Because if I’m going to take the time to write an MMP, you’d damn well better believe I’m gonna make it as weird as possible.
So, as I think all regular Mumpers are aware by now, for the last several years I’ve been a part - albeit not a particularly active one - of a primarily online subcultural group commonly referred to as “Furries”, and over the last week I was privileged to attend AnthroCon, one of the largest Furry conventions in the world. Held in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, it draws several thousand Furries from around the world and hosts dozens of panels, discussions, performances, art shows, auctions, and more, all of it geared towards members of our weird little fandom. Before I can tell you all about my trip, though, I want to make sure everyone here is on the same page, because otherwise you’re going to be confused and probably a little freaked out. The Furry fandom is one of the more unusual subcultural groups out there, and is frequently misrepresented, stereotyped, mocked, and worse by various unseemly types on the Internet; what’s more, Furries tend to be hard to spot in real life, as there is frequently no way to distinguish us from regular people you’d pass on the street - or in fewer words, we usually keep the fact that we’re Furries a secret, usually because of all the negative stereotypes associated with the fandom. The net effect of these two factors is that most people either don’t know any Furries in real life, or if they do, they are not aware that the person is a Furry. So, if you’re not entirely sure what a Furry is, don’t worry, you’re not alone; more importantly, you’re also not out of luck, because I’ve taken the time to write up a summary of the Furry fandom to the best of my ability in the hope that it will help you make sense of the rest of this post!
Spoiler boxed so those who already know what a Furry is or who don’t care can skip it:
[Spoiler]If you’re reading this, that means you don’t really know what a Furry is, or at least have a few unanswered questions. So, in the Straight Dope spirit of fighting ignorance, I’m going to take a shot at answering some of the most common ones people ask.
Question 1: What is a Furry?
[Spoiler]What is a Furry? Well… A Furry can be a lot of things. To start, I’ll quote the official page for AnthroCon, the convention I just attended which is the subject of this whole post.
[Quote=AnthroCon]
Anthropomorphic or “humanized” animals have been with us since the dawn of civilization. From the gods of ancient Egypt to the advertising icons of the modern day, people of every culture have created fanciful creatures simply by imbuing animals with human traits. Only within the last two decades has anthropomorphic or “Furry” fandom been recognized as a distinct fan-base in its own right. Fans are found in all corners of the world, and come from all races and ages and creeds. We are bound together across the most daunting barriers by our mutual admiration for these beasts of myth and legend who, by simple reflection, give us a better window into ourselves.
A large number of anthropomorphics fans are employed in scientific or technical fields. A significant percentage have college diplomas and many of those hold advanced degrees. This, perhaps, is what leads many casual observers to raise an eyebrow. “Why would someone like this be into cartoon animals? Isn’t that unusual?” If we look at the world around us, however, we will see that anthropomorphized animals are an integral part of our culture. We use them to represent our political parties. We talk to our dogs (and some even imagine they talk back, though in their own way). We put a tiger in our tank. We cheer for mascots—anthropomorphic animals dressed in team uniforms—at our favorite sporting events. Our casual observer may simply be unaware that it is only in the last forty years that cartoons and cartoon animals have been relegated to the world of children. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and their ilk were once targeted primarily to an adult audience, their productions filled with innuendo and biting political satire. Fans of anthropomorphics today simply have not forgotten those roots. The average Furry fan is cast from the same mold as the science fiction or sword-and-sorcery fan; all of us imagine strange and thrilling worlds and try to picture ourselves living in those worlds.
Today, Furry fandom is instead an artistic and literary genre that is practiced and enjoyed by tens of thousands worldwide. We count among our ranks professional sports mascots, animators, cartoonists, puppeteers, artists, illustrators, and writers, as well as those who simply think that it would be a wonderful thing if animals could walk or talk like we do. If you as an adult still occasionally like to flip to the old cartoons, or have a stuffed animal sitting on the dashboard of your car, or buy cereal because it has a cool tiger on the box, you may well enjoy what our fandom has to offer. We invite you to visit any one of our many gatherings worldwide to see for yourself what Furry fandom is really all about.
