A fandom is a community that happens to be based around a creative work. You can like said creative work and not be a part of the community, or you can go on message boards and talk about it and thus be a part of the community. A fandom has general attitudes, particularly ones centered around particular websites, like the Straight Dope has a community. What’s hard to get about that?
That seems an awfully thin rationalization to me, to be honest, but I’m not going to chase that argument down.
I get that…but the whole idea of a fandom being inclusive (or exclusive). I mean, how can a group of people affect how you enjoy a show?
You have people who like the same thing to discuss it with, instead of spouting about how cool that episode was!!! to people who don’t care and wish you would shut up about it.
Also, there’s fanfiction to write, which may inspire your own, and fanart, music mixes, etc etc. You can build an energy with other people.
You may not get as excited about things you like as other people and that’s fine.
Whaaaaat? Cite?
Oh, wait…
…nevermind.
Hi there! Granted, I much prefer Lola Bunny.
rule34.paheal.net/ - SFW as long as one doesn’t venture past the linked page - is practically devoted to furry fandom and attracts the occasional derogatory comment. 'Course, I have no idea what, if any, fandom those who posts such comments are part of.
“Fur fags” seems to be the most common derogative comment I’ve seen, on the above site and at YouTube. Remember the Orangina commercial linked here?
These things aren’t comparable, nobody is born a furry.
Honestly, I don’t see how that makes a difference. They’re both fur covered humanoids. The backstory of how they got like that doesn’t strike me as hugely relevant. It’s the aesthetic, I would think, that counts, not the plot.
Whoa, that’s that weird part of the Internet again.
Yeah this essentially proves my point that there is no massed “hatred” for furries amongst the general population. A site devoted to furriness gets an “occaisional” rude comment. I can’t follow the link (its blocked) but I assume that to even find that site you have to have some idea of what furries are (or at the very least, know what “Rule 34” refers to). It’s not like it appeared in “Newsweek.”
Here at the SDMB we get the ocacisional rude comment as well, usually during school breaks and generally alleging we’re all a bunch of teh ghey fagz for caring about grammar. Does that equal “hatred” of people who are against poor comma placement? Clearly, it does not. Most of the English-speaking universe doesn’t even know we exist. Much like furries.
However if what “hatred” means to you is “a couple people on the internet once said something mean about it”… wow. Yeah, ok. Have fun with that. I literally cannot think of any subject so innocuous, widespread, and wholesome that it is not subject to “occaisional derogatory remarks” on the internet.
Well, obviously nobody else is going to tell you what shows you’re allowed to watch or not. But it’s certainly possible for a given community to make newbies or people with “undesirable” traits feel unwelcome (hence exclusive), or accept anyone who wants to be a part of the community regardless of their personal preferences (hence inclusive). I’m a fan of the show Castle, but I don’t go to Castle-specific boards to talk about the show, so I’m not a part of whatever Castle-based communities might be out there.
…You seriously linked to a rule 34 site? :smack:
I noticed you ignored the part about YouTube. Try following the Orangina link over there and read the comments.
Not the first time I linked that site, either, given that it meets the two-click rule. 
(link removed just to be safe)
I never thought of that site as furry specific. I mostly use it to see what weird shit people have sexualized (gender-switched Ronald McDonald with giant tits? WTF?!!) and to see if someone has applied rule 34 to whatever random thing I’ve thought of (usually yes, if you define porn as topless pin-up)
I’m not about go to searching on SomethingAwful, but they regularly have stuff dedicated to putting down anything related to furry fandom.
Random thread from www.customerssuck.com that relates:
Note, this was not some random person on the internet hating on someone, this was a customer overhearing another customer and butting in.
How about Vanity Fair?
Not furry specific, no, but it kinda skews that way.
My guess, based on the places that I hang out, is that the furry fandom is perceived (accurately or not) to be more “abnormal” than whatever Thing That We Like. Sort of a whole: “Okay, yeah, we may be nerds, but at least we’re not FREAKS like THOSE PEOPLE!” sort of thing.
In other words, furries are the nerds that even the nerds pick on.
Me, meh, I find it a little weird that people make a fetish of adding on animal attributes or that they think of themselves as a Fearsome Tiger, but I do kind of see the appeal of both. Whatever, so long as everybody’s consenting and all that stuff. I worry about the psychological wellbeing of some of the deeper ends of the fandom pool, but I’ve got too much of my own baggage to have to deal with to bother with trying to pry into the skeletons in other people’s closets.
And this is relevant…how? Why does being born with a particular sexual interest (as opposed to developing it later as a result of exposure) make a difference as to whether hatred/bashing is permissible/understandable?
Ya, I thought the rule was not to make fun of people for things they can’t help (being gay, short, red-haired) but making fun of them for the stupid shit they do (being Republican, pretending you’re part leopard while fucking your girlfriend) was totally kosher.
Try reading the comments on any Youtube video, ever. They aren’t exactly the top of the barrel. The 5th comment on “suprised kitten” – literally the most harmless video on the internet – is rather crass (“I find it easy to masturbate to this.”*) Let me put this even more simply: nasty Comments about anything on Something Awful, 4chan, Youtube, or yahoo Answers do not prove that the anything is widely hated. It proves that you find assholes on the internet in all the traditional “assholes on the internet” stomping grounds.
You still haven’t proved to me that the existence of assholes on the internet means that most or all people a)have heard of furries b)hate them, rather than think they are inoccuous yet funny if they have heard of them.
*I feel free in saying that anyone who is sexually aroused by actual videos of actual tiny kittens has a problem.
Yes, I noticed the pure hate dripping from every inch of that article.
I’d only encountered furries on the internet, and there only indirectly, until a couple of visits ago when I went to my favorite goth club in DC and there were furries there! Two of them, and they were there the next time I visited as well. One was a wolf and I don’t remember what the other one was. But it was really awkward and weird to have a person dressed in a wolf costume out on the dance floor.
I don’t hate them or anything, but I admit I’d have a hard time taking said person seriously.