But just putting your best foot forward might not be enough sometimes. We also have to do something about the people who sit at the polar opposite of the freaks, the hard-core critics (most of whom need to get a life just as badly as the weirdoes). I remember being a witness to this at several cons (I was at both AC and CF this year, and I saw this at both); some outsider/mundane walks up and asks one of the more 'normal' looking fans about the fandom. Said fan starts to explain, and then gets blindsided by someone who starts up a 'no, no, furry fandom is a collection of degenerates who bonk sheep and blah blah'. Need I say what the curious person's attitude towards the fandom will become after that?
As so many of you have said, this fandom needs to stop shooting itself in the foot, which means muzzling both the yiff-boys and hard-core furry haters.
I agree completely with Watts here.
But just putting your best foot forward might not be enough sometimes. We also have to do something about the people who sit at the polar opposite of the freaks, the hard-core critics (most of whom need to get a life just as badly as the weirdoes). I remember being a witness to this at several cons (I was at both AC and CF this year, and I saw this at both); some outsider/mundane walks up and asks one of the more 'normal' looking fans about the fandom. Said fan starts to explain, and then gets blindsided by someone who starts up a 'no, no, furry fandom is a collection of degenerates who bonk sheep and blah blah'. Need I say what the curious person's attitude towards the fandom will become after that?
As so many of you have said, this fandom needs to stop shooting itself in the foot, which means muzzling both the yiff-boys and hard-core furry haters.
Ardashir