[/quote]
Now, I’m going to do the unthinkable - I’m going to cite Wikipedia. From the Wikipedia entry on Furries:
[Quote=Wikipedia]
Furry fandom (also known as Furrydom, Furridom, Fur fandom or Furdom) refers to the fandom for fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, the ability to speak, walk on two legs, and wear clothes. Furry fandom is also used to refer to the community of artists, writers, role players and general fans of the Furry art forms who gather on the net and at conventions.
Characters that morph between human and animal form are also considered by some to be part of the genre. Even certain superheroes with animal derived powers are considered of Furry interest by some fans. The general idea being a combination of human and non-human animal attributes, for which there is no documented science regarding what degrees of mixture are required. Even characters like Josie and the Pussycats are considered of interest to Furry fandom, though they only wear costumes with animal ears and tails.
[/quote]
And finally, let me turn to what may well be the authoritative source for answers to questions about the Furry fandom - WikiFur, the Furry encyclopedia.
[Quote=WikiFur]
The word Furry has several meanings, dependent on the context in which it is used. Predominantly, it means “consisting of or resembling Fur”. It also pertains to an interest in anthropomorphic animals and/or mythological or imaginary creatures which possess human or superhuman capabilities. The plural form of Furry in all its contexts is Furs or Furries; the subjects of Furry interest are also known as Furries.
Someone who says they are Furry is generally expressing an interest in anthropomorphic animals and/or creatures.
Unfavorable attention from the media has created a negative stereotype of a Furry. Contrary to how a Furry is portrayed in pop culture and mass media, how deep or meaningful an interest in Furry is varies greatly from person to person. Also, the depth of a person’s interest in the fandom, and what ultimately makes them Furry, is specific to each individual. Below is a list of common interests with which a Fur is likely to identify. A Furry may be interested in any or all of them, to any degree.
Someone claiming to be Furry would also be part of the Furry fandom.
[/quote]
OK, so now that I’ve buried you in text, what does it all mean? To put it simply, Furries are people who like anthropomorphic or “humanized” animals. In the same way that many people daydream about being, say, a professional athlete, famous artist, movie star, Lord of the Rings elf, or superhero - characters who they admire for all manner of things, from fame and fortune to physical prowess to simply being “cool” - we daydream about being anthropomorphized animals. The reasons for this are as varied as the members of the fandom itself; in my case, I find these characters fascinating because, like superheroes, spell-slinging fantasy adventurers, or the cyborgs of science fiction, they give us an insight into what it would be like to be more than human - possessing the strength, speed, agility, stamina, and heightened senses of the animal kingdom while retaining the intellectual prowess, emotional richness, and other advantages of being human. Similarly, other people like anthropomorphics (henceforth “anthros”) because they find them cute, or because they feel they can relate closely to animals, because they feel a spiritual connection to the animal kingdom, or because they simply think animals are cool; whatever the reason, though, it is our shared interest in blurring the lines between man and animal that makes us all Furries.
So there you have it. A “Furry” is a person who, for whatever reason, likes anthropomorphic animals; it’s also a term for these anthro characters themselves, for the fandom as a whole, for any kind of art or other media pertaining to anthros or the fandom, and in general, anything associated with creatures that are part human and part animal. Of course, knowing what a Furry is marks only the beginning of the story![/spoiler]
Question 2: How did you become a Furry?
[Spoiler]More easily than you might expect. There are a lot of “Furry” characters in popular media, such as TV and videogames, and over a period of several years I simply realized “Hey, that’d be really cool!” The one moment which I think was most definitive or pivotal in my own long slide into Furriness occurred when I was in my early teens; I was browsing online for possible birthday presents I could ask for, and since I have an end-of-August birthday, I was looking at those Super Soaker water guns. During my browsing, I stumbled upon a piece of Furry artwork featuring a pair of anthro characters running around their yard and squirting each other with water pistols. I found the characters fascinating, and while I didn’t even know what a Furry was at the time, I can now look back and realize that it was that picture which turned me into a Fur.
