Does this go above, next to, or below 'People who write erotic versions of Star Trek where all the characters are furries?' October 15, 2008 5:41 PM Subscribe
Also, thanks for this post, you bastard. If anyone needs me I'm going to the store to buy a case of Lava pumice soap and a few jugs of Fast Orange. After that I'll probably be in the shower scrubbing furiously. For the next few months. Not sleeping. posted by loquacious at 6:00 PM on October 15, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]
I guess if the GOP needs somebody to roam around the floor at the next convention in an elephant suit, they're all set. posted by jonmc at 6:06 PM on October 15, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]
How embarrassing for furries in general, that there are a bunch of freaks like this in their midst. posted by edheil at 6:07 PM on October 15, 2008 [34 favorites has favorites]
It's as good a place as any. I'm watching Wonkette's coverage myself. posted by mullingitover at 6:08 PM on October 15, 2008
jonmc: Convention attendees might be slightly put off if the party mascot started humping them. posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 6:09 PM on October 15, 2008
Is Palin considered the party mascot? posted by Wolfdog at 6:10 PM on October 15, 2008
jonmc: Convention attendees might be slightly put off if the party mascot started humping them.
It's a lot more boring than I expected. I mean, besides the avatars, the rest is just a typical Republican blog. I expected some sort of crossover, if not crossover Republican fanfic. posted by Gnatcho at 6:16 PM on October 15, 2008
Crossover Republican fanfic? Like Dubya in an armadillo suit humping Harper in a beaver suit? posted by QIbHom at 6:18 PM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]
I call shenanigans. How do we know those "furries" aren't plants? posted by Smart Dalek at 6:22 PM on October 15, 2008
Wow, reading some of those entries in context with the furry thing... not to pass judgment or anything, but... what the fuck is wrong with people?! posted by Drainage! at 6:24 PM on October 15, 2008
The Nazi Furs are all for understanding, and against anti-semitism. They are friends with the Soviet Furs. And they love dogs in uniform.
Ok, TheOnlyCoolTim, you win. You found something that made less sense than Republican furries, the debates and the US elections. I'm in awe. posted by QIbHom at 6:29 PM on October 15, 2008
There's actually a strong strain of anti-gay sentiment among (some, or even most) Furries. I know, I know. But really, it's there. posted by Tomorrowful at 6:46 PM on October 15, 2008
There's actually a strong strain of anti-gay sentiment among (some, or even most) Furries. I know, I know. But really, it's there
This isn't as inconsistent as you might think: The Republicans have always had a long-standing conflict with reality.
I try to be open-minded, almost to the point where my brain falls out of my skull. Maybe with genetic engineering and tissue culturing these people can have what they want. Still, having a sexual fetish which isn't merely unlikely, but cannot yet happen is like having a fantasy of bedding down the 80th American President, or wanting to be the first human to have sex a light year from Earth, then building a faux spaceship interior in a secret room under your basement, buying Captain Kirk's prop chair, and hiring strippers to paint themselves green and give you a lapdance.
The other part thing kinda bothers me — think about the inside of fursuits, which must be expensive to dryclean and probably do not receive the maintenance they might deserve. Stiiicky. posted by adipocere at 6:59 PM on October 15, 2008
...building a faux spaceship interior in a secret room under your basement, buying Captain Kirk's prop chair, and hiring strippers to paint themselves green and give you a lapdance.
Furry Republicans? I say we load our snipers, get a helicopter, and go around shooting them. You betcha! posted by qvantamon at 7:11 PM on October 15, 2008
You think Sarah Palin is a furry? I can see her in a moose costume. posted by jonmc at 7:13 PM on October 15, 2008
Joe the Plumber. Was he one of the Watergate burglars? posted by fixedgear at 7:52 PM on October 15, 2008
I find it amusing that some furries support a political party that, if it knew about them and was in power, would probably try to have them arrested. posted by Mitrovarr at 7:56 PM on October 15, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]
Meh. I can top this. Green Party vore fetishists. posted by Inspector.Gadget at 8:05 PM on October 15, 2008
Someone really needs to spam the Twitter election page with a Furries for McCain/Palin! account. posted by Tehanu at 8:35 PM on October 15, 2008
Where does that, in turn, fit in with erotic White House fan fiction? posted by crapmatic at 8:46 PM on October 15, 2008
I was afraid of that. posted by Balisong at 8:56 PM on October 15, 2008
Are you suggesting like furry West Wing characters? I can't imagine writing fan fiction about any of the real people working in the White House.
