It’s evidently not easy remaining rational when discussing the much-misunderstood subject of ‘furries’ the name used to describe the growing community of people who like to dress up as anthropomorphic creatures. This well-meaning new documentary …. a Slamdance Award winner … by first time filmmaker Dominic Rodriguez (himself an occasional participant) starts out with good intentions to explain this phenomenon and dispel some of the myths, but he gets somewhat side tracked by focusing on his undisguised bias against ‘Uncle Kage’ one of the community’s authoritarian leaders.
Its a pity, and it made trying to piece together an accurate picture of why so many people love dressing up in these expensive full-body custom-made fur costumes (the figure $7000 was mentioned) to role-play difficult to really fathom out in this patchily edited piece. So many of ‘fandom’ members took their lead on paranoia of the media and the outside world from Uncle Kage and there was a great deal of footage of him ranting at ‘events ‘ it takes years to build a reputation, and 10 seconds to destroy it’.
The fixation with the right public image made many of the furries interviewed so cautious in opening up to the camera, but it was notably that when some actually made rather sweeping statements like “80% of furries are guys, and 80% of them are gay or bi.” they were left unchallenged. Despite an initial effort to try and dispel the concept this lifestyle had any sexual connotations, several of the furries were happy to agree that it was about carnal desires. One member said that having sex wearing a full costume where the temperature is like 100 degrees inside was impossible, but others made it obviously clear that it certainly didn’t stop them. There was even a rather lengthy interview with one of their number who designed and made sex toys, complete with very cheap sperm lube, especially for the community
Despite their obsession with how they were perceived and accepted in society, it was very noticeable that they were also extremely judgmental about each other. Another ‘furrie’ who was not welcomed by the group was ‘Boomer the Dog’ who earned all their wrath for the fact that his shabby handmade costume had cost him just a few dollars, and also that he had appeared on Dr Phil’s TV program as he was trying to change his name legally to Boomer as he felt he was completely canine.
It’s very easy to be dismissive of the whole furry culture, and they certainly are an easy target for ridicule. And although this documentary was not intended to be propaganda for the community, it’s failure to calmly investigate it or even question it properly, certainly didn’t help further our understanding of it at all in anyway, which was such a pity.
One participant noted the the furry community have a long way to go in accepting itself. After watching this film, it is at least we though have even longer.
Labels: 2016, documentary
