So, fandom-historical context to stuff I mostly heard about and only barely caught the tail end of when I was lurking on usenet in high school: Back when certain folks in furry were doing their utmost to get it recognized as a significant and distinct SF subgenre, the major hobby-horse of Serious Furry Writers was "furries need to be more than just be humans in animal suits". Like, that phrase _verbatim_.
This has basically been Fred Patten's song and dance ever since then; I am not joking, his name is the first one that comes up in my head of 'who from 80's fandom is still active today?'
And yeah, the whole objection is ill-defined and reeks of the "soft SF is any SF I don't like" tendencies that were just... everywhere in that fandom.
I'm sure @literorrery has plenty of Fred Patten stories she can share; not sure how much alcohol will be required. ;)
@Ferrovore Yeah, come to think of it, more to the point this reads like the "but is it SCIENCE FICTION?!?!?!" hand-wringing that still comes up like every time a fiction podcast posts something the least bit not-starships-or-cyborgs. Y'know, the same smokescreen that certain folks use when they try and stuff award ballot boxes away from diverse writers. 9.9
(Also, loving how Patten there is using 'funny-animal' as a descriptive term in fiction tropes as if that had any currency since like 1994)
