Post about furries in Psychology Today
6 years ago
Huzzah! I wrote a guest blog article in Psychology Today about furries :3
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo.....e-deal-furries
Feel free to discuss / criticize / whatnot below!
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo.....e-deal-furries
Feel free to discuss / criticize / whatnot below!
An excellent point. One of the most striking things about my first convention was the prevailing feeling that it was not really possible to be criticized or judged in traditional ways. (You can still irritate, annoy, and offend people if you try hard enough; see, for instance, the incident at Anthrocon with the gent trolling the convention space in a confederate flag fursuit. But you've gotta try REALLY hard.) In fact, the idea of being judged for one's appearance or identity is almost nonsensical: making fun of someone else in such a context would seem so hypocritical as to be preposterous. It occurred to me afterwards how rare it is to be in such a space. So much of what we do is influenced profoundly by a fear of judgment by others. The experience of escaping that fear of judgment, even if only for a few days, is very valuable whether or not one has been bullied in the past and whether or not one has other social groups that they connected to. Unfortunately, this experience -- the inclusive, non-judgmental atmosphere at these events -- is extraordinarily difficult to communicate to others. You can describe it to those who've never been to one of these events, but the gravity of it will be lost on them. I imagine it probably has to be experienced firsthand to be understood.