Watching the ebb and flow of acceptance of Furries, cosplay, and delayed maturation has been pretty interesting. since I’ve been locked into the internet for the better part of 20 years I’ve been standing next to the fire while people I know with real people jobs still aren’t really aware of where various social movements come from. They were sideswiped by things when they found themselves locked inside for Covid, meanwhile I had already been through the crucible of mental illness the sequestered must all pass through. As far as Furries go we’re back onto a trend of hating furries being acceptable again. People under 20 have an intense human need to hate a group of others, but humans have generally evolved past seeing sexual orientation or race as acceptable metrics. Not all obviously, but especially among the young there is a need for a different hate vector and furries slot easily into it because you are very unlikely too meet an obvious furry in real life. The ones you do meet, who make a point of bringing it up, are likely to be so extremely annoying that they don’t feel bad hating them. They will feel, in an experience, worthy of scorn, as often is the case with humans who fill in lack of actual personality with their hobby.
Cosplayers have basically achieved acceptance by way of profiting from sexualization. Human base level horniness kicked the door open that the regular nerdy cosplayers had been slowly filing through for the better part of 3 decades. While they may still get the side eye from some people basically most are willing to leave them to do what they like and get that bag by any means they deem acceptable. There’s a lot of overlap with lack of maturation and “childish” hobbies being acceptable to maintain throughout your life. Most people are fine with people identifying themselves as a gamer. I think that all boils down to people accepting that as long as you aren’t hurting anyone how you spend your time on your walk to the grave is your own fucking business. Before games people used to act the same way about reading. When the brainstem fucknet comes along I’m sure it will go through the same thing for a while until people accept that if you want to spend all your time on the brainstem fucknet it really doesn’t matter, we will all return to the soil in time.
One of my cousins once asked me why I collected toys and my answer was basically “I just think they’re neat”. That simultaneously does and does not perfectly encapsulate why I like collecting. Meaning that it answers everything without actually answering. I countered by saying that I could spend all my money getting drunk or high, but at least with toys I have something other than piss at the end of the transaction. It has also likely extended my life by decades I would not have otherwise had. There was a time when gaming would have earned me a similar question, but most people, even the most many outdoorsman these days, has a look in at Call Of Duty, Madden, or what have you. The wide range of games available has made it more acceptable than collecting even though it has existed a much shorter time. I’m glad, if nothing else, that it’s one less thing I have to explain on the rare occasion I am in the company of other humans.
To answer the toy collecting question more completely takes a little more effort. Let’s take Transformers as one example. First of all I very much like the lore. All of the various iterations of the story are interesting. Not equally, but interesting none the less. I don’t like them all equally. In fact, I outright hate some of them, but at the same time I’m not hateful of the fact that they exist as they have all managed to add to the enduring tapestry of the franchise. Secondly I like inspecting the sculpting and engineering of the toys themselves. Some are beautiful in their simplicity while others are wonders of ingenuity. Imagination, creativity, and intelligence on display in the palm of my hand. The wonder of the human experience encapsulated in a representative item. All the things I collect are like that to one degree or another. It goes beyond just the toys themselves though.
I love inspecting the packaging art and thinking about the person who poured some amount of their life into representing something. Behind every piece of art, at least before the dawn of AI, was the story of a person making a living in the world with the skill of their hands. Humans tell each other the story of what it is to be alive every day across time and space. What a beautiful thing that is to be part of, on this tiny planet, in the arm of a galactic spiral, at the edge of the known universe. Maybe someday, if we tell enough stories, we will learn how to live in peace with one another and find out why we are here at all. Although I don’t always appreciate being dropped into this mess I do appreciate having the chance to play my part in working towards whatever goal we were set here for. Even if life wasn’t rolled out with a goal I’m glad I had time to have my hour to strut and fret upon the stage. You who have read this tale, told by an idiot, are part of it all too. We have walked a ways together, and may walk further still. If nothing else remember to enjoy your hour upon the stage as best you can.

I hope to see you again on Monday. Keep to cover, avoid danger, return to me.

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Have we actually seen the Boothe’s mother yet?
Or is she just talked about in hushed tones.

Hushed tones, from all the Boothes we’ve seen.

Alex talks about Mom Boothe as if they’ve already met.

To be fair, it’s entirely possible she has heard enough stories from Reggie that it feels like they’ve met

She may have met her through Vicky while Reggie was otherwise occupied, or perhaps they were both present at some meeting of the grandfathers.

Adults playing with Star Wars toys – object of scorn, or good dad? It all depends on the context.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/3j2fjg/i_swear_i_didnt_plan_having_a_boy_this_way/

There’s a quote from the author C.S. Lewis:

“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

“People under 20 have an intense human need to hate a group of others…”

I’m in the northeast, and it’s almost the polar opposite. The young ones are very compassionate, very accepting of others regardless of how they differ. Chastise adults from previous generations when they are casually racist or homophobic.

Someone didn’t read what he wrote in their rush to comment.

And there is their hate; anyone they see as having “wrong opinions,” or even just supporting things that, the kids assert, have the wrong outcomes–it’s not just a difference of opinion or different plan for how to fix problems, no, because there is the “correct view” and there is “hateful bigotry” and there is no alternative.

I understand cosplay. The same urges that made Halloween so awesome when we were kids never really die out for some people. I certainly miss it.

Fursuiting and furries in general I understand quite a bit less.

Simplest way of explaining it: is personal expression. They feel like it’s easier to express their true self by way of costumes and pageantry. It’s no different than elaborate makeup displays, or 95% of the alternative/flashy subculture aesthetics.

Exactly.

