' you get mostly character designs, innocent scenes and such. And out of the first page displaying 24 images I found 3 that could be construed as sexual.

[M. LeRenard]

I'm just going to throw this out there;
If Americans weren't so god-damn AFRAID of everything sexual, the furry fandom wouldn't even have this problem. It's hypocritical, really; every other show on television and every other commercial in between those shows has some amount of sexual content, even if it is partly veiled. We're obsessed with sex, and yet, at the same time, we're not allowed to talk about it. The FCC will fine you until you're dead if you even say the word 'fuck' on a public network.
So what happens? Children grow up knowing nothing about sex other than that it's forbidden until marriage, and so they go crazy over it. But since they're already stretching the limits their parents gave them, they don't know how to take it when other people go even farther. Homosexuality, bestiality, furries, whatever; those are things that are SO extreme, they just can't take it. It's like taking the forbidden fruit and rolling it in shit before eating it.
Everyone knows this: furry is hardly anything to worry about. Compared to some other 'fetishes' (since we're using this word incorrectly anyway, I'll just use it myself), it's like cherry pie. But since we shield our children from anything sexual, telling them that it's evil and gross and should only be done in the darkest most secret places, they grow up and look at something like furry and their little brains can't take it.
There's this cartoon in Japan; a movie about raccoon dogs who are getting pushed out of their homes by human development (never seen it; ran across this while researching the critters). In this film, the male tanuki have an ability to stretch their testicles to incredible proportions and use them as trampolines, gliding mechanisms, whatever. Now, I can already tell, some of you are going, "Oh, that's nasty." Well, here's an interesting fact; this is a CHILDREN'S movie. The Japanese don't care that their children are seeing giant testicles on TV. Interesting, that?
And here's another interesting fact: America has TEN TIMES the teen pregnancy rate as Japan (Read it yourself). Interesting, that too? Making sex taboo is actually DAMAGING us.
I won't argue that the 'hatred' of furries online is mostly the furries' fault; I've seen how horribly immature we can all be, even toward each other. But really, aside from that, we are just another fringe group; a bunch of people who cling to their cute cartoon animal upbringings, and then expand from there. But since sex is involved, it becomes something evil, disturbing, gross. People lash out at us, and we lash back in our annoying and relatively stupid way, provoking more anger. And that's a problem we should problem consider working on, instead of just ranting about it to ourselves.
My point is this: in the end, it's a problem with American society and its demonization/worship of sex; hardly our fault. It's our fault for propagating the stereotypes about furries, but not our fault that there's a question about it in the first place. So STOP the pointless self-hatred, and fucking DO something about our PR problems.

...Okay. Now that I've ranted about that, I feel better. I'm in a horrible mood right now, and that comic didn't help, so sorry if I've offended anyone beyond reason here. It's 3 AM and it's still over 80 degrees outside. I'll go back to my normal diplomatic self tomorrow.

PS: I'm in a unique position, in that I've never felt physically attracted to humans. Even tits on furry women turn me off. I've been this way all my life. It's probably psychological; I really don't know. But I'm telling you this so that you know where I'm coming from.
Okay: I'm done. Let the stereotypical flame-war begin, I guess. Sorry, moderators.

[yak]

M. Le Renard, do you believe yourself in what you are saying?

Because from what i have seen, and now have firm belief in, America is the most sexually perverted, shameless and arrogant nation in the world.

You feel yourself free to bring to the public the things that many simply consider too much of a private information to even mention of sharing with someone, much less to flaunt and stress it around like i am seeing happen here and there.

You take an unbelievable amount of foolish pride in your privacy, independency and freedom of speech, while you constantly violate them against each other, pushing your views, opinions and the right to say anything at faces of the people, who have exactly the same rights to say similar things back at you, yet you get upset when you face any kind of retaliation.

Your society is the most stereotyped, subclasses, subcultured and in any other way subdivided of all i have the knowledge off. It seems as though if there are more then 10 people with similar, slightly original ideas or views on anything, they feel the need to be considered special and given respect for who they are.
What baffles my mind is that you feel the need to put a label on anything if it's not something you see on the streets every day, and more often then not, use that label in a derogatory and offensive manner when any kind of debate ends up exausting it's amount of valid arguments. You stress your own uniqueness in more ways then you should.


