I think we now know what's the matter with Kansas.
Well, uh, hm. But! Er. (shuffles off into corner to cry for my people)
A White Bear is not what's the matter with Kansas... unless there's something she'd like to tell us?
Um, can I ask why the one furry (is it a coyote?) keeps covering his crotch?
There don't seem to be any portraits of white bears.
I'd be curious to get Armsmasher's take because, honestly, I don't think some of them are all that bad. I'm impressed by the amount of expression he can get out of the suits' faces.
I think they're terrible paintings, unfortunately. It would be fun to see terrible paintings of furries in the vein of Calderón, but these are not those paintings.
The paintings look sexier than their subjects, though--the tiger in a robe with a saber(!) is a particularly good example of this. I think because in the paintings you can just pretend it's an animal, and not a person in a plush suit.
AWB you're the very best kind of furry. He could help but do you justice in a portrait.
Gotta love the last picture on that page, though. Pure awesome.
I actually kind of like the paintings. It's not easy to evoke this kind of terror.
I should send this to my friend who's a furry.
Wow, glad I finally know WTF a fursuit portrait paint-off is.
I highly recommend that you go to the guy's main photostream. Trust me.
It turns out to be a bit less horrifying than a fursuit portrait pants-off, but just a bit.
16: Oh, you make me laugh, and I overdid my ab workout the other day, and it hurts.
What I want to know is who's consenting, here?
Hey, whoah, AWB, I think he's in Brooklyn!
Comment to the photo linked by Sifu: "Its like "I and the Village" by Chagal."
These people. They're so free.
Just kidding, she's totally legal.
I never pictured furries looking so cartoony. I wonder if they pillow-talk in high-pitched falsetto voices.
22: I know. From my hometown, in my current residence. There's no escaping.
Incidentally, am I the only person here who's ever done furry work?
Depends on your outfit. I think this one has to have a menacing voice.
25: "lick my asshole you dirty, dirty raccoon" sounds a lot sexier in a Deputy Dawg voice.
Incidentally, am I the only person here who's ever done furry work?
Come again?
Couple of times, actually. When I was eight, I dressed up in a (quite lovely) Snoopy costume my mom made for me and greeted kids at the mall where my mom was doing face-painting. (When dad was out of work, we all pitched in.)
And when I was sixteen, I dressed up in a huge panda suit (local theme park mascot) to hang out with emotionally disturbed kids for my friend's social-worker mom.
Both experiences were deeply unnerving.
Those costumes look like you could win them at skeeball. They're all misshapen.
28: I'm all out of hope
One more bad dream could bring a fall
When I'm far from home
Don't call me on the phone
To tell me you're alone
It's easy to deceive
It's easy to tease
But hard to get release
Les ours sans visage bear without a face
Les ours sans visage bear without a face
Les ours sans visage bear without a face
Got no human grace you bear without a face.
32: As long as your experiences lacked sexual overtones, game on.
You are all weirdos.
Also, those don't look like paintings so much as photos that have had a photoshop watercolor filter applied to them.
32: so when you do it now you're working through the trauma?
You are all weirdos.
You're the one who thinks the furries can hear his comments.
This guy looks like he's about to start rapping.
Howl, howl, masturbate, howl.
Incidentally, am I the only person here who's ever done furry work?
Nope.
Man, doesn't anyone watch the muppet show anymore?
34: maybe he just got the head part on backwards.
Of course Jesus has. It's in the Bible.
am I the only person here who's ever done furry work?
My social circle includes gays, straights, S&Mers, and occasional drag queens, but there's something about furries that still seems really, really weird to me. Is this an unreasonable prejudice?
Incidentally, am I the only person here who's ever done furry work?
Does being the mascot at a basketball game in 8th grade count?
47: well, yeah.
46: in my defense, she only into the furry scene after we stopped seeing each other.
47: Apparently, yes.
I would like this guy better if he'd extend his purview to non-animal furries.
The mascot was the wildcat, though the costume looked more like a tiger.
there's something about furries that still seems really, really weird to me. Is this an unreasonable prejudice?
Nah, furries are well known to be at the bottom of the geek hierarchy.
