Frequently Asked Questions
Updated January 1, 2001
What is the Burned Fur
Movement?
Burned Fur is a protest
movementof cartoon/fantasy-animal ("funny animal", "anthropomorphic","furry")
fansand creators who've been "burned" by involuntary association with some
ofthe bizarre (or flat-out illegal) aspects of "furry" fandom.
Contrary to what some would choose to believe, The Burned Fur movement is not looking for a holy war, or a witch hunt. Rather, this is an organized attempt to return to thebasic, untarnished premise of Furry fandom, and to disassociate fromthe moredistasteful, unrelated, or deviant aspects of supposed "furrydom". No more,no less.
Who started the Burned
Fur Movement?
The conditions leading tothe
formation of Burned Fur have been simmering below the surface for along time.
In 1998, Squee Rat wrote the original inspiration for the movement,a document
which (although it reads more like a Dennis Miller rant) hassince becomeknown
in fandom as The Furry Manifesto.
What does the Burned
Fur Movement hope to accomplish?
Having become encroached
uponby obscure, unrelated and/or deviant segments of society, Furry fandom
haslost sight of its main focus (the enjoyment of anthropomorphics andanimals
in entertainment) and is in danger of becoming a sloppy amalgam of bestiality,
plushophilia, and other irrelevancies. The Burned Fur movement doesn't want
to "stomp out" these segments of "furriness", but only practice vocal disassociation
from such deviant behavior. In other words, "WE'RE NOT WITH THESE GUYS".
Who's in charge of Burned
Fur? Do you have a leader or a spokesperson?
Burned Fur is a grass-roots
collective of Furry fans, artists, and writers who are simply banded together
by common consensus on the current state of "furry" fandom. We'renot
a formal organization, a private club, a hate group, or a secret society,
as other factions of "furry" fandom would like to classify us.
"What is the BurnedFurposition on..."
"...sexuality?"Miscellaneous Questions
The Burned Fur positionisthat Furry fandom isn't about sexuality of any form. The fandom maycontain erotic material, but NO form of sexuality, gay, lesbian, bisexual,or whatever, is the focus of the fandom.Anybody who says otherwise has a suspect agenda to promote.
"...adult art/fiction?"
It's a common misconceptionthat Burned Fur is an anti-erotica/anti-pornography group. A good number ofBF's members are artists, and as such are opposed to censorship. "Furry"has it's share of adult enthusiasts, and adults have a tendency to have theoccasional adult thought. Some furs enjoy committing this to paper, whilesome don't. Adult furry art is a personal choice, and like any choice, ithas repercussions. Some artists choose not to make it, butwe have no quarrel with those who do.Artwork is still artwork, regardless of its content. What is a concern, however, is that adult artcatering to bizarre or illegal tastes has become increasingly popular with audiences who otherwise have no interest in anthropomorphic artwork, stories,etc. We believe that this has been a contributing factor to the genre's negative image.
What is also a concern arethose creators of adult art that fail to realize that not everyone wants to see their work, both furry fans and non-fans alike. Most of the creators of adult art are very responsible about how their art is presented in public, and take care to keep it away from the eyes of those who either do notwant to see it or are not old enough to do so legally.
However, a handful of individuals have no compunctions about hawking their wares to anyone and everyonewithout regard to consequence. More than one furry artist has a horror storyabouthow they've lost work outside the genre because an unthinking adult mediamerchant failed to realize that mainstream publishers a) might notwant to see their edition of the "Kama Sutra Yiffy Hermtaur style" and b) would consequently paint all anthropomorphic art with the same explicitbrush. The stale response of "Well, if you don't like it, don't look!" is not an acceptable response to this call for discretion. It doesn't work in the real world.
In summary, Burned Fur's position on adult art and fiction is that it should be displayed responsibly, and handled with discretion. Those who do not exercise discretion in the display and handling of adult Furry media are a source of harm to the fandom and appropriate action needs to be taken.
"Displayed responsibly? Discretion?""...homosexuality?"
In general, responsible display means that material is displayed in a manner that individuals who do not wish to view it will not be able to come across it in advertantly. One can never be faulted for irresponsible display when someone who is adequately forewarned continues on to see something they don't like. More specifically:"...And what do you mean by 'appropriate action'? That sounds scary to me!"
- At Convention Art Shows: Adult art should be an a seperate and appropriatelysigned section.
