In which a bunny rants

Okay, this little rant has been brewing in my mind for a long time, and I think I have had just enough port to grease the wheels to let it out.

Dear Furry Fandom,

Please, if you're not 100% sure you represent every single furry in the fandom when you comment on something, DON'T. (That should be a hint, but read on if you dare)
It seems that everytime some news outlet, some magasine, podcast, flyer-artist, you-name-it brings up furry, there is an inevitable need for someone to stand up, don the armour and boldly and loudly state "We're not all like that!" "That's only a small percentage!" and "But that's not what Furry is about!"

Isn't it?

If it weren't what some facet of furry was about, don't you think it would never come to light? Don't you think the point would be moot? I often hear cries of the media portraying us as sexual deviants. Fursuiters, all of us, in the halls of convention hotels humping each other. Really? The last few articles I have read on the fandom have been, honestly, rather well done. Sure, there's the crap that Vanity Fair put out. How many of you read the article? Now, how many of you furries actually READ Vanity Fair on a regular basis? How many of your friends do? Think about that for a moment.
Now, sure, CSI used Furries. They used it as a hook for a story. There was some sexual stuff involved. Okay, and? Have any of you been on Tapestries? Furry Muck? Second Life? Give me a break. Sure, we who run your conventions are careful about what goes on at a con. We have rules for public decency. But the show used it as a hook. Get over it. It was 9 years ago. So many of the people in the fandom weren't at the time of airing.

Now to my point. Recently, a newscaster here locally, on a morning show, brought up furries. Some of the commenters on the Facebook brought up the sexual aspect. Like, twice.
And the first comment by a fur was mine. the second and third were other furries. None of us even brought up the taboo subject. But the fourth and onward were mostly "Oh, and we're not about the sex! Really we're not!" "Don't think we're about the sex!" "The people who say we're about the sex are wrong!"

What do you think people - General populace people out there reading this blog - are going to take away from that and remember? Right: The word Sex, and the association with Furries. Damned the message these people were trying to put across, the defence was so strong it works negatively. All people will remember is the word Furry and the word Sex. PING! Now they have the exact misconception you were trying to argue against!

Feli's advice: Keep your muzzle shut. Don't even respond to the sex crap. Just don't. Talk directly about the good we do. The conventions, the charities we support, the events we attend, the people we make smile. Don't even MENTION anything else. Because I think Shakespeare put it best: " "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." If you argue too hard against a point, people will believe the original point.
So just drop it.

There. My two cents. Agree or don't.
This has been a (rare) rant from a bunny.