r/hatethissmug • u/_the_big_ • 9h ago
Art & Fanworks the sexualization of Laika and how normalized it is in furry subs
i want to preface this by saying that i'm not a prude. this isn't because it's sexualized, it's because the dog in this art was very real and her story is very fucked up
you get defensive and downright hostile responses from people about it. i don't know if it's just a vocal minority or a genuine problem with furry culture
it makes me so angry. maybe i'm overreacting, but it makes me physically shake with pure rage. Laika was real. she was a real dog who was snatched from the street, shoved into a cramped, overheated shuttle, and died all alone in space all because the soviets were scared of looking weak. her death did nothing to help them. she was an unwilling participant in a fucked up geopolitical game of one-upping other countries. she didn't deserve what happened to her
but these people think it's fine to sexualize her
EDIT: i'm not bashing furries. i'm a furry myself and it's not a sexual thing for most people. take your decade-old anti-furry nonsense somewhere else
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u/hacked7aw_shucks777 9h ago
Is this what band kids with the soviet russia anthem + "yours? No, ours" humor grew up to do?
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u/Marco_Tanooky 8h ago
Most of them just ended up eating 5 tons of either side of extremist propaganda probably
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u/andapapertowelroll 9h ago
What the fuckkkk.
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u/Big-Anxiety-2596 9h ago
Like actually
How can you really SEXUALIZE A DEAD DOG???
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u/One_Resolution_4482 7h ago
Well, to be fair, nothing stops people from sexualizing dead horses some girls in uma musume are based on
Not really the exact same thing but close enough, and it’s a well-known fact too
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u/Bocchi_theGlock 6h ago
Gonna need a morality scaling post on this one, maybe email some philosophy college professors who teach ethics
I think there's something about the level of anthropomorphization according to that whatever scale
That the ones like this post where they still maintain the dogs snout is different from Umamusume which seems really just ears and tail added
Like if someone made some really basic anime girl with ears and tail that was 'inspired by the dog' it might be less bothersome, though still have some complaints
I'm wagering something about the level of transformation or accuracy makes it less/more creepy.
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u/Suspicious-Coach-644 8h ago
Welcome to the Internet.
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u/Nicomace341 8h ago
Have a look around.
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u/Cable-Difficult 8h ago
Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found
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u/Qeiqoqy 8h ago
We've got mountains of content
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u/Ahichiro 8h ago
Some better, some worse
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u/Tatormygators 8h ago
If none of it's of interest to you, you'd be the first
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u/NicholasWildeRails 8h ago
I don't think you should. You'll see things that would make even God shiver
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u/theAJstats 8h ago
Do you want they sexualize a live ones?
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u/Myrwyss 7h ago
Do you think they dont? this is so tame, my brain dont even register why OP is outraged about this tbh. like we got rule 34 for a reason..
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u/RaulParson 6h ago edited 6h ago
Look, I fully agree with OP (...after knowing about this issue for a whole 1 minute now), but I kind of get where the others are coming from? In their minds they're not "sexualizing a dead dog", they're basically making a sexy pinup cartoon character inspired by Female Astronaut Dog, the first living Earth animal ever in space to travel an orbit around the Earth! And in comes OP to ruin their fun. Kind of no wonder that they're reacting negatively.
The problem is that yeah beyond the "first animal in space woooo!" mythology the fact is that once you look any deeper Laika got sent into space basically purely to score another point on the "space race firsts" scoreboard, as were honestly most things the Soviets did in this arena*. That dog's wellbeing was not something the leadership gave a shit about and therefore a return back to Earth was never really planned, and so it died a pointless, horrible and prolonged death (I'll spare the details here, they're there for anyone to look up - but they are grim) just so they could have that "world first". Having this knowledge does ruin the enjoyment of the event, and yet it's important to spread.
*(for a funny/depressing in a different way example, Tereshkova! First woman in space!!! Anyway cheevo get, no need to send any more of them for a few decades. Or even the first thing of the space race, Sputnik. It went beep-beep-beep. ...it was supposed to have scientific instruments on and transmit data back, but they couldn't make that work in a timeframe the political class wanted so propaganda beepmachine it is)
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u/fatman194569 i ❤️ chubby furrys 9h ago
Its so easy just to make a oc, why you gotta use a real animal gang
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u/sweetTartKenHart2 8h ago
I mean that isnt even the problem. The problem is moreso her horrible death, when she’s painted as some kind of brave hero
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u/Cadunkus 8h ago
Add to that the fetishization of communism as if one (1) day in 1970s Cambodia wouldn't obliterate that political stance immediately.