Many Furries report similar “revelatory” moments, where some specific trigger makes them pause and say to themselves, “Whoa, I really like these characters! Anthros are cool!” Other Furs find their interest develops more gradually, as long-term exposure to Furry images in pop culture (Mascots, Videogame characters, Cartoon characters, and many more) breed a slow-growing fondness for those fantastic creatures. Still others become Furry as a result of religious beliefs stemming from a background in Wiccan, Therianthropic, Pagan-esque philosophy. And then there are those who simply like animals and decide they would like to be part animal themselves. So, all in all, becoming a Furry can happen in any number of ways - from internal motivations, personal beliefs, exposure to external forces, all at once, over a period of time… Just like “What is a Furry?”, “How did you become a Furry?” is a question whose answers are as numerous as the fandom’s members.[/spoiler]
Question 3: Why are you a Furry?
Another common question, and one whose answer can be much more easily distilled now that we’ve investigated what a Furry is and how people become Furries. In the literal sense, I’m a Furry because I saw anthropomorphic characters in TV, movies, videogames, print, etc, and I thought they were cool. And in the fantastic sense, I’m a Furry because I could look at those anthro characters I saw in various media and imagine myself as one of them, becoming a sort of “superhero” or at least “superhuman” in the process. Why am I a Furry? I’m a Furry because I think anthros are cool. I’m a Furry because I think it’d rock to be able to run really fast for miles and miles, and to leap gracefully through the trees, and to be able to see and hear and smell things invisible to my human self. I’m a Furry because I think it’d be fun to have ears and tail, and I’m a Furry because I think that anthro characters are really cute and cuddly. I like, in essence, what it would mean to be a Furry - to be cute, to be soft, to be cuddly, to be strong, to be fast, to be agile, to be… More than I am. And because of that, I like Furries and consider myself one of them.
Question 4: So what does it mean to you to be a Furry?
[Spoiler]Hmmm… These are getting harder to answer. I suppose, to me, being a Furry means what I said above - it means imagining myself as an anthro character because I like what being an anthro would imply for me. But more than that, it means seeing myself as something in between human and animal. I feel that I have a great deal in common with animals - some more than others – and specifically, I feel like I have a lot of characteristics in common with wolves. Now, I’m not crazy - I know I’m not a wolf. I don’t have wolf ancestors, wasn’t a wolf in a past life, don’t have a wolf’s soul or any such nuttiness - I simply feel that there are a lot of characteristics commonly associated with wolves which I possess as a well. Of course, being human (at least here in Meatspace), I know I have a lot of human characteristics as well. So I guess, when I think about it, being a Furry means being able to look at yourself - at the characteristics which define you and at the species, human or otherwise, which those characteristics are associated with - and synthesize everything you know about who you are into a coherent self-image. And perhaps most importantly, it means you can look at that self-image, your perception of yourself and who you are, and be comfortable with it - regardless of what species that self-image turns out to be.
Again, I’ll use myself as an example. I said that I felt I had a lot in common with wolves; let me elaborate. Wolves are a species which are famous for being solitary - the archetypal “lone wolf”. Yet they are, in actuality, a very social species. They don’t exactly go out looking to meet other wolves, obviously - they have a pack, a small group of “friends” (using the term only for convenience) to whom they are intensely loyal and whom they can be extremely protective of. In a way, I feel like this describes me as well. Most people think of me as a loner, and I do tend to be a very private and isolated person in real life; I don’t meet new people easily at all, have a hard time making friends, don’t talk much, and generally avoid social contact. But I do have a small, tightly-knit group of friends, many of whom I have known for many years, and like a wolf and his pack I find myself to be both intensely loyal to them, and very protective of them. It’s just how I am, a part of my personality I cannot change - a part of me which is as much wolf as it is human. There are other parts of myself about which I feel the same way, (like the fact that a lot of people think I’m “scary” but I’m really not, and the fact that I have a shock of snow-white hair on the back of my head) and the result is that when I look at all the aspects of myself, all the characteristics which make me who I am, I see a mixture of wolf and human elements. And so, when I take everything I know about myself and distill it into a cohesive self-image, the result is something that is in between wolf and human - specifically, an anthropomorphic Arctic wolf. This self-image is my Furry self - my Furry persona, or “Fursona”, and if you’re curious, you can see what it looks like - and thus, see exactly how I see myself - here. [/spoiler]
Question 5: Wow, that’s pretty deep! But I’m kind of lost… What does it all mean?
