So, here's my issue. I speak for a lot of furries when I say I couldn't care less about The Lion King or My Little Pony. There is a very large, very real group of furries who can't name a specific work of fiction that has significantly influenced their identity. We don't go to cons to get autographs from people who created that thing we like, we don't even really go there to talk about art or stories that much. It's really just a big party.
Furry art is still a factor. There definitely aren't furries who don't like furry art. But if being influenced and enjoying the amorphous collection of culture and imagery that surrounds us counts as being "fans," then is literally every American ever in the "Western culture fandom"?
Being a "fan" in a "fandom" seems to imply a very intentional, specific, hierarchical relationship between author and fan. Author creates thing, fan consumes thing, fan actively reacts to thing by loving author/hating author/writing fan fiction based on author. It gets a little bit muddier when you get into medium and genre fandom, but it's still a very specific reaction to some artist's work. Furry — beyond the fact that most of the art is commissioned, which throws the author-to-fan monologue culture into flux — has ballooned way beyond any specific reaction to anything.
Like, no, it's not even a genre fandom for a lot of us. Discussing and reacting to artistic works are not what any of this hinges around. The art is there, but that's it.
So, here's my issue. I speak for a lot of furries when I say I couldn't care less about The Lion King or My Little Pony. There is a very large, very real group of furries who can't name a specific work of fiction that has significantly influenced their identity. We don't go to cons to get autographs from people who created that thing we like, we don't even really go there to talk about art or stories that much. It's really just a big party.
Furry art is still a factor. There definitely aren't furries who don't like furry art. But if being influenced and enjoying the amorphous collection of culture and imagery that surrounds us counts as being "fans," then is literally every American ever in the "Western culture fandom"?
Being a "fan" in a "fandom" seems to imply a very intentional, specific, hierarchical relationship between author and fan. Author creates thing, fan consumes thing, fan actively reacts to thing by loving author/hating author/writing fan fiction based on author. It gets a little bit muddier when you get into medium and genre fandom, but it's still a very specific reaction to some artist's work. Furry — beyond the fact that most of the art is commissioned, which throws the author-to-fan monologue culture into flux — has ballooned way beyond any specific reaction to anything.
Like, no, it's not even a genre fandom for a lot of us. Discussing and reacting to artistic works are not what any of this hinges around. The art is there, but that's it.