Why is there some hate for furries?

[Lace Neil Singer]

I PMed you, Skunkle. ^^

I also like anthro art; hell, I used to draw it myself, back when I had a lot more spare time. XD Plus, it's all linked to the Sonic fandom (now, what could possibly have given me away as a fan? ) which also is linked to RPs and fanfic. Trust me, there is a lot of squicky anthro fanfic; and not just in Sonic, either. O_o

[Skunkle]

Glad to help people a lil' bit. Again, per the OP, it's not unusual for furries to start out defensive, simply because the bad word has gotten around the 'net so thickly that it'd be easy to pick ye random forum, walk in, out yourself as a furry, and be avalanched with flames. And despite this, many furries do still out themselves, as it's seen as a facet of your life; if others want to bash you, fine, but you're happy with who/what you are.

A lot of furries, I'd say a good 8 out of 10, have a "fursona", one or more - characters who (choose one or more) represent:
--who they are, with similar interests, abilities, clothing, mannerisms, etc.
--who they wish they were.
--what they believe to be their true, hidden self.
--a soul facet, sort of the "I'm a fox trapped in a human body" thing
--and/or simply, a fantasy persona, for no reason other than entertainment.
Many of those who don't have what they'd call a fursona/fursonae have one or more 'characters' which fall under the last classification: just fantasy critters, made for fun.

It's popular and fun for many to have art drawn of their characters, roleplay as their characters, and/or fursuit as their characters, the latter being a fun way to feel as though you ARE your character for a short time. As noted, I have suited, and I can say that vthere's a kind of disconnection when you're in-suit. You're playing a role, and you're best when you try to BE the role. Forget about who you are out of the suit, pretend you ARE the character, lean into it, and you'll soon find that yes, you temporarily ARE the character. The world sort of disappears, and you just enjoy yourself. I've suited and been forced to go out in 80-degree sun (boo hotel, booking a wedding same weekend as the con and giving the only suit-parade timeslot same as the wedding procession, necessitating it ending up outside - in LA - in June!) and, even after being outside for half an hour, going back inside after and spending another half-hour in-suit. Whenever I needed a quick break I'd duck into a lounge, pull off the head for a minute, and keep going.

That con (Califur 09) was notable in that there was a reporter in the indoor after-parade gathering space, who claimed to be trying to do a truly objective report on the fandom. And though I haven't seen any article yet, she was very friendly and obviously had very good intentions. I sat and discussed suiting with her for a bit; brought up the notion she'd already heard where there's a politely-held suspension of disbelief wherein you, say Joe Blow, and your suited character, Joe Fox, are considered different entities - and, in this vein, how it's traditionally held that suiters don't reveal who's in the suit or take off their heads in public and spoil the illusion. I do talk in-suit, whereas most suiters don't, as my suit's jaw moves with mine, and I have a very different persona while suiting. After going over all this and reaffirming what she'd heard, in front of her cameraman I took off my head, explained how it worked, and she held the camera while her cameraman put it on and tried it himself. Very fun and interesting. Other suiters talked with her, too, though I don't think any of them took their heads off which is understandable. WEre another reporter or interviewer to approach me at a con and show visibly that they have the right idea of being really open-minded, I'd probably do the same thing again.

Oh, yes: why don't I have a Zephyr Skunk suit? I'm 30. Zephyr is 14. And skunk tails are very hard to make, since they're supposed to stand up and be big and fluffy. The best I've seen is Fractal Squirrel, whose squirrel suit tail is an inflatable form covered in fuzzy flocking; he covered in in spray adhesive, hooked it to a Van De Graaff generator, and used the high-voltage static cling to pull flocking onto it evenly. Even so, that's difficult stuff to keep up. It was far easier to do a cat tail and have it sway nicely as I walk, and Scott Sierra the jag-you-are is my age. I'll be at a Washington (the west-coast one) Con in September, wearing my suit. Should anyone think they'd want to chat with a suiter about what it's like, or try on a suit head for fun, drop me a note, I'd be happy to chat up anyone who's friendly and genuinely interested.

