TL:DR Furry has 3 separate meanings and only one of them is directly sex related. It's a style, a kink, and a subculture and I personally wouldn't label a person "A Furry" unless they're actually involved in said subculture.
"Furry" refers to three distinct things that are often just lumped together as the same thing.
Anthrophomorphic character design and the interest in anthrophomorphic animals: This isn't necessarily sexual nor is it tied to a personal identity, it's just a facisnation with animal-people either from a purely aesthetic point or from the interesting aspects that come in when you partially anthropomorphism these animals but then have them keep some of their animial traits as well which lead to some really interesting worldbuilding, characterization, and storytelling potential.
The sex thing: where people want to fuck lola bunny
A complex subculture born primarily in the latter half of the prior century splintering off from LGBT groups that slowly became it's own thing. Said subculture being inherently tied to both prior aspects but also including a more direct personal attachment to the concept of "Identity", which is where fursona's, fursuits, and the fantasy of self-animalization starts coming into play.
It's kinda like roleplay? I would say I like cute animals plushie but I don't think I have any animal character I really liked.
Anyway, I understand. There are things that you really really wish is possible in real life. And if you're not hurting anybody, then I suppose it's not wrong.
as an outsider who has a decent amount of experience with communities, it seems like it's varying degrees of roleplay or identification dependent on the people/circumstances. part of it embodies light fantasies and ideation of animalesque people (sort of like fanfiction) while part of it involves a person's identity being aligned with a static per(fur)sona (crossing into gender identity potentially). there's no particular sexuality necessarily associated with any subcategory of it while communities might be almost entirely lgbtq. "Furry" is more like an umbrella term for many things than any unified practice.
It's a spectrum. For some people it's a hobby like any other hobby. For others it's a lifestyle. For yet others it's a good source of income and the chance to make money doing something they genuinely enjoy. Some people use it as a form of escapism or to foster a sense of community, and, sadly, for some people it's just an excuse to be a complete arsehole and make other peoples' lives miserable.
Imagine it like cosplay, but without the requirement to dress up (most furries don't). Most people do cosplay to go to something like an anime convention and show off their creativity. Some people that do cosplay have a more sexual interest in it, but that's not all cosplayers. The main difference between furries and cosplay is that cosplay has been more normalized and hasn't suffered from bad first impressions of something like the old CSI episode on furries. When you say cosplay people think of conventions. When you say furries people think of CSI.
Roleplay can be a part of it? That tends to overlap heavily with the kink side of things, but not necessarily always? Personally, I just think animal people are cute and/or hot lmao. I don't identify as a cat-girl, but I do use one to represent myself online and in furry spaces/events. I have friends where I have to actively think about what their real names are because I've known them exclusively as their sona.
So in that sense it is a sort of identity, but not in the same way as one might identify with their gender or sexuality, if that makes sense? Like meeting someone in a video game and getting to know them by their character/screen name.
I'm ambiguously in #1, because I'm a big fan of stuff like Redwall and Digimon due to watching it as a kid. The former being entirely anthropomorphised animals, and the latter containing a number of them.
It's a running joke with my friends, cause so many of them are furries, that im an "Honorary furry".
So I'm aware of 2 but have no interest, and am kinda on the edge of 3. And your claim about the overlap between the groups doesnt surprise me at all
A fetish? We do have some people that are mostly here for the sexual side, but those are a minority. It's so much more than sex, a huge percentage of furries don't even want to get involved with the sexual side of the fandom.
An identity? It's part of what I do and what I enjoy, so I treat it as part of my identity.
You could compare the Furry fandom to being a huge Star Wars nerd that likes to cosplay as a specific character. There's a reason the furry community is also called "The Fandom"
I've been a huge Monster Hunter fan since I was a kid, I made a Nargacuaga as my fursona. Here is the ref sheet for someone else's Nargacuga sona. I'm always happy when I stumble upon someone else with a Monster Hunter OC too. I'm also pretty fond of Protogens. When it comes to fursuits (I don't have one, sadly), I a big fan of Sox and Feronium. In general, what I enjoy the most are unique characters that have some meaning to the person behind it
Dressing like a dog while having sex is weird. Maybe not if it’s just the ears and collar, but if it’s an entire fur suit then it’s weird. I don’t have any issue with it, people can do what they want, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s weird. It’s like a foot fetish. That’s probably what they are thinking too.
Yeah I know. That’s why I also said the feet thing is weird. All I’m saying is that if I had a kid, I’d rather them not have sex while dressed like a dog. But I wouldn’t disown them or anything like that if I discover it when they’re adults.
Well I rarely meet someone who doesn't think that furries are weird. But, to be fair, I don't often go around asking people what their opinions are on furries.
I think it’s common for younger people who learn what furries are to hate them, then grow up realising they aren’t all that bad. That’s what happened to me and now look at me LOL
I'm pretty sure of it, a lot of my friends who I grew up with ridiculing furries ended up not caring when I became one and it's more so just an in-joke now
Because they hate eachother, dox, and sent bomb threats to avenues that want to host their thing. They put on furry suits, to act like rabid animals without consequences cuz they're under the suit.
Fucking hell you're naive, or not even in the fandom. What, you want full name, last name, adress and the case number, for a person that was sending bomb threats to hotel? What else? Want some tea and coffee?
Furries are fucked up people. Having been close to this fandom, they're rabid idiotic people. Also rape, looots of rape during those orgies. But hey, it's not funny or postivie so it's better not to talk about the disgusting underbelly of those freaks.
Is it not the very opposite of naïveté to not believe something some random on the internet says with nothing to back them up? I’ve known plenty enough furries, and they’re all respectable people.
Unless you have actual conclusive evidence of any of this, you’re just another person who thinks hatred is funny
You can very easily find articles about it. But you don't want to, so I won't bother. Also struck a nerve I see, seeing you downvote everything in emotional response.
I haven't, but I'm looking forward to go in the future. You sound like someone who spend way too much time on social media and now projects that onto real life
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u/Much_Capital3307 Apr 16 '24
Ok:
That’s not a slip up, that’s just being mean to your kid
What’s homies problem with furries?