About ten years ago, and for many months, a guy worked the entrance to a parking garage at Broadway & Hollywood in Chicago, rain or shine, hot or cold, in furry Barney Suit, much more of a grape color than the 'saur himself, ubiquitous on tv in those days. We used to say: worst gig evah, but at least there was no reason to think he had to do the voice.
Some high school friends of mine played in a band (called M/icrowavable Ham/ster), and they had this gimmick where someone would run out in a lion suit halfway through their set and dance around. I got tapped to be the lion for the school talent show. I fell off the stage.
Maybe furries seem weird because I don't understand what a furry is, exactly. Is a "furry" someone who wants to have sex dressed as an animal or just someone who dresses in an animal costume. I always assumed it was the former, but if it's only the latter, that isn't so weird.
57: there are many internecine debates on this topic.
Mostly a furry is the kind of person likely to end up stuffed in a trash can. That's basically it.
Does this count as a furry? Because it is bad ass.
From the link:
Although the sexual fetish side of the subculture is just one part among many, it is the part that has been most widely publicized in the popular media.
I hasten to add that my furry career consisted only of wearing a gorilla get-up for part of an afternoon for a Tokyo department store. I suspected that some of the organizers figured that dressing a foreigner as a gorilla was typecasting, but I still took their money.
You are all weirdos.
Quoting a muppet does seem appropriate here.
I think there are a lot of furries who just like cosplay, not necessarily erotic cosplay.
The thing about both my experiences was I wasn't allowed to talk, no one saw my face, no one knew my gender, and no one knew if I had a facial expression or not; they just saw a big smiling goofy animal waving. People are drawn to hug you when you're in a big soft costume, even adults (which is weird). Other people are tempted to knock you to the ground and throw things at you. So it's sort of a win-win, I guess.
Well at least someone around here is culturally literate.
57: According to the geek hierarchy (see 52 for link), Furries are less geeky than Erotic Furries. A subtle, but telling distinction, no doubt.
but if it's only the latter, that isn't so weird.
Oh, I dunno. I think that's still pretty weird.
Redneck Theatre Presents
Shivbunny's One and Only Encounter with an Online Furry.
[vixen]: I'm a fox!
[shivbunny]: You're a fucking crazy lady.
I imagine Erotic Furries get fierce static electricity shocks.
People are drawn to hug you when you're in a big soft costume
I'm sure that's part of the erotic appeal. That and the whole safety, regression to childhood thing. It's one of those things that seems odd but completely harmless, unlike the RealDoll people.
she only into the furry scene after we stopped seeing each other
I've heard of people despairing that they turned their ex gay, but off of the species entirely? Ouch.
Taking the piss out of furries is so 2003.
The otakukin are the new frontier of internet ghastliness.
Thanks Felix for reminding me.
Is "Otherkin" a subset of furries? Or are furries a subset of "Otherkin"?
It's one of those things that seems odd but completely harmless
That's why it's good for reeling in the kiddies, I imagine.
77: Okay, that's pedophilia, which is a different thing and not harmless.
When faced with their anime an Otakukin may find they have a deep familiarity with the world in which it occurs, or that they have odd foreknowledge of the plot, or feel like they know the characters.
I believe that's called "formulaic genre fiction."
Thanks to this thread, I find this otherwise innocent page almost unbelievably disgusting.
Nobody's furpect!
Just kidding. She's totally legal.
Just like this sort of thing reels in the kiddies to the RealDoll scene.
Just kidding. She's totally legal.
In Scotland, Wales, and Montana.
Sometimes it is very difficult for someone to accept that they are Otakukin ... In the end being an Otakukin is not a choice, one either is or is not, and no amount of denial in either direction will change that fact. My only advice to Otakukin in the process of awakening is to stay strong, and don't be afraid to look for help where it will be given.
So it's bad enough having to put up with stupid Americans enamored of celtic mythology and calling themselves TEH MORRIGAN etc, but now not only do we get "Otherkin" who claim they not only believe but actually are leprechauns but also these jokers who think they are Sailor Moon.
Well done, Stanley!
You hear that, Stanley? B doesn't want any pink in the middle of her furry.
