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What is a furry?
Do you know what a furry is? If not, this is what this new journal entry is about. Why not talk about furries?
Before I indulge you in what I have to say, please be aware that I do not know everything there is to know about the furrie fandom. However I have done a lot of research, a lot of surfing, and a lot of lurking, and I know furries online, and offline. I simply will do the best I can to tell you what I do know, which is a decent amount.
Well, the first step to understanding the Furry Fandom is to understand the meaning of two very important terms.
The first is Anthropomorphic. This term describes taking something and giving it human qualities.
The second is Zoomorphic. It is the act of taking something and giving it animal qualities.
Now, if you look at my avatar it is Zoomorphic because it has the animal qualities of a wolf. Likewise any god or goddess that is depicted in human form is being depicted as anthropomorphic because the artist is giving human qualities to a diety.
Now if you take a look at Egyptian art and sculpture, you will see many pieces that not only feature anthropomorphic qualities (humanish), but zoomorphic qualities as well (Anibus anyone?)
Anyway, keep all that in mind because if you fast forward to the modern time, when Sci-Fi began to gain popularity, Sci-Fi conventions began to take off, and a group of people began to favor certain themes that kept reappearing in some works of Sci-Fi. What they were beginning to favor were races that were anthropomorphic and zoomorphic at the same time.
Later on this group developed a fascination, and wanted more, and they became the precursor to the furries of today.
Helping the fandom along the way, was Disney with it's memorable movies breathing life into the concept of talking animals capable of intelligence and human emotion.
That said, Furries came into being as they grouped together to further promote a fascinating art form. It was clean, it was fun, and it was interesting. However, what good was just drawing the stuff?
In time different people with different ideas breathed more life into the fandom. One way is the creation of the idea "Fursona". Another way is to write books with furrie characters instead of human ones. Also, as these people began to make use of the internet, web-comics began to pop up putting together the literary and artistic aspects.
The numbers of people who like these "Funny animals" or "Talking animals" began to grow. That is where the Fursona comes.
The Fursona is something that a furrie identifies themselves with. It could be an animal that they really care about. It could be an animal which exhibits behaviors that the person can relate to. It could be a person's favorite animal, or even an animal that doesn't exist. Sometimes when one cannot choose between one of two or three animals, they create a hybrid of all the different animals they identify with.
Now, once a person has a Fursona they can do different things with it. They can draw it or have people draw it for them. They can RP with it with a group of RPers in real life, or on the web. They can make costumes that mimic it, and attend conventions to show it off, while they meet and mingle with other furries. Some of them will even build them in a way so that they can Rave with the costume on.
Now, it is important to point out that for the furries do not really think they are anything other than human. Fursuiting, which is the act of being involved in the costuming side of the fandom, is not done by all furries. Not all furries RP either.
Now, there are some things furries do in real life to sort of show off thier pride in being part of the fandom. Some of them wear collars, with tags, or bells attached. Others will put together accessories. For example, PawStar is a online store that supplies furries with hats that have fuzzy ears attached. Some furries make clips with cat ears on it, or even wear tails.
However, an increasing number of furries are beginning to look down on these younger furries who wear tails, and animal ears, because of the idea that there is a time and place for things. Some feel tails are for conventions, not for every day wear in the public setting.
Also, while some furries have no problem meowing or making animals sounds at each other, others refrain from doing so, considering it inappropriate and "taking it too far".
Speaking of the subject of taking it too far, there are some furries out there who have really shook up the fandom. People, by the way of the internet, have crept into the fandom and perverted it. Some people have big problems with this M rated side of the fandom.
It can be stated that all that is clean and innocent is fated to be corrupted, for that is human nature. To some furries, the furrie sub-culture has been corrupted. Then again it can be argued that the fandom was never corrupted to begin with, and that which became part of it simply brings it to a closer parallel to humanity.
"Furry Porn" has flooded the internet creating a split between those who want it to stay clean, and those who don't, or even those who just don't care and hate the so called "Drama"
Part of the drama revolves around some furries taking the originally clean PG art, and turning it around to be M rated.
Now it is well known that human beings, for the most part, really enjoy sex and porn. There are many furries out there that are no different. When two sexually active furries have sex, they call it Yiff, and in turn any sort of "art" that is centered around sex has become known as "Yiffy art." Furries who are into this aspect of the fandom are known as "Yiffy furs" or "Furverts."
There are even a small minority now that make furrie costumes, and have sex in those costumes, as a fetish of sorts.
Now some people cried out in alarm. They did not like this "corruption" in "thier fandom". A well known group, who called themselves "Burned furs" sought to get the M rated material and activity out of the furrie fandom, and keep it PG or "Clean".
In response, some furries who enjoy the more erotic side of the fandom were quick to point out, that humans already enjoy porn of human beings. To them(non-furries) it is okay to see people naked, or watch videos of people having sex. Why should furries who enjoy the same in a slightly different medium be treated any different? Why should it be considered a corruption? Nobody is forced to look up the M rated stuff. More and more sites even partition the art, so that if someone wants to only look at PG rated stuff, there are areas for them to go. It is not as though looking at this stuff makes them want to go out rape an animal, because it's not bestiality. It's just something that they like, and enjoy, and isn't hurting anything.
Moving on, the media has not been kind to furries. The media will only show what gives them ratings. So when the media targets furries, they tend to focused on that small minority, the M rated ones, leaving out any notion the the fandom, is, and can be clean.
