Burned Furs

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Burned Furs was the name of a movement to counter public acts of perversion within the furry fandom which was active from 1998 to 2001. In November of 2005, a new group was created using the same name and logo as the original, by persons unaffiliated with the original group. BFII has since changed its name to Improved Anthropomorphics specifically "to avoid further confusion and drama".

Contents

[edit] Founding and History

The Burned Furs were founded in 1998 by Squee Rat and Eric Blumrich, because, according to their Mission Statement, "Anthropomorphics fandom is being overrun by sexually dysfunctional, socially stunted and creatively bankrupt hacks and pervs." According to co-founder Eric Blumrich, the group's goal in a nutshell was "we wanna kick all the degenerates out."[citation needed]

   
Burned Furs
 I'd certainly want to do more to the degenerates than simply kick 'em out. But if I were to post any of those wishes here I'd very likely end

up arrested.[1] —Eric Blumrich, Burned Fur co-founder

   
Burned Furs

The group was composed of, in the words of Squee, "furs who have spoken up against fandom perversion and been 'burned at the stake' for it." Years before the creation of Burned Fur, those in the fandom who complained about the possible public-image backlash that could be produced by the high profile of fursuit sex, plushophilia, and to a lesser extent bestiality, were derided as "intolerant" and "hateful" by practitioners of those lifestyles [citation needed]. Calls for overtly sexual displays to be prohibited in public areas at furry events such as ConFurence were met with even more strident reactions [citation needed], as evidenced in a heated December 1997 alt.fan.furry thread titled "An Appeal to Mark Merlino" (the convention's primary organizer). Most of these disputes occurred on USENET in the newsgroups alt.fan.furry and alt.lifestyle.furry.

Negative press coverage of the fandom, including articles in which furry convention attendees discussed these and other sexual practices with reporters, as well as their intent to use the conventions to promote their lifestyles, caused further distress amongst those not wishing the fandom as a whole to be associated with such practices. Many originally-prominent members of the fandom left or otherwise sought to hide public knowledge of their involvement with the fandom in order to avoid possible backlash in their personal and professional lives.

It was in this pre-existing atmosphere of mutual intolerance that the debate over the furry fandom's public image was waged, and subsequently buried under rampant acts of (often mutual) demonization. Burned Fur was, if anything, a symptom of the schisms that had been raging in the fandom to that point.

[edit] Burned Fur Beliefs

Many disputes over the exact nature of Burned Fur beliefs arose. The group was often accused of wanting to impose some sort of anti-sexual vision on the rest of the fandom despite most members of the organization being gay or bisexual [citation needed], and many of whom also were creators of furry erotica. Certain members of the group were intolerant of gays, Christian Furs, obscure fetishes, and/or erotic artwork; these were generally held up as examples of overall Burned Fur ideology by various of the group's opponents. For example, when Burned Fur founder Hangdog made homophobic and libelous remarks on alt.fan.furry in August 2000, he refused to apologize for them. The only Burned Furs to comment on this did not denounce him, but rather made excuses for his poor behavior.

In more general terms, the Burned Furs were intolerant of those people who voluntarily sought public acceptance of unusual kinks or ideologies via "grafting" them onto the fandom, especially when those persons used media exposure to further such agendas. The fandom's public image, as Burned Fur saw it, was always a paramount concern [citation needed].

Throughout the Manifesto, Squee Rat made clear that personal fetishes and unusual lifestyle choices were not a problem if kept as a private matter, in private areas and within the law; she opposed the public flaunting of what most would consider socially-unacceptable behaviors. In particular she derided the small minority of fans who insisted that a person could not be "furry" without, for example, having an "animal spirit" or practicing Veganism.

Many critics considered Burned Fur a hate group due to the Manifesto's harsh tone and the production of a number of t-shirts targeting lifestylers bearing the slogan "I don't have a lifestyle, I have a life".

[edit] Press Coverage

The group was mentioned in underground media articles with Disinformation.com and the Philadelphia Weekly (in the latter case, four years after the group effectively dissolved). Burned Fur has also been written up in Lore Sjöberg's now-defunct Brunching Shuttlecocks.

In the case of the Disinformation and Weekly coverage, the focus of the articles was about the sexual fetishes to be found in the fandom, with Burned Fur being mentioned specifically as opposition to these practices. The Weekly author ended with the hope that the Phillie Phanatic (a sports mascot) would be abducted and gang-raped by fursuiters at a convention. The Disinformation author concluded his article with the statement that furry fandom "truly has something for everyone...to stare at with a peculiar mixture of horror and intrigue".

The latter author later wrote an article for the Greenwich Village Gazette attacking certain of the Reform Party's Election 2000 candidates, including Burned Fur member Scott Malcomson, who was running for Governor in Arizona. The author also attacked him for roleplaying a unicorn character on FurryMuck and drawing erotic furry art. In 2003, the author formally renounced statements [citation needed] made in this article to the effect that Burned Fur was "homophobic".

