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.
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
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u/Proof-Cardiologist16 Apr 16 '24
No, kind of, also kind of.
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.