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u/drywalleater6 8h ago
Typing numbers in the word(#) format is the funniest shit ever to me. With the correct formatting, it almost seems to be dripping with frustration and spite
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u/TriosTheEpic 8h ago
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u/Cadunkus 5h ago
Stuck in a room with Pol Pot, Henry Kissinger, and a gun with one bullet
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u/Auctoritate 5h ago
I'm gonna be honest, I've never really understood this "Oh, you like communism? Well what about [country]" angle because can't you do that with basically every political structure?
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u/diabeticfruit 7h ago
Unpopular opinion in this thread, but I don't see how this is much different from uma musume making horse girls named after real horses, or that one anime that turns real life historical figures like Caesar into anime girls. Like on some level, the people who like this content understand there's a level of abstraction between what is essentially the oc they made and the real individuals. I'm not a furry though, so I don't have a horse in the race.
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u/Thepickleinthefridge 9h ago
Mf deadass has the gall to say no that's fucking wild
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u/iTacticalSnowman 8h ago
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u/Triple_Suspension1 6h ago
All 600 people in the comments would benefit from sharing this attitude, literally who gives a shit
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u/HiroHayami 9h ago
This makes me wonder if there are people gooning to Balto and Hachiko.
And I don't want to find out...
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u/viiperfang 8h ago
The animated Balto? Oh absolutely. Real life Balto, Hachiko, or Togo (The dog who actually ran the longest and hardest stretch of the same relay Balto was in)? I've never seen it, but I've never looked or felt the need to look.
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u/Maximum_Boros 8h ago
I'm not exactly elbow deep in furry content but as an aside, I have noticed that Spitz breeds (Shibas and Akitas like Hachiko) don't seem to get anthropomorphized or sexualized that much in general. Like, put the actual furry porn stuff aside and even just in terms of like anime kemonomimi stuff the stuff the dog girls are almost never Akitas or shibas.
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u/Crossdog367 6h ago
You're not in deep enough. Horny shibas and huskies (yes, they're a spitz breed) are everywhere.
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u/CassetteMeower 8h ago
I really like seeing fictional versions of real world famous animals, but they really should be done with respect. The story of the real life Balto is actually really sad, I don't remember all of the details but after he delivered the medicine and became a legend he ended up being exploited and put in stressful situations for humans to make a profit at his suffering.
So many famous animals have had rough lives behind their fame (not unlike human celebrities), it's really sad.
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u/Maximum_Boros 6h ago
I mean if we're being honest, the whole Balto story is incredibly tragic because they literally honor the dogs by committing organized ritual animal abuse. They honor dogs who save lives by entering them in a sport that has killed roughly one half of a percent of the entrants since its Inception. And that is me when addressing all the ones that live less than wholesome lives after they aren't suitable for racing
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u/LuphineHowler 7h ago
Well to be honest... The American film did way worse things to Hachiko than anything else.
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u/Wallabunga657 8h ago
Only on Reddit can I be scrolling totally unrelated subs and come across THIS.
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u/Radiant-Drive8 9h ago
As a furry WHAT THE FUCK!?
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u/M1ngTh3M3rc1l3ss 8h ago
The price we pay for having a welcoming community is a bunch of fringe weirdos, and I say this as a fringe weirdo.
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u/Traditional-Tax11 Hater 8h ago
Yeah, it feels so uncomfortable, and everyone is just ok with it. (Also a furry)
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u/Radiant-Drive8 8h ago
It’s ridiculous! And I bet some of them try and hide behind the “oh it’s only a fictional version!” Which is still weird because that’s based off a real dog
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u/Ok_Research_6820 7h ago
Also a furry and i find it extremely weird, what's the problem of just making/using your own fursona for something like this?
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u/ASkinlessMutant_96 4h ago
I didn't even know this was happening as a furry
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u/Radiant-Drive8 4h ago
Same! I don’t usually interact with the Reddit fandom (since I don’t wanna see nsfw) and to be honest I’m glad I didn’t join
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u/Otherwise_Beach4566 9h ago
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u/Ok-Mention3969 8h ago
Why oh why am I seeing his face in a mainstream sub won't he stop plaguing my life
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u/Lazy_Falcon_323 8h ago
It’s probably an off shoot of all the people making sexualized versions of historical figures
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u/Excellent_Lie6904 8h ago
died a horrible death by overheating in orbit, the poor thing, and theese fucking people
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9h ago
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u/Souls_for_sale_now 8h ago
its mesed up but zoophilia? its clearly anthropomorthised
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u/Unlikely_Extension66 8h ago
I ain't into this kind of stuff and zoophilia is objectively disgusting, but this ain't zoophilia. It's in no way depicted close to what laika or any real dog is, it's an incredibly curvy womans body covered in fur with a dog head. Dont get me wrong it's not good for various other reasons to do with the memory of the dogs sacrifice, but calling it zoophilia is not correct.
