Creators of a furry fetish party dare to be “Wild Things” (NSFW content)
by Patch O'Furr
Wild Things: at San Francisco’s Citadel club – November 8, 2014 (18+)
Artists and dealers are invited to show and sell your wares.
Info: (Ask me – patch.ofurr at gmail.)
I apologize in advance for humping your leg. It’s that exciting to share news about a unique, gutsy, sexy, creative, WTF happening for consenting adult friends. But first, have a soft intro.
Is furry a “sex thing?” It’s the #1 topic that furries love to hate. Some call it a myth spread by media exploitation. But the internet is bursting with self-generated erotica. Reddit’s r/yiff community has more subscribers than r/furry. The media doesn’t have enough imagination to be that dirty.
Scowlers don’t like it. “Stop destroying the ‘Furry Fandom(TM)’! Think of the children!” Defenders downplay it: “The thing that got me into it was the art.”
Art is a sex thing, if you think about it. So is fashion, politics, dancing, and driving silly cars. The instinct pervades everything around us. It’s better to admit it, than to be oversensitive or get a moral authority-boner. And kinks are built in to being human. People can express them, then drive grandma to church.
Some furries only love clean things. “Anthropomorphic” makes a wide umbrella covering everything from Disney to dirty. It’s a strange mix, but sex can be just an optional ingredient for those who want it. It’s complicated, but plenty of furries accept it. One exception is conventions keeping family-friendly PR. It’s understandable to defuse outside haters. But when boundaries happen, so does boundary-breaking expression.
Porn is art. Robert Mapplethorpe and Madonna put kink in art museums and pop culture. The web put porn in everyone’s living room. Art critic Camille Paglia loves it. It’s a smart topic. (There’s an academic journal for it). The more provocative and naughty it is, the more there is to express. It’s most pure when it’s 100% drawn and invented. I’ve run across Furry porn that provokes more feeling (with humor, hotness, or WTFness) than “avante-garde” things in museums. Isn’t that what art is for? I think John Waters would dig it. Need an example? Oh, OK… have an NSFW link to Dirt Coyote. He’s filthy.
A friend of mine visited a Furry con for the first time, went to the dealer room, and saw Bad Dragon’s sex toys. His reaction cracked me up for a week:
“Take their display case, and put it in a modern art museum. No explanation… just put it out and watch people stand around going ‘hummm.’”
Wild Things is the art and sex party he’s now helping to organize. I don’t think there are any other formal events in the world like it. Does it make you curious?
He told me:
This is an entirely new event. If you’ve been to any really wild convention hotel parties, I’d imagine it being like that. (Minus all the booze, add really fancy bondage equipment.) As one of the organizers, I’ve leaned heavily on Burning Man‘s ten principles. I imagine a very inclusive and participatory sort of event.
It’s a big risk to start. The normal world isn’t friendly to indie porn and kink, and the Furry world is timid about promoting it. There are several sparks starting it. A popular night life event has an overflowing crowd, making opportunity for a new place for them not regulated like a bar. (Wild Things gets to be 18+, and it’s alcohol-free because the venue will allow furries to have sex there.)
The Citadel is a “dungeon” club, seeking to expand it’s crowd beyond a supportive BDSM community. It has to draw a certain turnout to succeed. Mark, a Citadel organizer, believes that there’s a big population of kinky people who are too timid to come out to events. Wild Things is hoped to draw multiple distant communities together, and be friendly and inviting enough for shy people to dare joining.
If Wild Things succeeds, it will continue 4 times a year. Don’t tell grandma, but tell your friends.
“Expect videos, lights and music, performance, fun, and games. It’s an art and performing event, but nothing about it is neutered. What happens on the Discovery Channel can happen in the flesh. It’s a supportive and safe place where your play is as limitless as your imagination.”
Wild Things is the day after a Street fursuiting “crawl” and photography art show – then there’s Frolic party. That’s 4 furry events in a row. Get a hotel!
Well… I’m going to be “that guy”. Sorry for that.
In advance I’d also like to apologize for my mediocre english (I’m from germany)
Well, here goes:
To portray the fandom as a kink is irresponsible. You could argue, that it’s even kind of a self fulfilling prophecy: To rhetorically inject deviancy into it MAKES it deviant. Which in term draws in more deviants. I don’t like this development AT ALL. I welcome sexual weirdness, really I do! But I can’t embrace this portrayal of the fandom at large. You’re painting with too broad of a brush, as if there was something inherently (!) sexual about the fandom.
