ZenZhu
Vociferator
Joined: 22 Mar 2004
Posts: 634
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Posted: 10/7/2004 5:18:07 PM
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You know, just when I figure I'm closer to figuring these guys out, they sprint ahead and regain the distance. Looking at these pics, I'm really kind of mystified as to how the whole furry thing happened. I mean, these guys are pretty ugly and comical.... but, it's not really an OMG-claw-my-eyes-out-they-broke-my-brain kind of mystified. You look at these people prancing around in these costumes of characters they made up...... and it just doesn't seem to make any sense.
With Ren-faire costuming, people are expressing appreciation for the costume, culture, and other stuff of a time period and place. With comic book, SF and anime cons where folks dress up like Superman, Captain Kirk, Trigun, etc... they're trying to emulate a character they think is cool. I guess it's a kind of hero worship. Even with Star Trek and Star Wars fans dressing up in simply the uniforms, rather than as a specific character, they're expressing their appreciation of the ideals they find in those movies.
But, really, what is there in furrydom besides cartoon animals? If they were all dressing as Johnathan Brisby, Kzinti, and other anthros from movies and books and stuff (the stuff produced outside of what we consider furry-produced works), then, I could see it'd be kind of like the anime costuming... just wanting to dress as a character you think is cool.
But, the more I think about it, the more the idea of so many people (even if really a small population within Geektown, USA) going apeshit for dressing up as animal characters that they made up just doesn't make a lot of sense.
On some levels, I can understand it. Like Ren-faire costuming or competent cosplay, it's both a creative outlet and creative process. Making a fursuit is, for some, really more about the artistry and the process, rather than the product. But, for many others, it's the product... the wearing of the suit and what it brings out in them that is the focus. And.. not trying to put it down or anything.. but it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Cartoon animals are so commonplace in our culture that... really... what makes them so special? You can't really say there's any kind of ideal... like with Star Trek. Furries quickly cite tolerance, understanding, etc.... but those are human ideals. You don't see anyone going to AnthroCon dressed as Buddha, do you.. yet he promoted the concepts of love and understanding.
There's a lot of trivial things people obsess on - collecting beanie babies, collecting toy cars, restoring antique cars, golf, football.... a lot of stuff that is really just a recreational pursuit taken to extremes. I'm not knocking furrydom... not in this post, anyway. :) Maybe I'm just hitting another point of becoming more indifferent to their hijinks. But, when I look at these pictures of all of these people gathering together to talk about, draw, and dress up as cartoon animals..... I just kind of fail to understand how they even hold enough of an allure that such a fandom came to be. And that's really saying something, considering a few years ago I probably would have gone to a con, had one been near me.
When I compare furrydom and fursuiting to other fandoms and cosplay, it really just does not compute. I doesn't really have to. A lot of human behavior just doesn't make sense. Still.... it just kind of makes you stop for a moment and scratch your head.
Incidentally, the fellow not in costume in the middle's shirt says it all.
A fat guy in a fun shirt doesn't automatically make for a fun guy... like some big guy in a beer ad in a Hawaiian shirt at the front of a conga line. Sometimes, a fat guy in a fun shirt is still just a fat guy who can't dress himself.
They apparently can't even play Pictionary without drawing tits and a dick.
As I just said....
I am soooo considering sending this to Cliff Yablonski Hates You. |
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