I’m hoping this can stay civil. You know what, I’ll just say it now - if you want to say all furries are perverts or otherwise bash us, please just start a Pit thread.
So, Doper furs
What kind of critter are you?
Lifestyler, fan, all of the above?
How’d you get into it?
Are you part of any boards or communities?
Do you do anything special?
I’m a tiger, obviously. White and Blue anthro tyger, with big furry blue wings. My other totem animals are ravens and crows.
I’m sure my family would back me up in saying that I’ve always felt connected to animals, especially felines. I don’t remember how I found the online community, but I was part of a couple of newsgroups - alt.fan.furry and alt.lifestyle.furry, I believe. When I’m really really stressed, I imagine I can feel my tail and wings and it helps. I don’t think I’m really a tiger or anything like that, but if I could look that way in real life without being stuck to working freakshows, I would. I don’t think a furry world would be better than a human one, but it’d probably be more honest.
I’ve never been to a convention or anything. It’s a very low-key thing for me, but I enjoy the art and movies like Disney’s Robin Hood and Kung Fu Panda. Two-Spotz is probably my favorite online artist.
I’m not a furry, though I know several. I don’t understand it, but I also don’t understand the reaction that furry fans get. For the most part, I think furry fans are harmless and have an undeserved reputation.
I’m not a furry, but I know quite a few people who are. Have you ever played Furcadia? The creators are good friends of mine, and I actually sold my house to one of them.
I think it is sort of an “… and the office boy kicked the cat” reaction (no pun intended ). Practitioners of every form of geeky fandom are used to getting abuse for it; their reaction is to pour scorn on the one form of fandom that is absolutely considered the bottom of the heap by just about everyone.
[FWIW, I think furries are harmless, if occasionally very eccentric]
I was a closet furry for years, after I started seeing furry artwork at science fiction conventions. Just a fan, not a lifestyler in any way. I have a lot of furry art that I’ve downloaded over the years, and a few pieces that I’ve bought at conventions.
My involvement with furry fandom is primarily working with a convention, which I started doing about eight years ago when a local group that had been running the furry track at a science fiction convention decided to start their own convention.
The fursuit thing is waaay overrepresented. Furries get judged by mainstream on their extreme wings just as badly as Trekkies get judged by the dudes in full costume speaking fluent Klingon or the ones who aren’t quite convinced the show is actually fiction.
I have a fondness for anthropomorphism, although I have to admit the term furry has had too much baggage dumped on it for me to be comfortable using it. I wouldn’t necessarily say everything’s better with tails, but I enjoy movies, comics, and stuff with animals just as much as humans, if not more so. Casting characters as different species adds a distinct visual characterization that, done well, augments the character’s personality. Disney’s Robin Hood, for example. Robin Hood as a fox and Little John as a bear just…fit, you know?
My god, do I sound like a snobby nerd in that paragraph.
(What? Don’t look so surprised to see me in here. )
I’m not a furry, but I understand where the attraction comes from. Obviously I’m pretty open-minded about sexuality, and furries fall directly into the “not for me, but it’s fine if others want to do it” category.
A question for furries in relationships: at what point do you bring up something like this? BDSM gets the stinkeye on occaission, but it seems - as noted above - that furries are pretty far down on the food chain.* So ho do you step outside your comfort zone and tell your SO about your furry-ness?
*It’s a shame, really, because the folks I know who are furries are some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, and my heart hurts for them that they are looked down upon by so many.
Lots more at the furnation site, listed by author with categories here http://www.furnation.com/kat/furry.html (no pics on this page, just links with ratings from G to R)
It’s just a geekdom. Some folks are really into anime, some folks are really into Star Wars, some folks are really into D&D, some folks are really into anthropomorphic animals.
It’s also not focused solely on sexuality, as freekalette implies. Some people just like the idea of being a tiger or bear or something, much like they’d like the idea of being a Starfleet officer or Jedi.
As an example, one of my favorite webcomics is Dan and Mab’s Furry Adventures, a clean furry strip that’s really quite entertaining. It was originally based off Furcadia, but has since spiraled into its own setting, I believe.
I’m not sure whether I qualify as a furry fan or not. I’ve always had a fondness for films and stories about werewolves. That interest led me to a website devoted to animal transformation fiction, which has some overlap with furry fandom. I know next to nothing about the online community. However, I have attended four or five furry conventions, which has to count for something.
I actually attended my first furry convention purely by accident: Pawpet Megaplex, in Orlando (they have since relocated to Jacksonville, I believe). The convention is sponsored by a group who also produces an online puppet show, and so the earliest conventions were advertised as primarily concerned with puppetry. One convention even featured Trace Beaulieu (“Crow T. Robot” from MST3K) as guest of honor. “A puppetry convention?” said I, aglow with fond memories of college theater classes. “Fascinating!” So I trucked on over to Orlando to check it out, only to learn that the puppetry facade was A TOTAL LIE. The convention was practically all furry-related stuff. I guess they used the puppetry angle at first to deflect the stigma. The later conventions were more upfront about the furry content.
Anyhoo, I think I attended Megaplex three times. I also attended Furry Weekend Atlanta twice. They all seemed like a fairly close-knit circle of amiable folks. I had a lot of fun checking out the booths and panels and whatnot.
Why does everyone think it’s about sex? (Don’t answer that, I know why.)
No. I watch Thundercats, I read anthro fic, I look at pretty pictures. It has nothing to do with sex. When I was strongest into furrydom was also when I was at my most asexual.
Sure. I’ve done photomanips too. My most recent is here (That would be me in the middle and two of characters)
Bosstone has it exactly right - it’s just a fandom. A very loose, very diverse fandom.
I find it funny how looked down upon furry is, yet American animation is absolutely drowning in it, and nobody seems to notice when it’s a cartoon. Hell, the classic cartoon icon is a freakin’ mouse. As a more recent example, Kung Fu Panda has shown itself to be an enjoyable family film.
It’s just when some folks take the concept beyond the movie to have fun with it that people suddenly look on it as deviant, I guess. Star Wars is enjoyed on a massive scale, but it’s only slightly more acceptable to be a Star Wars geek than a furry geek.
). Practitioners of every form of geeky fandom are used to getting abuse for it; their reaction is to pour scorn on the one form of fandom that is absolutely considered the bottom of the heap by just about everyone.