I am an animal lover. I have spent years rescuing and rehabilitating them. This love of animals isn't extreme, however. I would never go so far as to...become one of these:
FURRY MAGIC!
But I do love me some sweet little animals. When I was little, I had a lot of hamsters and gerbils, and let me be the first to tell you that 90% of them are mean, sharp-toothed little bastards. I had the Gerbil From Hell when I was in 7th grade. He scraped his jagged little teeth over the glass in his cage all night long. I once went without sleep for a week because of the horrific, skin-crawling teeth + glass noise he made. Also, this guy could get out his cage even when The Complete Works of Shakespeare and The Oxford English Dictionary were stacked on top of the lid. I used to have nightmares that all of these furry creatures were running on my body (sometimes they were dead) only to wake up and find Gerbilus Infernius Demonus Maximus running along my bare legs! It was horrible! Somehow he got out of his cage, got into my bed and decided to terrorize me. It was all very premeditated on his part.
It's for that reason that I don't like touching fur. I always associated the gerbil's fur with the fur of the dead creatures in my dreams and all dead animal fur apparel feels the same way to me. Ugh ugh ugh. It's a plain and simple dislike of the feel of it. I don't care how luxurious this black fox fur stole might be, it still gives me the heebies jeebies to touch it, let alone wear it.
8 comments:
Wow - that's incredible how an early childhood experience affected your whole outlook on fur. The same thing happened to me, but in a totally opposite manner. I grew up in an antique shop and would often come into contact with antique fur coats (people call them "vintage" instead of "antique" these days) until on my fifth birthday my mummy actually presented me with a real mink stole of my ver own. I know, I'm Violet Beauregard. Anyways, I was thrilled, partly because being the size I was at that age I thought that this thing - a "stole" - was actually a fur coat made specifically for little girls, and partly because I still had no idea that fur was made out of...well, fur. I would put it on pretty much everyday after I got back from school or whenever I was dressing up as a princess, which was pretty frequently. I just loved it. I remember one time a customer saw me wearing my beloved stole and offered me £200 for it. Naturally, I refused on the spot and returned to watching the Muppets, never once suspecting that I was practically wearing one.
Well, I got older and started to feel sorry for the little fuzzy-wuzzies and whatnot so that nowadays I can say, not without some regret, that real fur is no longer something I would choose to wear (often). I still love the feeling of fur and the happy childhood memories it evokes, which is why I'm now such a fan of high quality faux fur - I'm actually sitting here in a very cosy soft fake fur gilet atm, feeling all happy and nostalgic.
It's just such a coincidence that you can have two such different childhood experiences around the same lovely furry fluffy subject.
That is interesting! I love the look of fur, but I can't wear it. This doesn't mean I ever condemn those who do. I believe it's a matter of personal taste and choice. Thanks for sharing your story!
The demon gerbil is terrifying, but I still think little rodents are really cute. I do, however, agree that fur looks good on some people, but it isn't for me. I don't really have a particular reason, but it just seems weird to wear something I could pet.
The worst are those fur wraps that still have the head and all the little paws attached. O.o
I just found the perfect shoe for you!
http://www.shoewawa.com/2007/01/ugly_shoe_of_th_74.html
interesting post...i dont feel very strongly about fur, but i did enjoy this a lot
Catherine - I've noticed that: for people on the continent fur seems to still be not only acceptable, but to still hold its place as a status symbol, whereas most people in the UK or America seem to feel uncomfortable (I mean in a social context, not because they get to hot) wearing fur. I wonder how things came to be that way...
i think it's more acceptable here in paris because the approach to fashion is definitely really different than the uk or the states. parisians seem to be constantly dressing to fulfill a certain idea of 'taste' which leads to everyone, from 13 to 80, wearing the same well tailored, classic looks. in that context perhaps fur is just another holdover of that idea of elegance. fur, if worn in the uk or the states, is worn kind of ironically, but here i've not yet seen 'ironic dressing'
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