Plus they make some amazing art and grade-A smut 
I’ve been in the fandom for like two decades now and yeah, those early internet days were rough, but it was always an extremely queer space. Had all kinds of dumb stuff happen over the years. Some dorks from 4ch*n showed up at a con to protest. Local radio shock jocks always trying to get into the buildings and try to find salacious things. In an odd way, it kind of brought the fandom together.
Nowadays, the fandom is so much bigger and so much more public that it suffers from microcosms of everything else going on in the culture. There are loads of chud furries out there now and there’s no real way to self-police at scale. It’s a real shame, but you have to take it for what it is.
A couple months ago at work this person was randomly (like really randomly out of nowhere) telling me about all the animal-themed costumes their partner (who was present and apparently happy to have all this shared) has done over the years for hallowe’en and other occasions (not all of which were situations where a childless adult would be expected to be in costume). Both around age 50. I was thinking “I guess this is how you gently come out as a furry?” but I didn’t acknowledge it in case I was wrong and also I sort of don’t want to get into a conversation about furries at work in any circumstances. but it was very cute, they were both very cute kinda giggling and blushing.
Wholesome.
Tbf, I don’t think of myself as a furry, but I have absolutely used situations where children, young adults, and the older adults accompanying them are socially expected to be in costume, as an excuse to dress as a teddy bear. Because I have the bear onesie sitting in my pajama drawer anyway, and I like how huggable I look in it, and “nice friendly young lady in bear suit + event full of costumed kids” tends to equal “little monsters, fairies, and baby animals asking me for hugs all event long”, which, I love little kid hugs, not for any creepy reasons, just because little kids will squeeze the stuffing out of you with all they’ve got.
The impression I got was this person is making a brand new costume once or twice a year rather than just re-using an existing one. And these are not people with a lot of resources to spare so any expenditure will be calculated based on priorities. Like probably these costumes required sacrifice of food. They could’ve just been a bit of a theater dork but there did seem to be emphasis on the animal nature of all the costumes. Not once a vampire, witch, alien, richard nixon.
The way the topic arose out of literally nowhere made it seem like they had talked about it beforehand… you know the way that some couples do.
very cute you have a pj drawer. :D
Ah, yeah, that’s a little more out there. For me it’s just I have the bear outfit lying around and it leads to good hugs.
was it? anti-queer sentiment was just in the open 20 years ago and i figured furries were ostracized for being weird the same way medieval larpers or video game enthusiasts or people who liked school or any other “weird” group was ostracized.
They were definitely conflated, making fun of ”weird” people was a major part of the culture on the Something Awful forums that popularized furry hatred, and that often included queer (especially trans) people. The F-slur was also constantly used there as an insult, so they definitely didn’t have a problem with doing queerphobia on a casual level either.
It’s also anti-autism sentiment
do you mean now or back then? i don’t think what used to be called aspergers or “high functioning” was on people’s radar late 90s into mid 00s like it was later. r-word was on a downward trend at the time too.
I misspoke. I don’t think anti-furs think “I hate you because you’re autistic”; I think it’s generalized bigotry towards behaviors and attitudes that they don’t understand and can’t empathize with, which happen to be caused by neurodivergence. I.e. “I hate you because you’re weird to me”.
yeah for sure
I mean probably depends on what you mean by “on people’s radar” most people I know that are 90s kids that are on the spectrum definitely have experienced persecution from it from what they’ve said. The people didn’t know that’s what they were attacking in those cases but doesn’t change the fact that that’s what it was.
i think it changes the character of it, but that’s true. my grades were too good to get diagnosed, maybe somebody would’ve done something about it if not.
That’s how it is in my country. It’s more that people think they like to fuck animals so they get made fun of for that reason. I don’t even think a queer connection has been made and our evangelical population would jump on that opportunity if they knew about it.
And the whole reason they think that is just vibes. It’s literally shit their minds just invented but they’re willing to ruin lives over it.
I dunno, casual LGBT hatred was still pretty prevalent back then (“ghey” was thrown around all the time as a general insult). I’d say it was more tangential than stand-in.
No furry ever called me a “beta male cuckold”
Not for free at least
My girlfriend drew her fursona ramming me with a car “Honda Civic”
Honda Uncivic
Do I count as a furry if I’m not into costumes but I think anthro art is cool?