Not that the fictional one lends itself to a furry context all that well either. posted by Tehanu at 8:57 PM on October 15, 2008
Inspector.Gadget: I can top this. Green Party vore fetishists.
Actually, that particular fetish should play well with elements of the Green Party. If you are a primitivist or have strong feelings about inherent rights of the natural world, you kinda have to be ok with predation of and by humans, so you might as well feel sexy about it. AmIRight? posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 8:58 PM on October 15, 2008
Well, that's one community that, roundabout November 5th, will be running home with their tails between their legs. posted by googly at 8:59 PM on October 15, 2008 [26 favorites has favorites]
googly, you are my new hero. posted by paultopia at 9:03 PM on October 15, 2008
Also:
Oh… oh… baaaby… I’m an endangered species! Despoil my natural habitat! Drill into it baby, drill into it! posted by paultopia at 9:06 PM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]
In case you were wondering, yes. There is a republican furry community.
Some people in chipmunk suits have already been deployed yesterday to protest ACORN (story,their blog). Quite odd. posted by bobo123 at 9:19 PM on October 15, 2008
Just to be clear, Furries are people who dress up in mascot like suits for sexual reasons, correct? posted by clearly at 9:28 PM on October 15, 2008
AmIRight?
I was thinking about the incongruity of a bunch of crunchy vegan-friendly types eating their way through the world's population for sexual gratification, but I yield to the superior explanation you've provided. posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:32 PM on October 15, 2008
Just to be clear, Furries are people who dress up in mascot like suits for sexual reasons, correct?
Why are the cars always catching? I don't think I should have to go somewhere else to see drawings of a a dragon being double-teamed by a 71 Challenger and a 2CV, or to see Herbie fisting Spyro. posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:46 PM on October 15, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]
Inspector.Gadget: Oh, I get your reasoning now. Maybe the primitivists could eat the vegans? If your proposed solution to the world's urgent ecological and resource crises is to reduce us all to a pre-technological level that can only support 1/7000 of the world's current population, you might as well start eating your way through the excess population. posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 9:48 PM on October 15, 2008
The other part thing kinda bothers me — think about the inside of fursuits...
MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP
I'm going to need to scrub my brain with pumice. Thanks.
...help me out here, guys.
Sometimes they do it to wash their cars*. Full body chamois.
Well, not quite an animal suit, but the Stanford Tree Mascot was cited for being plastered during the Stanford-Cal basketball game in 2006. But then, maybe she just needed some liquid courage to proposition the Cal Bear. posted by clearly at 10:13 PM on October 15, 2008
Does this post bring up mental images of Johnny Drama in a pink bunny suit for anybody else? posted by clearly at 10:14 PM on October 15, 2008
Does this post bring up mental images of Johnny Drama in a pink bunny suit for anybody else?
It does now.... posted by hellojed at 10:26 PM on October 15, 2008
Can anyone explain the sudden prevalence of furries? I realize the internet is blowing their numbers all out of proportion, but it seems like a subgroup that really didn't exist 15 or 20 years ago. Have there always been people in fursuits fucking each other?
Has any anthropologist attempted to trace it back to some sort of origin? Maybe the Muppet Show or Fraggle Rock or something? posted by graventy at 10:56 PM on October 15, 2008
Do the ACORN protesters realize everyone is just going to think they're furries? Or maybe they do. posted by drezdn at 10:56 PM on October 15, 2008
Has any anthropologist attempted to trace it back to some sort of origin? Maybe the Muppet Show or Fraggle Rock or something?
I've read a few detailed histories of them, and they were around in small numbers since around the early 70s. Their ranks grew when USENET became widely available in the early 90s, and the first time they became known to the outside world is around that same time, when the creators and staff of Tiny Toon Adventures learned that furries were getting off sexually to their show due to receiving unspeakably creepy "fan mail" from them about wanting to see the female characters naked. This is the reason the show ended and the creators moved on to Animaniacs, and the final episode features a poke at furries in the form of a grossly overweight "superfan". It's also the reason voice actress Tress MacNeille very rarely appears in public, as she had a few highly unpleasant experiences being harassed by obese basement dwellers wanting to fuck Babs Bunny. You can read all about this here.
Also, "furry" doesn't necessarily mean "people who have sex in fursuits" - a lot of furries do that, but "furry" simply means "freak person who is sexually attracted to anthropomorphic cartoon animals". posted by DecemberBoy at 11:32 PM on October 15, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]
The defrocked tree, who plans to apply to become an astronaut and hopes one day to walk on the moon, said she could not believe the results of the breath test.
Thanks Clearly for the oddest sentence of 2008.