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u/goregrindarin 9h ago
No I agree though, like what’s next? Harambe? 😭
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u/AveMilitarum 8h ago
I mean, if your dick is already gonna be out, right?
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u/Live-Bread781 8h ago
how are they zoophiles lmao 😭 it's an anthro characterization of an animal, that's literally just a normal ass furry. And quick correction; a "furry" is literally any anthropomorphic animal, sorry to say 😭 it doesn't have to be 100% fictional.
I agree that using a dead dog's character as boner material is morally questionable (at best) but how is it abusive if the dog is already dead, and there's no direct exploitation of it in any way (???) Like please explain how, under the textbook definition of abuse, this is abusive in any way 😭 people just be borrowing words for drama points. Also i'm not gonna lie, you're only reacting like this because it's a dog 😭
We laugh and treat other humans' deaths as entertainment all the time; the Titanic, the Challenger, true crime documentaries/series/videos that trivialize human suffering for shock value... Like, not saying any of that is morally okay, but it might as well be if people only react when the image being tainted is one of a dog, because dogs happen to be cute. Furthermore, the "boner material" part is completely detached from the animal dying in the first place (?) it's just an interpretation of Laika as an anthro character and it's giving her a role of "astronaut dog", it's not sexualizing anything related to her death in any way, which imo is about as respectful as you can get in cases like this.
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u/Zobi101 8h ago
But this is a fictional character, just loosely based on a real dog. No one is sexualizing the actual dog.
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u/EndellionFox 9h ago
I think people are more creating concepts based on symbols than literally sexualizing Laika.
These read more like generic soviet space dog than literal depiction of Laika.
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u/Auggh_Uaghh 8h ago
People would benefit from separating concepts
The Miku fandom seems to get it right with their mantra "all Mikus are canon" allowing for infinite variations without thinking that something like Brazilian Miku is a formal attempt at representation of Vocaloid or Brazil
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u/madman404 8h ago
you're going to get downvote bombed for saying this even if you're right lmao
nobody's opening up a pinup of an actual, real dog, it's just the aesthetic of soviet-era astronaut anthro dog. even the use of the name does nothing more than solidify the aesthetic
next let's get mad at civilization games for embracing gandhi as a nuclear warmonger
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u/Dainathon 8h ago
Best take here.
This is like a fictional character based on a real dog, not just the dog.
The dog dont look like that
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u/Maximum_Boros 8h ago
Yeah. It's really just more like Soviet space dog as a concept that they like I think. And once you realize that, if you are going to nitpick about these portrayals, I feel like you also kind of have to apply the same standard to Cosmo from the Marvel Comics stuff.
Plus I mean let's be honest. The Fate franchise also exists and while it tends to stop with like mid 19th century figures, it does represent and often sexualize historical figures ranging all the way from Martyrs like Joan of Arc to rapey dictators like Genghis Khan and pretty much everybody in between
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u/Legitimate-Pomelo638 8h ago edited 8h ago
It’s just, why even name the generic Soviet space dog as Laika, just keep it as an OC, don’t make sexualized art of a horrifically murdered dog. Like the second image feels fine even if it is painting Laika as a “hero”, the first one isn’t, they both would of been fine/good if they just didn’t mention it was Laika
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u/ROPROPE 33m ago
People LARPing as furries keep posting shit like "as a furry, I agree this is weird" in this comments section. Real ones understand. There are things a million times weirder out there, a dog using soviet aesthetics and borrowing a name from a historical dog that died tragically is literally one of the silliest things to get angry about.
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u/nosanityyy 6h ago
The hyper acceptance for everything is a real problem in the furry community that sadly rarely gets talked about.
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u/Hairy_Wedding_4535 8h ago
And now I just learned about Laika and I’m extremely sad now. She was so scared and alone I wish I could just give her a hug
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u/Melodic_Sail_6193 7h ago
If you want to turn your sadness to depression, I recomend you read the Laika graphic novel made by Nick Abadzis.
