What animal stereotype in media do you (take most offense to, think should continue, find confusing)?
Posted by Cassidy Civet on Mon 9 May 2016 - 18:05 — Edited by earthfurst as of Tue 19 Dec 2023 - 12:46
Feral Cartoon Dogs Not Being Smart
6% (16 votes)
Foxes Being Clever And Confident
5% (13 votes)
Kangaroos Having Australian Accents
2% (4 votes)
Lions Being The Most Macho/Brave
1% (3 votes)
Rats Being The Villain
11% (30 votes)
Dalmations Being The 'Firemen's Dog'
2% (5 votes)
Snakes/Lizards Being Liars, Tricksters, And Typically Just The Worst
13% (35 votes)
Owls Being The Wisest EVER
3% (8 votes)
Rabbits Being Fast Talking And Cunning
2% (4 votes)
Mice ALWAYS Being The Good Guys
9% (24 votes)
Otters Being The Funnest And Most Outgoing Animals
2% (4 votes)
Raccoons Being Sneaky Thieves
6% (16 votes)
Weasels Being Villainous or Crazy
6% (16 votes)
Wolves Being Murderous, Evil, or Powerful
26% (70 votes)
If you have more, feel free to comment with them! :D
7% (18 votes)
Votes: 266
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First vote. Wish I could pick more than one.
Also first comment! But, if you actually sign up and log in, I think you'd get a second vote; that's kind of cheating, but it's not like these are scientifically accurate statistic minings.
We're kind of going through the polls fast and furious this month, but it is Monday, i.e. poll day (and I was actually just thinking "dildoes are popular, I'll probably be lazy and give this one two weeks") and here' s a decent poll from Cassidy, so there you go.
Speaking of dildoes, turns out most of our responders just prefer to masturbate with the hands God gave them (that's the joke I'm explaining to you now, Rakuen). Well, it was a popular poll, so why don't we all give Green Reaper a hand for coming up with it! Just, you know, make sure you wash them first.
Decent? Well, glad I could be adequate enough for you. X3
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Sorry, "decent" is ... now any word I type feels inadequate or sarcastic!
That's the tone you've set unfortunately, even when we aren't bickering x3
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Cassidy, never tell a man his "tone" ... is inadequate.
Just be clear, alright?
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Also, "bunnies apparently not knowing about birth control" is one that would be a good addition (if there wasn't already a bunny option).
Just rewatched Robin Hood and saw the house full of bunnies so...agreed. XD
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Not to mention all of Judy Hopps' siblings or the infinite # of bunnies in that baby carriage in "Chicken Little."
- Joe
You left "skunks are stinky/repulsive" out of your survey. (According to one of the Zootopia spin-off books, Officers Hopps' and Wilde's first assignment was protecting a "skunk pride" parade. Personally I'd march in that; some of my best friends are skunks.)
- Joe
which reminds me: somewhere in Zootopia there's a skunk walking around with a naked butt.
- Joe
All skunks being repulsive is one I considered, but I kinda thought that skunks in media were typically misunderstood more than repulsive. Like, they're judged for their smell first. So I didn't include it. x3
Also I still haven't seen Zootopia so I'll take your word for it. :3
I'm a different furry with different opinions.
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It's a mix of both. I'm glad to see a lot of more MODERN children's cartoons (such as that CGI Winnie the Pooh Squad show on Disney) having an educational bend to them where the characters meet a skunk and believe the BS stereotypes until they are put in danger and see the skunk spray defensively, and warm up to them. A lot of the older stuff was just "Ewww they stink and enjoy being stinky/gross, and/or are total French stereotypes". Sadly, there's still the occasional cartoon where skunk antagonists maliciously use their spray to be assholes (Poochini comes to mind). Those give me hope, because frankly I can hardly talk about skunks to anyone (ESPECIALLY from outside the fandom) that doesn't judge skunks based entirely on misinformation they've heard as kids or from other people that had bad experiences with them (which is usually their idiot pet/kid's fault anyway for antagonizing the skunk).
I think Mr. Rogers put it best when he once said "there's more than a smell to a skunk." :-)
- Joe
As a Roo the australian accent thing isn't as bothersome as the idea that all kangaroos have pouches.
Heh that IS an unfortunate stereotype. More just uneducated people than a character trait but I see the issue. :3
I'm a different furry with different opinions.
Debut Album out now go stream it plz
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/cassidycivet/double-take
Marvel Comics has promoted this. Marvel also has a male superhero named the Banshee (Celtic female spirit), and Ratatosk the squirrel (from Norse mythology) as a female.
Fred Patten
"(take most offense to, think should continue, find confusing)?"
o.0 Might as well choose randomly. At most isn't this just animal stereotype you have the strongest feeling about in one or another direction?
