April 18, 2024

"Furry is a fandom. We don’t think that we’re animals. I really like the idea of animals that walk and talk, so I’m going to dress up as one, as kind of a fun sort of cosplay thing."

Said a student named Strudel, quoted in "Students walk out of Utah middle school to protest ‘furries’" (abc4). Strudel explained that people who think they actually are a nonhuman animal are called "therians."

The student protesters object to the school's tolerance of the furries. There is a dress code banning things that "draw undue attention, distract, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with the learning atmosphere." You can see from the video of the protest, below, that signs say things like "Compelled speech is not free speech" and "I will not comply," so there seems to be more going on than a simple failure to enforce the dress code against the furries. I haven't watched much of the video, but I'm guessing the non-furry students are compelled to acknowledge the furries' professed identity in some prescribed way. And the article says the protesting students accuse the furries of "biting, scratching, spraying air freshener on, barking at and chasing other students." I'm guessing they are claiming a privilege to manifest behavior in line with their professed identity. How would that explain spraying air freshener? Perhaps that's a mellow substitute for a spray bottle of urine.

I'm not sure this isn't a hoax. There's plenty of video though:

49 comments:

Aggie said...

A whole new generation of conservatives - by organic growth, not indoctrination.

Rusty said...

Why is all this aimed at children? It's tough enough being a kid at the best of times. Why add more layers of anxiety?

Howard said...

The fury over furries is in of itself a form of cosplay

holdfast said...

Middle schoolers wearing butt-plug tails.

RYFKM?!

holdfast said...

Middle schoolers wearing butt-plug tails.

RYFKM?!

D.D. Driver said...

I'm going to assume it's a prank until otherwise notified. Smells a lot like that time back in the Eighties when the Satanists were running all of the daycare centers. I thought this would end when we banned comic books from corrupting the minds of youths but what can you do?

Breezy said...

Perhaps the air freshener was dispensed by a furry-skunk, ironically.

Dave Begley said...

My best friend was in Vegas after the Super Bowl. She said Vegas was crawling with furries. Super creepy.

Mark said...

It's as much as a hoax as the trans cosplay.

Bob Boyd said...

Can you wear a 'Furries for Trump' T-shirt to the school?

iowan2 said...

I'll give it 48 hours.

But look. If Harvard cant enforce conduct codes against students chanting 'death to jews' some High School Superintendent is way over matched by 13 year old furries. Face it, the High School Superintendent usually maxes out at two doctorates. This would be a clear indicator that more degrees is the answer to such thorny, nuanced issues.

iowan2 said...

We need to get smart phones out of kids hands. I detest "there ought to be law" cop out, but this is way more dangerous than guns. Its impossible to cause this much damage with guns.

Lilly, a dog said...

Bob Uecker trid to warn us about them in 2007:
Bob Uecker Meets Furries in Pittsburgh

Mr Wibble said...

Furries are a sexual subculture. That kids are doing this is deeply disturbing.

gilbar said...

remember! just like laws are to protect democrats.. Rights are to protect the privileged.
Regular students don't HAVE rights.

gilbar said...

Serious Question:
If i'm a student at the school.. And i identify as a MAGA.. Can i wear my hat to school?
I thought not

MadTownGuy said...

Disrupt.
Destabilize.
Dictate.

Levi Starks said...

It feels like a performance art.
I think it has a “this is spinal tap” vibe.

Mr Wibble said...

Also, this never gets old.

https://youtu.be/Tp76cHN2FDU?si=nqquXz2ca91R3fOn

Bob Boyd said...

Alternate headline: The Kids Are Doing It Doggy Style in the Heart of Morman Country

Charlie said...

This presents an opportunity for religious students. They can dress up as praying mantises and start a bible study club in school.
Charlie

Mark said...

Vicki McKenna tried to push this same claim about Waunakee schools a couple years back, based on claims from that conservative UW Whitewater crank. No evidence to support that was ever produced.

Ficta said...

"Air Freshener" you say...

gspencer said...

Bobby Darin was one of the best furrie translators,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvMcKbo0vYc

Bob Boyd said...

Don't pull their tails, kids.

PM said...

They considered something Hitlerian like maybe a Dress Code?

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The school tells a somewhat different story about what happened at the school:

‘Dismissing those claims, [Nebo School District spokesperson] Sorenson said the Wednesday protest seemed to be organized after a district message sent to families last week was misinterpreted.

The message was sent after a group of students had been targeting another group of students, saying things “that were overheard by others that the administration felt were inappropriate and shouldn’t be said,” Sorenson said.

The group of students being targeted, he added, were students who sometimes come to school wearing headbands “that may have ears on them.” He said he doesn’t think the targeted students necessarily refer to themselves as “furries.”’

Beth B said...

Of course... Furries. That was the natural next step on the "Look at ME!!!" bandwagon. Yeah, it's a fandom. In its more adult form, it's also a fetish, so you can see why this pipeline would be encouraged in some quarters.

The tween-age furry element has become more visible at the last few fan conventions I've attended. It's not just cosplay, though it may have sprung from that or taken a form of it. There were plenty of 12-15-year-old girls literally bouncing around on all fours, with tails, ears, and face paint, pretending to be whatever critter they "identified with."