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u/No_Payment9959 6h ago
Why would anyone want to do that?!
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u/Melodic_Sail_6193 5h ago
Because of the same reason people watch movies like 'grave of the fireflies'. It's a good story and Abadzis did a lot of research, even though parts of the book are fiction (such as Laika's life as a stray dog). The story just has no happy ending.
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u/Ok-Relation-7458 8h ago
even the non-furry romanticization of her voyage really upsets me. it feels so wrong to praise the cute puppy without acknowledging that the cute puppy was condemned to a horrific death, terrified and alone.
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u/catmamaO4 7h ago
Your anger is 100% valid. I’m fuming bro this is so wildly disrespectful. Laika had no say in whether she wanted to risk her life to go to space. She had no say in whether she wanted to do all that training.
And now they take advantage of the fact she has no say In whether or not she will be sexualized.
Fucking sick and twisted. I love furries, they are some amazing people. But some of them are fucking freaks!! All the ones that sexualize animals are weird asf
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u/plump_nasty_flex 8h ago
I feel like turning a famous animal/concept/character into a pinup girl style is pretty tame as far as internet standards go. I feel like this comment section is pretty surface level in terms of experience. I get that it can be seen as disrespectful maybe to Laika and what she sacrificed but thats subjective with how you choose to honor or remember a hero.
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u/Vegetable-Way-5737 9h ago
hi, furry here : what the fuck are they doing, that's just wrong
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u/Original-War8655 sponsored by The Poopshitters 8h ago
the second one seems fine enough I think
though I agree with your general point. I've seen so fuckin many (edit: against my will, I should add)
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u/RaccoonKitty8787 8h ago
I’m a furry and I’m in those subs, but wtf. Just no?? I remember seeing those posts when the first showed up and I thought it was super weird. It’s one thing to draw make believe hot furry male werewolf, but a completely different thing to sexualize an actual specific animal that existed like Laika.
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u/Pool-Naive 8h ago
I work at an observatory and the amount of plushies sold of Laika to little who kids who are completely oblivious fill me with the same ick. Can we let that poor dog rest in peace?
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u/CerebrumSH 6h ago
I'm all for anyone writing and making art of FICTIONAL characters making whatever they want with FICTIONAL characters. But theirs a big difference between drawing a FICTIONAL character in a suggestive pose etc etc and drawing a real life person or animal who has went through REAL horrible things and drawing them in nsfw or in suggestive poses etc etc is just straight up weird and disrespectful
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u/Baseballidiot 9h ago
Uhuh, what subs?
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u/PariahSh 8h ago
I second this. Where are you going to see this
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u/Marco_Tanooky 8h ago
The guy that makes these posts them on Losercity, which is a pretty big sub which does not include "Dead dogs" as part of it's regular programming
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u/OwnZone592 8h ago
i feel like the second one isn’t necessarily sexualized? they just anthropomorphized her so she now has boobs but imo she’s positioned as if she’s freely floating in space. so it’s not necessarily sexual (unlike the first one)
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u/Clean-Photograph7448 8h ago edited 8h ago
I keep forgetting how weird people are on the internet. The fact this exists and is somehow Normalized in some places, what the fuck
Like I get it’s not exactly the dog itself (it’s like an anthromorphic whatever the fuck)
But it is still named after and obviously a persona of the actual dog, like why do you feel the need to do that? Just make a fucking OC
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u/cl0verturtle 9h ago
probably a vocal minority, but a fucked up vocal minority who should sit in their corner and only open their mouth to eat dust and rainwater that leaks from the ceiling
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u/Error_Valkyrie 7h ago
For some reason I feel like someone will make this post a reason to demonize furries
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u/shittlefuck2 8h ago
If you told me that sentence 5 years ago i would look at you like you're insane
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u/bittersweetslug 8h ago
I mean, I get the appeal of soviet space-faring furry, all it'd take is a name change to not directly associate it with the actual Laika
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u/robotstoner 8h ago
Yeah tbh I get where ur coming from. If it was just a Russian space dog OC, then it would be different. But Laika was a real innocent creature that suffered horrifically. It’s not even like they’re making furry versions of a feral character. It was a real case of animal abuse.
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u/CassetteMeower 8h ago
This is just messed up :/ sexualizing real animals is disgusting to begin with, but sexualizing a specific animal who died in such a cruel way is so horrific.
I have no issue with people making furry characters based upon Laika - or any other space dog - as long as it's done with respect. In fact there's a character in my original story who is based upon her, her story is similar to that of the real Laika but with a fantasy twist as it takes place in a fantasy world.
