*snarl*

[bladespark]

I have met yet another bigoted, ignorant prick who thinks that furries are sexual deviants, and was expressing his disgust at the very idea.

I am so freaking sick of this. I have no words to express how sick I am of this. I am sick of being called "furfag." I am sick of the hateful speech, I am sick of the jokes. I am sick of the assumptions. I am sick, sick, sick, sick, sick of people assuming things about my sex life, and going on about how disgusting people like me are. I am sick to DEATH of it. And every year it's worse than the year before, and I know the reason why. It's because Something Awful and their goons are actively perpetuating the stereotype of disgusting furry sex. It's become a nasty, unwholesome, bigoted, hateful internet meme that won't go away.

But screw them. I am not going to hide, or say I'm not a furry. I used to say that it was absurd to treat furry like being gay, that you didn't need to be in the closet, that nobody would be disgusted, that nobody would even care if you "came out" but you know? Thanks to those raging bigots that's no longer true. They've made it so that we have to deal with the same stupid assumptions, the same sexual accusations, the same hatred and spitting on that gay people have to deal with, and that's not right. Nobody should be spit on just for being part of a fandom. And frankly even if it was sexual, nobody should be spit on for their sexual preferences either.

So you wonder why I hate SA and goons? That's why. They've caused me to be treated like I'm some kind of sub-human, disgusting thing just for being who I am and liking the art and stories and costumes that I like.

If anybody's going to be "yiffing in hell" it's THEM, not me. Them and the ignorant, thoughtless pricks that believe them and buy into their hate.

Comments

[pointytilly.livejournal.com]

It drives me nuts too. That kind of crap makes it impossible to just draw anthro stuff because you, yanno, think animal people look cool without idiots assuming all over the place. I see people think that "you have an animal in your icon so you're a furry so lol I win furfag" is a valid debate techique. Et cetera. Yeah, okay, people don't have to draw furry art, but if it makes them happy and they're not going LOOKIT MY PORN LOOOOOK when you've said no thanks, then they should be able to draw in peace :p.

And even if it IS a fetish for someone, what's the big deal? Sheesh, internets.

[rigger.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately it's because the stereotype has been portrayed that way in the mass media. From the Furry episode of CSI to that rather horrible MTV "Documentary" a few years ago that's the only picture that's being painted for the mainstream about what being a Furry is about.

When you add in the fact that nobody considers "Furry" or anything like it to be a protected minority you get an easy punching bag. Someone who's got a mean streak may hesitate to go off on a racist rant for fear of the ACLU or some other group getting them in court, but that's not something they have to worry about when it comes to Furries.

It's not a good answer, but I think it's about as clearly as I can point to the cause.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

The media is sometimes bad. But one CSI episode doesn't explain the sheer hatred that I've seen, especially given that news coverage of furry events tends to be very positive. It's a lot more than that, it's people who are actively promoting this kind of bigotry.

[rigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well those individuals get their opinions shaped by the portrayals that they see. And people with those sorts of toxic attitudes aren't going to give the good attention much heed and will instead focus on what they see to be the negative to exclusion.

And again it gets back to the point that I made about "Furry" not being some sort of protected minority. People can't bash ethnic minorities, religious minorities, or people with different sexual orientations without the fear that some rights group will come down on them for it. Furry however...well it's basically open season.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear here - are you trying to say that it's NOT SA goons that are significantly driving this problem? Or are you just choosing to not address anything I've said here, in order to put forward your own thoughts? Or... what?

[twizler-skunk.livejournal.com]

Life is to short to worie abought what outhers think. I left the fandom back in high school and its one of the major things i regret.

[wolveblade.livejournal.com]

It sucks. I had a discussion with one of my friends about this subject. You know how many people go to Anime/Manga Conventons just for the purpose of hooking up? I know that there has to be a few. Im sure it happens at any other convention type too. *sighs* I wish people were a bit more open minded.

[wolveblade.livejournal.com]

Sadly it is the diffrent people who pay for being diffrent. CSI has this thing about finding the nitty gritty and blowing it up. The masses gobble it up. They used S&M alot too.

Popular missconceptions drag people down. Chalk it up to their ignorance, shallow mind, and a poor view of themselves. Dont let them drag you down.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Losers are always looking for someone(s) to point to and mock in order to bolster themselves. Furries are easy to mock because they're so harmless (don't fight back) and it -is- hard for a lot of adults to understand what it's about. So the fandom gets picked on. LARPers get this too; anime fans used to be the low-man on the fannish totem pole ("You're all child molesters!"), then anime got a big commercial push and suddenly became "cool".

For what it's worth, I have been seeing more and more people looking past the bad rep and regarding furries (ie, fursuits) as "kind of harmless fun". That's in large part due to those costumers that do a lot of charity work and have helped wash out the negative images. Also, the higher quality of costumes makes them more cute/neat than creepy.

The only way to deal with the SA creeps is to not play their game: just ignore them. You're no fun if they can't get a rise out of you.

[kyraeus.livejournal.com]

/agree with what others are saying.

However, the note I would want to add is that it's like everything else out there, admittedly there is some small grain of truth in it. It absolutely floored me hearing that Kage and the rest of the Anthrocon staff had to TELL people in masses 'By the way... Don't make the housecleaning staff angry, and we're charging a night's fee because everyone keeps dropping their rooms at the last minute.' More so the first point, because the lack of self-responsibility and self-respect it shows that enough people were leaving these messes to the point he had to say something, is nothing short of ridiculous. It doesn't say much for the fandom as a whole.

To angle more toward the sex topic, well.. It's there. No, we're not all closet freaks and perverts, but you must admit, with anthro-based porn or other such adult fare making the significant portion that it does of the fandom, with things like seeing every second or third artist in an artist's alley having (several) binders of such, well, it makes a good case against us.

I think more so than anything else, we're fighting America's general fear and hatred of sexuality in general. In days when anything 'weird' is shunned, yet people praise sex gods and goddesses openly on the silver screen, in their homes on the tube, and over the web; they're going to gripe about anything that they don't personally get into. It's kind of a given. Best bet is simply not to rise to it. Much like my feelings on the gay movement, you can be gay and not have to be 'Faaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous!'. You can also be furry and not crow about it to the general public. Not to say you shouldn't be proud of it or show it, but as with anything else, is it really their business what you like and what you do behind closed doors or otherwise?

I agree that they're the ones going to be hit with karma-attacks when they realize at the end they were extremely hateful and very hypocritical given they probably all like anime porn, or have their own weird hangups. I mean, I may not like BDSM, but I don't make fun of it's practitioners, at least as long as they're being safe about it.

Anyway, /end rant.