The Sticker War

 
 
 
A few years ago, there was a shift in the Furry Fandom; a change in attitude and outlook that reverberates even today, and has had big implications for the Zoo community. I am, of course, talking about stickers. 
 
Stickers are all the rage in today’s fandom. When conventions roll around, and the furred masses descend upon a city’s fanciest convention center, it’s often with little shiny bits of paper tumbling behind them like they’re in an over-the-top anime opening.
 
Of course, I suppose one too many hotels got annoyed having to scrape their third blue dog off the wall of an elevator (amongst other things), so oftentimes these days, you’ll find a dedicated sticker space - some banner or canvas meant to be a kind of lightning-rod for vinyl. And, as you might imagine, these become utterly covered in a delightful tempest of custom Telegram reaction images, VRChat hangout advertisements, and boykisser memes by con’s end.
 
Not to mention zoo stickers.
 
I like zoo stickers. They can range from the subtle, draping a lil’ message of love in greens and blues, to the explicit - gleaming with holographic zetas - and all in all, they can be a little sign of the community. A “we were here” for all who might pass by.
Which includes antis.
 
Recently, I attended Eurofurence, in the beautiful heart of Hamburg, Germany. It too had a sticker wall (a couple, in fact), and it wasn’t long until the first few zoo stickers appeared, hiding in plain sight amongst the rest. There’s a metaphor in there, somewhere.
 
For a while, they remained uncontested, unassumed. And then, somewhere around the third con day, came the message. A little label-maker line of text, scrawled across a green and blue request to ‘LOVE YOUR SELF’, in stark black and white:
 
“Zoophiles are not welcome here”
 
 
 
Elsewhere on the board, a similar message of love had received the same treatment. Their message as clear as our own.
 
And with that, we had a sticker war on our paws.
 
We stuck another sticker over the top. Elsewhere on the board, a ‘LOVE IS LOVE’ sticker went up against the background of a dog. They got labelled too, and pretty quickly. So we stuck another sticker on top. They stuck another message on top. And on and on and-
 
 
 
 
 
 
I’ll admit, there’s a bit of fun to all this. Walking past, wondering, had our stickers been covered over yet? Sticking them up was a delightfully clandestine act of speed and teamwork, with body-blocking and swiftness being the order of the day, in a way that we probably didn’t need to do, but gosh, it was exciting nonetheless.
 
Elsewhere, other zoos had found the antis in question on Twitter, griping about the stickers and gleefully talking about how they knew the faces of three people sticking them up! (Not the names though, I mean, it’s not like everyone wears big badges with them on. What do you think this is, a furry con?). It turned out that these counter-stickering antis were actually spending their con camping the sticker wall, ready to strike. We were slower to retaliate, admittedly. We were too busy at panels and meeting friends.
 
But that message stuck in my mind. ‘Zoophiles are not welcome here’. Stuck ungainly, unartistically, over a message to love yourself.
 
I thought about it as I met artists I’d long been a fan of, only to find out I already knew their zoo alts. I thought about it as I sat in the audience of a packed pornographic gameshow proudly displaying alluring pictures of ferals. I thought about it during the Pawpets show, prominently featuring an anthro/feral romance. I thought about it as I squeezed myself into a crowded hotel room and sang songs from zoo bands. I thought about it as my Telegram contacts bulged with people I had only just met, and we already knew each other’s deep, loving secrets. I thought about it as I watched someone on the dancefloor at the Dead Dog Dance, a prominent zeta tattoo emblazoned around their bicep.
 
I thought about how happy I was. How accepted I was. How at home I felt, more here than at any other con.
 
I felt welcome.
 
And I hope that the countless other zoos that roamed those halls, from those that harbour unresolved questions, to those that have a furred partner waiting for their hugs and love at home, saw our stickers - and felt the love they implored, and found that welcome too.
 
 
 
A coda.
 
I walked past the sticker wall on the last night of the con, between acts of the Pawpets show. The zoo stickers were on top. ‘LOVE YOUR SELF’ had been replaced by ‘LOVE YOUR ζELF’, sitting there, unadulterated, for all to read.
 
When I next walked past only a couple of hours later, the wall was nowhere to be seen - it had been taken down and wrapped up, ready to be passed on to whoever had bought it in the charity show.
 
Maybe the antis got to it before then. But I imagine it’s unlikely.
We’ll win in the end.
 
 
Written by Spades Slick
Picture credit to Anziris, Kagi, and Malcum
Dog & Woman Kissing sticker designed by Zipwok
 
Dedicated to every zoo at a furry con, both within our group and without.
May you always know that you are loved.
 
 
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