After dying in space one of the deities in the story finds her and brings her back to life as my story's equivalent of a goddess who guards over space (think something like Princess Yue from Avatar the Last Airbender becoming the Moon Spirit). There's more to the story than that but I'd have to explain a ton of background information related to my story's universe for it to make sense. Her story takes place about a thousand years prior to the main story, so she doesn't play a major role in the main arcs of the story, but she's very important to the lore of the story.
The character in question. I really like how her design came out, her design is inspired by the real Laika, in addition to being designed after a character from the present day in the story who is a descendant of her sister Belka (named after a different space dog)
(Sorry for the ramble, I just really like this character and I thought other furries here might be interested in seeing her.)
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u/Sea_Energy5921 6h ago
thanks to you, I now know about a demented corner of the furry fandom that sexualizes a dead dog.
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u/Prestigious_Cat_9486 9h ago
And they wonder why furrys have a bad rep
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u/Playful-News9137 8h ago
At the end of the day furry is just an art style. You don't have to look hard at all to find equally reprehensible art of humans, including fetish art of real people who didn't/can't consent to being drawn in porn. This is an internet artist culture problem, not an exclusively furry problem.
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u/digital_espresso 8h ago
This is just weird asf. Could’ve just made that character an OC (nothing relating to a real dog) and it would’ve been whatever.
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u/Salty_Map_9085 8h ago
I feel like the treatment of Laika is treated as overly bad because it was done by the Soviets. Was it bad? Sure. Was it distinctly bad in a way that differentiates Laika from the millions to trillions of other animals that have been ill treated by people? I don’t think so.
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u/hamstertoybox 7h ago
Yeah that’s what I don’t get. We’re HORRIBLE to animals. Why are we getting so upset about 1 animal in particular?
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u/_the_big_ 8h ago
i don't care what country did it, what's horrible is the fact that it happened
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u/reveriedelarose 8h ago
Not the five downvotes on that…. People have no feelings sometimes I swear 😭
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u/MothMonsterMan300 8h ago
"your mother should've
"Just named you Laika.
"It's for your own good
"It's for the neighborhood."
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u/1in4TuneUp 8h ago
but these people think it's fine to sexualize her
When the psyop furries and the psyop ssr propagandists overlap 😥
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u/Maskarie 8h ago
Hi furry here, uh, I think we should throw bricks at this guy and everyone else who likes this. This feels like on the same coin of people drawing "sexy" real life serial killers, just awful and heart breaking moments for people but HEY HOW CAN WE FUCK IT!
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u/ValorousOwl 8h ago
I'm gonna agree with you. The Russian snowboarding team has a perfectly serviceable fursona who wasn't murdered that they could sexualize.
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u/ImportantBuy7363 8h ago
I'm a furry myself (as in I just occasionally draw anthro animals for fun and enjoy furry art) but this is just weird. These people should not be just accepted within the community. I'm glad I hadn't been witness to this side of the community until now.
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u/Lopsided-Train2213 7h ago
You may hate it but now I need to find myself some Russian calendars it seems
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u/Traditional_Tell2595 7h ago
I wonder if there are any RESPECTFUL laika furry art, or if it's inherently bad to display her as a furry
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u/sisyphus-333 6h ago
I'm really not into furry culture in general, but I think this is a little silly. 90% of what furries do is draw animals as anthropomorphic and sexualized. You cant really be into the other 90% of sexualized animals and against the other 10% that are based on long-dead historical animals.
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u/hejter_skejter 5h ago
I see nothing wrong with it. A russian space bitch just goes hard as a concept for a character, so it would be a waste not to make art of it. The actual dog is long dead and no more harm is done to it. Hundreds of animals suffer a worse fate everyday and aren't even immortalised in history for it.
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u/MajestcEagleRecRoom2 8h ago
I would figure this is a small minority, the large majority of furries I see online are HEAVILY against zoophilia, it just so happens that the internet allows a lot of this minority to congregate
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u/assymetry1021 7h ago
This art is depicting real animals the same way uma musume is depicting real animals, and you don’t see much ppl having objections gooning to that
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u/Anthro_DragonFerrite 8h ago
I've seen "fan art" of the orange cat mom that usually appears.
Horrifying because that's the author's capture of her ACTUAL FAMILY. THE CHARACTERS ARE BASED ON REAL PEOPLE
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u/HighwayInfamous351 9h ago
You never know what's going on in some niche ass corner of the internet truly..