RAVE: I love furries

[Kellie Gator]

So for those of you who don't know, which are a very few of you, I was at my first furry convention this year, NordicFuzzCon.

I was actually reluctant to go because I was starting to lose faith in furries about a week or two before the con because, frankly, furries are WAY too accepting of everything (including pedophilia and bestiality) unless you happen to be something else than a straight gay white cis male. So I was nervous.

But, well, I had the time of my life there! I mean, a lot of furries LOOKED like I imagined; ugly, greasy, fat, wearing fedoras... but you know what, otherwise they weren't what I imagined and feared at all! They were really chill people and quite lovely, and I grew quite fond of fursuiters, those guys were awesome.

This wasn't like that game convention I was at where I just cringed constantly and wanted to run away, no, I loved almost all of these guys and had no problem talking with 'em at all, making new friends.

Basically, I love furries and I hope I can go to more conventions, 'cause this con was awesome and re-energized my love for the community.

Thanks for being furries, furries. <3

[Kosha]

We furries think you're okay. :^)

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

Ew, loving furries? What are you, gay? :V

[Kellie Gator]

10 minutes ago, Kosha said:

We furries think you're okay. :^)

Only okay? >:[

2 minutes ago, Sidewalk Surfboard said:

Ew, loving furries? What are you, gay? :V

I used to be a gay dude before I realized I was trans. :U

[Rabbit Head]

I wanna go to a con so bad ;__;

I refuse to die and leave this mortal realm until I've hugged a fur suit, god dammit... 

[MuttButt]

Conventions are the shit! and yeah. As it turns out furries are a pretty varied group of people. Any sort of gathering of people who share a common interest is gonna have the people who are exactly the sort you'd expect to be there as well as people who you'd never guess to be involved in that sort of thing in a million years. It's part of why I insist that every furry go to a con at least once just to see if they like it. Even people who are total curmudgeons and wall flowers have the time of their lives at furry cons.

[Ieono]

11 minutes ago, MuttButt said:

Conventions are the shit! and yeah. As it turns out furries are a pretty varied group of people. Any sort of gathering of people who share a common interest is gonna have the people who are exactly the sort you'd expect to be there as well as people who you'd never guess to be involved in that sort of thing in a million years. It's part of why I insist that every furry go to a con at least once just to see if they like it. Even people who are total curmudgeons and wall flowers have the time of their lives at furry cons.

I hope to go to one this year for this very reason!

[MuttButt]

22 minutes ago, Ieono said:

I hope to go to one this year for this very reason!

Do iiiiit. It helps to go with friends or meet people you know online, but even if you're pretty much by yourself, I encourage you to just wander around the con space and see if you can strike up a conversation. Ask what game those people are playing, compliment somebody's partial or outfit. I guarantee you'll leave with a ton of new friends :3

[Nekokami]

Faith in furmanity restored, eh?

[Rabbit Head]

10 minutes ago, Nekokami said:

Faith in furmanity restored, eh?

 

[DrDingo]

I don't know about anybody else, but if I went to a furry convention, I'd feel too ashamed to tell anyone I was going.

But it does sound quirkily fun. In ways.

[Troj]

See, there you go!

Glad you enjoyed.

[evan]

3 hours ago, DrDingo said:

I don't know about anybody else, but if I went to a furry convention, I'd feel too ashamed to tell anyone I was going.

But it does sound quirkily fun. In ways.

i fall into this category.

 

should be interesting when i hit up the furcon in my hometown...

[TheGreatFanatic]

11 hours ago, Kellie Gator said:

So for those of you who don't know, which are a very few of you, I was at my first furry convention this year, NordicFuzzCon.

I was actually reluctant to go because I was starting to lose faith in furries about a week or two before the con because, frankly, furries are WAY too accepting of everything (including pedophilia and bestiality) unless you happen to be something else than a straight gay white cis male. So I was nervous.

But, well, I had the time of my life there! I mean, a lot of furries LOOKED like I imagined; ugly, greasy, fat, wearing fedoras... but you know what, otherwise they weren't what I imagined and feared at all! They were really chill people and quite lovely, and I grew quite fond of fursuiters, those guys were awesome.