(Well, if you don't count the entirety of Sarah Palin's output...) posted by maryh at 11:46 PM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]
Finally, a chance to link to Nazi Furs. Sieg Heil!
Just when you are all jaded and think there can't possibly be anything else to surprise you... I mean just wow. posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:19 AM on October 16, 2008
Has any anthropologist attempted to trace it back to some sort of origin? Maybe the Muppet Show or Fraggle Rock or something?
Completely unscientific theory: Before the internet, people would develop kinks for pretty much everything and anything during puberty then, they grew out of it as they started trying to date.
Now we have the internet; the 14 year old who takes an unhealthy interest in female sonic the hedgehog characters goes on the internet and finds like-minded people and their fetish is reinforced rather than dying away.
Hey DecemberBoy, do you have a link to some of those detailed histories? As much as I know I will regret reading them, I'm still curious. posted by Mitrovarr at 4:21 AM on October 16, 2008
The Furry Survey: As of the most recently submitted entry, there are 6508 entries in the database, with a margin of error +/- 1.24%. Note that not all people responded to all questions, so some entries are based on a smaller data set. posted by Drexen at 4:34 AM on October 16, 2008
Smart Dalek: "I call shenanigans. How do we know those "furries" aren't plants?"
Just when you are all jaded and think there can't possibly be anything else to surprise you... I mean just wow.
When I saw this one I laughed so hard I actually rolled on the floor, laughing. posted by dunkadunc at 4:50 AM on October 16, 2008
(Uh, whoops -- "History" on furry.wikia.com) posted by Drexen at 4:53 AM on October 16, 2008
I'll see your Nazi Furs and raise you The Psychedelic Furs!
What? posted by kcds at 4:55 AM on October 16, 2008
Thanks for those links, Drexen.
I have a pretty big hate-on for all of the furry hate. Granted there is a lot of weird, sexual stuff that goes on within the community as a whole (not that that should be an issue, right, because we're all open-minded people?). I know some people, is all I'm sayin', and they're very upset that a relatively small subset of their fandom, as measured both through personal experience and some of Drexen's links, takes the 'identity' and warps it into something irreversibly and extremely sexual. posted by six-or-six-thirty at 5:39 AM on October 16, 2008
Perhaps less than one in ten thousand people, I'm guessing, is a furry, yet somehow they ruin stuffed animals and Donald Duck cartoons for everyone. posted by JHarris at 5:44 AM on October 16, 2008
i thought the first link said 'republican furry commercial', and clicked on it. i was profoundly disappointed. posted by lester at 5:51 AM on October 16, 2008
six-or-six-thirtywrites"I have a pretty big hate-on for all of the furry hate."
Kinda mean-spirited, no? posted by Drexen at 7:48 AM on October 16, 2008
Yes, Drexen. And I really don't care. We're talking people who support the people who, among other things, recently killed the US economy (hence screwed up the world outside of North Korea) while making a huge profit.
If I choose to mock a subset of them for being a different flavour of pervert than I am, rather than getting out a guide to making bombs, well, you don't have to read it. posted by QIbHom at 8:42 AM on October 16, 2008
Actually I think this is the sort of costume I would expect a Republican furry to wear. Especially when they are having sex. posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:58 AM on October 16, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]
This is old news. Republican furries have been out in force at least since 2004. posted by Faint of Butt at 10:22 AM on October 16, 2008
I have a pretty big hate-on for all of the furry hate. Granted there is a lot of weird, sexual stuff that goes on within the community as a whole (not that that should be an issue, right, because we're all open-minded people?). I know some people, is all I'm sayin', and they're very upset that a relatively small subset of their fandom, as measured both through personal experience and some of Drexen's links, takes the 'identity' and warps it into something irreversibly and extremely sexual.
If it was just a sexual fetish for fursuits that would be odd, but whatever. Instead furry is this creepy delusional all-pervasive thing. YOU ARE NOT A DRAGON, BUDDY. posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 12:07 PM on October 16, 2008
"We shared the dream again last night. As always, she comes at me like a Stuka, but this time, while the pack scatters, I am steady, my feet rooted in the muskeg. Her bullet, which like her is gentle and irresistible and absolutely real, takes me in the breast.
"Wings flashing, she soars overhead. In the slow-time of dream death I can see past the tip of her rifle barrel, behind its scope to her amber eyes -- canine eyes, so close to my own. We are so alike, she knows me so well. Especially, she knows what I need, in that moment, and she kindly grants it.
"In that one gesture, so brief and fleeting and yet so absolutely real, I learn I have no use for the material world anymore, except for my lungs and my throat and my lips, because they are howling grateful tribute at her, telling her that my Heaven is this moment, forever: my howl and her wink.
