Scapey wrote:
I don't get it, but who are we to judge?
Well 'we' aren't anyone... but Chris
Judge is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aTnhO5b8zkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhiC59H8MzgHilarious as that was, I expect he was only given the stereotypical capsule definition, though...
>And considering these aren't based on characters from popular culture, why are they attending comic cons?This is probably the simplest bit to answer - The whole concept, as you'd define it in today's incarnation, supposedly began at a sci-fi & comic con when Steve Gallacci's painting of Erma Felna (from a series about bioengineered animal soldiers in a space war) prompted a lot of discussions around anthropomorphism in comics, cartoons and general sci-fi. These concepts took off, discussions groups (like this one you're reading) formed and, like with many other SF&F con things, people get well into it to the point of dressing up and 'becoming' characters in those universes. So too the furry side of things developed among attendees of SF&F cons. It was born there, it grew up there - Why wouldn't they attend?
>So whats the attraction???Cosplay, Crossplay, LARPing, RenFaire, re-enactments, Living History, dressing up as a xenomorph with a name and a dedicated Facebook page - All the same thing, in essence.
There has been a massive amount of misrepresentation and misinformation of furry fandom in the media, typically focussing on the sexual fetish element alone. This element is actually quite a small niche within the wider scene and probably about as proportional (and representative) as Star Wars porn is to the wider Star Wars fandom.
As Septic said, that's just the Rule #34 part.
In essence, it's a blending of the zoomorphism and anthropomorphism that most people exhibit to some (usually lesser) degree anyway, just made a bigger feature of a person's life. Think how kids learn to emulate animals in playschool and just expand on it. Some limit it to just drawing, some collect furry memorabilia, some run large fan groups, some dress up at cons, some create whole personas and some define their entire lives by it. Like anything else, each individual takes it as far as they like.
I could discuss it a lot more in terms of psychological theory, and the different forms of animal fandom, but that might turn this into a long, rambling thread. So here's a couple of good quick reads that offer a bit more of a balanced insight:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8355287.stmhttp://www.flayrah.com/4117/retrospecti ... -1966-1996