OK, thanks and let me clarify, obviously there's no "one fandom" and it's messy with clashing streams. But certain strong tendencies stand out.
This is a bit weird, as it interprets that any fandom that's organized around a commercial property is more mainstream than not, and isn't a real community. I agree that furry fandom doesn't have a top-down structure, or a single commercial property as its base, but I see fan-to-fan creating in all fandoms, and it's especially heavy if the commercial property has ended or has gone into hiatus.
There's a difference in being (1) a top-down consumer group/target audience led by marketing, vs (2) a bottom-up grassroots/DIY uprising.
In music you can look at KISS fandom as a big thing which hasn't carried on much past its heyday (ICP fans seem like the closest thing today). I don't think it's any stretch to call that corporate-rock way different from the 1970's-on DIY punk scene, with its networks of indie distros and zines, squats and underground venues and infoshops and collectives that have carried through generations. That's a revolt.
Bronies rose up seemingly overnight to be a bigger thing than furry, then get a slump when the show ends and has to deal with Hasbro legally squashing fan commerce. While furry stays on it's own independent steady rise.
BTW I like MLP:FIM and modest doses of KISS and don't feel it's bad to call those different from furry stuff I also like. :)
Maker subculture is a strong community which isn't attached to a franchise. Not only is it about creating, but it's about creating the tools you can use to create whatever you like, and embracing that philosophy. Zombie fandom has multiple properties fans can latch onto, or they can just latch onto the concept and ignore the commercial aspect entirely. Some of its members love to get together, make themselves up, and go on group (shuffling) walks to celebrate their interest. These communities are real, and I don't think we have anything to gain by saying furry is more real.
Those are good examples of what I was getting at. The Maker movement, or Ren Faires that have been going since the 1960's. DIY punk would be the strongest kind. That's more bottom-up than top-down marketed-at consumer groups.
I think we have a lot to gain by highlighting this independence.
It explains so many things, like why did fur fandom have a strong steady rise (look at con attendance) at the same time as a wave of bad PR and media mockery in the early 2000's? And why has there been a thawing for better mainstream media since the middle of this decade or so? The fandom pulled it out of them and made them catch up to us, by doing it's own thing apart from marketing trends.
When you see the mainstream media taking influence from fur fans for how to cover them, it can even be chicken>egg, and fandom is both indie and pop-culture-inspired. I don't think that's over-simplifying this history. :)
I think, historically, it's more accurate to say that furry did, indeed, consciously split itself off. But not when it formed. The split happened later, around 1989. It wasn't meant as an alternative to mainstream culture, but as a split from science-fiction fandom. Not to get away from commercial properties, but because furry wanted to bring itself into focus and have more opportunities to grow.
2 words: underground comix. They DID want an alternative for mature content when the mainstream relegated funny animal art to kid stuff. Of course it wasn't like a conscious punk>new wave movement but it coincided with the 1970's zeitgeist. The early Vootie zines do say a few things about it consciously.
First furry stream: "Artists who orbited pros on the way up, hoping to trade off fandom ties to gain professional connections, bigger names and work. They had heirarchy and weren't open to everyone. ... The opposing stream: "Fans-for-fans-sake, 'lifestylers', people who ran room parties open to all"
This is based on a long email with names and places, from someone who ran one of the two kinds of parties ;)
what this is really referring to is the Burned Fur vs. Furry lifestyler conflict. This was not two streams from back in the 1980s, these were both developments in the late 1990s.
They arguably were 2 streams from the 1980's. There's a through line you can see in one guy behind: (1) "Skunkfuckers" posters at 1980's sci-fi cons that played off hostility involved in furries splitting off for their own first (LGBT-led) con -- (2) trolling that interfered with Confurence (the Burned Furs were not the first reactionaries) -- (3) the Burned Furs -- (4) a malicious myth that carried on after the end of ConFurence accusing it of "marketing to gays". That turned out to be a gay-panic-laden lie when the actual "ad" was unearthed. This myth carries on now on harassment/chan boards -- (5) the altfurries and that bogus nuisance lawsuit against FurAffinity on their behalf.
One malicious troll links all that 1989-2019, and there are others, but no need to feed the trolls.
Protecting our own wasn't a lesson we learned to fend off the Burned Furs, they were annoying, but not a threat. We learned it to fend off the trolls and the media, who kept trying to make us look bad, and attacked us for over a decade. This trend had started before the Burned Furs came along, and continued long after they had left.
That's exactly what I'm getting at!
Furry didn't entirely start as a *conscious* revolt against the corporate-mickey-mouse-club mainstream, and cishet-professional-aspirations fandom. But it's there with elements of counterculture. You could see it in Omaha the Cat Dancer making furry for adults. Or Robert Hill, the kinky queer DIY fursuiter who transitioned pro mascotting to personal "fursonas" at Confurence 0. It's in the queer furry kink art of Biohazard who astonishingly made it since the 1980's and got it featured on public TV.
There are labels for the force powering this stuff which won't come from safe corporate culture. I've clumsily called it "the power of WTF" and more recently heard it called Queerdness.
