What does $SPECIES make you think of?

[vakkotaur]

Shamelessly swiped from towyncoyote's post Species stereotypes..

In furry fandom foxes, deservedly or not, have a certain reputation. What of other animals/creatures? Naturally I am most curious about the ones close to me. Thus I am curious as to what folks might think of:

* Horses

* Centaurs

* Bovines (Ox/Bull)

* Warners (the species of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot)

And if there's anything else that comes to mind, especially that you might somehow associate with me, I'm curious about that too.

Comments

[xydexx.livejournal.com]

HORSES ARE BETTER THAN ALL THE OTHERS. -=)

[willowisp.livejournal.com]

I've never met an actual Furry (I imagine this would be different if I wasn't too terrified of crowds to attend any cons), but Yakko, Wakko, and Dot would just have to be pure win.

Please forgive me if this is an over-asked question, but have you ever seen the Monty Python sketch with micemen?

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I probably did, quite some time ago. Was that the sketch where a fellow pulls back a couch to reveal a huge "mouse" hole and pronounces, "You've got sheep." or similar line? D'oh. Of course it wasn't. Yeah, it's been a while, and I don't recall. Time to go through the MP DVD set, I suppose.

[willowisp.livejournal.com]

John Cleese made a very good mouse, and the "journalistic integrity" was priceless.

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

YouTube

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Aha! I had indeed seen that. And I was young enough that I completely missed the now-obvious parallel they were carefully, for once, not saying outright.

[ken-redtail.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the others, but taurs? Centaurs have since the Greeks came up with them been very sexualized creatures (outside of Narnia and Harry Potter), right along side satyrs and fauns. Probably a commentary on half human, half wild animal, as well as the whole thing about a dude with a horse's ding dong probably.

This carries on to today, mostly to the most popular furry taurs, the chakat, which are unsurprisingly hermaphrodites starring in an erotic story series.

Stereotype wise, if you told me someone was a taur, especially a chakat, I'd pin them down as being a single male who uses the sexual nature of being a chakat as an outlet, whether just reading or rping it out.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

And for me, non-equine taurs seem rather... missing the point. I simply don't get them, and especially not chakats. Now, centaur, horse, unicorn, pegasus (whatever the type is, since Pegasus was just the name of a specific one) are another matter - but those are all equine or very directly equine derived.

Yeah, the Greek mythos had centaurs as rather crude. Not necessarily evil as such, but just generally coarse in behavior and humor.

I suspect if you could truly ask both humans and equines about that, they would each indicate that the coarseness came from the other.

Of course that probably goes for all the classical Greek monsters which are human-animal combinations of some sort.

[kiwihunter8.livejournal.com]

I would say for the hoofed critters, like other commenters I think of sexually potent. Oxes/bulls I would have thought a bit dim, but that's before I met Orvan ;) Because I think he's more clever to think up all his gags -- and even better if you don't suspect it because you might hold a stereotype.

Warners are just wacky/nonsensical, and I think Warner fursonas are people who have that side of them.

So I'm not sure about Vakkotaur the character. On the surface he's sexual potent and wacky from what I've said about! Which in a way, feels like an extension of Vakko himself. I think that Animaniacs had a lot of sexual desire bubbling underneath. There were certainly jokes that flew over kids heads, and Dot and the brothers were always makin' on their victims.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, before Orvan had physical form, I met a fellow who raised and trained a team of oxen. He figured that oxen were as smart as horses, but it was a different intelligence or different mind-set. Techniques that work on horses won't work on oxen, but with the right techniques the command vocabulary is just as large.

Orvan, of course, isn't pleased by the dumb/clumsy ox bit (though I WILL take advantage of the 'clumsy' with limited vision in suit!) but there can be advantage to being misunderestimated.

I do rather like Wakko.. while Yakko was clearly the Groucho of the group with some of the best lines, it was Wakko was the "innocent" who just had fun. In a few places (the leg put into place so Hello Nurse was holding it, for example) it was clear that Wakko was, despite his speaking, the Harpo of the group.

An interesting analysis. *blush* Sounds like I escaped from a romantic comedy.