Do four people think evil wolves are offensive? Or do three find it confusing? Maybe two take offence and two think it should continue?
"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 agree, it's confusing having multiple choices within the question itself.
How about hyenas being gruff and rough around the edges?
That is not the problem with hyena stereotypes, they kind of are like that. It's everything else about the stereotypical hyena that is wrong.
1. Hyenas do not laugh because everything is funny to them. They actually laugh when they are nervous.
2. Hyenas are not gross, unclean, cowardly scavengers. They can hunt just like lions do. (although the butter is kind of gross)
3. There are no female hyenas. They just have normal males, and bigger, meaner males who get pregnant (and give birth through their penis).
When The Lion King was released, many people boycotted the film because of how inaccurate the hyenas were, they didn't even get the colors right.
Aside from a few of the weirder traits, hyenas are not much different than any other large predatory animal. Although they are slightly more closely to cats, their personalities are actually closest to dogs.
Another common misconception about hyenas is that they steal/scavenge prey from other predators. I've heard it's actually more common for lions to steal prey from hyenas than vice versa.
As for The Lion King, I hadn't heard of anyone boycotting it for portraying hyenas inaccurately, but I have heard accusations of it being racist because two of the hyenas' voice actors were minorities (one Latino and one African American). That doesn't pass the giggle test with me when you consider that four of the "good guys" were voiced by African Americans (Mufasa, Sarabi, Rafiki, and young Nala) while Scar, the chief villain, had a white voice actor.
Twitter thread about raccoon stereotypes.
Apart from the expected "trash" there are some interesting responses.
Wow, over 70 votes! Thanks guys!
I'm a different furry with different opinions.
Debut Album out now go stream it plz
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/cassidycivet/double-take
Predators in general being feral evil bad guys while prey and herbivores get off being intelligent.
Just read any of the Redwall novels.
Fred Patten
One of the amazing things in Zootopia is how they turned that on its head; in their research the producers discovered that only 10% of animals are preds, the rest prey. They built their story around that fact, making predators an unjustly feared (the feral "epidemic") and/or mistreated minority (Nick trying to join the scout troop).
In one of the supplemental features on the blu-ray there's concept art of how prey animals see predators (scary!) and how a predator sees prey animals (being crushed under a crowd of them)
- Joe
OH and also dogs = good and cats = bad. STOP.
How about "sexy" dogs (Afghans, poodles, etc.) as female & tough bulldogs etc as males?
- Joe
In Korea, it is an insult to call someone a fox. Usually you will call a phony (The Catcher in the Rye, anyone?) a "fox" or "foxlike".
I wonder if that impacts the popularity of foxes in Korean furry fandom? It doesn't seem to have troubled TeleMonster's Yossi.
Heh, you seen any Korean foxes around? I haven't. :P
It's also a bad thing to be called a wolf. Typically calling somebody a wolf implies they're creepy.
Jeez. Preds can't catch a break. I wonder how Zootopia came across, then!
Also, what animals do you admire?
Zootopia performed very well in Korea! I guess we see a bit of fox and wolf in ourselves sometimes ;)
Fursonawise, I am a tiger-wolf hybrid. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one liking the big cats, though. When I was in elementary school, I had a swim coach that we called "Tiger Teacher". He roared like one when he got angry!
I get extremely, extremely offended when us skunks are called "gassy" or I am told that we "fart" on things or we get our smell from "farts".
Don't get me wrong, we are smelly, and I am known to take pride in that, but at least be anatomically correct and recognize it for what it really is.
What's worse is when other skunk furries play into the stereotype, and falsely cast the rest of us into it.
I've seen one or two cartoons where the skunk uses its scent as a defensive weapon (even though it's still depicted as a stinky cloud) against a predator. I'd like to see a cartoon where the skunk is lining up its target, maybe using its tail as a gunsight (and then releasing a well-aimed spray instead of the usual cloud).
- Joe
Remember this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7DrU0B-8wE
Fred Patten
Nope - never saw it. (Very interesting visual style though - looks like CGI rendered as 2D animation.) Yes, once again it's the stinky sickly greenish gas cloud at work. The clip looks to be the first of a playlist of the identical gags. (Emphasis on "gag.")
Just occurred to me that one reason this has become a cartoon trope (apart from ignorance of the animal's actual biology) is that the reality - a well-aimed stream of fluid - would look like the skunk is urinating on its victim. (Cartoons have triggered enough kinks in kids as it is; we don't want to add "golden showers" to the list!)
- Joe
I'm okay with the clouds, because that is not entirely inaccurate either, but farting noises or calling skunk spray "farts" drives me up a wall
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