Celebrity Furries

[lupestripe]

Imagine, in an idle hour, you are sat reading The Sun or Heat Magazine (unlikely I know but let's run with it) and you discover that a major celebrity has outed themselves as a furry. What would your reaction be?

I wouldn't really want wannabe furries roaming the streets who think it's cool because they read it in a magazine and that's what x does so I must do it too. Nor would I want furry itself to appear chic and cool - I like the niche aspect of it and the fact that it is a subculture that doesn't generate much media interest (although that is admittedly increasing).

Imagine chavs called Charlene wearing fox tails in the street as a fashion statement *shudder*. Or burberry bunny ears? Christ. And then what about the sponsorship? Little foxes wear crinkle pants diapers. The image is too horrible to contemplate.

Would it affect the togetherness of the community and its image for the positive or the negative? I guess that would depend on whether the media is praising or bashing that particular celebrity that week. It would probably still come round to haunt the celeb though due to the vitriolic nature of most media outlets.

I think it's a truly horrible vision but others may disagree. Would a celebrity furry endorsement be a good or a bad thing? My own view is that we are only a celebrity endorsement away from anarchy.

Comments

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

You are probably right but I don't see how it would take the wind out of the sails of trolls. After all, homosexuality has largely become accepted in Western Europe yet there are still trolls out there on that issue - I think if you are bigoted, you will be bigoted irrespective of how large a subculture is.

The problem with media is the way they deliberately twist things. Imagine Furry in The Sun or Das Bild and the prospect is frightening.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those certainly aren't the papers you'd want to report on furry fandom. On the other hand - imagine an article in the Guardian or Die Zeit; it'd likely not be that bad (well, one would hope). At the very least, it wouldn't be deliberate lies.

As for trolls, I think it would take the wind out of their sails insofar as that they're trying to give people the wrong impression of what furries are actually like and what furry fandom is actually about - again, lies. If people already did have an idea - a reasonably accurate idea -, that'd be much more difficult.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

Would Die Zeit ever cover furry? The Guardian might but even then, there would be a slant on it. The Guardians would relate it to a race issue somewhere - is the exclusion of Foxy McFoxy related to hidden race issues against foxes in the Fandom?

I guess you are right about trolls but am I right in thinking that is only one type of troll and that other trolls would still thrive, irrespective of how mainstream furry could become?

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Die Zeit well might - they did have an article on atalondeer (a fursuit and mascot builder) as part of their "job of the week" column, for example.

Not sure what angle the Guardian might take; I'm not too familiar with it, to be honest, but it was the first name that came to my mind when I tried to think of a respectable, high-quality British newspaper.

Yeah, other trolls would still thrive, but there's no real need to worry about those.