A new on-line forum has just come to my attention: The FAF. This acronym stands for: "Furs Against Furs". Now, you ask, what brought this on? It seems that some folks out there in Merry Olde England are somewhat dissatisfied with the local Fur-meets.
We are not a bunch of Bigots who want to do nothing but ruin furry. We are just a bunch of furs who are disgusted with what the "main" meets have turned into. This group was set up for us to talk about what we didn't like about meets and why (including who we feel my be damaging them) And fo us to also set up our own meets.
Just thought id point that out, thank you.
--Lilpika (LiveJournal Entry -- Link now dead)
OK, fair enough. In any large organization, there are bound to be certain folks who manage to rub you the wrong way. We all have our own ideas concerning how things ought to be done, our own opinions so far as the meaning of "Furry", our own ideas about how to "do Furry", our own standards as to what is -- and is not -- publicly acceptable behaviour. This is especially true of Furry fandom, which does not have any sort of central authority to set standards, pass judgement, or with the power of enforcement. Being the highly diversified fandom that Furry is, clashes over any number of issues are inevitable. I have long advocated that the best way to deal with this situation -- to take a page from Alcoholics Anonymous -- is: "Take what you like and leave the rest". Lend your support to that which you like. If you don't agree with the creation of yiffy or spoogy art, then visit those archives that don't allow it, or buy clean art at Fur-cons, or draw your own art or write your own stories, or commission clean art from the artist of your choice. Same goes for the company you keep. No one will force you to associate with those whose behaviour you find "embarrassing" or that makes you uncomfortable.
Now I don't know what the situation in Manchester is concerning the local Fur-meets. Since I live nowhere near Manchester, what goes on there can have no affect on me so I could not care less. Whatever it is, Nikomon found it unacceptable, and founded the FAF to organize Fur-meets more to his liking. So far, so good. This is what he should have done. If this is where it began and ended, you wouldn't be reading this, as I'd've had no reason to write it.
Years earlier, Reagan had coined a phrase that he called, the "11th Commandment". It goes: "Never speak ill of a fellow Republican."
"Great Communicator" Was a Nice Guy Too
Leonard Saffir
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
What we Furs need is a Furry 11th Commandment: Never speak ill of a fellow Furry.
Nikomon could have kept local Furry politics strictly local by discussing the organization and scheduling of his alternative meets in his LiveJournal. Even better would be a private mailing list. Had he done so, I would never have heard a damn thing about this. I don't have a LiveJournal, and I have neither the time nor the inclination to go looking through these things. Neither would any one else anywhere outside the Manchester area. Instead, Nikomon has decided to make a local affair the business of the entire world by putting up a Fur-bash web site.
What do you hope to accomplish by this act? Nikomon, you already have stated that you're giving up on the current Fur-meets. What goes on at those meets is no longer any concern of yours. The same as the FAF meets are no concern of theirs. Do you think that calling the attention of the entire world to the alleged questionable behaviour of some local participants will win you the approval of the mundanes? The more you protest that you aren't like the rest of those "freaks" and "deviants", the more that they will suspect you of being precisely that. The Burned Furs™ tried this almost ten years ago. The only things these assholes accomplished were the very things you profess to dislike: THE CSI episode, THAT ER story, Sex2K, and all the Fur-bash web sites. The "bad reputation" of Furry-dom. The Burned Furs™ discovered too late that the public-at-large won't grant you the acceptance that your interests and activities within the fandom are "normal". The public-at-large does not draw a distinction between "normal" Furs and "freaky" Furs. To the public-at-large, to be a Furry is to be a weirdo. Either learn to deal with it, or leave the fandom. Those are your only alternatives. For all the trouble they caused the fandom, the Burned Furs™ found themselves right back where they started: firmly welded, in the public mind, to all those Furry "deviants" from whom they so badly wanted to disassociate themselves. All they accomplished was to bring these "deviants" into a far greater public prominence than they would otherwise have had. They did on a grand scale what you have done on a small scale. Even though I don't live within 4500 miles of Manchester, I know all about this misbehaviour. And so does the rest of the world. Was that really necessary?
Pay close attention here, Nikomon: YOU WILL NEVER WIN ACCEPTANCE THAT WHAT YOU DO IS "NORMAL" BY SACRIFICING YOUR FELLOW FURRIES.
Now Ronald Reagan didn't agree with every Republican, far from it, however, no matter the degree of difference between his politics and theirs, he seldom ever criticized a fellow Republican in public. Reagan used to chastise any Republican who attempted to drag the reputation of another Republican through the mud. You need to learn a lesson from that, and take that web site down. The Furry hating fuck-tards don't need another one. No one is asking you to like plush-o-philes or baby Furs or fursuit sexers; no one is asking you to associate with them. No one is asking you to applaud the behaviour. As Mr. Reagan pointed out, you don't have to speak ill of your fellow Furries. The public-at-large has no need to know about internal fandom business. Like it or not, we are all in this together. If a gentle suggestion, delivered in private, doesn't convince them to tone the shit down a bit, then simply walk away. "Naming and shaming" (your words) is only going to call all that much more unwanted attention to the bad behaviour. "Love the sinner; hate the sin" is fine in theory. It does not work in the real world outside the seminary walls. Attack people, and they have a tendency to want to retaliate. One way they do this is by intensifying the very behaviour you don't want to see. In turn, the mundanes become all the more likely to notice it. You can see how counter productive this is, can't you?
Or do you have some other agenda in mind?
I decided to start this community cos i fucking HATE furs, i think the proceedings should start with a good oold bit of fur bashing, once people have accepted thier invitations let the bashing begin, when we have had our fill, we can then start planning things of greatness.--Nikomon (Live Journal Entry -- Link now dead)
If you hate us Furries that much, then why don't you do yourself -- and us -- a favor and leave our fandom?
Just what we need: more Burned Fur™ wannabes.
After months of inactivity on its forums, this web site has followed its spiritual predecessor into that good night of utter obscurity. The FAF is no more.