On my opening page, I have a little button which leads to the Burned Fur homepage. I also have web page links to several of the Burned Fur member webpages and this page is on the Burned fur webring... I consider myself to be a Burned Fur.
Let me tell you about my history in the fandom. I started up in 1994 in a little fanzine called 'Fur-Thest North Crew'. My art debuted in issue three and the fanzine is up to issue twenty nine or something now. I attended my first furcon in 1995, ConFurence 5. It was great, the enthusiasm was still there. I
think that it started to grow a taint after CF7. This was when I was hearing rumors about how a bigwig at TOR books had been buttonholed by a rabid fan who told them how we all had spirit animals and how furries were sexually free. This man made such a stellar impression on said bigwig that he told his other bigwig friends about the experience. The end result? Good luck getting books about furries published, all the publishers think we're freaks. Thanks.
At the con itself, control was at an all-time low. I saw people walking around in front of minors in rather sexually explicit costumes. I saw print books with artwork that was well over explicit left wide open in the lobby for any underage kid to see that passed by. In fact I saw a couple walking around the con. Many of
my friends were backing out at this point. The professionals were stepping out because they were afraid that the fandom might cost them their job. the amateurs who WANTED to be professionals were backing out because they didn't want the fandom to bite them later. those that stayed clung to pseudonyms and prayed fervently that nobody would recognize them. I could see why... I went to
Duckon. This WAS NOT a furry con, it had a furry track but was not a furry con. There were lots of children walking around, lots of folks in general. While in the furry room with kids meandering about in trek costumes someone started showing off commission pictures of blowjobs they'd gotten and began singing 'spooge!' rather loudly. Yay. Furry fandom was like a party to me to begin
with. A great big party with lots of cool people and lots of cool stuff to see and play with. But as the party went on I noticed that people just didn't seem inclined to clean up the mess they'd left. It was so much easier to just wade through the trash than to act responsibly and do your part. The main problem is this: People don't like being told what to do, and they don't like
being corrected. They don't like to work when they can play instead. Also... people don't care. It was not the spooge art that hurt the fandom. It was not the fact that many people in the fandom are gay or bi. It was the behavior of fans that hurt it more than anything. It was the fact that so many of the fans seemed to get their rocks off by shoving their crap in people's faces and
laughing at the fact that they squirmed. And if you did squirm, you were labeled a 'prude' or a 'mundane'. 'Freak the mundanes' became a sport joked about in furry fandom. Respect vanished. It became a matter of "I want to do this as much as I want when anytime I want anyhow I want!" Or to shorten things... it became a matter of "I want". The mess on the floor started
getting deeper, and everyone was too busy having fun to stop and try to shovel off a few layers. I have never voiced against 'spooge' art. I have never voiced against most anything... but I've always asked that it not get shoved in my face. I don't like a great deal of female bondage art because I don't like the idea of women being used as objects. I ask that people respect this dislike I have
and stop shoving it at me. Some people can't. That's when I got burned. When people slapped labels on me and laughed at me because I wasn't as 'open' as they were. When I became a 'prudish mundane' just because I asked for respect and self control. Cons were no longer fun. I was constantly worried that someone would catch me on camera at a con and I'd end up on a news show about the
'furverts'. I was cringing every time someone wanted to show me their art or commission me because I was afraid I'd have to go through another ordeal of pushing spooge art away or trying to get my point clear that I don't draw it. That is why I am a Burned Fur. I am not anti sex, in fact there's a chance I probably have
sex more often than you do. I am not anti-spooge, anti-gay, anti-bondage,
anti-whatever. I am pro-respect. Right now the fandom has no respect for anyone but itself. You're chance at being a pro is shot because everyone thinks we're pervs? Too bad! It's too much work to change.. besides, we're having too much fun! Who cares about anyone who isn't on furrymuck or who isn't part of our fandom... they're all just a bunch of stupid prudish mundanes. Now let's have some fun! When you spit in the face of the world, expect the world to have a lesser opinion of you. -Genesis Whitmore 03-99 | 
