Reading this post, I'm suddenly appreciating Zootopia on a whole new level. Since coming out as furry, I've been Judy Hopps reading about this magical city called Furry Fandom where everyone is welcoming and tolerant and totally ahead on issues of identity and sexuality compared to normal folk. So I get off the train at Furry Fandom, ready to explore with wide eyes and a big smile, and I decide to take a look into the Fur Affinity forums. Immediately I see the most popular topic by far is "What you hate about Furry", which everyone responds to with things like "the porn" (this one's at least understandable), "the lifestylers", "people who take the fandom too seriously", "people who feel they have to come out as furry", "people who engage sexually with furry", and so on. After reading a few more threads, I got the distinct impression that my furry identity was unwelcome there.
So then I come to Furry Fandom Police Department (Flayrah) thinking this looks like a better place for discussion and an opportunity for me to engage with the community. And immediately, literally the moment I post about my furry identity, someone tells me that my interest in walking talking cartoon animals is different from other people's interests in walking talking cartoon animals, and therefore I don't get to represent furry fandom. Even though the definition of "furry" is so vague that any three-year old with a drawing of Mickey Mouse could call themselves furry, I have to do parking duty while the REAL furries do all the important work. But it's okay! Because if I don't like the status quo, there are these ghettos... I mean websites where I'll be accepted by "deviant" furries so the majority of "normal" furries don't have to bother listening to me and my crazy identity! Isn't that grand?
Look, I get why this is happening. Historically, any community that feels threatened by wider society turns to "survival" behaviours, which includes closing rank on the community and limiting self-expression. But Furry Fandom is a community that promotes itself on self-expression, and yet a large chunk of the comments in this thread are about how sexual furries should stop expressing themselves in media so that the rest of the fandom can represent themselves "fairly". I think I'll stop just short of raising a middle finger to that argument, and instead I'll leave with the point that a Furry Fandom that can't openly accept sexual furries is amazingly hypocritical. Even you do accept us, the least you can do is not make us feel unwelcome literally the moment we get off that train.
Reading this post, I'm suddenly appreciating Zootopia on a whole new level. Since coming out as furry, I've been Judy Hopps reading about this magical city called Furry Fandom where everyone is welcoming and tolerant and totally ahead on issues of identity and sexuality compared to normal folk. So I get off the train at Furry Fandom, ready to explore with wide eyes and a big smile, and I decide to take a look into the Fur Affinity forums. Immediately I see the most popular topic by far is "What you hate about Furry", which everyone responds to with things like "the porn" (this one's at least understandable), "the lifestylers", "people who take the fandom too seriously", "people who feel they have to come out as furry", "people who engage sexually with furry", and so on. After reading a few more threads, I got the distinct impression that my furry identity was unwelcome there.
So then I come to Furry Fandom Police Department (Flayrah) thinking this looks like a better place for discussion and an opportunity for me to engage with the community. And immediately, literally the moment I post about my furry identity, someone tells me that my interest in walking talking cartoon animals is different from other people's interests in walking talking cartoon animals, and therefore I don't get to represent furry fandom. Even though the definition of "furry" is so vague that any three-year old with a drawing of Mickey Mouse could call themselves furry, I have to do parking duty while the REAL furries do all the important work. But it's okay! Because if I don't like the status quo, there are these ghettos... I mean websites where I'll be accepted by "deviant" furries so the majority of "normal" furries don't have to bother listening to me and my crazy identity! Isn't that grand?
Look, I get why this is happening. Historically, any community that feels threatened by wider society turns to "survival" behaviours, which includes closing rank on the community and limiting self-expression. But Furry Fandom is a community that promotes itself on self-expression, and yet a large chunk of the comments in this thread are about how sexual furries should stop expressing themselves in media so that the rest of the fandom can represent themselves "fairly". I think I'll stop just short of raising a middle finger to that argument, and instead I'll leave with the point that a Furry Fandom that can't openly accept sexual furries is amazingly hypocritical. Even you do accept us, the least you can do is not make us feel unwelcome literally the moment we get off that train.