So ConFurence melted down....

[feren]

... or at least that's what I'm lead to believe by reading things like this and the announcement here. But it's not the spectacular way that ConFurence melted down that's catching my attention. No, I'm finding things like this, this and this far more interesting to watch. These people are turning themselves inside out over events that happened at a con they did not attend, that is known not to be returning next year and was so sparsely attended it barely even registered on the face of the fandom at all. And let's face it kids, it's not like this is the first time this sort of bad luck has befallen the fandom! Granted, the method of delivery was a rude shock, but give me a break.. the wailing and gnashing of teeth that this is generating is completely out of proportion. Keep in mind I'm only thus far talking about the stuff I'm finding on LiveJournal... I can only imagine the furious bout of angst that must be flying about completely unchecked on alt.fan.furry. These people are absolutely astounding... they'll rest about on their laurels, watching any and everything go on around them. They never have any advice to give, they never contribute, they only sit around and stare at their own navel lint because they "don't want to get involved." Yet the second the press gets involved they're whipped into a foaming, rabid core of action-oriented fans who have all the answers to the world's woes. Usually their list of so-called "Solutions" calls for barbequing whomever it is they think is most directly responsible for their current media disaster, and it usually ends with some particularly insightful chap trumpeting that the fandom will never escape persecution and the real solution is to just "kill the mundanes for daring to make fun of us!" Seriously, step back and look at this for a minute, people. This is quality entertainment on par with throwing a piece of squid between two hungry seagulls so that they start scrapping over who gets to eat the prize. I don't have to watch the segment on the Man Show to get an idea of how screwed up things are in this fandom. Hell, I can skip all their fake lines and scripted "incidents," because the real show is right in front of me: I just have to watch the fandom's participants as they tear themselves apart at the seams with rage. It's the same thing every time this happens -- outrage, outcry, frothing undirected anger... but never a lick of intelligent action.

Do you want to know why I'm finding this so amusing? Well, to borrow from Road to Perdition: It's all so fucking hysterical.

Come on, people. This isn't the first time, it isn't the last time, and it sure as hell isn't the end of the world. Furry Is Just A Goddamn Hobby. Now get ahold of yourselves, stop weeping in the corner and move on with your life. Or end it. I really don't care anymore, so long as you take some sort of responsibility for your own actions and then ACT.

Comments

Let it be known thoughout the land...

[brianblackberry.livejournal.com]

That the man show does rocketh~!

Did anyone expect different when the Man Show was there?

Perhaps they did mock the fandom, with their own diaper furs, fursuiters and what not. Of course they also had..oh no! women dancing around! Well much to the contrary of many furfan's beliefs and orientations, some of us actually like women and have no issue with them around =)

Who is to say this fandom doesn't deserve a little knocking around like that? From what I read the Man Show didn't show anything that isn't true about this fandom anyway. I really think this fandom needs some severe self introspection, because it has some really messed up aspects to it. I see it as satire on the Man Show's behalf anyway. If people cannot handle satire and criticism of the fandom then they better stay in their mom's basement and not go out into the 'mundane world' of Real Life, because it can be much, much worse.

You are right, it is just a fandom. Yeah, I am a fan, and yeah I make some minor cash doing art for this fandom, big deal. I am a fan of a lot of other genres also. I make far more cash sitting in front of a computer all week. Most important I realize their are far more important things in life then one's particular hobbies.

I need to get my VCR ready, I want to tape this Man Show episode...>)

Re: Let it be known thoughout the land...

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

"From what I read the Man Show didn't show anything that isn't true about this fandom anyway."

Er, well, that's up for debate, since they brought in ringers; their own set of people in costumes, men wearing diapers, etc. Well, I've been to lots of cons, and I've never seen anyone roaming the halls or the lobby in diapers. This thing promises/threatens to be even more dishonest than Rick Castro's "Sex2K" special.

That said... I agree with Feren, that people are making too big a deal about this. Yeah, Darrel Exline's a jerk, yeah, people got ripped off by registering and then leaving because they didn't want to be in the freak show... but this'll blow over, it will not kill furry fandom, just like Vanity Fair, MTV, and for that matter Sibe didn't, and I'm not going to stop liking anthropomorphics, and I'm not going to stop going to cons, and I'm not going to stop calling myself a furry because that would mean I believed the lie that being a furry is something to be ashamed of. What I am going to do is get on with my life!

I spent today transcribing audiotape from AC2002. Once I finish doing that, I can continue working on the AC diary.

Re: Let it be known thoughout the land...

[rhi-silverflame.livejournal.com]

Something similar happened at the Pasadena Xena convention back in February; somehow not surprisingly, the footage was filmed for the Jimmy Kimmel show, and gee, didn't he used to be on the Man Show? Sent in a few of his own people (including that damn Armenian comedian), waylaid a few fans and got some really insulting footage out of it, then strung together a tape of what is essentially an outright mockery of Xena fans.

The really shitty thing about it is, he ran this footage the night he had Lucy Lawless as a guest, and tried to get her to comment about XWP fans being crazy. (For the record, she did not look as though she were enjoying the appearance one bit.)

There was about a week's worth of outrage on the smattering of Xena lists I'm on, though it was largely channeled into somewhat constructive means such as writing to the show's producers and the networks. It died down pretty quickly after that, though, and it went nowhere near the extent that the ConFurence debacle has.

. . . and when Xena fandom looks sane and rational, I get scared.

[aureth.livejournal.com]

No, sorry, I'm going to be pissed about this. Perhaps for different reasons than some since I'm the chair of another furry con (one that a lot of other people have dumped on for media problems), but I'm still pissed.

Darrell, in the past, has ranted about how furry cons need to control the media. Confurence has, in the past couple of years, had the most draconian media policies in the fandom. I'd have to do some digging, but I think he slammed FurFest around the time we had our problems. And then, as a final 'fuck you, I want my money' to the fandom, he invites some trashy entertainment shows in to exploit his convention attendees.

He's an embarrasement to the rest of us who have been running conventions responsibly. Thank god he's not coming back next year. While I don't have any proof, I have some reliable rumors that claim he and the hotel got paid a lot of money to have these two shows film at CF. Most of it is probably going to pay off Darrell's hotel debts, since he's run his convention so incompetantly over the past few years, he owed tens of thousands to the hotel. Now, the rest of us get to pay for his mismangement. So, yeah, I reserve the right to be pissed about this.

If I had the time to research and write it, there'd be a scathing editorial up on Flayrah tonight.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I'm not happy about it either, actually. But I like to be optimistic, so I'm more interested in doing damage control than in joining those who're beating their heads against the wall going "AARGH it's the end of the fandom" or whatever.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

From what I can gather and the few minutes I tried to watch the so-called Man Show once, there is not all that much to worry about. From what I've seen of the show, and heard of the show, it seems to be "by jerks, for jerks." So who cares what a bunch of jerks think?

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

For one thing, there are fursuiters who do charity work, performing for children. The last thing they want is for some charity organizer to happen to see the Man Show segment because her husband likes to watch it, and get the false impression that fursuiters are all a bunch of perverts, and decide that "we don't want to be associated with you anymore".

Then there are all the talented artists in the fandom. I don't like the thought of the next brilliant Tom Ruegger never getting the chance to do animation professionally because his associations with the fandom become a black mark.

These are worst-case scenarios, granted, but they are within the realm of possibility.