# Ask the ex-Furry (please don't spit on me) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 26, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351 "2006-04-26T20:00:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/21 "2006-04-26T21:30:52Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Did furries even exist before the internet? Grissom from CSI likes to think that they are the modern version of animal-totem worshippers. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/22 "2006-04-26T21:34:44Z")
> [@ronincyberpunk](#): > > You know, when I was in high school I was into a lot of RP online. One excursion when my normal realms of roleplay were quiet, I went looking elsewhere and stumbled across Furcadia. > > Furcadia might be called the first MMORPG, or one of the first. In terms of MMO, it is extremely dated - but it lives on. It’s a chat environment with furry avatars and such. That was my first introduction to the furry world. I never delved much further than that, though I ended up learning just all the weird fetishes they had. Heh. Wow. I originally opened this thread because I’ve got some friends who are furries… the creators of that game. I’m renting my house to one of 'em. To be fair, I don’t _know_ that they’re furries. I’ve always been kind of afraid to ask- 'cause they might tell me. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/23 "2006-04-26T21:37:42Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > That’d be the scat, Bob. I said I _didn’t_ want to know. ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/24 "2006-04-26T21:49:04Z")
Oh, yeah. I’m _still_ churning through Usenet, at a rate of about 50-100 groups per day (I throw away any group that’s pure spam for over 250 posts). I just started rec.\*. I have much love for **Smeghead** ’s Nerd Chart. I also know the people who run Furcadia, though I don’t talk to them as much as I used to. Great people, overall. Small world, huh? Inflation porn is… well, basically treating people like balloons. I have no idea. Furries did indeed exist before the Internet (at least before the Internet was common), mostly in APAs (Amateur Press Associations - like fanzines but with limited circulation) and fanzines. Some of the longer-running fanzines have been going since the mid-to-early 80s, and the term first came up (as a subgenre of fantasy art) sometime in the 70s. I know a few people who have been fans longer than I’ve been alive. > [@](#): > > Anyway, I’m interested in how you got involved with furries in the first place, what attracted you to them, and why you left. Also, you said, “Mostly I’m better now.” Did/do you feel that there was something unhealthy about being a furry? I explained the Usenet thing earlier. I can’t really explain why I found the idea attractive, though there’s definitely something to be said for feral charm and patterned skin. The patterns really accent anatomy well. I think there might be the tactile idea of thick, soft fur, but I think about spitting hairs all over the place and it just disturbs me now. Ultimately most furry art is a human body with slightly fuzzy edges, a tail, and a pronouncedly animal-influenced face. I don’t think there’s anything unhealthy about furry, per se, though furry _fandom_ is a slightly different case. It’s healthy under certain circumstances, but profoundly and subtly bad for you in others. I left because I decided I needed to keep growing as a person, and I felt it was getting in the way. Basically, I grew up, threw away the training wheels, and started playing with the big kids. I will elaborate more later. It’s going to be a long-winded post. > [@](#): > > do you still consider yourself a fan at all? I still get up early some Saturdays to watch Looney Tunes reruns. That’s as close as I get, really. If anything I’m consuming deeply negative amounts of furry material; I’m actually in the process of liquidating large chunks of my collection (and turning a tidy profit, incidentally). I have a job fair I need to get to; back later. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/25 "2006-04-26T21:49:04Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Did furries even exist before the internet? Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Pink Panther, Furs all. In antiquity, Aesop had his Fables starring animals with human attributes. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/26 "2006-04-26T21:50:17Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Did furries even exist before the internet? Hell yes. The term was coined in the 80s (way before my time, so I can’t really give an exactish time-frame), and the fandom existed in various forms well before that. This chronology puts the first truly organised furry/funny animal fan group forming (rather organically, the way it’s described here) group in 1983. It doesn’t mention just when the term ‘furry’ was coined, but the way it uses the term, it’s pre-1986. And, even before there was anything resembling an organized fandom, there were plenty of people who had a particular fascination with anthros - particularly the ‘funny animals’ that most strongly influence and inform modern furridom. (FTR, I don’t suit, I enjoy any anthro art that registers as ‘good’ to my particular aesthetic sense, be it yiffy, serious, cute, or whatever, and I have a handful of fur characters I RP - an Anime-style catgirl, a Funny Animal style cat (male), and a couple lycanthropes and other shapechangers (of both sexes). None of them tend to be used in sexual RP.) Also…ignore that CSI episode…it’s truly ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/27 "2006-04-26T22:09:20Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Did furries even exist before the internet? I seem to remember reading native American Legends about animals that act much like humans. Coyote was always a big one. And surely the minotaur counts for something. