Furries: are we trending?
Posted by Equivamp (Kile Onasi) on Mon 12 Sep 2011 - 20:18 — Edited by GreenReaper as of Wed 14 Sep 2011 - 17:28
Hot Topic, a teen-oriented franchise, is well known for buying its stock based on the current fashion trends of its target audience.
Lately, however, the products have become more and more "furry". From animal "spirit hoods" to coats with tails attached, even going so far as to selling a wolf costume in time for Halloween, it's certainly becoming something of interest to furries, even if Hot Topic is unaware of it.
Perhaps this is an essential time for furries that wish to become more public; after all, if there are already young pseudo-fursuiters traversing the streets, perhaps they will find enjoyment, welcomed into a community that has been costuming long before they thought it would be fun to wear a tail.
About the author
Equivamp (Kile Onasi) — read stories — contact (login required)a team lead (production/manufacturing) and Zebra Pegasus from Kansas, interested in paleoanthropology, spider man and star wars
Comments
I wouldn't read too much into their sales at this time of year, being so close to Halloween and all. Besides, the stuff they've got on their website looks pretty... cheap construction-wise - hardly apparel they're assuming customers will wear more than a few times.
It's what happens on the off-Halloween season that'll give you a better idea of trending; it's not unusual for teens and adults to wear costumes around Halloween, furs do it regardless of the calendar and that's where we get into the unusualness of our fandom ;)
Well, I wouldn't look too closely at the "fursuit," thanks to Halloween, but I've seen key chain tails and animal ear hats and hoods for sale year-round the past couple of years.
For the love of everything sacred, let's hope not.
One of the worst things that could ever happen to this fandom: mainstream popularity.
Sadly, judging by the demographics of a lot of the newcomers in the fandom, you would guess it was heading in that very direction.
But then again, maybe, hopefully, that wolf costume is the product of another current obsession of the 14 year-old ladyfolk; TWILIGHT.
I don't think it's possible for the fandom to go mainstream. It's simply too niche - most people couldn't care less about anthropomorphic animals, any more than they care about collecting bottlecaps. Sure, the general public is entertained by movies like Kung Fu Panda, but the animal thing doesn't mean anything special to most of the population. If it did, we would have gone mainstream long before now.
That being said, what's the assumed threat? Being inundated by young, immature teens? (And why would this be different or less desirable than if we were inundated by young, immature adults instead?) Is it a fear of losing specialness, the sense of having a small, tight-knit fandom that's not on a lot of folks' cultural radar?
This.
Anything that becomes mainstream gets forgotten about after a while,i remember how Glam Metal was around,but when Grunge came on the scene everyone flocked to it.
Yeah, well, fuck all three of you.
TV advertisements for Party Barn, which year basically depends on costume sales for Halloween, are featuring a fox costume.
It's obviously a Halloween thing, and decidedly gender specific, and animals are always a popular choice, but never that specific animal, which is probably the animal most associated with the furry fandom.
Hell, I've been a fox nerd all my life, and I've never worn that costume.
In that case it isn't a big deal. Just weather the storm and eventually the deluge will stop. At least then it would be more likely people would know what it actually is first hand, and it would be easier to find for people interested in furry and not just fads.
You know, I'm getting really annoyed that people try to chalk up everything teenagers do to Twilight. News flash: its 15 minutes of ill-deserved fame are over.
You can't blame most things teenagers do on Twilight, but its 15 minutes are far from over at the moment.
Really? Around here I've seen someone bring up Twilight around girls that were "ZOMG MUST READ ALL TEH BOOKS BEFORE THE MOVIE" and be laughed at by girls for bringing it up who would laugh at you before if you weren't reading the books/watching the movie/Weren't on team Edward or Jacob.
i always say forget tem Ddward or team Jacob im on team chewbacca
lol fail on Edward
I'm sick of 'hot topic', wish it would go bankrupt already.
So does everyone who shops at hot topic, but hating on trendy things is trendy, so you can buy all your latest "Trendy things suck" shirts at your local Hot Topic.
They have their uses.
I saw an advert in a clothing shop using a tiger girl. Can't remember exactly what it was about though but I thought it was pretty cool.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Animal themed clothing doesn't necessarily imply being furry. A few years back, around here, wearing tails was "in" amongst the raver crowd. I guarantee that most of them would never have heard the term "furry" before, and I seriously doubt that they'd be wearing animal-themed costume parts for "furry" reasons*.
(*To clarify, from what I've seen, most furries/furry fans like animal-themed clothing/costume parts/art/literature because they identify, casually or otherwise, with one or more types of animal, and consider costuming/animal shirts/etc. a form of self-expression (in addition to liking them for aesthetic reasons).)
Likewise, I've noticed raccoon-hats and similar becoming popular over the last few years, and otters appear to be the new kittens on greeting cards. I wouldn't read too much into it. Most people buy this sort of thing because they think it's cute, not because they're latent furries.
I hung out with a "goth" chick in college who wore a skunk tail, though she hung out with people who wore ears and tails, so dunno, perhaps she was. I wouldn't know then, I was kind of still into the whole isolation thing in college, so while I did talk about furry and there seemed to be sort of, "they're acting like I know what I'm talking about but didn't feel comfortable talking about it." So I just didn't bring up that I was one, though they knew MottenFest who apparently went to the same college I did at the same time. I kind of focused on classes and getting things done more then social pleasantries though, and even after that hasn't changed all that much.
Oh, I know those hats! They were turning up everywhere last year, probably a mass import from overseas or something. Kind of Tibetan-looking with the pointed top, and really long side-tassles.