Queerdness isn't just one thing that some furries do. Obviously you don't *have* to do it but it's one of the core things they won't get from anywhere else making this "ours". That's what makes concerns about corporate profiteering of queer furry. With Artworktee it's interesting that it's from a source rejected by Bronies for aggressive exploiting.
Maybe this is California-centric but that IS where the first fur con started. I also went to Anthrocon 1999 and hung out in Toronto and met Silfur Bunny back then (legendary). This Sunday, I visited with Mark and Rod and Changa at the Skiltaire house and got a great dose of fandom... truly a unique place. Stick around for Tuesday, I have a story and a great photo gallery to share :)
OK, thanks and let me clarify, obviously there's no "one fandom" and it's messy with clashing streams. But certain strong tendencies stand out.
There's a difference in being (1) a top-down consumer group/target audience led by marketing, vs (2) a bottom-up grassroots/DIY uprising.
In music you can look at KISS fandom as a big thing which hasn't carried on much past its heyday (ICP fans seem like the closest thing today). I don't think it's any stretch to call that corporate-rock way different from the 1970's-on DIY punk scene, with its networks of indie distros and zines, squats and underground venues and infoshops and collectives that have carried through generations. That's a revolt.
It's part of how one of the only furry-themed feature films happened. Rukus would have never been made by a big studio... "ambitious, challenging filmmaking you’d hope to see from no-budget outsider artists passionate about their craft but locked outside official means of production." (BTW, film maker Brett was amused about Artworktee marketing identity "stretch goals".)
Bronies rose up seemingly overnight to be a bigger thing than furry, then get a slump when the show ends and has to deal with Hasbro legally squashing fan commerce. While furry stays on it's own independent steady rise.
BTW I like MLP:FIM and modest doses of KISS and don't feel it's bad to call those different from furry stuff I also like. :)
Those are good examples of what I was getting at. The Maker movement, or Ren Faires that have been going since the 1960's. DIY punk would be the strongest kind. That's more bottom-up than top-down marketed-at consumer groups.
I think we have a lot to gain by highlighting this independence.
It explains so many things, like why did fur fandom have a strong steady rise (look at con attendance) at the same time as a wave of bad PR and media mockery in the early 2000's? And why has there been a thawing for better mainstream media since the middle of this decade or so? The fandom pulled it out of them and made them catch up to us, by doing it's own thing apart from marketing trends.
When you see the mainstream media taking influence from fur fans for how to cover them, it can even be chicken>egg, and fandom is both indie and pop-culture-inspired. I don't think that's over-simplifying this history. :)
There's a lot of sources about all this in my article series, How furries resist a commercialized fandom.
2 words: underground comix. They DID want an alternative for mature content when the mainstream relegated funny animal art to kid stuff. Of course it wasn't like a conscious punk>new wave movement but it coincided with the 1970's zeitgeist. The early Vootie zines do say a few things about it consciously.
This is based on a long email with names and places, from someone who ran one of the two kinds of parties ;)
They arguably were 2 streams from the 1980's. There's a through line you can see in one guy behind: (1) "Skunkfuckers" posters at 1980's sci-fi cons that played off hostility involved in furries splitting off for their own first (LGBT-led) con -- (2) trolling that interfered with Confurence (the Burned Furs were not the first reactionaries) -- (3) the Burned Furs -- (4) a malicious myth that carried on after the end of ConFurence accusing it of "marketing to gays". That turned out to be a gay-panic-laden lie when the actual "ad" was unearthed. This myth carries on now on harassment/chan boards -- (5) the altfurries and that bogus nuisance lawsuit against FurAffinity on their behalf.
One malicious troll links all that 1989-2019, and there are others, but no need to feed the trolls.
That's exactly what I'm getting at!
Furry didn't entirely start as a *conscious* revolt against the corporate-mickey-mouse-club mainstream, and cishet-professional-aspirations fandom. But it's there with elements of counterculture. You could see it in Omaha the Cat Dancer making furry for adults. Or Robert Hill, the kinky queer DIY fursuiter who transitioned pro mascotting to personal "fursonas" at Confurence 0. It's in the queer furry kink art of Biohazard who astonishingly made it since the 1980's and got it featured on public TV.
There are labels for the force powering this stuff which won't come from safe corporate culture. I've clumsily called it "the power of WTF" and more recently heard it called Queerdness.
Queerdness isn't just one thing that some furries do. Obviously you don't *have* to do it but it's one of the core things they won't get from anywhere else making this "ours". That's what makes concerns about corporate profiteering of queer furry. With Artworktee it's interesting that it's from a source rejected by Bronies for aggressive exploiting.
Maybe this is California-centric but that IS where the first fur con started. I also went to Anthrocon 1999 and hung out in Toronto and met Silfur Bunny back then (legendary). This Sunday, I visited with Mark and Rod and Changa at the Skiltaire house and got a great dose of fandom... truly a unique place. Stick around for Tuesday, I have a story and a great photo gallery to share :)