CSI released a Furrie episode as part of it's "Fetish" series, and unfortunately many viewers took the whole thing literally. The same goes for Vanity Fair, and MTV, who have helped give the public eye a sensationalized idea that all furries are sick minded perverts that have group orgies in animal costumes.
The result is that many innocent, clean furs have been harassed, bullied, beaten up, or even cut off from their families due to a very big misunderstanding. Helping the spread of this misunderstood view of the fandom is a group that calls themselves "Anonymous." In forums they are also referred to as /b/, B-tards, B-fags, or Anon-fags.
This group of internet hackers and trolls have put furries on the defensive, and the result is a mentality that exists in many new or young furries, who don't understand why people are telling them that they are into something that they are or not into. Sensitive to this trolling, they often try to defend themselves, not understanding that the only reason these trolls target them is because they are looking to get a response.
The result of this "Online Drama" has led to many sarcastic writings online poking fun at furries for having a "Fursecution complex" (fursecution is a play on the word furry and persecution). Many furries want to be left alone, but for many people, that just isn't going to happen.
Some people have become afraid of actually saying they don't like furries, because some members have become so sensitive to being ridiculed, that they will attack anyone who doesn't like them, in an attempt to make them "understand", and "accept them".
Those furries simply need to understand (eventually they will), that in order to gain acceptance, you first have to be tolerant, and that means tolerating those people who do not like you. After all, there is no law saying that people have to like furries. Some people find the art creepy, and don't like it...and if that is the case nothing you do or say is going to change that.
Anyway, moving on from the whole "Internet Drama" thing, Furries today now fall into one of three categories. Think of it as a box, with a line drawn through the middle.
The left side of the box stands for the clean furries who only deal in the clean side of the fandom. The right side of the box stands for the the furries who only deal with and in the not clean side of the fandom.
A furrie can do one of three things. They can plant both feet firm in the left side of the box, and refuse to have anything to do with the not clean side of the fandom. A furrie can have both feet planted in the right side of the box, and therefore only exist for that which has a taste of perversion. Thirdly a furrie can have one foot in the left box, and one foot in the right and therefore be placed on the dividing line. Therefore they will deal with and in the clean and not clean stuff.
Why do I bring this up? I bring it up because any person who wants to get into the fandom really needs to do their research and figure out what they want to get from it. They need to learn what exists out there. If there are parts of the furry culture that they want nothing to do with, than they should be able to learn the signs. That way when they enter the sub-culture and become a furry (or just a fan) they don't get burned for not doing their research.
It is common sense to do your research before joining something. It is only logically to set boundaries for yourself. If you go into the furrie sub-culture looking for porn you will find it. If you enter it looking for puppeteers you will find puppeteers. If you go into it looking for animators you will find animators. However, if you get into it for the wrong reasons that are not true to yourself, you may get burned, and it will be no fault of the furries.
Now, I would like to start wrappings things up and deal with a few common misconceptions that frequently trip people up.
A human with a pair of cat ears and a cat tail is a Neko, and is not furry.
My profile however has examples of furrie art, if you scroll down to the last three or four pictures in the art collection.
Also, the word "Furfag" is a deragatory term that trolls have come up with to insult furries. It doesn't really mean anything significant. The same goes for the commonly shouted phrase "Yiff in hell" or "Yiff in hell furfags." It has no significant meaning at all, although it can be slightly amusing to hear a person tell another person to go have sex with another human being.
Another thing to watch out for is the term Therian and Otherkin.
Therian and Otherkin are not furries. However, a person can be a furrie and a Therian/Otherkin at the same time.
Therians are people who follow the Native American concept of animal totems. Some of them have Native American roots. There is also something that has been nicknamed a "Therian Philosophy", which is a bit misanthropic.
Otherkin are people who believe they have animal souls. Or they believe that they are an animal trapped in the wrong body. It is similar to when men feel they are women trapped in a mans body, or vice versa.
Now, lastly is the contraversial topic of Bestiality. Bestiality deals with having certain feelings towards animals, that are sexual in nature. Sometimes people who are into this will create their own form of "Art" which involves a human having sex with an animal. Some Bestiphiles, will go as far as to live out their fantasy, having sex with dogs, or horses, or some similar animal.
Along side the idea of Bestiality is Zoophilia, which is the same as Bestiality, except that Zoophiles will stick to having sex with individual animals that they feel they have a connection to. Some of them claim that their animals trust them, and enjoy it.
Furry art depicts anthros who are not quite human and not quite animal. M rated furry art depicts furry characters having sexual relations with each other. Since the pictures are not always species limited (I.E. A fox might be getting dirty with a Panda), there is a big problem of misconception, where outsiders mistake this "porn" as being the same as Bestiality, or as something that shows an connection of underlying feelings of wanting to have sex with something that is non-human.
However, that is not the case. Anthro art that is sexual in nature does not imply underlying feelings of bestiality. If a furry is really into bestiality, they would be looking at porn of a human and an animal. However, what they get off to in M rated anthro art, is the sexual aspects of the art, which is the anthropomorphic part, not the zoomorphic part.
It is thought that there are probably some furries out there that do become associated with bestiality and zoophilia. Therefore, some people believe that Bestiality and Zoophilia should be considered part of the "Adult side" of the furry fandom.
However there is limited evidence to support this. It is also interesting to point out that bestiality is outlawed in many places.
Thank You for reading about furries and I hope you now appreciate them much more.
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