I don't think it's a trend, Hot Topic has a lot of Internet-oriented stuff. :p
Just because you wear a uniform, that doesn't make you a soldier. Being furry goes much deeper than what you wear. The one thing I hate about it is that you can't "assume" that someone wearing a tail in public is a furry anymore.
I hate Hot-Topic
That is all.
Anthropomorphic animals are somewhat more in vogue in general because of many reasons. The increased visibility of children's and all ages animation. Fantasy and mythological fiction becoming more popular in the mainstream the past decade, replacing the trash sci-fi of the 90s.
The misleading thing is labeling it all "furry". Despite the best efforts of furry apologists, "furry" most properly is a specific subculture and fandom community. Even the works produced within it are not "furry" - they're anthropomorphic. Even furry porn isn't furry. It's anthropomorphic fantasy porn. Furry should properly refer to a specific organized fandom of anthropomorphic creatures and members of that particular community.
Furries don't seem to realize it, but they decrease their legitimacy and integrity when they attempt to assimilate anything anthropomorphic into being "furry material". Rather than present themselves as specific, and very specialized, consumers and creators of anthropomorphic fantasy material. Furries don't own anthropomorphism. The irony is that if furries claim to care about anthro material, you'd think they'd want to see it promoted more; but by going around insisting everything anthro is "theirs" by labeling it furry, they're merely driving people away from enjoying anthro subject matter - because not everyone wants to run off and abandon their life to join what sure seems to be a lifestyle subculture that centers around a single topic.
That's what furry appears to be from the outside but there's a few grains of truth to it.
Mostly what I've been saying; I don't agree that there is no "furry" genre, I've just maintained that the "furry" genre (a new sub-genre of anthropomorphics specifically created by furries) doesn't include everything under the sun, and is in fact pretty rare, and possibly nonexistent, outside fandom produced works.
I'm in total agreeance that saying everything under the sun is "furry" annoys the ever-loving crap out of people, for all the above reasons, and more.
Right, then, next person who says anything to me about censorship gets bitch-slapped.
Through the Internet.
With my dick.
Because it is just that impressive.
Or you could realise that furry has more than one meaning in common usage. Besides referring to the subculture and fandom, it is also used as a synonym of anthropomorphic. With the exception of a few idiots, when someone calls such outside works furry, they are not making any claims that the furry fandom owns the work, or that creators of all such work must secretly be a member of the fandom, etc. It would be absurd to say such works have a direct connection to the fandom beyond fitting the defining interest of the fandom, and assuming such connections are being implied by calling them furry, in general, is likewise senseless.
Furry is the name for the anthroporphic fandom. So calling anything sufficiently anthropomorphic furry is correct. The fans of anthros got together and called themselves furries. It's a new name but it's the name of a fandom and so everything that falls under the umbrella of that fandom shares the same name. We should move towards replacing "anthropomorphic fantasy" with "furry".
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
I agreed with you up until the part you said "We should move towards replacing 'anthropomorphic fantasy' with 'furry'." Really, I feel we should move as far as making sure it's a common synonym (which it is) and not trying to, er, corner the anthropomorphic market, as it were.
RG doesn't believe you have a choice in the matter of furry.
By that, I mean he literally does not believe you have a choice in the matter. You either like anthropomorphic animals, and you are a furry, or you do not like anthropomorphic animals, and you are not. Seeing as how if you were to fund a secret lab to find something that appeals to just about everyone on the planet, you'd probably come out of the process with some sort of anthropomorphic something-or-other, everyone on the planet is, in fact, a furry.
I readily admit the joke is not originally mine; you might have some fun with this, anyway, EquiVamp, even if it is possibly older than you: NOSOCS on the "broad" definition of furry.
You kind of have to read this one first to really get it, though.
Not everyone in the whole world... I know that was a joke but it's just because the fandom refuses to adopt proper definitions. I've said a fur is someone who has a preference for furry characters. Not just about liking them but actually choosing a furry character if there was a non-furry option in an identical setting. And you already know my definition of furry since we spent plenty of time discussing that.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
I think you're backpedaling a bit, but I think I'm being more than a bit mean, actually, so we'll call it square.
oh, murr. Thanks for the chuckle. That comic made my day.
It's not trying to corner the market it's just removing the difference between the fans and the product. When sci-fi fans produce fan works it's still called sci-fi. Why do we call fan-made anthro works by a different term than those not produced by the fandom itself? Anthropomorphic fantasy is furry by definition (unless you claim something is only furry if made by the fandom itself, which still makes no sense because the furry fandom is the fans of anthropomorphic fantasy in the first place).
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Hm. Well, I still believe either word is appropriate. "Furry" denotes direct assosciation with the fandom (or at the very least, a pop-culture reference that isn't appropriate in all settings) whereas "anthropomorphic [animal/fiction/fantasy] tends to be the more traditional term. Hell, I tend to call the things I create anthropomorphic rather than furry. ("Oh, you're drawing furries?" is one of my pet peeves in a conversation, but I can never say "No" if it is an anthropomorphic animal.)
"What is 'furry'?" is the new "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
I guess we really are trending if we have displaced such a common aphorism!
Well, all I have to say is God bless trendy, because if it weren't for a certain CSI program, I never would have known of the fandom. I have been an anthro fan since I saw my firs piece of "real" anthro art at a game convention in 1975, but that was way before the fandom. I think that it will help lots of "lost" furries find their home, and that's a good thing. Trendy wears off, and what will be left are the true furries. That never wears off.
I'm really not sure what to say about this. We could be trending and I have seen a couple more people with furry ears/tails ect. but still not that many. and I doubt the people who wear these accessories acctually know what a furry is. But it's possible.
Alot of stores have animal based costumes around halloween. If they had it all year long that's when I'd question it.
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