Time to distill everything I’ve said so far into something a bit easier to digest. I am a Furry, a person who likes anthropomorphic animals. I came to realize this thanks to a combination of exposure to Furry characters in media, and a “revelatory” moment where I saw a picture of two Furries playing and suddenly realized I thought the characters were really cool. I think the characters are cool because, in the same way that normal people have daydreams about, say, having a lot of money or having superpowers, I have daydreams about having the strength, speed, agility, senses, and stamina of the animals around us. Instead of just imagining myself as a person with these “powers”, though, I imagine myself as an anthropomorphic version of the animal in question, because I think anthros are cute and that it’d be cool to have ears and a tail. The reason I feel this way is because I see myself as having characteristics of a wolf as well as of a human, so when I think of who I am, the image that comes to mind - what I perceive myself to be - has wolf and human characteristics as well, and takes the form of an anthro wolf. So for me, being Furry is a combination of several factors - what I want, what I like, and what I am. And that’s pretty much all there is to it!
Question 6: OK, so I get WHY you’re a Furry, but… What do you DO as a Furry?
Finally, something I can answer easily. What do I do as a Furry? Well, everything. I am a Furry, so everything I do is being done “as a Furry”. Alright, alright, that was lame, I know. As far as specifically “Furry” activities, though… Well, I love to write, and I’m a total word nerd, so I write short stories (usually Science Fiction or Fantasy) about Furry characters. I also like to draw, and I do Furry sketches in between working on character designs for a (non-Furry) webcomic my friend and roommate Alex want to start publishing. In addition, I enjoy Furry roleplaying, either online (via AIM or Yahoo! messenger or whatever’s convenient) or in tabletop games. In fact, there’s a Furry tabletop RPG coming out soon and I know one of the guys who’s doing art for it, so yeah… Geek cred! I also enjoy going to “Furmeets”, small local get-togethers where Furries can meet and hang out and… Well, we mostly do what anyone else would do. Talk about what’s new, go out for food, watch movies. The only real difference is that we sometimes do so while wearing tails and collars. Other Furs enjoy costuming or “Fursuiting” in which they don full-body or partial costumes in the image of their Fursona and act or roleplay the part of their character; the detail, quality, and complexity of these costumes vary wildly and some Furs put huge amounts of time and effort into their costumes. And finally, there are the Furry conventions - big get-togethers for Furries, like a sci-fi convention or comic book convention or Renaissance fair, except weirder and, well, Furrier. Mostly, though, what we do as Furries is have fun! We enjoy being Furs, and we’re happy and comfortable with who we are - and it shows. We love to laugh, play, joke, goof off, and make fools of ourselves, all for the amusement of ourselves and those around us. Because, really, regardless of why people become Furries, or how they join the fandom, or how serious they are in their Furriness, if it weren’t fun and satisfying, there really wouldn’t be much point.
Wow, that was prodigiously long… Still, hopefully I’ve managed to convey the essence of the Furry fandom in a way that makes sense even to you normal people. Now… On to the actual post!
[/Spoiler]
Alright, now that that’s out of the way, on to my actual story!
Argh! But excellent job, Moonie! And hello all, yes, I’m up and caffeinating and going out the door in a few minutes …
A real-life “Oh, shiny…” moment. I ribbed him about hummingbirds all night.
