I've been holding back on posting this, to see if someone that's better at writing than me can do it, but since I haven't seen anything ... here goes.
On April 11 a lawyer with a blog, calling himself BoozyBarrister (Twitter account) wrote a blog post, out of the blue, about the furry fandom and the drama surrounding RMFC. This was a VERY VERY good read, and those I talk to often online might remember me sharing it. It was immediately shared by MANY furs on Twitter. He was almost immediately adopted into the fandom, and invited to talk at Furthemore. He also wrote a blog post about his experiences there.
He then decided to investigate this whole furry thing, and dug very deep into it. Eventually his lawyer followers got a little fed up, and he created a second Twitter account, for BoozyBadger. His SO got involved as well, and the fandom got her an otter fursona. Yes, there's a furry pun there.
In any event, I've been following his journey through the fandom quite closely, and I must say, people held nothing back. As a matter of fact, some people were almost eager to expose the deepest secrets of the fandom. Now he will openly admit that he's not a furry (yet), and he also thinks the furs that adopted him will sooner or later forget the novelty of it. However, what I found fascinating in his journey over the past month was his views on the fandom, talking about it as an outsider.
He is of the opinion that furries are too sensitive sometimes, and too critical of their own fandom. Almost everything he saw in the fandom he has encountered as a lawyer outside the fandom. Our problems are not unique to us. He puts it best here: http://www.lawyersandliquor.com/2017/04 ... -some-art/
Read his blog posts, and filter with the Furries tag. It's worth doing.However, it got me thinking about some shit, mainly about why a salty lawyer such as myself somehow obtained cult status within a community in the course of 24 hours, and how it came to pass that I’ve been adopted as some sort of unofficial mascot (is pet a better word? Am I their pet lawyer now?) for furries. I raised this issue with a couple lawyers in our super-secret-chatroom last night, and got this response:
“I think this is a result of an often ostracized group feeling as if you’ve given them mainstream legitimacy in a way that doesn’t shame them for who they are,” responded one lawyer.
“Yeah, sure,” I answered, “But, you know, people are people.”
“Yes for sure,” he told me, “but they are a group that doesn’t get that sentiment. They’re pushed to the fringes of society and I can only assume when they get a little bit of legitimacy without being made fun of they’re thrilled.”
So this made me wonder, is part of our issue that we're such an online-heavy fandom? Communication is almost instantaneous, and we often form echo chambers, re-inforcing our own prejudices and ideas. And one of the ideas is that furries are different. He made me reconsider how I view the fandom and my place within it. I wonder where this journey will lead, and how it will affect the fandom.