Just kidding. She's totally legal.
Or so the mullahs would have you believe.
Is "Otherkin" a subset of furries? Or are furries a subset of "Otherkin"?
Probably separate sets, aren't they? Furries think they're actually existing animals; otherkin think they're mythical animals; otakukin think they're characters from anime and video games and fiction.
Together with the traditional people-who-think-they're-historical figures-like-Napoleon, we have more or less all the logical space of madness mapped out, I think.
There don't seem to be any portraits of white bears.
Or mice, except maybe in that last picture on the first linked page.
87 successfully shocked me. I think that's the first time a comment on Unfogged has ever done so.
Otakukin believe that they, for one reason or another, have the souls of anime characters
That's nothing. I have the soul of a Loony Tune character.
Honestly, while I reserve the right to laugh, I don't really care who people think they are or want to be. Spice of life, etc.
Am I the only one here who thinks of that scene from The Shining whenever anyone mentions furries?
I've known since I was a little boy that I have the soul of Otto the Orange. What's tragic is that I cannot dress like him without being licensed by Syracuse University to do so. My lawsuit is currently in the courts.
while I reserve the right to laugh
Well that's where the likes of TEH MORRIGAN get upset.
There really should be a reality show where all the contestants are people who claim to be reincarnations of Cleopatra or whoever, and they compete to see who's got the real soul.
87 successfully shocked me. I think that's the first time a comment on Unfogged has ever done so.
Go me!
I would buy a television to watch that.
You hear that, Stanley? B doesn't want any pink in the middle of her furry.
OMG! I CAN SEE FUREVER!!!1!1!
Am I the only one here who thinks of that scene from The Shining whenever anyone mentions furries?
Yes, totally. Me too.
Incidentally, am I the only person here who's ever done furry work?
Not if you count the time when I was 16 and went to school dressed as a woolly mammoth, in which guise I performed "Man of La Mancha".
There really should be a reality show where all the contestants are people who claim to be reincarnations of Cleopatra or whoever, and they compete to see who's got the real soul.
competitive asp-handling
nose-measurements
I know I'm alone in this, but I think the pictures are rather sweet. Look, being a furry is pretty much the dorkiest thing possible, yes, but it's so harmless, and there's something rather touching about people who really are not afraid to make themselves ridiculous. Lots of geeky subcultures try to be all "oooh, look, we dress like we're in the Matrix, we're actually all hip" (just as certain academics attend conferences wearing leather jackets and vaguely transgressive haircuts) but furries....no, furries just go right ahead and amuse themselves by acting ludicrous.
Honestly, I like geek subcultures.
It would be interesting to find out whether most furries are male or female. Steampunk seems--on a cursory inspection--to skew female, but I suspect furries skew male.
I'd always assumed the furries-and-sex rationale was about being too afraid of sex and bodies to engage in anything pleasurable while vulnerably naked/actually myself, and a fur suit not only would cover up all but the most salient bits but also distances the self from actual sexuality--the one having sex is not the vulnerable self but a giant cartoon raccoon or whatever. Really, it's just like hipsters being all ironic all the time--there, it's not the vulnerable self who's really drinking a potentially-insufficiently-hip microbrew, or sleeping with someone not-stylish-enough, or having feelings or whatever; instead, the ironically-distant hipster persona does these things. Safety in each case, but the furries have, so to speak, the courage of their convictions.
Fischl
I quite like Fischl, especially his watercolors. He gets accused of not being technically great, but he's usually more interesting than say Hockney IMO. I also like Pearson-Wright a lot.
I'd always assumed the furries-and-sex rationale was about being too afraid of sex and bodies to engage in anything pleasurable while vulnerably naked/actually myself
Lacan would have a field day. Disappointingly, though, I'm not actually a furry.
(Sure, Frowner.)
Sorry for being insensitive, Furowner.
I could seduce the consul in to handling my asp for me.
I don't know many figurative painters besides those three, actually. At least current ones.
I'm not sure about digs against Fischl, either; my favorite of the lot, and, to me, almost photorealistic, but with a palette just that much more tasty than reality.
