Thoughts on Furry
Feb. 2nd, 2011 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slycatAt work this evening, I overheard a work colleague discussing a friend of his wife's who wears "animal costumes with flaps" and attends conventions for other people who share the same interest. The colleague he was discussing it with seemed rather surprised that conventions for these people exist... and as usual (it's not the first time furries have been mentioned at work by coworkers), I had to bite my tongue and say how unusual the concept sounds.
I must say, it does disappoint me that this is how the average person perceives furries. Of course I know that furry isn't exclusive to those who wear costumes and those who do, on the whole, don't do it for sexual kicks. Thinking it over, I can only conclude that people hear about a group of people who attend conventions wearing animal costumes and try to rationalise why people might do that. They don't think about the escapism or performing aspects and so figure it must be a fetish thing. If that is the case however, why don't the cosplayers get the same stigma attached to them? I guess dressing up as your favourite character from a Japanese cartoon is more commonly acceptable than dressing up as a random animal character you made up.
Anyway, it's for reasons like this, I have zero intention to let on that I'm a fur to anyone at work. I just hope that no-one works out why I go to certain places at certain times for my holidays!
I must say, it does disappoint me that this is how the average person perceives furries. Of course I know that furry isn't exclusive to those who wear costumes and those who do, on the whole, don't do it for sexual kicks. Thinking it over, I can only conclude that people hear about a group of people who attend conventions wearing animal costumes and try to rationalise why people might do that. They don't think about the escapism or performing aspects and so figure it must be a fetish thing. If that is the case however, why don't the cosplayers get the same stigma attached to them? I guess dressing up as your favourite character from a Japanese cartoon is more commonly acceptable than dressing up as a random animal character you made up.
Anyway, it's for reasons like this, I have zero intention to let on that I'm a fur to anyone at work. I just hope that no-one works out why I go to certain places at certain times for my holidays!
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Date: 2011-02-03 12:57 am (UTC)Which means I can get away with furry-related murder at work and no one bats an eyelid. I used to have furry art plastered on my locker in the staff room until we upgraded DDR EuroMix to SuperNova and I was given the EuroMix stickers to plaster all over my locker instead! I also got to take the EuroMix header home too, which is awesome. :)