I like this way of thinking.
--- On Sun, 6/7/09, ashhedgie <superhedgie_at_googlemail.com> wrote:
From: ashhedgie <superhedgie_at_googlemail.com>
Subject: [SkunkworksAMA] Re: Something wicked this way comes...
To: SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, June 7, 2009, 10:12 PM
I discovered the Furry fandom in 1999, via a random chat on ICQ. When I discovered it, this first thing I wanted to get into was Fursuiting, nothing more.
I'm an actor, singer and dancer. When I attend conventions, I do it 99% for the chance to be on stage. At four of the five cons I've been to, I've performed a parody song that I've written. Two out of the three were very well received as well!
Obviously, the art is what most people are drawn to in the FurFandom, and most of it is actually clean. The stats on Furaffinity reveal than most art posted in clean art. Mature artwork is lower on the scale.
The problem is, stereotypes and archetypes will ALWAYS be there, no matter what we try and do. Say Goth, and peole think of someone in pasty white make up, black clothes and the overwhelming sense of depression and want to self harm.
Say Gamer, and you get the image of a hunched, bespectacled nerd with goofy teeth sitting in front of a TV with his clawed hands glued to a joypad.
Tell someone you're going to a sci-fi convention, and the image they'll conjure up in their heads is you in a star trek uniform, giving the vulcan salute to klingons in full battle armour drinking Romulan ale!
And of course, Furs will always be weird people in costumes who find sex with animal appealing.
I suffer from Mild Tourette's Syndrome, which of course means EVERYONE assumes I swear prefusely and constantly, which I DON'T! That's the extreme form of Tourette's which the media picks up on because it's amusing to watch, and is now the Stereotypical Tourette's Sufferer. Documentaries have tried to show it in it's lesser forms, but no one wants to really see that, they like to see the extreme forms. No one ever covers a story at Disney World with a headline like "Mascot at Magic Kingdom hugs 1000 children!" They'll print the "Mascot at Magic Kingdom touches child inapproriately! " Even though it was by accident!
It's NOT going to go away, no matter what happens. Stereotypes exist because we create them, and they stick.
Kenan and Kel invented the notion that Black duos are one fat, one thin with a crazy desire for buckets of fried chicken and tons of fanta. It sells.
As does sex. Sex sells everything. Chocolate, Clothes, Alcohol, and even Video Games. And if sex sells, it'll also sell newspapers, and TV shows. People watch shows like Jerry Springer to see who's been boning who. They'll read gossip mags to see the story about the girl having sex with her boss behind her husbands back.
Sorry to say it, but everything takes on a sour taste at some point in time. We just have to learn to pick out those bits and ignore them.
Received on Mon Jun 08 2009 - 17:18:55 CDT