Lohan on the Letterman couch next to a tweet of her promoting her furry NFT with Canine Cartel. (Image: screenshot, CBS.)
Category:
Big on the Internet

Lindsay Lohan Confuses Everyone by Auctioning a Fursona NFT

Many furries are furrrious.
Image of Alyssa Shotwell
Alyssa Shotwell
|

Published: Oct 1, 2021 12:28 pm

Recommended Videos

Every other day, something goes viral on Twitter.com because it causes collective confusion and sometimes anger.

What was it yesterday? The announcement from actress Lindsay Lohan that she joined a furry-focused NFT group and is auctioning off an NFT fursona (furry-themed avatar).

The bidding for this NFT starts at a whopping $1,500 and is bid with ethereum cryptocurrency. A quick glance at her profile and one would see that Lohan has been involved in the NFT game for a minute—like, as far back as late May, when this new form of spending money on nonsense took off. Because this is her first time participating in the furry world and it is within the context of highly divisive money-making activity many think is a scam, those both in and out of the group had negative reactions.

Both in a Rolling Stone interview and online, furries took to dunking on the lack of furry attributes in the artwork.

If you exist in any art or geek spaces online (me being both), you’ve probably come across furries. Furries are individuals (and a community) interested in anthropomorphic animals. While some furries believe they are part non-human and others explore the sexual side of the community, they represent the minority of furries, despite what popular culture will have you think. Furries exist in every fandom and are involved in non-internet spaces, too.

In addition to pointing out the lack of furry features, some pointed to the negative racial coding of the Canine Cartel working with Lohan—using a geographical reference “running every gang from here to Mexico,” guns, “a fiesta,” and more.

Less understood than the furry community are NFTs. Short for Non-fungible-token, NFTs are exclusive digital items that amateur investors and the wealthy have taken to as the hot item to spend absurdly inflated amounts of money on.

While I am more baffled, more so I’m bracing for pushback within the art community. NFTs are a touchy subject, as many artists following the trend either love or hate NFTs. On the “pro” side, it gives artists another way to make money in a world that may emotionally depend on art, but financially devalues artists. Most of the already huge artists (like Beeple and Grimes) are making millions, while smaller artists are cracking into the hundreds and thousands—some turning a profit for the first time.

On the con side, artists have reported issues of their artwork being stolen from the internet and sold as NFTs. Navigating already outdated copyright laws is bad enough without adding a fast-growing market that can make millions from taking work from an unknowing artist online. Artists that are hard pressed to survive without being online or having digital papers share their work online. Many are also worried about the environmental impact of blockchain use in NFTs. Electric car company Tesla stopped accepting bitcoin currency (another product of blockchain) after news began surfacing of the coal factories restarted to support the power needs of mining bitcoin.

The “art world” generally has not taken kindly to NFTs because of its close connection with pop culture. Because the art market is so unregulated (considered the most lawless outside of the black market) and NFTs are built on imaginary worth/hype, they would get along quite well.

Despite Lohan’s involvement getting the big news because furries are still seen as a spectacle, she isn’t the only celebrity that announced an NFT exclusive. Lil Nas X, Bella Poarch, Curtis Roach, Brittany Broski (a.k.a. “Kombucha girl”), and a few other people (I’ve never heard of but must be big somewhere) are releasing Official TikTok NFTs. I’d imagine the criticism they face is less pronounced because they are working with a megacorp rather than using a largely queer and very misunderstood internet subculture for a quick buck.

(via Twitter, image: screenshot, CBS)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site! 

 —The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
related content
Author
Image of Alyssa Shotwell
Alyssa Shotwell
(she/her) Award-winning artist and writer with professional experience and education in graphic design, art history, and museum studies. She began her career in journalism in October 2017 when she joined her student newspaper as the Online Editor. This resident of the yeeHaw land spends most of her time drawing, reading and playing the same handful of video games—even as the playtime on Steam reaches the quadruple digits. Currently playing: Baldur's Gate 3 & Oxygen Not Included.
twitter Link to alyssashotwell.myportfolio.com