In its beginnings, the furry fandom was a small and unsung culture. The members of the fandom refer to themselves as “furries”, or “furs”, more often than not, creating a character or persona of themselves as an anthropomorphic animal, whether it be a real animal or an animal of fiction. In 1999 the first furry convention in Pennsylvania took place in Valley Forge, an estimated 845 furries were in attendance over the course of the four-day period. During the four-day period at the convention, various panels and gatherings went on to inform convention attendees of the types of content creators in the fandom. In addition to providing an informative experience for those who attended the convention, most importantly, it was a social gathering for…show more content… One of the first coverages of the fandom was published in 1990 as an article by spy magazine, written by Ned Zeman (Sussex). In Zeman’s article he mocks the fandom, playing on the inherent strange nature of the suiters, generalizing the entire furry sub-culture into what seemed to be an unorganized group of people with no purpose or direction. Much like many articles after Zeman’s “American Kabuki, performing in Really Large, Furry Costumes”, Zeman fails to recognize the Furry cultures attempts to provide relief through positive outlooks for people, regardless on their disposition of the fandom and charity. More often than not media outlets focus on extreme cases in focus groups to illicit a specific reaction from their viewers, one of the most common reaction being shock value. In 1997 WSVN-TV from South Florida released a segment in a broadcast that covered a small group of people belonging to the Furry Fandom. In the segment called, “Animal Instincts”, WSVN reporters emphasized that furries want to be the animals they adore and do not recognize themselves as human. Throughout the video the filmed furries state multiple times, a disconnect between themselves and their