This wasn't like that game convention I was at where I just cringed constantly and wanted to run away, no, I loved almost all of these guys and had no problem talking with 'em at all, making new friends.

Basically, I love furries and I hope I can go to more conventions, 'cause this con was awesome and re-energized my love for the community.

Thanks for being furries, furries. <3

Fucking noob.

[Kellie Gator]

10 hours ago, DrDingo said:

I don't know about anybody else, but if I went to a furry convention, I'd feel too ashamed to tell anyone I was going.

But it does sound quirkily fun. In ways.

I was too ashamed to tell most people myself. I was vague with my parents but my brother always knew I was a furfag and I let two other people know.

But why are we so ashamed? Anime fans or Bronies don't seem to deal with the same kind of shame.

5 hours ago, TheGreatFanatic said:

Fucking noob.

NOOB SAIBOT WINS

ANIMALITY

(also I've been a furfag for 11 years)

Edited March 8, 2016 by Kellie Gator

[DrDingo]

1 hour ago, Kellie Gator said:

I was too ashamed to tell most people myself. I was vague with my parents but my brother always knew I was a furfag and I let two other people know.

But why are we so ashamed? Anime fans or Bronies don't seem to deal with the same kind of shame.

Ah, but looking shamelessly open and obsessed with your fandom can still make you look disgusting and mental.

Fig 1. Anime fans and Bronies

Furries aren't exceptions either

Edited March 8, 2016 by DrDingo

[Kellie Gator]

4 minutes ago, DrDingo said:

Ah, but looking shamelessly open and obsessed with your fandom can still make you look disgusting and mental.

Fig 1. Anime fans and Bronies

Furries aren't exceptions either

True. Fortunately I haven't seen any here but in Stockholm, most certainly. I remember when I was at a library in Stockholm and some goth kids came in with buttons everywhere saying stuff like how awesome yaoi is and that was just weird. ._____.

[Spot]

And now comes the "post con depression." Lol, you'll be a wreck! 

[Kellie Gator]

1 minute ago, Mr. Fox said:

And now comes the "post con depression." Lol, you'll be a wreck! 

I think I have it now... or, I dunno if I'd call it depression. I'm... restless, though, frustrated, and a bit hyperactive. I wanna get the fuck out there and meet more furries and do all the furry things but I'm confined on this terrible island with nothing to do. ;w;

[Spot]

Yup, that's it, and there's only one cure: moar cons. But careful, levels of PCD may vary.

[Half-Note]

Ohai, Kellie! Yer' back!

I've been planning to go to a con meself, but it'll be a while yet. Good to hear it's not just those stereotypical dudes anyway. ^^

[TheGreatFanatic]

5 hours ago, Kellie Gator said:

 I've been a furfag for 11 years)

Fucking noob.

[Snagged]

2 hours ago, Kellie Gator said:

I think I have it now... or, I dunno if I'd call it depression. I'm... restless, though, frustrated, and a bit hyperactive. I wanna get the fuck out there and meet more furries and do all the furry things but I'm confined on this terrible island with nothing to do. ;w;

I will be coming to some nordic furry convention some day. We may meet one day. You are not alone in this world

Inte bli deprimerad

18 minutes ago, TheGreatFanatic said:

Fucking noob.

Fucking veteran

[PastryOfApathy]

7 hours ago, Kellie Gator said:

I was too ashamed to tell most people myself. I was vague with my parents but my brother always knew I was a furfag and I let two other people know.

But why are we so ashamed? Anime fans or Bronies don't seem to deal with the same kind of shame. 

Bronies are a special kind of sperg and weebs aren't known as "those weirdos who dress up in carpets and fuck dogs."

[Xaende]

20 hours ago, DrDingo said:

I don't know about anybody else, but if I went to a furry convention, I'd feel too ashamed to tell anyone I was going.

But it does sound quirkily fun. In ways.

