You're going to turn me into a corporate apologist, here, GR, cause, I mean, you really thought that was a good list to show me?
If, and this is a big if, there's an advantage to corporate involvement with the fandom it's that it's basically the only path in the current system to wide mainstream exposure. Now, wide mainstream exposure is itself not a common goal in the furry fandom, but, you know, it is one I'd like to see happen. It's my point about the "are we really rejecting the mainstream, or are we just preemptively reacting to a perceived rejection from the mainstream." I think, to put it in Marxist terms, the argument we're having here is "is furry truly a counterculture (opposed to the dominant culture) or merely a subculture (still part of the dominant culture, no matter how niche)" and I think if you want to argue we're truly a "counter-culture", I think that's laughable.
If you were to make the statement that "without Disney, there would be no furry fandom", I would say that statement was reductive to the point of absurdity, lacking in wide swaths of context and essentially true. We're already pretty intertwined with the mainstream culture enough that even if you genuinely wanted furry to be some sort of "fight the power, man!" counter-culture, it's already compromised, and has been from the beginning.
As a subculture, however, we still have power to change the rest of culture, and there is a lot in furry worth sharing. I think I'm kind of repeating myself from Zootopia exchanges, but the thing is that, at this point, getting noticed by a mega-corporation is kind of nice. As everyone and their dog has pointed out, corporations are risk-averse. Wal-Mart and Disney and Converse and whoever are looking at us and saying, "No, man, this is good. We can sale this; this has value." And I don't share enough Marxist values to care that this is obviously the assigning of a purely monetary value, either. It's still something. It's just nice to be appreciated.
And then you and Rakuen are over here all like, "but crossie, think of the scat porn!"
You're going to need a better argument, is what I'm saying.
You're going to turn me into a corporate apologist, here, GR, cause, I mean, you really thought that was a good list to show me?
If, and this is a big if, there's an advantage to corporate involvement with the fandom it's that it's basically the only path in the current system to wide mainstream exposure. Now, wide mainstream exposure is itself not a common goal in the furry fandom, but, you know, it is one I'd like to see happen. It's my point about the "are we really rejecting the mainstream, or are we just preemptively reacting to a perceived rejection from the mainstream." I think, to put it in Marxist terms, the argument we're having here is "is furry truly a counterculture (opposed to the dominant culture) or merely a subculture (still part of the dominant culture, no matter how niche)" and I think if you want to argue we're truly a "counter-culture", I think that's laughable.
If you were to make the statement that "without Disney, there would be no furry fandom", I would say that statement was reductive to the point of absurdity, lacking in wide swaths of context and essentially true. We're already pretty intertwined with the mainstream culture enough that even if you genuinely wanted furry to be some sort of "fight the power, man!" counter-culture, it's already compromised, and has been from the beginning.
As a subculture, however, we still have power to change the rest of culture, and there is a lot in furry worth sharing. I think I'm kind of repeating myself from Zootopia exchanges, but the thing is that, at this point, getting noticed by a mega-corporation is kind of nice. As everyone and their dog has pointed out, corporations are risk-averse. Wal-Mart and Disney and Converse and whoever are looking at us and saying, "No, man, this is good. We can sale this; this has value." And I don't share enough Marxist values to care that this is obviously the assigning of a purely monetary value, either. It's still something. It's just nice to be appreciated.
And then you and Rakuen are over here all like, "but crossie, think of the scat porn!"
You're going to need a better argument, is what I'm saying.