Furries to feature on 'OMG! With Peaches Geldof'
Last Wednesday (March 2) saw the premier of OMG! With Peaches Geldof, a tabloid-style television program hosted by British model Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof.
The program, airing on Wednesdays at 9pm on the UK's ITV2, is about "people who live unique and often shocking lifestyles - Who are they? What makes them tick? Why do they live the way they do and is it causing them problems or a rewarding way to be?".
Episode 1 featured vampires and internet dating. Episode 2, to air next Wednesday (March 9), is to feature Furries, described in the OMG! episode guide as "people who have a strong appreciation for anthropomorphic animal characters and dress accordingly". The episode also features guest panelist Dom Joly, who Peaches described as "quite an embittered man".
OMG! With Peaches Geldof had previously contacted furries as part of their research phase. The interview is the subject of several threads on the UKFur forums (registration required).
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No kidding on the "tabloid" aspect; one reviewer called the show "as irritating as it is dim-witted". Let's just hope it's not too bad.
Edit: On the plus side, if Dom Joly is as bad as Peaches claims, the furries could come out as the most sane people on the show.
And from what I've seen of Trigger Happy TV, most furries probably have worn fewer animal costumes than Dom Joly too.
Oh dear, I think I can see where this is going… :(
Owing to Rupert Murdoch (and Fox[?] T.V.), C.S.I. And "My Strange Addiction" It's hardly possible we could be represented as more than another "Fetish" subculture.
Ignore it.
Don't read it.
Stay happy that way.
This is not going to go well.
As if anyone spawned from Geldof-Yates' dysfunctional DNA has a right to lecture furries.
You're all pathetic, I was one of the people who went on and it went great.. It's just this kind of insecure optimism which leads people to think 'What are they hiding', that's exactly what the bloody producers said to me their selves. They said it was nothing but "Hey can we talk about furries?".. "I DONT YIFF WHATS THIS?", Seriously, I wish people in the fandom could take the time to learn a bit of social experience and be happy sharing something they enjoy.
Of course not. This is why people troll furries. Way too easy to nudge into a shitstorm.
Oh yeah, we should let FA know. Let's get the ball of hate started! /sarcasm
Not really.. the reason people troll furries are because furries are brilliant targets. They give trolls exactly what they want.
Very true.
God damn you people. STOP LETTING A TV SHOW AFFECT YOU. Good god. >:I
Oh wait. Furries. "DURR WHATS THAT MEAN OHNOES A TV SHOW WE MUST RAEG AND HARASS THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE."
Need an example? See Kiira. A newcomer to the fandom, who was forced to leave after CONSTANT hate and harassment. (And I DID IM her, she was at the point of tears.) People say the fandom is nice and so are the people? Bullshit. Furry fandom is more hating than 4chan.
Need another example? Just wait until a thread pops open on Furaffinity. The amount of hate will be enormous.
Because god forbid you don't let a obscure TV show affect you.
I have to agree with you, at the end of the day, people will talk about problems if problems are there to be talked about. As a fandom, we make ourselves out to be innocent and wrongly hated when in reality there are many reasons we are hated. I actually had Dom Joly ask on the show Why we were hated to which I said "because it's easy to hate a 6ft wolf". I find that the fandom has its problems but I still respect it, as much as I'm annoyed at a few people I went on that show with the intentions of giving us the best possible image and all I can say is I hope we did okay ^^.
I'm not gonna clog up the comments xD If anyone wants to ask anything, before or after, then check my WikiFur page ( http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Meeple#External_Links ) Where i've added some contact information.
Hope you all enjoy it anyway x3
I've always felt there was the opposite problem, that too many furries were too happy to share their experience. Non-furs that I've talked to in person that had a complaint about furries because of one they knew (as opposed to having learned of furries from online) seemed to mostly complain about how they were too outward and shared about it too much. Most people seem to just not care that much about furries, but seem to associate it with social ineptitude when they meet a fur that assumes they care, or otherwise pushes the topic too much. Then they go from thinking it is a "little weird" to "freaks."
Different cases, different extremes. You can get to the extreme where someone does nothing but talk about it to friends that aren't interested in it and show off attire that comes with it and in that situation I can see why, but I think the whole situation is about striking an equal balance, it's not mainly about what you do but how you go about doing it and in what attitude that will ultimately persuade the opinion of the person in question. But even then, it is still an opinion of the other person, thus you can only explain and let them make up their own mind.
The thing is, this was bound to happen.. we walk around town centres in animal costumes and expect to be hidden, as much as an air of secrecy is good we have to be prepared to answer inevitable questions, in whatever situation that might be. The best we can do as a fandom is confidently and as relatively as possible explain what we do and leave it to the outsider to base an opinion. From a personal point of view, I'd much rather give a good definition of the fandom for someone to say it isn't for them than falsify it for someone to like it.
I still think people should answer questions when asked and it usually is ok to drop a reference every so often. But I think the "I don't yiff, what's this?" type of response used as an example is a symptom of the same problem: assuming people care or pay that much attention to internet drama (or even in some cases, drama internal to the fandom). When answering questions, some people just need to realize how much of a tangent their response is and avoid that.
And yeah, tv shows are kind of a special case compared to how one should interact with normal people. But that is not a problem special to furries. If you think the furries get in a mess for choosing go on a bad tv show, you should see some of the crap various professional circles go through when one of their members ends up in a show out of context.
Realistically, people don't think "What are they hiding?" - they don't even think about furry at all, unless by chance the subject is touched upon in some sort of popular media. Anyone seeing a fursuiter out in the wild really needs prior knowledge to make the jump to 'omg yiff' - or perhaps they see it on a show that is otherwise unashamedly dedicated to the bizarre and the often sexual? The recent BBC article is the first treatment of the subject in the UK by general media that I'm aware of, and even they mention yiff. The press line seems to be 'furries are weird; throw in some mention of sex'. Bearing this in mind, what sort of reaction were you expecting? ;)
You'll hear it from furs who've been around much longer than I; no news is good news. Furries range into the extremes just like anyone, and the producers of OMG certainly know that sensationalism sells. Everyone held their breath as, by what looked like a stroke of good fortune and the favour of the presenters, it flowed around you and the other furs who went on. I'm sure you know of previous outings in media, but Slycat's Video page displays some of what people really believed you could have won. Don't mistake precedent for insecurity.
And really, it'd be pretty easy to invoke furry without going into the yiffy aspects, but you're probably not going to see an article or show out there on Paws For Cause or anything similar.
Also half-expecting the /b/tards of FA to come here and start raging
Who cares?
In the lead up to this programme being produced there were a number of discussions about it on UKFur forum. Needless to say really, but it was quite a controversial subject with a range of views and opinions among the UK furry community.
I'm cautiosly optimistic about a similar progaramme coming up in Sweden this spring.
Just watched it, with the exception on Dom Joly being ignorant at the start and acting like he knows because he was in a film called "Trigger Happy", everyone seemed positive and understanding, nothing to make a big deal about.
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