E’s Unplanned Adventure With Furry Weekend Atlanta
Written by e
March 24, 2009
21 Comments
I have learned that the Universe is always full of surprises and to be open to whatever comes my way. I’ve been blessed with some great experiences. But when I traveled to Atlanta for the American String Teachers Association national conference, I wasn’t expecting my hotel to be full of furries.
Seriously, furries. Yes, THOSE KIND of furries. No, I didn’t join in the furry festivities. But since my only experience with furries was that infamous episode of CSI, I did get a kick out of seeing them up close, including hearing some late night meowing from the room next to mine…
The First Whiff
My conference was at the Marriott Marquis, but being a bargain hunter, I Hotwired and found a room for 1/3 of the price at the Hilton just a block over. Sweet, right? I checked in at around 9 pm on Thursday and didn’t notice anything terribly out of the ordinary.
I got in the elevator to go up to my room and noticed some people with name badges with anime-style animals on them. At first, I thought, “Okay, must be some sort of anime convention or something.“ It wasn’t until the next day when I saw the sign in the main lobby that said Furry Weekend Atlanta that I realized exactly what was going on.
Furries are Geeks, Too!
Once I realized it was a furrycon, I thought, “Hmmm, furries are geeks too. Maybe some of them need online dating help!“ I twittered an offer of 15% off any GDG services to any furry folk that found me. (After all, I was wearing a nametag all weekend and twittering my whereabouts!)
The thought of being tracked down by guys in wolf suits was a little intimidating, but amusing nonetheless. I spent 7 years in Orlando, people in animal suits don’t bother me!
One of my Twitter followers pointed out that furries are the lowest on the geek hierarchy. But that’s okay: geeks are geeks. Love is love. I don’t really care what other people do as long as it doesn’t hurt other people. You wanna put on a fur suit and yiff the night away? More power to ya.
Hilarity Ensues
No matter how open-minded you are, it is still somewhat jarring to see the local food court filled with people with wolf tails, studded leather collars, and bunny ears. But once you get accustomed to it, it’s fun to watch the reactions of the unsuspecting food court patrons.
My favorite moment happened on Saturday night. I was waiting for an elevator with a non-furry couple in their late 30s. Being 19 floors up means waiting a long-ass time for the elevator.
Ding! Elevator arrives. Doors open – it’s packed full of furries. We pass.
Ding! Another elevator arrives. Doors open – it’s packed full of furries. We pass.
The lady turns to me and says, “What is this, a mascot convention? I wonder if the Clemson guy is here….”
I did not have the heart to break her bubble of ignorance.
Ding! Another elevator arrives. Doors open, a wolf jumps at us and barks menacingly. We pass and take the stairs.
Any Furries in the House?
My offer of 15% off still stands for anybody who can email me a picture of their FWA badge.
E. Foley is a geek girl extraordinaire. She writes amazing online dating profiles for geeks and non-geeks, helping clients all over the world find love. Her writing can be found at Dating Sites Reviews, Examiner.com, and elsewhere as a ghostwriter. By day, she is the Copywriter at ThinkGeek. She lives in Maryland with DaveTheGame and her adorable cats, Mr. Peanut and Don Juan. (Email e, or follow @geeksdreamgirl on Twitter.)
Furries are the pariahs of the Internet. I’m sure the majority of them wish the world no harm – to the general public, they’re just weird. Still, somewhat off putting finding furries in the wild, so to speak. Partnered with a guy for a project in film class who I suspected was a furry from the mass amounts of wolf pictures on his laptop – how many people have a Wolf folder? – and my suspicions were confirmed when he dare to wear (I seem to recall) an FWA shirt to class. Probably circumstantial, but the evidence was good enough for me. Plus he seemed more socially awkward that I am, which is saying something.
Odd coincidence for a music teacher con and a furry con to be held in close proximity at the same time, though… or is it?
HILARIOUS!!!!! Especially the comment about the Clemson guy….you don’t know how many times I’ve been asked at anime conventions “Um, so what’s with all the people playing dress-up?” Every year Metrocon seems to share a hotel with someone’s wedding, leading to some GREAT elevator encounters.
@ Taloff – I think a lot of music teachers would like to bite students’ heads off… but that doesn’t make them furries.
@ Katie – I can imagine! Actually, your last outfit would make a pretty wedding dress!!
Hey, did you ever check to see if wearing an elephant or rhinoceros costume at a furry convention is acceptable. I mean, they are animals but they have no fur…so is that a special subculture of the furries?
Let’s put it this way, Matt.