[edit] Threats of Violence

Burned Fur was often accused of threatening and making physical attacks against their opponents, including death threats and sabotaging convention events. For example, Eric Blumrich, one of the original co-founders of the Burned Furs, maintained an "A Bullet to the Back of the Head Enterprises" webpage, which proposed extermination of all plushophiles in the fandom, stating: "Our crack teams of liquor-plied sharpshooters work side-by-side with expert public relations specialists, graft-taking politicians, and a sizeable payola reserve." Burned Fur Scott Malcomson noted that Blumrich "hates, apparently, for the sheer pleasure of hating," and noted Blumrich's extremist attitude was one reason many Burned Fur members left the group.

One known case of a Burned Fur actually threatening an opponent of the movement with harm was the maintainer of the Burned Fur homepage, who in 1998 stated he would "put his head through a wall" if he ever met Xydexx at a convention. Another Burned Fur member, GothTiger chimed in and stated he would "like nothing better in the world than to watch mister too-many-consonants get what's coming to him." The Burned Fur who threatened Xydexx formally apologized in May 2004 and stated he'd wished he'd never gotten involved with them.

When Burned Furs weren't making blanket threats against groups of people or members of the opposition, they would even threaten their fellow Burned Furs. One such occurrence took place in September 2001 on the Yerf newsgroups, when Burned Fur founding member Hangdog threatened Eric Blumrich on the Yerf newsgroups and was summarily banned: "The next time I see you I will kill you with my bare hands."

[edit] Opposition

Burned furs web-ring logo
Burned furs web-ring logo

As soon as Burned Fur launched, it was subjected to harsh criticism. The most extreme example of this occurred on alt.fan.furry in February 1999 with Furry_Jihad's statement "You know about the Six Shallow Graves - how it's said that all of fandom's problems could be solved if we found the right people to fill those 6 graves? Seems to me we need about 26 now, so we could fill them with all of the Burned Furs." Only one of Burned Fur's detractors posted comments which could be considered supportive of the statement. Most forum regulars, including Burned Fur Scott Malcomson, considered it an "obvious troll."

Some of the opposition joined a group called Freezing Furs, which considered Burned Fur a hate group. Other opposition groups included Nonaligned Furs and Furry Peace, which were formed on the basis of inclusion and non-alignment in the factional conflicts. Aside from producing websites and link buttons meant to indicate solidarity amongst members, none of these groups are known for having done anything specific to advance any particular agenda.

Burned Fur eventually became a liability and public relations nightmare for anyone involved with them. For example, many fans stopped attending ConFurence after Darrel Exline took over specifically due to rumors that it was a Burned Fur con—a rumor which was bolstered by remarks from Burned Fur members Hangdog and Mitch Marmel. Other fans decided not to patronize artists who had joined Burned Fur, as they understandably didn't want to see their money going to people who wanted to make them feel unwelcome in furry fandom.

Toward the end, Burned Fur was losing members as fast as they were gaining them. Most former Burned Fur members have distanced themselves as far as possible from the group to avoid the stigma it continues to carry even today, and many understandably do not want even their names to be associated with having been members. By about 2001, the Burned Furs had faded into history, many of them having left furry fandom altogether, and the countergroups formed to oppose them became defunct by default.

[edit] Points of Discussion

This topic contains controversial issues, some of which have reached a consensus for approach and neutrality, and some of which may be disputed. Please read the talk page discussion before making substantial changes.
  • By the time Burned Fur was founded, individual convention-goers were already boycotting ConFurence due to lewd behavior that the convention's organizers insisted on turning a blind eye to. CF was finally turned over to a group dedicated to cleaning up the convention's image in 1999 [citation needed], but because the new Chairman was a Burned Fur, many of the people who felt they had been targeted by Burned Fur refused to attend. In his own words, "The main problem wasn't necessarily that there was too much sex in fandom... but rather that from the outside, that was *all* people could see. [citation needed]"
  • Although former attendees were beginning to return to CF due specifically to the change in management [citation needed], attendance levels continued to decline until ConFurence officially closed its doors on April 27, 2003.
  • Ironically enough, once abandoned, the original "Burned Furs" website was picked up by a pornography merchandiser. Some claim it was because the domain contained the name and keyword "furry", but there has never been any evidence of this. The more likely explanation is it was picked up because it is common practice for pornographers to purchase expired domains regardless of content.

[edit] C.H.A.F.E

C.H.A.F.E (Aka Chicagoland Hatemongers Against Furgots Everywhere. June 6, 2000. Proponent: Gabriel Gentile) was a fake Chicago and/or Great Lake area anthropomorphic fans Anti-Furries group initially proposed in jest in the Burned Fur message board as the group's own "Fake Anti-Furries group," in response to such groups as PISOC or FAB.

No further actions past the discussion phase transpired.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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