Explaining The Furry Thing

[lupestripe]

Yesterday, when walking around the Christmas Market in Manchester, a lady selling overly-expensive pork pies asked me why I was wearing my collar. My collar is an important part of me - it symbolises my relationship with Wolfie more than anything else, as well as me being furry. It's something that I enjoy wearing on a day-to-day basis and to me it's like a ring, necklace or bracelet.

However, I also have to accept that a 27 year old man wearing a dog collar is going to draw some funny looks and questions. I couldn't really answer her question really - I can't go into the whole ownership D/s thing and I can't really extol being a furry to people who probably wouldn't understand. I also can't really say I am a goth as goths tend not to wear tags on their collars and I rarely dress in all black.

Apart from "it's something I enjoy doing", which is somewhat of a limp reason, what else can I say? Granted, I am not answerable to anyone but I don't wish to be rude. Any ideas?

P.S. A collar does make a really nice scarf as it does keep your neck warm when it's cold :-)

Comments

[symphonic-rp.livejournal.com]

If I were inclined to fib, I'd say something along the lines of "My significant other and I are in the dog training business. The collar is an affectionate gag, in lieu of an engagement ring."

If I were inclined to be honest, I’d say "My significant other and I are in this fandom for cartoon type animal characters. The collar is a fandom fashion statement. It says I've been collared, meaning engaged."

Anything you answer will most likely generate more questions, but if you answer all questions in a pleasant demeanor, whatever you say will sound good.

It's also good to use references that outsiders will be familiar with. Like, if you say "My significant other and I are collectors of Pound Puppies, My Little Ponies, and other cute things we grew up with," they will have a reference that will make it seem like you're not coming from some other planet. You're not trying to sell the fandom. So they don't need to know there's anything more to it than that.

It's a good thing to keep in mind a list of things about the fandom the general public can relate to that you can use in an on the spot explanation. I've been getting away with that since the 70's and haven't had any problems with such situations.