Animaniacs worked so well because while it ostensibly made for kids, it was really made the animators and they knew things needed to work on multiple levels. I expect those who watched the show as young kids and see it again are likely to be surprised at how much was there that they missed earlier, and yet did not miss as there was enough for them. I have experienced the same thing with Rocky and Bullwinkle which I saw sometime between age 5 and 12... and years later saw some on tape and got jokes that had zipped right on by earlier. The "Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam"? Really? In a kids show? But the story about the boat was amusing enough even without getting that joke.

[sabrinageek.livejournal.com]

I have an interesting time with mine.. As a bear femme, there really doesn't seem to be a stereotype as such, or even for bears (the animal) in general.

There are a couple though, out there, that I've seen - Male bears = Male Bears. Meaning, it seems fairly common for folks who have male bear fursonas to be male bears of the gay bear variety. Which, hey, whatever, that's for gay male bears, and since I'm a gay female bear doesn't really apply. Although I do get annoyed because any connection to "bear" (having a bear paw, sticker, or what have you) or telling someone you're a bear automatically makes people think you mean the gay bear type.

The other I've seen, and this is slightly more upsetting to me, is if you look on FA, there seems to be this thing that a lot of bear art is geared towards supersizing, gluttonous eating, and total slobbish behavior. It makes appreciating bear art rather disappointing at times.

As for as bear femmes though? I don't know that I've every found a stereotype. Maybe because there's so few of us that there's not enough to make a stereotype from? Hrmmm.

-Sabs

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Other than the gluttony ("hungry as a bear" and such) or the gay bear thing, I haven't heard of any stereotypical bearish things. That is, beyond the usual Winnie the Pooh sort of thing, with a liking for honey and other sweet things.

I don't know of any other female bears, though I am sure there must be some. I simply don't get the "gainer" thing with fat as fetish, which seems to part of things. I haven't observed bears very much - the times I was close, my interest was in staying calm and increasing the distance - but I suspect there isn't that much true slobbishness. Conserving energy and maximinzing caloric intake is a natural thing as it's a successful survival strategy for any species but that doesn't mean it must be done gracelessly. Fortunately for my closest encounter (very close, only several feet distance between us) the bear also thought distance was a good idea.

My sister is a bit amused at folks who claim to be bears (the gay male type) or fans thereof who cannot tell a dog paw (four toes) print from a bear paw (five toes) print. The confusion can make for some unintentionally amusing jewelry or sticker usage.

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

The cartoons (and programs) that are ostensibly for kids but appeal to adults in much of the humour are the ones that are classics, and, for the most part, still are seen widely (Bugs Bunny, Sesame Street, Spongebob, Muppet Show, as well as the above). The ones that are made for kids and have little to no adult appeal don't fare that well (evidenced by the fact that I can't think of many. Barney and Teletubbies perhaps, which are nowhere near as popular as the aforementioned kids shows.) This of course doesn't count the kids shows which have no adult appeal, but are still popular due to Generation X nostalgia (Mr. Dressup, for example (sorry, can't think of an American example. Electric Company, perhaps?))

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

Somehow, I don't think furry fandom considers Warners to be a part of it...

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

True, but not my problem. If it can accept "tauren" from some game thing and "tauntaun" from some space movie... well, why not Warners?

[brodycatsmouth.livejournal.com]

Not enough of any of those in the fandom to develop a stereotype with!

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the interesting discussion on furries and their association with animal types (both to Vakko and all furries that have responded in this thread). As a non-furry (but furry-friendly) I still find myself having many questions about your hobby (is that how it's referred to?). Myself, even though I adopted a lion persona recently (haven't had much of a chance to use it as I'm rarely on IRC any more due to being busy) I don't see myself identifying too much with stereotypical lion behaviour ("king of the jungle", "savage hunter", "strong", et al), although "lazy" (which is something I associate with male lions) does resonate ;) . Rather, I chose lion, as I explained in my post, because lion seems to follow me in my life (the mascot of my high school, appear on my family coat of arms, symbol of Christianity) so I figure I had to be a lion.