The furries aren't here for Lindsay Lohan's fursona NFT
Is it really a furry if it doesn't even have ears?
Lindsay Lohan’s had a busy year for someone who hasn’t been onscreen in a while. She released some new music, is going to star in a Netflix Christmas rom-com… oh, and yeah, she has a fursona now. She teamed up with Canine Cartel, an NFT project that features “a pack of 10,000 of the craziest mutts to ever run these streets” (basically, collectible dog avatars).
The Mean Girls star tweeted earlier this week, “It’s official, I’m a Friend of The Cartel!! It’s the first NFT the @CanineCartelNFT is minting for the collection and you’ve got a chance to own it! Action runs for 72 hours! Best of luck!”
Lohan’s fursona is a blue-eyed ginger Pomeranian who somehow has freckles. The tweet quickly went viral, and the current highest bid is for 0.51 etherium, that’s the equivalent of $1,640.
But as reported by E.J. Dickson at Rolling Stone, having a celebrity dive into furry NFTs wasn’t well-received by the furry community. For starters, an artist who goes by Colin Spacetwinks told Dickson that Lohan’s fursona is too damn human for the furries’ liking.
“It reminds me in a way of frequently insecure straight artists rendering furries: [diminish] and reduce furry traits so as to not ‘commit’ to what you’re doing. Ears covered, why? Feels like it’s avoiding animal traits on purpose,” they said, also remarking that there’s nothing about Lohan’s fursona that makes her instantly recognizable, despite looking so humanlike.
Another furry, who goes by Tommo The Cabbit, also echoed Spacetwinks’ critiques, pointing out that “it’s weird how there’s no ears shown since furry characters have ears shown on the top of the head.”
But besides Lohan not looking enough like a furry, there’s also the issue that this kind of NFT art is of lower quality than a lot of other art created by furries. As Kaide, a furry 3D artist explained, “A lot about the design actually seems to be made so they can quickly swap out colors and such which makes sense given the nature of NFTs.” He added, “Most of the top tier furry artists and furries at large (but not all) stand against NFTs due to the environmental impact of them.”
Those who spoke to Rolling Stone weren’t the only ones who complained, of course. There are countless quote tweets from furries who’ve criticized both the artwork and the decision to sell it as an NFT. Tough luck breaking into a niche internet community for profit, celebs.