Just say you're going to a small science fiction convention or maybe a comic convention. Both are technically true, as fur cons contain elements of both, yet vague enough to not raise eyebrows. The closest I've come to saying I've been to a furry convention was when a friend of my sister asked me if it was kind of like Dragon Con and I said yeah. FWIW, I'm pretty open about liking cartoon animal characters and whatnot. I just don't call myself a furry around non-furs. Too much room for misunderstanding.

They are fun, so I think you owe it to yourself to experience one firsthand.

[Troj]

Yeah, I'll say "convention" or "science fiction and fantasy convention" or "a convention for a smaller niche within sci fi and fantasy," depending, if I don't feel comfortable just spillin' the beans.

I am more likely to be more plain and frank about having previously attended a fur con than I am about preparing to attend one, because then I can explain where I was using my most recent photos and videos.

[Clove Darkwave]

1 hour ago, Troj said:

Yeah, I'll say "convention" or "science fiction and fantasy convention" or "a convention for a smaller niche within sci fi and fantasy," depending, if I don't feel comfortable just spillin' the beans.

I am more likely to be more plain and frank about having previously attended a fur con than I am about preparing to attend one, because then I can explain where I was using my most recent photos and videos.

"Art convention" is the fastest and most reliable way to immediately bore most people out of interest.

[Kellie Gator]

30 minutes ago, Clove Darkwave said:

"Art convention" is the fastest and most reliable way to immediately bore most people out of interest.

Not really, at least here in Sweden everyone wants to know what kind of convention you're going to and then I have to find a way to either explain it or be vague as fuck.

[Toboe]

28 minutes ago, Kellie Gator said:

Not really, at least here in Sweden everyone wants to know what kind of convention you're going to and then I have to find a way to either explain it or be vague as fuck.

An art convention centered around the topic of Anthropomorphised animals.

[Troj]

49 minutes ago, Kellie Gator said:

Not really, at least here in Sweden everyone wants to know what kind of convention you're going to and then I have to find a way to either explain it or be vague as fuck.

But, do Scandinavian furries have to be vague as fuck about going to furry conventions?

My impression is that American furries feel they have to be vague, because American culture is weird about sex, and because furries already have an entrenched reputation for being kinky pervs in the United States, thanks to Vanity Fair, CSI, and Tyra Banks.

Just based on a few news spots and mini-documentaries I've seen about Eurofurence, it seems like many European countries know that furry porn exists, but don't care.

I suppose even if you aren't worried about the sexual connotations, you might still be worried about people thinking you're "immature", "weird," or "crazy."

 

[Ieono]

On 3/7/2016 at 6:17 PM, DrDingo said:

I don't know about anybody else, but if I went to a furry convention, I'd feel too ashamed to tell anyone I was going.

But it does sound quirkily fun. In ways.

I used to be ashamed of bringing up the furry community, but that has since faded. I realized that if I don't personally do anything that i am ashamed of, I shouldn't be ashamed of discussing a community I belong to. People are free to see all the monkey anthro porn that I enjoy, I am not ashamed of such things. I've done nothing especially dramatic that made me feel like an idiot afterwards, like some others seem to have done. 

The community may be perceived as shameful by others, but your own acts and feelings are independent of the overall community. If people want to criticize you based on an assumptive generalization, then that is their own foolishness. 

[Kellie Gator]

8 hours ago, Troj said:

But, do Scandinavian furries have to be vague as fuck about going to furry conventions?

My impression is that American furries feel they have to be vague, because American culture is weird about sex, and because furries already have an entrenched reputation for being kinky pervs in the United States, thanks to Vanity Fair, CSI, and Tyra Banks.

Just based on a few news spots and mini-documentaries I've seen about Eurofurence, it seems like many European countries know that furry porn exists, but don't care.

I suppose even if you aren't worried about the sexual connotations, you might still be worried about people thinking you're "immature", "weird," or "crazy."

 

Good question, I suppose we got off relatively easy and when I mentioned I was going to the con to an old acquaintance of mine and told him I was embarrassed he said there was nothing to be ashamed of, and my therapist doesn't care either.

I heard there was a Swedish TV show that covered furries in a less than flattering way, much akin to those shows you mentioned, but I haven't seen it and frankly don't know if I want to. I doubt I can handle all the cringe. D: