"It's getting late to give you up,
I took a sip from my devil cup.
Slowly,
It's taking over me.
[...]
With the taste of your lips I'm on a ride!
You're toxic, I'm slipping under...
Taste of a poison paradise!
I'm addicted to you, don't you know that you're toxic?"
"Toxic" - Britney Spears
Disney Pixar's new animated movie, Zootopia, is spreading hype within the furry fandom for predictable reasons: the concept of the anthro (anthropomorphic animal, or, if you talk the way I talk, ♥ fur yeah ♥ ) is suddenly presented to the public in a kind, family-friendly manner. This, though, has also derived in a feeling of reluctance...
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| Or just don't make your characters so sexy, duh! |
The furry fandom seems to have a quite rich history of sexualizing anthro characters from movies and video games, going from iconic characters like Bowser to childhood icons such as the Coyote from the Road Runner, so the collective is concerned about what message the reaction of the fandom towards Zootopia might send to the general public (NOT like non-anthro characters in all ambits are also sexualized by other fandoms and people, OF COURSE NOT).
As I so subtly suggested in brackets before, though, not only the furry fandom but pretty much everyone and their mother is guilty of this. Jessica Rabbit, Courtney Gears, Lara Croft, all those characters share the idiosyncrasies of not being anthros and being sexualized by other kinds of public systematically. A simple Google search of "Courtney Gears" can easily lead a seven-year-old Ratchet & Clank fan to the porn site Rule 34, and, believe me, that is not furries' fault. In the eighties and the early nineties, the LGBT collective was lovelily known by the public as a group of perverts who wanted to rape everything alive, so, if someone is still concerned about people's generalized opinion on their collective, there are two ways to fix the issue: either educating that people through kindness and comprehension or hiding and pretending not to belong to the collective. LGBT people who have lived the eighties and the early nineties will probably agree when I say the second option is definitely not going to change anything.
And, guess what, that is OK. I like C. Gears as the diva she is in R&C 3 and I wouldn't sexualize her, but, hey, I do not mind if someone else would. While tons and tons of hentai and ecchi porn are being generated regarding the character, nobody is forcing me to watch. I can listen to Courtney's song once and again off YouTube without seeing her boobs uncovered, and I therefore do not understand why someone would get offended by the existence of that content.
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| Oh, no! A make-up tutorial! |
But then there is the thing: kids. You could leave your child alone with your computer dancing to Gears' robotic anthem and come back to see them naively watch her naked in an anime-styled picture because they were browsing "Courtney Gears" on Google and that's what they got... Well, Mr. and Mrs. Concerned Parent, I present you HEATHER'S GUIDE TO KEEP YOUR CHILD FROM BEING THE FIRST COMMENT IN PORNHUB. It's a very simple guide, it has only one line of text, and says the following:
"Have you ever thought about being there while they surf the net?"
Crazy idea, right? I know, you might be busy at times, right? Then what about downloading (and revising, please) the content you want your child to access and offer it to them without allowing connection to the Internet? Hey, that method came straight to my mind in just fifteen seconds, it must be not so hard after all!
So, dear furries and furry fans out there; I know you mean well, and I know all you want is your collective to be considered better by the public. That is a very legitimate goal, but it seems you haven't made up the right way towards it. If there is a reaction from the public, someone will speak up. Respond, educate, be assertive, explain, show the world some love and the world will show some understanding. We're living, now more than anytime else, in a world of changes where it's likely that everybody's ideas and explanations will be heard and given a chance sooner or later.
I prefer to be taken as free better than to be taken as normal.
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