A Furry Article from Canada
A student at the University of Toronto recently interviewed several local furries. The article which she wrote from those interviews was published in UofT's student newspaper, The Varsity. It can be found here
Please note that you might have to subscribe to The Varsity to view the article; their "unsubscribe" feature seems to work correctly.
So far, the reaction from those whom the student interviewed has been
positive.When one of them picked up a copy of the paper, however, he
was less than impressed with their choice of pictures:
"- One (by the title) is a very nice picture by Iron_Raptor of three
furs at a cafeteria table.
- One is a photo of a fursuit.
- One is a conbadge.
" And then it rapidly goes downhill:
"- One is a pinup of two nude female furs.
- One is a picture of a nude male in bondage gear.
- One is a butt-shot of two tigers yiffing."
The pictures don't appear in the onlive version. You be the judge.
Comments
Compared to the more famous notorious spots on furry fandom, this didn't hurt much at all. As a counter to "furry = fetish" view, though, I think it's a bit lackluster.
Skimming through the article, you see these headings:
"Why Mickey Mouse wears pants"
"It’s not just about humping stuffed animals"
"It’s just like loving your pet – really!"
"Again, it’s not just about animal lust"
For an article trying to say that furry isn't all about sex, a rather significant portion of it is going on about the sexual aspect. It comes across like denying a shameful problem ("I can quit any time I want to.") I think the point would have been better conveyed by talking about the less scandalous things we enjoy.
The headings were written by the editor of the newpaper, as the writer had claimed in my discussions with her. Understandably, she was a bit upset at him doing that.
The editor wanted her to write more of a slash article like we've seen before. I guess he's just another media sheep, really.
The article she wrote was quite balanced compared to most, which is being more fair to furries and the public than just about anyone else has been. As for the images, they reflect on that same level of balance.
There's sex in the fandom like there's sex in real life, and to deny such or brush it under the carpet will do noone any good.
Benjamin
S t r i p e y M a n e y : A Liger's Anthropomorphic Animal Art Gallery
It should be added that the writer of the article had subscribed to the Toronto furry mailing list and said this about their motivations:
>i'm a philosophy student at the university of
>toronto, and i'm writing an article on furries.
>i'm not looking to do a cheap entertainment
>article like vanity fair or mtv, rather i
>would really like to get insight into the
>how and why of furries. i will not just be
>focusing in on the fetish part. i am
>interested in why people are furries, what the
>attraction is, etc etc.
I stand by my assertion that "The press is not our friend."
Sure, you can call me paranoid, and I'll just point to this, because he wasn't "looking to do a cheap entertainment article," really.
-Feren
"We use them for divine retribution."
Um... why is that important?
Not bad at all.
On a 1-10 scale(with 1 being the most negative, and 10 being the most positive), I'd say it is about a 7.5.
Although from my experince, most furs aren't gay or bi. From my experience 50% of furs are either gay or bi.
But overall the article is alright, after all nothing can be as bad as what has been seen in the past. And again from my experience, I'd say most furs do partake in the tamer sexual aspects of the fandom(but not fursuit sex, or the like).
Further note on the pictures that accompanied the article in the
actual paper; according to someone who's actually seen them, they're
not all the same size:
- the Iron Raptor picture of three furs at a cafeteria table makes up
the story banner and is large;
- the photo of the fur suit is also fairly large;
- the other four are smaller. (I've never touched paw to a copy of
The Varsity myself, so I don't know just how much smaller. If anyone
has a copy and a ruler?)
- the other four are smaller. (I've never touched paw to a copy of The Varsity myself, so I don't know just how much smaller. If anyone has a copy and a ruler?)
They're each about the size of a playing card.
I'm still amazed that "they're only half the size, so it's all ok!" flew as an excuse.
Oh for the love of crap!
We ***** when mainstream media writes about us, we ***** when non-mainstream media tries it's best to do a non-biased article about us....
I must note that the sub-captions were NOT concocted by the author, but rather her editor.
Geez.... it's like babysitting children...
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