It's actually quite amusing to see the this whole thing evolve to an entirely different level when the ample amount of already existing labels becomes not enough that you have to resort to subclassing within a subclass already, as if you didn't have enough grief with such a wide specter of "truly unique" people.
In all honesty, scat and watersports people considering pedo art gross? I have yet to see anything as mind boggling and logic melting as the sight of these accusations.


There's one thing i can't get up to this very day, and that thing is the need to bring on the public attention on yourselves.
You have to agree there, fursuiting isn't the most common of things you have the chance of seeing in your everyday life. So no wonder people will consider this sight on a broad scale from pathetic to pretty cool.
But unlike the age-old tradition of masquerading, from which i believe the whole fursuiting thing originally sprouted from, where the key aspect and the most attractive thing of the whole event was to maintain anonimousity which made it possible for all kinds of people to interact, no matter their social or finansial status, you guys have imposed a big honking label on yourself. A label that you openly advertise and associate yourself with.

An element of convenience, that label makes it possible for all the people who don't find this whole subclass or some of it's odd factors to be attractive to precisely identify and target you.

As you all pretty much understand, any kind of group's impression roots itself in the loudest or the most scandalist individuals or events that are specific to it. It just happens that the sex drive factor is the most out of all things normal trait people choose to associate furries with.
And it isn't like you're not helping to maintain this impression. Your common and now pretty much considered-for-granted overreaction is partially one thing to blame. Also, some of you guys are natural born and bred nutjobs

Something also has to be said towards mental stability and the overall maturity level, but i digress.

-----

Trust me, M. Le Renard, you are the least restrained people in the world. And it is the lack of taboos that is your the downfall, not the presence of those that still happened to somehow survive thus far.

Also, don't accuse me of racism or nationalism or anything, i honestly couldn't care less to offend people as i don't see a reason it doing so. This is just a pretty much long-winded opinion on mine.

[Wolf-Bone]

Ok, I'm going to try to make this breif, because as usual furries manage to piss me off just by breathing in my general direction.

Yak, America, and I'll include Canada in this, is a pretty, no, REALLY big fucking place. Your "long winded opinion" is actually very well-worded and does apply to a lot of people here, but not all of them. In the United States especially, it seems like in the nineties you could've said pretty much the same thing as a huge blanket statement of the overall culture, and most of us teens and twenty-somethings wouldn't have argued with you - because the media did a good job of giving us that impression and we were too ignorant to question it. Then 9/11 hits and suddenly we see the other side of the coin, and that other set of cultural codes that we thought was reserved for uneducated rednecks in the mountains turns out to be a hell of a lot more prevalent than once thought to us stupid kids. In fact, it's now the new "normal". Look, like I said, I'm a 20-something, I've only been following the news seriously since 1999, but I'm pretty sure if the word Liberal was the kind of slur back then as it is now, I would've remembered hearing it more often as a slur and not just another umbrella term for a wide variety of worldviews.

You're talking like it's this society in moral decay that doesn't have ENOUGH taboos, and there's hordes of people that agree with you within the same country you're talking about. They're holding office, they're on radio and television talk shows, and there's way too many of them not just surviving, but THRIVING on the support they gain from that rhetoric for them to act like they're the persecuted minority anymore, if they ever were outside of their own imaginations (remind you of anyone?).

The only constant in our society, and the only thing anyone can say without a shadow of a doubt that is our downfall is this balkanization along arbitrary social constructs which most people wouldn't willingly pigeonhole themselves into unless they felt they had to in order to matter as individuals - just breath in the irony of that statement alone, but it's true. Now why the hell furries want to throw themselves into that already overcomplicated clusterfuck as furries, the stigmatized fandom / fetish / lifestyle when they already have their individual sexual / ethnic / gender / political / socioeconomic lines drawn for them already is beyond me. I thought escapism was supposed to be the point of furrydom.

M. Le Renard, I really hope you're not suggesting we should use Japan as a model for our own society. Yeah, sure, the Japanese don't hold anything back in their children's entertainment, they have fewer teen pregnancies, good for them. They also have lower birthrates in general, alarmingly so lately, and no doubt that has something to do with it. They also have a culture where it's NORMAL to commit suicide if you fuck up at your job, which comes from some bullshit sense of familial loyalty to the corporation as if it were still the days of fucking ninja clans. Now I'm no anthropologist, but cultures take many many years to develop, and there's a lot more at work putting a dent in Japanese sex-lives than the cartoons their kids watch. I don't care if this makes me sound racist, whatever it is, I hope it stays in the Pacific Ocean.