Yes.
I’m not really into fursuits either (unless you count the ones that are mostly body paint
)Yes.
The internet has kinda ruined and sexualised furries but really it just means someone who likes anthro stuff.
Im sure reasons are gonna vary quite a bit person to person but it’s always been the hardest part to wrap my head around (not that I need to in order to leave people be who aren’t hurting anyone, furries seem to really enjoy what they’re doing and im happy for them). What is the appeal of anthro stuff in general outside of a sexual context? Cause I csn think of a few different movies or games or whatever of most genres that have anthropomorphized animals in them. Ive never really understood why that aesthetic choice would be a centralizing appeal. Like, im a big fan of animals and Watership Down is own of my favorite books cause it takes a rabbits POV for once, but they’re actual rabbits. I think its something I’ll just never really get but if you can shed any light id appreciate it. I dont hate things I dont understand, but this is something I dont understand.
I don’t get it either. It’s probably something like with bronies or just fandoms in general. They see a thing they like and have fun with creating and sharing OCs and stuff.
Life sucks and self expression is often dangerous, if you design yourself a character to embody yourself you can simultaneously express yourself and experiment with how you want to be perceived, while also having that as an image which you are seen as by your friends
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I just think anthro animals look neat, but from my perspective I find it really strange why someone would care about how I developed an interest when I don’t think about it at all. I hope this doesn’t come across as offensive btw I’m just trying to give some sort of an answer. If I had to psychoanalysis however I guess every human being has the potential to be a furry through random pattern of events, you have the choice then after to either go for it or no and that choice then is also effected by external factors of course. Ultimately I think it comes down to it’s just a hobby, everyone has their own nobody knows why exactly, science hasn’t figured out free will at least yet, but some hobbies seem more weird than others.
what if you (me) are just a xenophile
Yea, if you want to consider yourself one, then your more then welcome in the community! Most of us don’t actually fursuit. ☺️
Most of us don’t actually fursuit.
For real though I have to tell people this so often that it boggles my mind. It’s akin to thinking that every anime fan is a cosplayer.
Honestly I needed to hear this. I never really think about furries all that much (I’m not in the fandom and they don’t bother me so whatever right?) but the fur suit part was always the most confusing. I mean what two (or more) consenting adults do behind closed doors is 1000000000000% none of my business but let’s just say I once wore a maid outfit for my partner and that shit was fucking drenched in sweat at the end. If I was a furry I think I’d prefer ears, a tail, and my imagination over heatstroke.
Yeah
tbh the more money I’ve got for suiting the more I realize that I would have an utterly miserable time suiting
idk I’m not in the fandom so I can’t really speak on it?
tbh I know quite a few fash furries (and plenty of cishetallo Roman Catholic ones)
The fandom is incredibly inclusive, unfortunately that has increasingly applied to reactionaries the more normalized their views have become in our societies.
I’ve been called a beta cuck by a furry before.
And then people wonder why I openly promote killing fascists.
Nazis will hurt innocent people. Killing a Nazi is saving lives.
exactly. no tolerating the intolerant
Pretty much. You can trace it back to 4chan and the “yiff in hell fur[slur]” “jokes” as the proto-fascism seed being planted.
That predates 4chan, it originated on the site Portal of Evil iirc and then grew into the monstrosity it later became on the Something Awful forums. Of course 4chan was started by a SA user.
no furry ever called me a beta male cuckold
Would that I could say the same
The worst part is when actual anti-LGBT people accuse furries of “trivializing” LGBT struggles whenever the subject is brought up.
As someone who falls under both umbrellas: I have about as much choice in one as the other, and in my experience the “furry” part brings about way more open disgust if not outright murderous rhetoric.
The worst part is when actual anti-LGBT people accuse furries of “trivializing” LGBT struggles whenever the subject is brought up.
That’s not right because from what I’ve read, furry communities were really accepting of trans people when no one else was?
100% How a fandom comprised largely of LGBT people can appropriate LGBT struggles is a mystery for the ages. In my experience, such accusations mostly came from pickmes and assimilationists.
https://leftypol.org/hobby/src/1608525478344-0.pdf
An interesting read. The FPAL has disbanded at this point unfortunately.
I was just dumb and didn’t understand it.
