Furries to be tonight's topic on 'Your Time with Kim Iverson'
Furry radio listeners might want to tune in to Your Time with Kim Iverson at 9PM Eastern tonight for a one-hour segment on furries, including a few minutes with Dr. Samuel Conway (Uncle Kage) on the topics of furry conventions and the fandom in general.
The syndicated talk radio show plays to a mostly adult-female demographic, and is broadcast by stations across the U.S., including Austin, Buffalo, Denver, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Memphis, Norfolk, Portland and Wichita.
Update: Well, wasn't that fun! The premise was that furry fans were sexual costume fetishists, and Kim was loath to relinquish this concept. Eventually she allowed that perhaps furries might not be all that she'd been led to believe. "Shaun" then called in to explain that fursuits were a bit of a luxury, and emphasize that "the majority of the fandom goes [to conventions] to enjoy the artwork, the music."
Websites mentioned included WikiFur (for its list of conventions) and the Lion of the Sun and its $10,000 costumes.
Update 2: The show is now available for download. The furry segment starts at 26:14.
Quotes
- "You're basically taking a fictional animal and giving it human characteristics. [...] They claim it doesn't have to be - but I guess that it is - a fetish."
- "It's kinda . . . I think it's just one step above . . . things I shouldn't talk about on radio."
- "A bunch of people dressed up in costumes - this is what we're thinking, people dressing up and having sex with each other."
- "I can't really blame people for getting that impression."
- "They began to get together, first at science fiction conventions, and then in Southern California, a bunch of people at a convention. Unfortunately, the organizers of that convention felt the way to market it was to pass it off as a big wild sex party. Whereas it drew in attendance, you'll forgive me for saying, it drew in the wrong kind of attendance. People didn't really want that, the convention started to get kind of a bad name, but there weren't any others until Anthrocon, and then many others started up."
- "This is a group of some of the most remarkable and creative people [...] a few are costumers, the rest are writers, artists, performers and simply dreamers." - "You're kinda killing my dream, Samuel! [...] All of us that think of furries and costumes, we think a bunch of people show up in costumes and they think they want to get it on!"
- "You were saying not all furries actually wear any form of costume, the rest just show up . . ." - "Exactly - folks are there to see other furries, to socialize . . . and again, it's not all about costuming; there are writers, cartoonists, voice actors, you name it."
- "What makes you a furry?" - "The capacity to dream - anybody who thinks it would be really cool for animals to walk and talk is a furry."
- "For what percentage would you say it is a sexual thing?" - "A tiny tiny percentage. What percentage of football fans would like to have sex with a footballer? [...] You have a rather unhealthy obsession with sex; you should have that looked at."
- "A reporter came in and accused me at that, and I waved my hand over at the thousands of people in the hall and said 'does it look like any one of these people has ever had sex?'"
- "Now what are you in the furry world? [What do you wear?]" - "I don't have a costume - my costume is my lab coat."
- "[What's the craziest costume you have seen?]" - "Check out Lion of the Sun - it is an amazing lion costume . . . this thing cost upwards of $10,000; there are cameras in the eys, normal and infrared; there are voice synthesizers, and the man who made it is a mechanical genius."
About the author
GreenReaper (Laurence Parry) — read stories — contact (login required)a developer, editor and Kai Norn from London, United Kingdom, interested in wikis and computers
Small fuzzy creature who likes cheese & carrots. Founder of WikiFur, lead admin of Inkbunny, and Editor-in-Chief of Flayrah.
Comments
Oh here we go. MORE negative media. God dammit. :/
I kinda doubt it, they're getting Uncle Kage on, not just some random furs no one's heard of. Considering it's an hour long segment it'll very likely mention some stuff that we wouldn't want it to, but I don't think it'll be to bad.
That's a little bit of an assumption there . . . I'd wait to see how it turns out.
I was asked to be on the show myself, but was not able to accept due to pressure of work (buy our game!).
I'm apprehensive, but I'll withhold judgment as this show seems to be a bit different than most venues the furries have been dragged through. Plus, Kage has always been a pretty positive and canny force when it comes to dealing with media. I have my doubts, but -- we'll see.
In before Kage makes Furries look worse than they already do. This is Kage we're talking about. Nothing good or sober can come from this.
Why do you say that? If anything, Kage's participation is the one thing that reassures me that something good could come out of this.
I agree, Kage knows very well how to conduct himself with the media - heck, he's discussed it at con panels more than once. The problem is that over the course of the show, anyone's voice of reason may be nullified by who knows what else.
...Kage is going to actually speak? derp. Kage fails. Why oh WHY, furry fandom, would you pick Kage. WHY.
Because he's generally the best and most rational choice for saying anything at all about furry... as well as one of the most experienced, having done so for local PA papers and TV whenver Anthrocon rolls around.
Yeah, you're right. They should have talked to a true furry like this guy instead :)
*wink*
What's with all the Kage hate? :<
Kageee. :/ I haven't been too keen on him since Prawst was banned from AnthroCon.
But, eh, whatever. Do you know if this is going to be available as a podcast later on?
It might be, but you can listen in right now.
The show is now available for download. The furry segment starts at 26:14.
All I can say is from my experience most new shows really don't care about furries. They don't care to hear their stories or about art, they just want to get them on air, ask them a bunch of prying and personal questions and gawk at them. :/
So yeah, I don't have high hopes, but at least its Kage and not some random furry dude from the internet.