I only frown because straight society won't let me wear my cartoon skink outfit to work, you know. That's the root cause of my disenchantment with society.
Frowner, the last time you wore that outfit, someone stepped on the tail and it came off, and the disconnected tail wriggled on the floor for a few minutes, and it was freaky. Remember?
Frowner, don't you work as support at a uni? You could do it, I bet.
Look, Heebie, if you hadn't been dressed as a cartoon owl, maybe I wouldn't have been all nervous and clumsy with the tail. I thought it was a no-predator event, anyhow.
Questions: when erotic furries bed one another, do they exchange actual tails, a literal reading of the symbolic expression "get some tail"? This seems important.
Not all fur costumes have tails, which is why the phrase "piece of ass" also became necessary.
114: There was something in the Chronicle about a grad student who wore furry squirrel ears every day, I think, but I can't link to it from home.
Do they wear clothes under the fur suit? Or is that part of the whole strangers-come-up-and-give-you-hugs appeal?
118: Yuck. We have a student who is constantly in full-on goth costume (not just like black hair and lipstick and clothes, but like fetish clothes with ripped-out patches) all the time. It's not cute. Yes, I judge.
I can't link to it from home.
NSFH.
Man, you people have so many questions about fursuits. I think you should combine a fact-finding expedition on furry life with the proposed-earlier fact-finding expedition into the world of online speed-dating.
115: I wanted everyone to think I was wise. You didn't like the graduation hat I had on top of my outfit?
Aha! We should start an online speed-dating site for furries!
Is the inside of the costume furry, too?
I think this is hilarious.
Yuck. We have a student who is constantly in full-on goth costume (not just like black hair and lipstick and clothes, but like fetish clothes with ripped-out patches)
When I was in grad school there was a student in a nearby department who dressed this way. The general assessment was, "Grow up."
I think you should combine a fact-finding expedition on furry life with the proposed-earlier fact-finding expedition into the world of online speed-dating.
And watch the fur fly!
125: Better yet, just speed date in a fur costume. 'I just wanted to show you the real me...'
121: This is my night for advocating unpopular positions (at a political meeting earlier, I made myself unpopular over Palestine) but I'm going to say that people who really, actually wear clothes that make them look disturbing (and not just in an "oh, I'm homeless and hence can't bathe") way fascinate me. Like the very first punks, or like this young woman I see around town who always wears super-duper huge heavy glasses that obscure her face, a snarly witch-like bun all messy on top of her head and baggy black and brown clothes. There's very little one can do, sartorially and at our historical moment, to genuinely disturb, and there's such a pressure to "disturb" by being "ooh, I'm sexy and troubled, look at my gothy satin corset"...that, well, intentional ugliness really interests me.
I'm equally bothered by the girl who gives conference papers in ratty old clothes and cowboy boots with unbrushed hair and says "like" every other word. I recognize the desire to resist some of the gross overprofessionalism of conference environments, but sometimes it just representatively makes us look generally way too casual as a program.
Well, to me the option seems to be that either the inside is furry, too, or the inside is like the back side of carpet. In which case: ow.
gross overprofessionalism of conference environments
So (and this is serious) you're saying I ought not to wear my suit to conferences?
134: Actually, I think it's classy. What bothers me is how stiff people act at conferences. I like making friends and contacts, and sometimes that involves a fun lunch across the street and laughing.
I'm confused.
I know I was a Skye terrier in a previous life. My mistress called me Geddon.
So am I Otakukin or Otherkin?
Better yet, just speed date in a fur costume. '
"I'm really into heavy-petting."
[shocked look]
"No, like, actual petting that's kind of vigorous."
132: I mean, I know there's immaturity involved, and a desire to piss off the squares and all that, but (snotty academicism ahead) I am reminded of Franco Moretti's observation about the period after the French Revolution, that bad faith was the only remaining gesture of faith in the ideals of the revolution and so IIRC in the self-dramatizing sordidness of events in The Red and the Black (Moretti's example) there is this ghostly longing for liberty and equality and all that stuff. (I'm paraphrasing) What I mean is that in this kind of stubborn, obnoxious refusal I see a sort of utopian longing, a regret, blah blah.
