So, this fourth of July weekend Anthrocon is convening! Well over 20k people have gathered and gone on pilgrimage to put on colorful costumes, act like idiots, and have questionable liasons.
I know we even have a few furries here on these forums, so I figured I would make a post about it and a thread to post pictures in of the craziness!
Anyway, I'm here in Pittsburgh if anyone else is and wants to say hi!
Lots of people came wearing really neat costumes, some of which were photographed by some friends of mine and I will ask them for photos I can repost with credit, here, soon.
One thing about conventions like this... I missed most of the convention because I was selling and previewing weird kinky merchandise to filthy 18+ heathens with great glee. As I said, there were maybe 20k folks there, and
My husband and I sent folks on a merry scavenger hunt around the hotel, in search for unreleased merch, which got a good deal of advertising done that will hopefully clear out initial release of our next big thing, and fund the big thing after that.
There was everything from people piled up in costumes dripping in sweat, to a walking balloon animal dog with weird neck-arms hidden under the collar.
My favorite person to meet was friends with a second guy I was kinda getting close with for a while, so we hit it off. My favorite part about him was that he was so tall, and his legs were the length of my husband's! His proportions were beautifully out of distribution, and I loved it so much.
My favorite nearly-non-costume was a man in a pristine, well tailored high end suit and a masquerade mask of a lop-eared rabbit; later I saw him in a vest, with some very nice jewelry that might have actually been gold set with ruby. I would have complimented him, but he didn't pass closely enough. He was quite dapper.
My favorite local "fursuiter", a person wearing a full character costume, this one wearing a snow leopard wearing a cute pink dress and flowers in their hair, managed to win some of our unreleased merch, which was really fun to get to meet them "in suit".
My favorite experience was meeting a man just earlier in the elevator who actually understood what work I did to make my stick, and why it is so funny when people ask if I make them for money.
I love people whose very existence defies expectations, because existence has defied so many of my expectations over time and I find that beautiful, and furries are all of that and more.
It was nice to celebrate that this weekend instead of the reason I want to accelerate the launch of our product to international markets through our manufacturer, mostly so we have money in Euros and and AUD coming in (and maybe Yuan).
As to what furries are, hell if I know at this point. My favorite low-effort costume was actually a guy going around as a cardboard box New York subway train car, though, I think.
I got to see so many people, and as this weird sort of person I am, I have a hard time looking at people because I don't know whether they want to be looked at, but in a place like that, people are clearly intending for you to look at them and see them as they present themselves.
Amazingly, One of the greatest things about furries is that for the most part, they're the secret underbelly of why the internet works. Also of why certain pharmaceutical companies work. In fact, there are a LOT of STEM folks in "furry".
They run everything from security directors at major banks, to IT professionals in charge of major data hubs, to art and advertising directors for fairly major financial companies, and those are just the ones I know personally (for all the bank security guy was a dick, last I knew; I don't hang out with that guy anymore).
Thankfully that means that they tend to have plenty of money to spend on the things they like, and furries do that, too; some vendors I overheard made $18000!
One thing that disappoints me is that many folks at the convention were wearing fetish gear openly. Like, skin tight latex suits with and rubber tails and leather dog masks on and nothing else but a harness, in areas where kids would be able to see them. Maybe I am reacting too harshly to my own social purity drive, but I'm not so sure?
I tend to think fetish content and display should be confined to 18+ areas, and this convention did not have a dedicated wing for that other than an adult vendor area. There are conventions with hotel buy-outs even for exactly that kind of activity, and they're cheaper than this con was, but sadly some furries do take things "too far"; usually it ends up with a restraining order getting involved.
When someone is not holed up doing loss prevention and contributing to the perversion of "Christian" values and morals through blatant advertising and sales activities in appropriate venues, there are often panels to go to at such conventions to find out more about what furries are or do among our various subcultures and interests which, if we're being fair, are largely sexual in nature.
Despite the rampant sexuality of furries,
it's not about having sex with animals, but more about having sex with people who happen to have animal traits, when it's about that; or with people while imagining those people had whatever traits; Or whole thinking about impossible things that animals might do to one another. There are lots of varieties in the 18+ section and I'm not going to actually give any details. The expectation is that everyone is consenting adults.
Despite that, there are folks who will teach you everything from where to get good fur in neat colors, to where to sign up to go fursuiting in tents in the wilderness.
Many of the kids at these conventions are second or third generation furries, and they just don't judge people for what they like or don't. They're probably better people than I am.
Most of what I do, I'm doing because I want to do some very charitable things with it, and there are a lot of furries like that, with huge amounts donated to charity events through contribution of raffle and auction materials, as well as direct "bucket" contributions. This year, it's for a cat shelter, I think.
Anyway, pictures of costumes and outfits to come, hopefully, with attribution to the photographers.
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