Not surprisingly, this is the same age group struggling through adolescence who suddenly find they're a different gender, etc. It couldn't be that girls that age, uncomfortable with the physical changes they're going through and facing a world they find frightening might retreat into fantasy, could it?

Of course, now, thanks to all the trans business, schools probably feel they must indulge these sometimes obnoxious manifestations of specialness. You can't give certain privileges to the boy in the dress and then deny them to the girl in the fox tail who needs scritching time after gym class, can you?

Let's just hope some modern-day Dr. Moreau doesn't get it in his head to start helping these kids with species-confirming modifications and "health care." I mean, I'm sure there could be money in them there hills, too! Don't leave all the cash on the table for the con vendors selling fluffy tail and ear combos.

SGT Ted said...

Furries are just another chapter in the Tyranny of the Weirdos social movements that seek to carve out special treatment status by casting themselves as an oppressed minority.

When you strip away all of the social justice cant, all it amounts to is "You will obey me, or be punished by authority."

Mark said...

Seems like these claims should be easy to prove, given the ubiquity of phones.

Shouldn't this have the usual 'children in politics' tag as the parents are clearly behind the protest (news stories say they pulled their kids out of school to protest).

Bob Boyd said...

What would Scooby Doo?

Display Name said...

The students are the Patriotic Nigras of 2024.

Tina Trent said...

Oh god I worked a furry convention once. This was an annual event in Atlanta. Sex in the hallways through animal costumes. I felt very sorry for the hotel staff. It wasn't as bad as the NOW convention where they sent us a list of words we were not allowed to use aeound them -- a very long and frankly incoherent list. We were told to not make eye contact with them, and they would not speak to the male employees. How progressive. They also told a bunch of us freight dogs (not furries: guys who load trucks) that we were not allowed to wear cologne, deodorant or Jeri-Curl due to their chronic chemical sensitivities.

Rut roh.

Half the guys bathed in cheap cologne that morning: the other half, expecting hot girl on girl action, were bitterly disappointed. I had to be the liaison, being the only crew female. I had to address some of them by their imaginary American Indian names.

RNB said...

On the internet, there are (I am sure) many versions of 'The Hierarchy of [Science Fiction] Fandom."

Furries are always at the very bottom.

Jamie said...

Tina Trent, you have led a full and disturbing life. I wish you the best, plus a lot less of... whatever all that was.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

from angry anti-woman trans-madness --- to this.

The left bread insanity.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Howard said..
"The fury over furries is in of itself a form of cosplay"

How so?

natatomic said...

I don’t know to what extent this story is true. But I assume for the kids yo organize their own protest, SOMETHING must be happening.

I have one child in public school - a seemingly not-woke elementary school in Florida (even with DeSantis,
I still know some schools in the state push this stuff, so I keep my ear to the ground). I have seen a small handful of kids at pick up and drop-off wearing cat/fox ears/tails to school frequently. I remember the days when you couldn’t even wear a baseball cap to school!

I would assume at this age it’s just “innocent” dress up. But the furry community is notoriously sexual. I worry about these kids already developing a “fursona” (yes, an actual term in the community) before puberty even hits. Seems like they’re being primed (groomed?) to develop a sexual kink before they’re even an adult.

Vance said...

My daughter attends a high school about an hour away, and I know that school was forced to put in a new restroom to accomodate all the freaks that the Biden administration dictated the school allow, from furries to trans people.

Thankfully, my daughter reports that there is a little "informal policing" going on that keeps the weird mostly under control. Nothing the staff or teachers are doing; it's the students clamping down on it.

But she says there are a lot of "mentally disturbed" kids there. It's sad, it really is.

Tina Trent said...

Howard, not to put too fine a point on it, but do you want to sit in class learning medical chemistry next to a guy in a panda suit shitting in a litter box?

Tina Trent said...

Jamie, that was funny as hell. We told the younger guys they were going to see some hot lesbian sex.

Let's just say it didn't pan out.

I have always equated that experience with an Austin novel. Those guys were great. I still visit them when I go downtown. Than God they're too bald to continue the Jeri-curl thing.

Jupiter said...

"I'm not sure this isn't a hoax. There's plenty of video though:"

That pretty much sums up this century, so far.

Jupiter said...

Of course, a single nuclear war should suffice to demonstrate to prove they were all deadly serious.

Lance said...

Salt Lake Tribune published this yesterday: Fact check: Nebo School District responds to claims about student protest over ‘furries’

Doesn't sound like a hoax per se, more like the usual internet exaggerating-to-rile-up-the-clickzers.

Iman said...

Compare this to the mostly hateful protests conducted by Middle Easterners/deranged leftists at Columbia today and those around the country since 10/7/23.

These are the “Crazy Years” and I hope and pray things don’t get crazier.

Iman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birches said...

The kids are alright.

NMObjectivist said...

So Furries has to be the end of the identity fad, doesn't it?

Mark said...

FYI, this fake news scam has been discussed here before

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2022/10/litter-boxes-in-schools-is-wikipedia.html?m=1

Funny how Ann IDed it correctly as BS the first time, but conveniently forgot that two years later