I’m now going to say what you (kinda) mock people for saying:
“The thing that got me into it, was the art!”
It’s so (!) frustrating to be aware that some furs react to others trying to be the approachable, child friendly wing of the fandom, by more or less saying:
“Oh you just want to downplay the deviancy of the Fandom.”
Yes! I damn well want to downplay it, because the sexual aspects have been overhyped for too frickin’ long!
There are breathtaking comics, there’s beautiful non pornographic artwork. There’s even literature and music and roleplaying and whatever else…
And then there’s a bunch of porn…
And every cynic writing about the subject ignores the clean stuff and just jumps on the porn, seemingly astonished that niche-porn is popular. OF COURSE this stuff is popular. It has been for centuries! This doesn’t say anything about the furry fandom. This says it all about the human condition!
The fact that “Furry” has been acknowledged as a sort of kink is depressing and frustrating to me, because PER DEFINITION it isn’t, and some people for the sake of their talking points will not (will never) recognize this distinction:
The most general definition of a furry is: “A person with some significant interest in anthropomorphic creatures.”
The most general definition of a furry ISN’T: “A person with an erotic interest in anthropomorphic creatures.”
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To me, Furry is an aethetic thing. And I watch Furry porn. (Because I like my porn to be aesthetically pleasant, duh)
This aesthetic interest (Furry = aesthetic interest) informs my porn viewing habits.
That DOES NOT mean that “Furry” IS my porn viewing habit, or can be reduced to being my porn viewing habits.
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Furry is an aesthetic thing to me and in my experience many, many furs can relate to this.
An aesthetic interest can evolve into an erotic interest over time. Maybe erotic intersts are a subset of aestetic interests, I don’t know.
But the fact remains: Even to many furry-porn-viewing-furs (FPVFs), “Furry” CANNOT be reduced to being a kink.
FPVFs may actually be in a majority, but I know people who are grossed out by it. People who just really like the Disney-Characterdesigns. People who will inevitably fail be connect to the fandom, because theyare all so blatant in their portrayal of the fandom as some sort of fetish-pool.
Furry isn’t a kink, just because there is (widespread) pornography in its midst.
Just like “Anime-Fan” isn’t a kink, just because there is (widespread) pornography in its midst.
I care a lot about the future of the fandom and the fact that you have jumped on the “Furries just deny the obvious truth that this is all a kink.”- bandwagon is SOOO frickin’ frustrating and depressing. There are already too many staunch cynics in our midst who spread this meme.
Thanks for (almost) ruining my day. 🙁
Yup, I think you’re being “that guy”.
If you felt like this blog “ignores the clean stuff and just jumps on the porn”, please browse articles here about dozens of other topics. 🙂
Quoting the article: “sex can be just an optional ingredient for those who want it.”
Quoting the “Furries after dark” adult convention: “We’re not here to represent the fandom, we’re here to have fun with our friends.” There really isn’t a “fandom”, just a wide open collection of interests. Furry(tm) isn’t a brand owned by anybody.
It’s fine if you only want to enjoy clean activities. Some people enjoy adult activities. Many (perhaps a majority) of furry fans enjoy both. The most hard-core kinksters love sci fi and art too. They aren’t outsiders making artificial influence. They aren’t representing others, they represent themselves. It’s their personal interest. This party exists to answer a demand for it. If someone doesn’t like it, they should avoid going there.
In other words, people don’t have to stop enjoying their personal hobbies or self-expression to tiptoe around someone else’s sense of offense.
I find it refreshing to see freaks, weirdos and special people. I don’t care if they’re the few or the many. I don’t judge. I love seeing them in John Waters movies. In time, even the weirdest fringe of furries will be appreciated that way.
You’re welcome to take last words if you like. Please keep it short, and comments to follow may be moderated because I want to avoid rehashing. 🙂
I appreciate your elaborations. Really, I do. 🙂
That’s a stance I can totally agree with: There is a serious demand for kinky stuff, in every part of life. That doesn’t mean that one can reduce something to the kink.
And I really didn’t want to bash the party that the San Francisco-furs are throwing. Kudos to them. My criticism was of your coverage, but it seems I misread your article.
And I’m glad I apparently did 😀
Sorry if I was defensive! There are plenty of reasons to be cautious about outsider attitudes. I like how some furry things are only things you “get” if you are one. Sometimes I call it a furry fight club, except instead of for fights it’s for hugs.
Good to see San Fran getting some fun.
Wow I never heard of this befor and sounds real Cool.
Yes I can help out pleas drop me a note.