Well, I am in agreeance that "furry" is a beyond modern contrivance; it's positively postmodern. However, since even "Modernism" (with a capitol M) is over a century old (and "Postmodernism" not that far behind), that doesn't really help.
I usually (rather arbitrarily) date the formation of "furry" into 1986, the year that the Joe Ekaitis's "T.H.E. Fox" was, uh, started (or whatever the term is for webcomics). Also the year "Redwall" was first published, though I am in agreeance that it was published indepedently of anything else having to do with furry.
Of course, there's the problem; furry was not founded in one go. There were many unrelated events that came together, until we had enough of a group of people to found the first furry convention three years later. Or just one problem; furry has numerous in the area of history. For one thing, the definition "anthropomorphic animal fandom" is a bit vague; though the fandom has always been primarily been "cartoon" (both comics and animation) based, some furries like to point out mythological beings (which probably actually had an exaggerated or even negligible impact on the early fandom), and the fandom frequently draws from children's literature and illustration (an important source that is often woefully ignored by furries' histories of themselves), and even more mainstream fantasy, science fiction and even horror stories, art, illustration, comics, movies and video games.
I find the formation of the furry fandom coincided with a very interesting time in American and English comics; 1986 was also the year of "Watchmen," and comic books were for the first time being treated as something other than just "kid's stuff." I believe this accounts for a lot of the adult content of furry; some members of the formative furry fandom sought the same recognition comic book superheroes were receiving. Early attempts at turning "kiddie" talking animal stories into "adult" stories were magnified by the fact that the genre had little mainstream appeal at the time. With no one to sell their stories to, furries never had to "edit" their stories for content, while still attempting to top each other. Mild sexuality became, well, 9/10ths of FurAffinity.
Simply put, furry was not "founded" as a sex thing, but it started to look like a sex thing. Eventually, the early fandom grew big enough to finally attract mainstream attention, which is what we saw at the turn of the millenium, what with Vanity Fair and CSI and all. Since it looked like a sex thing (and at this point it had fooled quite a few furries as well as non-furries), it was touted as a sex thing.
I'd say the influx around 1998 can be either be seen as Anthrocon finally gaining some positive attention (around the time it gone in the Guinness Book of World Records) and a burgeoning furry YouTube presence. However, the really interesting thing is what this growth may say; furry product may finally have a mainstream appeal.
Well, I am in agreeance that "furry" is a beyond modern contrivance; it's positively postmodern. However, since even "Modernism" (with a capitol M) is over a century old (and "Postmodernism" not that far behind), that doesn't really help.
I usually (rather arbitrarily) date the formation of "furry" into 1986, the year that the Joe Ekaitis's "T.H.E. Fox" was, uh, started (or whatever the term is for webcomics). Also the year "Redwall" was first published, though I am in agreeance that it was published indepedently of anything else having to do with furry.
Of course, there's the problem; furry was not founded in one go. There were many unrelated events that came together, until we had enough of a group of people to found the first furry convention three years later. Or just one problem; furry has numerous in the area of history. For one thing, the definition "anthropomorphic animal fandom" is a bit vague; though the fandom has always been primarily been "cartoon" (both comics and animation) based, some furries like to point out mythological beings (which probably actually had an exaggerated or even negligible impact on the early fandom), and the fandom frequently draws from children's literature and illustration (an important source that is often woefully ignored by furries' histories of themselves), and even more mainstream fantasy, science fiction and even horror stories, art, illustration, comics, movies and video games.
I find the formation of the furry fandom coincided with a very interesting time in American and English comics; 1986 was also the year of "Watchmen," and comic books were for the first time being treated as something other than just "kid's stuff." I believe this accounts for a lot of the adult content of furry; some members of the formative furry fandom sought the same recognition comic book superheroes were receiving. Early attempts at turning "kiddie" talking animal stories into "adult" stories were magnified by the fact that the genre had little mainstream appeal at the time. With no one to sell their stories to, furries never had to "edit" their stories for content, while still attempting to top each other. Mild sexuality became, well, 9/10ths of FurAffinity.
Simply put, furry was not "founded" as a sex thing, but it started to look like a sex thing. Eventually, the early fandom grew big enough to finally attract mainstream attention, which is what we saw at the turn of the millenium, what with Vanity Fair and CSI and all. Since it looked like a sex thing (and at this point it had fooled quite a few furries as well as non-furries), it was touted as a sex thing.
I'd say the influx around 1998 can be either be seen as Anthrocon finally gaining some positive attention (around the time it gone in the Guinness Book of World Records) and a burgeoning furry YouTube presence. However, the really interesting thing is what this growth may say; furry product may finally have a mainstream appeal.