Though I will say that I disapprove of how Kage seems to deny any relation to furry porn any time hes asked. It makes him look like hes trying to cover it up, when he should be saying that yeah, its obvious nerds have sex and that the media needs to really stop asking nerds about their sex lives because it shows how rude the media is.
I'd bring up how inappropriate those kinds of questions are rather then taking the "we clean furries are better then yiffy furries" route. :/
Kage's a better choice than some. He does his best to simply state facts, and not offer incriminating information that wasn't asked for in the first place. Some folks are all too proud to come out and blabber about what they do in their free/private time.
See, that's not true. Kage misstates things that, when examined, would look horribly if ever found out. He likes to be the politician and hope no one pays too close attention. Check out the quotes above. He seems to mention a big ole orgy at Confurence (if I'm interpreting what he references right). Why are we talking about a big orgy convention kinda thing on the radio, 1, and why are we following it with saying a tiny, tiny percentage sexualizes furry?
Why not just go with what it is? "I don't know the number of furries that sexualize it, but I can tell you it's not the majority, and I know most of us know what it feels like to be labeled as being something we're not because a small chunk of our group does it." That's a much more honest response.
And Kage has no costume? What about Rogue the megawolf?
First of all, he shouldn't be acting like he knows this stuff when he's at best speculating. And if he is speculating, he should try and be in the ballpark of what's true. Does 'a tiny tiny percentage' sound accurate to anyone? Do you think he should be acting like he doesn't have a 'costume' when he does? And lemme tell you... he didn't forget.
Frankly, what I see of the above quotes seems pretty much dead on to me. I'm going to have to see if I can find a podcast of this show so I can hear the entire conversation, but on the face of it it sounds to me like he's done a good job of it.
You think only a 'small small percentage' sexualize furry?
Never visit FA, Furnation, Fchan, Inkbunny, Rule34, or a dozen other sites I know. Don't kid yourself. I'm not saying there isn't also a big chunk that doesn't, but we can't go by numbers that just sound good to us.
As it happens, Flayrah has a poll on this topic. The results are a little dusty, but I imagine the proportions are much the same today as they were a decade ago.
Thank you kindly for the link. OVER HALF, according to that poll.
Tiny percentage indeed. Wishing doesn't make it true.
I will add though: overall, this press is actually a little positive. Built on some misleading info, which I do not like, and thus I cannot give Kage high marks. A lot of debunking, though, which is still appreciated.
See, when you talk on a public medium, you don't represent yourself, you represent the entire group. So he's very wise NOT revealing too much about himself, because everything he reveals about himself would be regarded as representative, which it isn't. I'm pretty sure, if he did, the protests here would be MUCH louder.
The people who work in mass media are not interested in exposing the true sexual nature of the fandom. They only want to create enough filler to keep their listeners and thus please the advertisers. Better, then, to have Kage feed them misinformation.
I can't imagine people who have never been a part of the fandom who would want to show up Kage and the fandom by calling his bluff. I can imagine former furries, anti-furries, and furries whom he has pissed off—either personally or in his capacity as the figurehead of Anthrocon—doing that, but those people won't be getting airtime with that big of an audience anytime soon. (But if any such person were to do something like that, this person would be a gigantic douche.)
On the contrary, Kage should remember the journalistic adage "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."
http://www.google.com/search?q=if+your+mother+says+she+loves+you&hl=en&ei=fm1VTP...
I don't think cruft like this qualifies even as journalism, never mind investigative journalism. It's simply entertainment. Real journalism into furries requires too much effort, and the payoff is awfully low. There are so many better targets out there in the world, so unless—as I previously mentioned—one has a specific rationale for targeting furries in general or Kage in specific, one would be unlikely to pursue us or him.
Speaking of "real journalism into furries", I (relatively) recently encountered (online, not IRL) the lady who wrote the "Hell Hath No Furries" story we mostly liked (at least, I think most of us liked it); she said, "If any of you furries happen to be wealthy media moguls looking to hire honest writers, let 'em know I'm looking for work, why don'cha?"
So, yeah.
"A tiny tiny percentage. What percentage of football fans would like to have sex with a footballer?"
I <3 this, and not in a yifflies skritches way.
Of course, mass media assumes furries would like to have sex with the team mascot.
See, what kind of cheep whores do they think we are. Our suits are way better.
Wait.
My guess is the the italic quotes are from the host of the show and the plane are Kage's. If that's the case I'm gonna have to listen to this one, sounds like from the selected quotes the host tries to put the topic on sex and Kage diverts it rather well.
"You have a rather unhealthy obsession with sex; you should have that looked at."
Is definatly one I'd like to know the context of, because if he just told the media to their face of their sad obsession for sexual deviancy then I'd have to give him props.
Despite my feelings on how he treats those within the fandom, I still think he does well with the media. Though I guess if he could be good at only one, I think it's best that it be the latter. Lord knows we need more furries that are better handling themselves in the lens' eye.
Considering what was said before Kage came on, i think he turned it around fairly well.
I should have waited until i was done listening to the show first. Kage's ending was awesome, he really got the last laugh. Unfortunately afterwards, she kind of ends the entire segmennt hinting what her opinion still is about the fanadom...
Well, considering that you posted as a logged-in user, next to the link labelled "reply", there should have been a link along the bottom of each of your posts labelled "edit". ;)
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