"She tosses a flare from the plane, to mark my place for when she comes for me. I breathe in its acrid smell deeply, trying to fix myself in the dream, but you cannot stay in a dream past your death. I must be content knowing that when she comes to find me, in our dream-Alaska, my paw will be raised for her." posted by Sauce Trough at 1:14 PM on October 16, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]
Hey DecemberBoy, do you have a link to some of those detailed histories? As much as I know I will regret reading them, I'm still curious.
Sorry, I have no idea how to find them again, and I'm pretty sure some or all of them were forum posts. Everything that happened before the article I linked is pretty uninteresting, and can basically be summed up thus: there was a fandom for what they originally called "funny animals" that was just like really enthusiastic about Disney films and the like, and there was a subset that were into it sexually (much like some people really like to write about Kirk and Spock fucking). A few underground risque "funny animal" comics appeared appealing to these types. On the advent of the early Internet, the pervert set connected via USENET and MUCKs and the like and slowly morphed into the monstrosity of today.
I only know all of this as an outside observer, and really furries would be pretty uninteresting if they weren't so obsessive and sanctimonious. If you happen to think that people fucking in mascot suits and jerking it to The Secret of NIMH is pretty silly, I'm sorry to inform you that you are a Nazi fascist Christian oppressor. They even have a term for it: "fursecution". I was once even personally targeted by a well-known furry who is sexually attracted to pool toys (yeah, really), who retaliated by making a website featuring a rogue's gallery of fascist persecutors, including my real name and photograph and those of some of my friends. posted by DecemberBoy at 3:58 PM on October 16, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]
The Only Cool Tim:If it was just a sexual fetish for fursuits that would be odd, but whatever. Instead furry is this creepy delusional all-pervasive thing. YOU ARE NOT A DRAGON, BUDDY.
Once again, this also is a very small subset of the fandom as far as personal experience goes. I know no one, actually, from the large group of 'furries' I associate with who actually thinks they're an animal of some sort. The poll to which Drexen linked asked an interesting question that, very sadly, did not show in any of the results I found ('Self-identity. Please respond to the following statement: "I am human."'). I suspect most furries would click 'Agree' with no hesitance. I suppose my hate-on is not so much for the hate on furries (or the lulz or whatever, which I am pro-lulz), but for the rampant and willing ignorance of and bias against the furry subculture. And the misconceptions. Make fun all you like, but have some idea of what you're talking about, please.
QIbHom: Yes, Drexen. And I really don't care. We're talking people who support the people who, among other things, recently killed the US economy (hence screwed up the world outside of North Korea) while making a huge profit.
I was under the impression that Drexen was saying it was mean-spirited towards furries in general, not necessarily the whole Republican thing. But I could be wrong. posted by six-or-six-thirty at 4:27 PM on October 16, 2008
Sorry, that was a bit more strongly worded than I like. I concede that there may be a healthy(?) number of furries who actually have this 'delusional all-pervasive thing' going on, but I do not know of them. Perhaps I just avoid them and thus have a perception bias.
It would be nice, I think, if there were separate terms for all of these things. posted by six-or-six-thirty at 4:29 PM on October 16, 2008
I didn't mean that in the sense that most furries would say to you that they're not quite human (though some would) but the investment in and interaction through "fursonas" seems too much, as if D&D players or people who dress up for the Star Trek convention started taking it WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 4:38 PM on October 16, 2008
I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree. Most I know are perfectly normal people who like to daydream or play games as another persona who happens to have an animal basis. But then, I suppose I may be on the 'normal fringe' of the whole thing, and I spend a lot of time daydreaming anyway. I guess I don't feel as if it's any different than the personas I slowly worked into in my earlier days on online forums. One login name, one attitude, another, a different attitude, which was all pretty good fun for a bored teenager in a small, small town. They just didn't have cat ears and fur. That's the only real difference I see.
Thanks for your clarification, though, it was heartening. posted by six-or-six-thirty at 4:49 PM on October 16, 2008
I see your dragons and raise youwithOtherkin, who specifically don't identify as human. No news yet on their political affiliations, though. posted by dunkadunc at 5:28 PM on October 16, 2008
FoxWolfie/Palin 08! posted by brain cloud at 5:47 PM on October 16, 2008
~If it was just a sexual fetish for fursuits that would be odd, but whatever. Instead furry is this creepy delusional all-pervasive thing. YOU ARE NOT A DRAGON, BUDDY.
Subscribe
posted by mullingitover at 5:50 PM on October 15, 2008