There are furry subcultures that goes by the name “scalies” (reptiles, dragons, etc) and “featheries” (birds). So yeah, those are probably acceptable as well.
@ Graham – I am disturbed that you know this
Do you have a secret life?
I’m fairly certain that the only reason people are afraid of furries is because they think it’s a fetish. If you’ve actually been to an animeor Star Trek convention you’ve seen (or heard through the walls) people doing kinky things in Klingon costumes or making out with Master Chief. The convention isn’t about that, it’s just what people DO when they’re away from home on a party weekend.
Hell, I’ve played plenty of conventions and the wildest, freakiest bunch I’ve ever seen are librarians. Those people, when they’re outside their normal sphere, are frightening. From the stage I could see people spraying whipped cream on each other, shagging standing up in the middle of the dance floor, breaking beer bottles… one girl tried to make off with my tambourine before I chased her down.
Hopefully next time you find yourself surrounded by Furries you’ll find a few locals and see what they’re like outside a convention.
Besides, if you’d stuck around on Saturday night you could’ve caught my concert. The live recording’s going up for free to all FWA attendees at http://matthewebel.net sometime this week or next.
Pax,
Matthew
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http://matthewebel.com
http://matthewebel.net
Matthew Ebel´s last blog post..Adding WP Post Excerpts to Facebook Links
I just know far too much about far too many disturbing things that I have absolutely no other connection to. I honestly have no idea how.
I think that this webcomic says it best: http://xkcd.com/471/
I think it’s awesome, e, that you don’t try to alienate yourself from them, instead you make them a generous offer.
@ Wumpus – I’m just out there trying to help the geeks of the world, no matter what their flavor.
I was actually at FWA, and met a couple of the string teacher’s attendees. Possibly even you, I dunno. XD I was remarkably surprised to see that most people were reacting, if not positively, at least neutrally, to the rather strange group occupying the Hilton. I’m a geek girl myself, being a former band nerd, a book nerd, a sci-fi and D&D geek… and a furry, of course.
That being said, thanks for being patient with us. We’re not all freaks, and in fact, FWA is big on being family-friendly, and supporting charity! You didn’t get to see our servals in the charity room, did you?
@ Feyna – I didn’t really get to see much of the furry stuff beyond what was going on in the main areas of the hotel… and the people wandering Peachtree Center.
“scalies” (reptiles, dragons, etc) and “featheries” (birds)…wow, uh…I didn’t realize it was big enough to have subcultures.
I’m a FWA Staffer. Found you through Twitter. I’m glad to see you had a reasonably positive encounter with us. If you ever get the chance, come check out what we are all about. As you see, we are geeks…just a different flavor.
I could almost guarentee you would have had a blast having your pic made with the hundreds of Fursuiters we had on hand – and we had awesome dances Thurs night – Sunday night.
As for dating? Furries need lots of help in that department. We joke amongst ourselves that people come to the conventions to find new “Mates” and change Roommates…which seems to be the case with well over half of those attending. We have our own “Personals” sites like http://www.pounced.org/ but getting REAL dating advice might give most furries tools to make a relationship really last.
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Heh I think I may have saw you when I was in costume on the elevator. I was the one in the leopard costume wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans. Every time the doors opened up I would wave to the people who were hoping to get on. The reactions I get from non-furries is what makes wearing the costume worth it. The “WTF!?”, “…”, and “OMG CUTE!” reactions really put a smile on my face.
There are a lot of subcultures under the furry fandom. Fursuiting is the most promenant. Personally I’m into the furmeets where we geeks just get together and gibber about the news, politics, latest viral videos of lol cats. The group I hang out with tends to segregate into smaller groups, the platform and pc gamers, the news and politics talkers, D&D roleplayers and online roleplayers, the pet keepers and reptile keepers, meet organisers and the cooks. I usually jump into discussions with the pet and reptile keepers or I’m busy cooking or organising.
The great thing is that we all have one aspect that we can all agree on that everyone is an animal enthusiast which gives everyone something they can start off talking about, a simple commonality.
*waves to furry friends* Thanks for stopping by!
Always good to hear from different branches of the geek tree.
Thanks to Flain for featuring this post on the Anthropodcast:
http://www.anthropodcast.com/forums/showthread.php?s=1bfb20318388921fd0949b5d26b5473f&t=279
The bit about me starts around 18:15-ish.
It took several months to find this, but it was fun to read. I was one of the furries you may have seen there.
@ Levi – Based on your email address, I bet I know what you googled to find this page.
Glad you enjoyed the article!