That doesn’t really help me understand it, personally. If anything, it feels like the opposite, like they are living out a fantasy INSTEAD of their true selves. I don’t know many furries but I’ve known a few drag queens, and that’s basically what I’ve gathered from them–they get to play pretend.

In my view- sometimes I make art, + other people make art, to express a dream that I like, or a day-dream that I like.

I like pics of: military-jet pilots, kickboxers, flamenco dancers, cartoonists, + rappers.

I might never attempt, or become: a military-jet pilot, a kickboxer, a flamenco dancer, a cartoonist, or a rapper, but I can draw myself as some of these people.

Does my drawing these ideas make these ideas worthless, or silly? Personally, I don’t believe that’s true.

By drawing these ideas, [or expressing my ideas…by wearing some fursuits], I can tell myself, and some other people, some things that I like about me.

It’s just my opinion that: expressing my art + my creativity, and expressing my dreams and aspirations, can be very happy things and very positive things.

I didn’t say it was a bad thing, just that it doesn’t seem like being your “true self.”

That’s cool.
:D

I think the other part of adult collecting is just reconnecting with the heroes and treasures of the past. I have a lot of hobbies, and all of them are expensive. often i have to rotate them as prices rise and fall, but in many respects its the same reason: i parted with a lot of the stuff for one reason or another, then realized years later *That it was a REALLY BAD IDEA*
this is where we cut away to the visual gags of Hitchhikers guide or family guy reiterating the punchline that giving the stuff up was again *A REALLY, REALLY, BAD IDEA….*
and lets face it, some of the stuff we can buy as adult collectors DWARFS what we could get as kids. I remember the pinnacle of adolescent self-sufficiency was being able to buy a 10-14 dollar GI Joe vehicle or 3 or 4 modules for D&D (depending on where i was buying them) doing oddjobs here and there. these days, its the Gargantuan Tiamat that wizkids produced and not even batting an eye, or the horrendous amounts of cash ive shellacked out for Warhammer 40k stuff (although, 40k is ALWAYS expensive, no matter what era you were buying them in)

Years ago my mother was talking to my brother and I as we were moving him into his first apartment. She had just seen a documentary and was telling us about it.

“There are these people, they’re called Furbies and…”and she goes on to discus cons and art and the kind of money that gets thrown around and the full fur suits and such and you could tell that her “weird shit-ometer” had been pinged. We sat and listened and watched her get just a bit worked up and finally end on. “People are weird man. Most sex is between your ears.”

“Mom, do you mean furries?”

The blood drained from her face and she goes, “… are you a furby?”

No mom, no we were not, but the look of abject horror and trying to think of what she could say to take it back if we were was endearing and hilarious. We just informed her that we had several friends who were “Furbies” and that she had met them and they were all quite regular people most of the time. My brother and I still joke about people being Furbies to this day.

Sometimes I read the author’s notes. Sometimes I don’t.

Today was a reading day, and Jackie’s really given me a lot to think about.

One thing about collecting is that it starts to take up space, especially if it is something bigger than Warhammer figurines. Some of the stuff I seem to have collected is things that fascinated me as a kid. I couldn’t afford antique radios as a kid and I can now. What I cant afford now is the space they take up. Books at least are compact. If it is something that I am going to only read once, like most novels, it is an electronic purchase. Stuff that I keep for reference or aesthetic value still takes up a fair amount of space. As much as I enjoy it, at some point someone will have to dispose of it all. A lot of my friends fly remote control airplanes. It is becoming another “old guy” hobby. The old timers in the hobby are dying off and the kits and stuff are collecting faster that the remaining guys can sort them. I know a fellow who inherited hundreds of kits from his father. Once these were valuable but as the people who were in to them are aging out they are rapidly just becoming boxes of dry wood and crispy paper. My oldest and at least one of his kids will take over my tools but when I’m gone will any one be interested in the other stuff? Even if it gets tossed in the trash it gave me pleasure and for the most part I’m just maintaining something that already existed.

I think a bigger part of why people get furries are the ones who actually deserve it; far too often, a furry sex artist turns out to be a diddler. It’s not must furries, of course, but I think it’s one of those unfortunate correlations in the universe; people who are, let’s say, of an unusual sexual inclination, typically occupy several of them, and so are more likely to also have a foot in the pedo circle. But it doesn’t really work in reverse; you can’t just assume the average Jimmy Saville-type is a furry or into BDSM or anything else, really. Still, it happens enough to freak people out. Some other furry stuff bothers people, like putting malware in popular AI art downloads to “punish” people for using AI instead of hiring real artists, when most people who download those programs do it for personal lulz. There’s also stuff like, okay, I don’t have a problem with “sexy neko cat girl,” that’s fine, whatever, but when you see folks take it far further to be almost entirely animals boning in their “fan art,” it gets a little weird.

I guess I’d say the category of “furry” has sub-categories that get very different receptions; normal people who have Halloween-style convention costumes they wear once a year and like sexy anime girls with ears, all the way to people who seem to straight up be into bestiality and kids. It seems like a lack of internal policing, but maybe I just don’t see it as an outsider. It sort of reminds me of vids comparing pride parades in different cities; some just seem to be saying “It’s okay to be gay” while others have barely-dressed grown men thrusting their junk towards the children watching from the sidewalk, while other people are prancing around in bondage gear while getting spanked–just seems like there’s a few bad eggs trying to crowbar their fetishes into other groups, ruining their good image.

I think: this site has a pretty good, basic description, of what people in the furry/furries fandom, are like.

One good point that this site makes is: most people who are furries, and whom also call themselves furries, do not wear fursuits.

Please give it a look. Cheers.

https://www.whatisfurry.org/

2875 Normalization.

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