129 somehow pwned by 123, even though 129 is in response to 125 which is in response to 123.
So far I've lol'ed at 41, 65, 73, 80, 87, 115, and 125. Maybe I'm in a generous mood.
If I hadn't blown all my troll cred like two years ago, I could say that furries don't seem so strange to me. You get to hide your faces, which is a pretty normal way for people to become disinhibited, and I'll bet that you actually become more acutely aware of your body in the suit. The fact that they have childlike happy faced costumes is a bit strange, however. Then again, no one wants to fuck Chewbacca all the time.
139: Thanks for finishing that up for me, teo. Must've had a finger slip or something.
I keep trying to think of a name for the furry online dating site. The best I have so far are FurKeeps.com and FurTwoMinutes.com. Not so good. *Sigh*
Then again, no one wants to fuck Chewbacca all the time.
Oh, I wouldn't say no one.
I keep trying to think of a name for the furry online dating site. The best I have so far are FurKeeps.com and FurTwoMinutes.com. Not so good. *Sigh*
SuitsMeFine.com
no one wants to fuck Chewbacca all the time.
Speak for yourself.
Obviously a furry online dating site should be called BytheShortHairs.com.
Furve.com
It's like Nerve but different.
I like Bob Drake's furry art. (eg.)
And of course his music is awesome.
I'd like to start a site devoted exclusively to photos of people's expressions at the moment they open that window expecting some online speed-dating and see a furry looking back at them. That would be hilarious.
no one wants to fuck Chewbacca all the time.
Just now and again.
All of the people want to fuck Chewbacca some of the time. And some of the people want to fuck Chewbacca all of the time. But not all of the people want to fuck Chewbacca all of the time.
151 also made me laugh out loud.
If the love glove does not fit, you must acquit. people want to fuck Chewbacca some of the time. And some of the people want to fuck Chewbacca all of the time. But not all of the people want to fuck Chewbacca all of the time.
Posted by: Abraham Lincoln | Link to this comment | 10- 9-07 10:17 PM
horizontal rule
154
151 also made me laugh out loud.
Wow. Um. Oops? My tail hit the keyboard.
Frowner, you have successfully decieved me into thinking I should read Moretti. What do you recommend?
Fervor.com sounds like it could be a spinoff of Nerve. But little do you know when you sign up that it will actually reroute you to FurVore.com.
121 and 127 you guys suck. Do nothing to discourage the goth chicks.
I went to the grocery store recently. Among other things, I bought some popsicles, because I'm twelve. I didn't want them to melt, so I picked them up last and then hurried to the checkout lines. Working the express lane was a Goth-y looking dude. Sighing his infinite melancholy and clicking his various face piercings together, and working as slowly as plate tectonics. I have to think that any firm nihilistic conviction that nothing matters and that we're all just decaying flesh, alone in a cold, empty, universe, isn't exactly conducive to customer service, or urgency. It isn't like he's defusing a bomb and time is about to run out, but, dammit, I hate it when my popsicles get all melty. Really, putting a goth in a customer service position makes as much sense as having a kleptomaniac bank teller, or hiring a cat to walk your dog.
Sighing his infinite melancholy and clicking his various face piercings together, and working as slowly as plate tectonics. I have to think that any firm nihilistic conviction that nothing matters and that we're all just decaying flesh, alone in a cold, empty, universe, isn't exactly conducive to customer service, or urgency.
Awesome.
FurTwoMinutes.com
TwoFur.com
So am I Otakukin or Otherkin?
Otherkin, because the most important thing is that you were a dog! Um, er, canine.
The beginning of an Otakukin's self-discovery generally begins in early childhood. Typical young Otakukin my experience feelings of unexplainable loss, dissociation from the rest of the world, isolation from ones peers, feelings of entitlement, and a general sense that the world isn't quite how its supposed to be.
Gee, um, that's pretty damn close to the description for NPD.
max
['Cluster B fuck.']
158: Franco Moretti will solve all your problems! Signs Taken for Wonders is considered to be his classic work, and it does have an essay about Dracula that was for me an absolute revelation about literary criticism, but I recommend The Way of the World, from which my example above was taken.