Edit: Squickly fanfic? Oh, yes, there's tons of that, in every fandom. We have the Trekkies to thank for starting slash fic.

For anyone confused by the term, slash: fan fiction where the writer pairs two male characters and introduces romance, sex, angst, or more likely, all three. The original idea of slash was to pair two straight characters who, even if gay, would still never get together without the writer's help; the original slash pairing was Kirk/Spock. I don't read much of any kind of fanfic, but there's some good stuff and some Lovecraftian horrors out there, all right.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I adore slash if it's well written, not squicky and researched well. XD If you want some fanfic horrors, I can link you to a sporking site. XD

Re the Sonic fandom; I tend to favour the Sonic/Shadow pairing. XD What? They'd make a great couple, and you know it.

[Skunkle]

Sporking? I knlow I'd be interested in reading some bad fanfic or really poorly-chosen crossovers that were NOT written to be bad, but simply bad writers/bad choices. I've *heard* of some really distant, unrelated crossovers that shouldn't work (and probably don't).

Speaking of fanfic, did anyone ever figure out whether "My Immortal", at least the original 'chapters', were a troll or not? There were so many reasons to believe she had to be, and yet so many reasons she seemed to be genuine. Those were horribly funny. Yes, I managed to read them all. I can wade through the dyslexic-ness pretty well and read the terribly botched plot attempts.

For any not aware: "My Immortal" = (a), a sad song by Evanescence, or (b) a really bizarre and awful attempt at Harry Potter fanfic by a claimed-dyslexic, containing what may be the worst Mary Sue (author self-insertion character who usually usurps the entire plot) ever written. The entirety of the HP world becomes a bitchfight between the only two possible types of people the author seems to know exist, "goths" and "preps", along with drinking blood, faux-satanism, Evanescence concerts (in Hogsmeade RIGHT NOW!) and various main chartacters turned badly into perverts, preppies, vampires and nutjobs. If you can wade through the constantly-changing misspellings, it's a laugh and a half, and no one's been sure whether it was written tongue-in-cheek or not. Incomplete, the "last chapter" (16 I think?) was slapped on by some random person, making a mockery - not difficult - of the rest.

Sorry 'bout the long OT. Back to our regularly-scheduled furry program.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well, the author of My Immortal has many accounts all over the web; that's a hell of a lot of work for a troll to do. XD

Sporking is when you take a section of badfic and insert text every so often to point out how awful it is. XD Here's the link to said site; it's worth looking thru the history as there are some terrible fics sporked: http://community.livejournal.com/deleterius/

Oh yeah, and scroll down a little to find the worst crossover ever; Sonic/LOTR. How could anyone think that would work? XD

Anyways, back to furries. XD I tend to call my hyena persona my "other"; it tends not to throw up quite so many negative reactions.

[Skunkle]

Wow... Looked at parts of the Sonic/LOTR one. Ouch. My head hurts. And somewhere, a blue hedgehog is weeping.

I just call them "characters", since none of them are me at all, really. And they're such a disparate bunch. List includes (with notes as to art)
--Sir Berry Woodthorn - European Badger, age 60, massive, muscular, 9' 4" (ouch), pipe organ builder. Had a BIG sketch of him from Ken Sample aka Cougr, who does nice muscle. The only full-size art I've gotten of a personal character.
--Zephyr Skunk - Striped skunk, standard black-and-white. His surname is actually Skunk, despite his adoptive parents being cats. Age 14, plays jazz/blues piano for fun. Rough baritone voice (think Eeeyore) with maybe a six-note range at most. Got the obligatory Marci McAdam conbadge of Zephyr.
--Scott Sierra - Jaguar. Spottymew, err...Scottymew? Scott fixes amusement rides for a living, mostly coasters. The character grew out beyond the suit, which itself was based on the first nice suit I ever saw, way before I found furry: Jam the jaguar on the Fox US transplant of bizarre Brazillian popstar/kids' show XUXA. An artist called Bagheera did a b/w badge of Scott, and saw me in-suit while drawing it.
Alyssa Kamber - Kitten, age 8. Tan fur, white feathered wings. Shifter: can change fur/eye color, body form, species etc. Cannot be older than her current age or change gender. Cute, happy, bouncy, kitteny goodness. EDIT: Plays bass. Upright and electric. Bass kitten, yay. Obligatory adorable Marci badge of 'Lyssa, but also have a beautiful badge by Aja Williams/Kamicheetah. Don't see a way to add images here, but I know that's not what this board is really for.
Edit: How could I forget Midnight? Lutrai!! Ottery goodness. Officially greenlighted by Ollie Canal, who's a really great guy all-around, from what I found. Midnight SkyStar is his conventional-sounding name based on his tribal name which translates to "night sky star". Lutrai are fun. Many locals in the fandom still call me Midnight, and most don't seem to be going with the transition to Zephyr as a more common handle.

Hey Lace... What's the UK furry scene like?

One more edit: The Elf and the Witch is painful, too. Ow.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Nonexistant as far as I know; which is why I go on the internet. XD Just like there are few rock fans around my neck of the woods.

And yeah, that fic is painful to read; the sporking makes it better. XD I could go on for ages on how the only thing that made Sonic Next Gen bearable was Mephiles and his penchant for evil laughter.

[Amanita]

Skunkle, I've enjoyed reading your comments, they've been extremely well written and insightful. I've got a good friend who's a furry, and even he laughs at the idea of fursuit sex or plushophilia.

[Skunkle]

Well, zoophilia (sex with animals) no. But the fandom has loads of plushophilia (using plushies as sex partners or sex toys). Furries begat the term 'SPH' (look it up. Or don't). There's a big difference here, though, between a plushie as a sex aid and a life animal. And fursuit sex, I don't really lump in with plushophilia - there are crossover connections, sure, but most fetishes cross-connect to at least some other(s).

The bad face of furries-as-plushophiles was a person called Plush-She, who posted many, many photos of herself 'playing' with a Pepe LePew plush endowed with a large male sex toy. She soon realized they were a bad plan and yanked 'em, but not before they spread like wildfire. They're still out there somewhewre, I'm sure; I've never gone hunting, but every so often I run into some on some or other forum. Usually they're used to spam a furry art thread in hopes of killing the sex drive that made the viewer browse the thread in the first place, but that's often taken to extremes with some very gory, disturbing stuff too.

One such spammer, filling up a fur porn thread on some imageboard with very bloody stuff, was asked once if he LIKED all the gore he was posting. His reply: "Nope. I just like killing your arousal. It's fun" ...to fuck with people. The mantra of the anonymous.

[Amanita]

Oh, I've heard of SPH- Some of the furs that my friend knew were real fur-verts.

As for the trolls, people like that just embody the internet dickwad theory. Anonymous person+internet=total dickwad

[Skunkle]

LOL @ furverts. Modified plushies, Steve Martin folios, and a few Thor jokes for good measure.

I own all of one X-rated commission, and it's hanging in a spot visitors never see - on the back of my bedroom door. I do have some art on display, but nothing the least bit 'adult'. Non-furs, though, have no idea how odd it is to see Marci McAdam's art of someone's adorable kid Kimba the white lion 'sona next to a large watercolor of Roz Gibson's Jack Salem, looking particularly malicious as only Salem can. (Another picture of Salem looking friendly hung nearby notwithstanding - I told Roz when recieving it "I don't want to know what makes him this happy, do I?" She said "No. No, you probably don't") Besides those and a print of Gibson's otter species watercolor, I don't have much where the average visitor sees; my badges are on the wall in my bedroom though.

And yes. It seems to be that a random guy who might be quite amiable in person can easily turn into an utter dick when suddenly set down behind a computer; the fact that anonymity is almost guaranteed gives way to countless nasty actions the person would never do to another person face-to-face. In many cases, I think that's letting out their true self. In at least some, though, I believe they just let the headrush that is anonymity hit them too hard, try to have some fun, and get carried away.