CSI episode, Fur and Loathing
Last night's episode of CSI, entitled "Fur and Loathing," had two investigators attending a furries and plushies convention. Many furries were worried beforehand that the episode would present a sensationalistic and distorted view of their subculture. Pop culture depictions of furries tend to play up the kinky sex-in-fursuits fetish angle (eg, a recent MTV Sex2K feature), even though most furries don't see it as a sex thing. Some SoCalFurs worked on the episode as extras, and one worked as a consultant. Last month their website stated:
The biggest news was the recent C.S.I. shoot that involved a number of SoCalFurs. The episode itself is supposed to air on October 30th and may be another controversial episode. Thankfully C.S.I. Production contacted one of us to review and make any edits to the script to help show Furry in a better light. Apparently all of C.S.I's original script came from the MTV Special that aired a while back, and easily accessible "Furry Deviant" websites. Those that attended the shoot all believe that their presence was a good thing. Several questions came to the furs there and people realized that "Yes we are very normal people". We will see if our time and efforts were not wasted when the episode airs...cross your fingers!
Why the hell would you want to be called "very normal people"? I can understand not wanting to be mocked, but I'll never understand this "there's nothing the slightest bit weird about dressing up in animal costumes" rhetoric. Sorry, but it is weird. So what? Fly your freak flag proudly! As the episode neared, consultant DarkFox whined that she (he? it?) hadn't been granted total creative control by the CSI producers and hadn't succeeded in turning the episode into a boring docudrama on the normality of furries.
The episode was indeed sensationalistic and sexed-up, especially the trippy, slow-motion scenes of "furpile" orgies. The PaF Con scenes were played for laughs, but the tone was more bemused than mocking. Willows scoffed at the weirdness, while Grissom seemed impressed by the geeky creativity of the scene. A very entertaining episode and not particularly condescending toward furries, in my opinion. The initial responses on alt.fan.furry have been mostly positive.
UPDATE: BlueNight has the best alt.fan.furry post about the episode:
Y'know, I winced when I saw them cutting upen that fursuit [on the autopsy table]. It was a piece of art. (Well, a piece of CBS costume department art, but still. I wonder who gets all the fursuits they created for that episode? How about a charity auction at the next Anthrocon?)
Four things they got wrong in this episode:
1. Too many women.
2. Too many full fursuits, worn throughout the con; not enough
tail-and-ears budget fursuits, and NO badges or artwork!
3. What's a furpile?
4. The entire con would have ground to a halt as soon as word of
Rocky and Linda's deaths got around. The entire con would have been
at a memorial service in their honor, especially once the story came
out. The wolf (TYPECASTING!) would forever be a pariah, and the
"mistaken for a coyote" story would have been passed around the
newsgroups for years.