Franco Moretti offers answers to almost all political and philosophical problems if read with sufficient care. I actually proposed a paper to this effect, but unfortunately I proposed it for the annual molecular virology symposium, so I didn't get very far. But you know how, in Cold Comfort Farm, the main character is always consulting the Pensees of some abbe or other (yes, I can't be asked to do accent marks)? Well, Moretti is not unlike that. There's a thought for every occasion in Moretti.
He is the very best, and when I inherit millions from a long lost relative I intend to give much of it to Stanford conditional on being admitted to their Comp Lit program to work with him.
160- Hey, don't be hatin' the Goths. They're a constituency.....well, on second thought, they probably don't vote in big numbers.
Wow! Frowner, I'm investing eight big ones on your unsupported word. Moretti better be good! I didn't like the Valve symposium on him much.
Well, I'm investing in a brand-new copy of Atlas of the European Novel, so at least I believe in the product.
Graphs, Maps, Trees isn't his most characteristic work, I think. That is, I think it's neat but a bit one-note, although I admit that I read only some of it. It's a good approach and interesting information to have, but not maybe so sparkly-fun to read. I find both Signs Taken for Wonders and The Way of the World very sparkly-fun indeed, although I would say that my readings of both have not, you know, exhausted them--that is, I don't remember every teensy tinsy detail.
I find these paintings offensive.
Franco: the magician who can ungrump The Frowner.
Don't doubt the hottest man in the power center of the universe, Apo.
Not expressing doubt, Mr. E. I'm just curious about the axis of offense.
You're still in big trouble, mofo. The Smasher is not pleased by questions.
He tremendously enjoys it when people cringe, but it just makes him meaner.
Sarcasm, hyperbole, and litotes: he learned it all from the Piranha brothers. And palindromes.
Does this count as furrydom? Or proto-furrydom, at least?
More than just the tail and ears have to be furry, apoptoser. Otherwise we would be witnessing an outbreak of furrydom everytime Slut-O-Ween rolls around.
Objects do not cast shadows like that.
TJ, they're not all like that.
I was deeply confused about Moretti between the Valve seminar and Frowner's comments. For a while I wondered if there was just two Franco Morettis who wrote about literary matters.
The fact that they have childlike happy faced costumes is a bit strange, however.
This is the part that I find most disturbing about furries. Does the medium of polyesther fuzz not allow more verisimilitude?
when I inherit millions from a long lost relative I intend to give much of it to Stanford conditional on being admitted to their Comp Lit program to work with him.
Do not bank on it. The fucker moves around more than the Wandering Jew (or whatever other proverbially moving-around guy). He was listed on my old university's official faculty page a full two years after he'd decamped for Italy. One of the many nice surprises I encountered after arriving for my PhD.
Also, I've been told that it can be quite nightmarish to be his grad student.
Frowner, people don't inherit millions any more. They win the lottery.
Powerball! You can't win if you don't play!
180: Frankly, I consider the willingness of so-called 'non-furries' to put on ears and tails so long as it's Halloween evidence that there's no real dividing line between 'furries' and 'everybody else'. Do you suddenly start wearing fursuits if you watch Disney's Robin Hood one too many times? And how many times is too many times, I want to make sure that I'm not in danger of converting.
The entire issue makes me surly. It's like furries are the last people on the earth that some people feel free to be cruel and mocking towards.
Not that that's usually a problem on Unfogged, mostly 'cause ya'll are cruel and mocking towards everybody.
is this thing on? I'm sure nobody is still reading this but i had to respond to some of these comments.
Wow. Thanks for finding that, Jay! I forget that people other than us read this, sometimes.
Cool.
But you should be thanking Frowner for 106, not me.
Oh Cryptic Ned, i see-- sorry i was confused about what number/ name went with what post-- so thanks to Frowner! - and Lacan would indeed have a field day with the whole thing i think from the fandom itself to my interest in painting it.
Oh, one other thing- anyone who lives in new york and wants to see these paintings in person - email me and schedule a studio visit, I do not bite (i swear). Or anyone near London- go to Patrick Heide Art Projects and ask to see them they've got some nice ones there too.