- In Convention Dealers' Rooms: Adult prints should be in a seperate binder with a label on the cover identifying the contents, and should bekept closed when no one is looking at it. Alternatively, it can bein a seperate section of a binder, and the 'naughty bits' covered by labels,dots, post-its, etc. Naturally, state and local laws, as well as convention rules may be morerestrictive, and should be complied with.
- On Web Sites: It's common practice to have a warning page before accessing directories of adult material. Natually nobody can be held responsible for bookmarks made to pages behind the warning page, but inthe ordinary structure of the page, one should be notified that one isabout to access adult material before one sees any.
Some alarmists in thefandom seem to think that when Burned Fur activists encounter inappropriatelydisplayed adult material they want to call in the National Guard or re-enactthe Jesus and the Moneychangers in The Temple scene. Those wouldbeexamples of inappropriate response.An appropriate response ata convention would be first to notify the art show or Dealers' Room staff, and if such notification fails to get action, to continue up the chainofcommand to the Con Chair.
Taking a convention issueabove the convention committee is inappropriate. It's not thehotel'sjob to control the Dealers' Room or the art show.
In the case of webpages,it would be merely to advise the artist or writer on how his/her pagemaybe improved to help avoid problems in as polite a manner as possible,suchas the suggestion of a warning page. If rebuffed, then other civiloptions must be weighed.
Again, for some reason this seems to be a common misconception about the Burned Fur movement. We don't know who you've been talking to, but we're not homophobes. Neitherhomosexuality nor bisexuality is an issue with us, and is NOT an aspect of Burned Fur, and gay-bashers aren't welcomed under our banner.
The only times that homosexuality does become a concern for us is when some sexually insecure individuals try promoting furrydom as an exclusively gay/bi scene, or when other individuals use their sexual orientation as a tool to frighten or discomfort people that, in their arrogance, they deem 'mundane'. Doing this to anyone, fanor non-fan alike, is not appropriate under ANY circumstances.
"...plushophilia?"
Plushophilia (the actofsexual gratification using a stuffed animal as a tool) is a kink, pureandsimple. Aside from the fact that some furry fans collect stuffed animals,it has nothing whatsoever to do with Furry fandom."...bestiality?"
This is the one area that we are not going to be wishy-washy about.Bestiality, also known by its politically correct cousin term, "zoophilia", is nothing more, andnothing less than DIRECT PHYSICAL ASSAULT ON A NON-SAPIENT ANIMAL. It is cruelto the animal (most animals on the receiving end of such torture have to bedestroyed), illegal in most parts of the civilized world, and considered morallyrepugnant by most of the world's recognized belief systems. Aside from thetertiary connection with animals, bestiality has nothingto do with Furryfandom, and anyone telling you otherwise is desperately looking for acceptancein a world that is repelled by their aberrant behavior.
Why the name'Burned Fur'?
This is actually a twofold meaning.The first meaning is a representationof those "Furry" fans, artists, etc. who have had their reputations, either personal or professional, damaged (i.e. 'burned') by theirassociation with the fandom and its current sordid reputation.
The second meaning is to represent those individuals who have attempted to point out the fandom's faults in the past and been 'burned at the stake' for it.
Are you an anti-Furry fandom group?
No. Unlike certain splinter factions that have expressed their hatred of Furry fandom and their desire not to associate with it any way except for the sake of criticism, Burned Fur is a pro-Furry fandom movement. The majority of our membership play an active part in promoting and supporting the fandom. We would rather stand up and fight for what's right than leave the fandom to those who don't care or are bent on squelching any form of fannish dissent.How can I join the Burned Fur movement?
If you'd like to belistedas a member or supporter of the Burned Fur movement, just contact the web administrator.We'll add you to the list of members and supporters,along with any additionalinformation or material that you might have.Can I add my web page to the Burned Fur Webring?
If you have a web page,and would like it to be added to the Burned Fur Webring, visit the BurnedFur Webring Homepage for information on submitting your web page. Once it's been submitted, your web page will be reviewed by Eric Blumrich, ownerof the Burned Fur Webring. If your web page is approved, it will beaddedto the Burned Fur Webring and you will be sent all the necessary information, including an HTML fragment to add to your web page.Are you stillon InternetRelay Chat?
Yes we are. Themovement maintains a chat room on Yiffnet IRC called #BurnedFur forreal-timediscussion. To access Yiffnet and download IRC clients, visitthe Yiffnet Home Page. Both supportersand opponents of the movement are welcome to visit the chat room; membersare usually on in the evenings. The channel is moderated and In-Characterrole-play is discouraged.