It’s that time of the year folks. One of Pittsburgh’s best conventions has just arrived in town! Anthrocon! You may have heard the the convention goers called “Furries.” Ya know, or if you live in the City, or work in the city, you see people dressed up as animals, or just wearing clip on tails.
It’s an interesting event for sure, and while it’s entertaining for the people who don’t understand, it’s one of the biggest events of it’s kind. Still not sure what Anthrocon is? Let’s head to Anthrocon.org and see an explanation as to what it all means:
Anthropomorphic or “humanized” animals have been with us since the dawn of civilization. From the gods of ancient Egypt to the advertising icons of the modern day, people of every culture have created fanciful creatures simply by imbuing animals with human traits. Only within the last two decades has anthropomorphic or “Furry” fandom been recognized as a distinct fan-base in its own right. Fans are found in all corners of the world, and come from all races and ages and creeds. We are bound together across the most daunting barriers by our mutual admiration for these beasts of myth and legend who, by simple reflection, give us a better window into ourselves.
A large number of anthropomorphics fans are employed in scientific or technical fields. A significant percentage have college diplomas and many of those hold advanced degrees. This, perhaps, is what leads many casual observers to raise an eyebrow. “Why would someone like this be into cartoon animals? Isn’t that unusual?” If we look at the world around us, however, we will see that anthropomorphized animals are an integral part of our culture. We use them to represent our political parties. We talk to our dogs (and some even imagine they talk back, though in their own way). We put a tiger in our tank. We cheer for mascots—anthropomorphic animals dressed in team uniforms—at our favorite sporting events. Our casual observer may simply be unaware that it is only in the last forty years that cartoons and cartoon animals have been relegated to the world of children. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and their ilk were once targeted primarily to an adult audience, their productions filled with innuendo and biting political satire. Fans of anthropomorphics today simply have not forgotten those roots. The average Furry fan is cast from the same mold as the science fiction or sword-and-sorcery fan; all of us imagine strange and thrilling worlds and try to picture ourselves living in those worlds.
Today, Furry fandom is instead an artistic and literary genre that is practiced and enjoyed by tens of thousands worldwide. We count among our ranks professional sports mascots, animators, cartoonists, puppeteers, artists, illustrators, and writers, as well as those who simply think that it would be a wonderful thing if animals could walk or talk like we do. If you as an adult still occasionally like to flip to the old cartoons, or have a stuffed animal sitting on the dashboard of your car, or buy cereal because it has a cool tiger on the box, you may well enjoy what our fandom has to offer. We invite you to visit any one of our many gatherings worldwide to see for yourself what Furry fandom is really all about.
It’s just all fascinating, the story behind it all. I personally have never been or seen what goes on inside the convention center when this event is happening. I’d love to hear what happens through all of this. Is it just walking around? Communicating like an animal? Doing animal things? Like I said, I’d love to hear more about it.
So here’s my quest for you guys/girls that are participating at Anthrocon. What happens there? What do you do? Leave it in the comments and let me know!
June 24th, 2010 at 2:15 PM
anthrocon is an interesting beast, but it’s not entirely unlike any other convention out there. it’s just a central meeting place for people who are friends through the Internet, or plainly, just a place for people to meet others in similar cultural backgrounds.
while there is undoubtedly the typical furry stuff (yiffing, scritching and the like), it’s mostly nerds doing nerdy things – sitting around playing cards, gossiping about anime or working up the nerve to talk to a cute person.
furries are mostly awkward nerds (although that might too be a sweeping generalization from one nerd to another), so a lot of sex goes on, but never in the con itself. they go a long way to make things as squeaky clean as possible.
but people go to panels, walk around, peoplewatch and just generally have fun.
June 24th, 2010 at 2:19 PM
I think the biggest thing about not knowing anything about it, is the way that the media portrays and writes some stupid fluff(no pun intended) story about it.
The people who are on the outside looking in usually never have a clue from what they are fed. Thank you for the response!
Clay
June 24th, 2010 at 2:46 PM
I haven’t be to Anthrocon, but I have been to similar conventions in Europe and the US. People from all over the globe (literally!) come together, and there’s no better way to meet that many friends in one trip. Hanging out with friends you normally don’t see every day is the main reason for most furries to go to the cons, I’m pretty sure. That, and it’s just plain fun to walk around and be amazed by the.. somewhat different than usual people you see.
I am an artist and many fellow artists who like to draw cartoon animals go there, so we just sit together and draw things for each other. There’s a large art show/auction and an even larger room where artists sell their work and take commissions.
Then there’s the costumes, I think about a fifth or less of the con-goers bring one (or more!) with them. Some people just wear them as a fashion statement or piece of art (many of the costumes are self made) but I can assure it’s lots of fun to walk around and act like a cartoon character, since people react so differently to you. Uncomfortable and hot, but fun!
June 24th, 2010 at 3:37 PM
Communicating like an animal? Doing animal things?
That’s rather like asking if people get frozen in carbonite at Star Wars conventions.
And I point that out with no malice, just a means to place things in perspective.
There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek playacting and fooling around, as you would at all cons. A small population of folks who seems to just act out to “freak the mundanes” (ref: man-faye) But all in all Anthrocon is a fan convention that is centered around anthropomorphic characters and hanging out with fellow fans (and buying merch)
July 9th, 2010 at 2:01 PM
I just wanted to comment and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. It was very informative and I also digg the way you write! Keep it up and I’ll be back to read more in the future
September 10th, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Quite absorbing. I’d absolutely like to read more about this. Does anybody have any advice where I can acquire some further resources? Appreciate it.
September 20th, 2010 at 3:53 PM
I agree – fascinating reading. I would also like more tips on some sites with similar orientation. Thanks