I feel like you've missed some of the issues. I don't remember claiming that all furs had to like commercial media. Even if one can't name any specific work I doubt that means that none had any influence. Furry shows are a part of every Western child's childhood. The only requirement for being a fur was an interest in furry characters.
Western culture isn't a fandom because "Western culture" is not a specific thing. It's just a way to describe a number of cultures that arose together in a certain place.
I think you're forgetting that "fan" and "fandom" become especially muddy because of franchises. If someone is a fan of Disney they will go to work there. They will be both a fan and a creator. Just like Peter Jackson was a fan of Lord of the Rings and so created a movie based on it. There are now fans of his movie and he is a creator but he is still also a fan. In furry the fans are fans of, for simplicity, anthropomorphism, not any one artist's work.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
I feel like you've missed some of the issues. I don't remember claiming that all furs had to like commercial media. Even if one can't name any specific work I doubt that means that none had any influence. Furry shows are a part of every Western child's childhood. The only requirement for being a fur was an interest in furry characters.
Western culture isn't a fandom because "Western culture" is not a specific thing. It's just a way to describe a number of cultures that arose together in a certain place.
I think you're forgetting that "fan" and "fandom" become especially muddy because of franchises. If someone is a fan of Disney they will go to work there. They will be both a fan and a creator. Just like Peter Jackson was a fan of Lord of the Rings and so created a movie based on it. There are now fans of his movie and he is a creator but he is still also a fan. In furry the fans are fans of, for simplicity, anthropomorphism, not any one artist's work.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~