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/28 "2006-04-26T22:23:33Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > And surely the minotaur counts for something. Especially when you consider that the minotaur was born when Poseidon caused a king’s wife to fall in love with a steer… ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/29 "2006-04-26T23:15:46Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Especially when you consider that the minotaur was born when Poseidon caused a king’s wife to fall in love with a steer… _snerk_ Agreed. The CSI episode is silly. I return, by the way, though I’m not sure I’m quite up to trying for “How Fandom can be Bad For You”. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/30 "2006-04-26T23:42:34Z")
Does ODOR free really work? ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/31 "2006-04-26T23:50:36Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Does ODOR free really work? No clue. I shower daily and never owned pets except for some tropical fish. The con I went to has a requirement in the registration agreement that you bathe; if someone complains, staff reserves the right to herd the offender into a shower. It’s pretty funk-free. ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/32 "2006-04-27T00:22:23Z")
What do most furries think of Other Kin? Are there any sane, normal furries? Is the furry community pretty open to these other kinks within furrydom (like pedophilia, scat, etc). Based on the websites I’ve seen, furries tend to be more into gender-bending and bisexuality than the average population. Have you noticed this as well? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/33 "2006-04-27T00:26:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Did furries even exist before the internet? I first encountered them at science ficion conventions in the 1980s. I’m sure it’s older than that. A lot of things we think of as Internet Stuff actually existed in the form of 'zines and privately circulated stuff. Have a look at the book **High Weirdness by Mail** , or old issues of a 'zine alled **Factsheet Five** , or others like it. For the price f a stamped, self-addressed envelope you could be admitted to the worlds of someone else’s obsesion, hobby, fantasy, or fetish. When the Internet came along, this stuff grew wings. Instead of waiting for the return of that envelope, you can now hav it instantly. A lot of the stuff from HWbM is now on the 'Net. I don’t know for a fact that furry stuff was i this mix, but I don’t doubt it. I’ve seen furry comics an stuff that go back that far. ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/34 "2006-04-27T01:23:00Z")
> [@kimera](#): > > What do most furries think of Other Kin? Depending on degree, they range from OK up through really bizarre. If you have a totem animal you strongly identify with, that’s OK. If you think you were a \ in past lives, some people will think you’re a bit batty, some people will think it’s OK. I notice that people identify with “powerful” animals a lot - tigers and wolves are very popular, as are ravens, horses, and the like. You don’t see many dust mites or tapeworms. The guy who thinks he _really_ is a dragon… pretty much everyone thinks he’s a kook. > [@](#): > > Are there any sane, normal furries? Yeah! Well, as sane as any other fan in any other fandom, I guess. They just have a very high whackjob population, and they don’t have the sense to shut up. > [@](#): > > Is the furry community pretty open to these other kinks within furrydom (like pedophilia, scat, etc). Mmm… this is a good question. It’s very political, to a degree I haven’t seen anywhere else. The tempers are high because the stakes are small, I suppose. There is a large-ish contingent of the furry community that thinks that the sex-furries are _all_ unacceptably crazy. The more deviant fetishes go through varying degrees: Infantilism, for example, raised some eyebrows but isn’t condemned, while there are intermittent bouts of outrage over the CubCentral crew (pedophile-furry art). For the most part, the attitude seems to be “Well… it’s not my kink, but… whatever.” There’s a very strong fortress mentality going; it’s better to be unified than to break down through infighting, because the outside world is Hostile. Most artists will have general rules about what they won’t do, usually “No blood, no cubs, no bathroom play, no hyperdevelopment”, but the ones who outright condemn things earn a little controversy for it. The ones who accept really out-there work often get known for it, since the people into those will mob their commission queues. One artist I know was pretty good, but made probably twice what he would have otherwise, because he was perfectly willing to deal with the shreddies. Fetishes need to be fed, I guess. Interestingly, copyright infringement is a much bigger sin than controversial art. Seriously. I don’t know anyone who takes their copyright infringements harder than furry. I got offered a $300 bounty for finding an infringer once (it was easy, but I never got paid). The sheer amount of Drama that can be spilled over one half-assed artist ripping off another has to be seen to be belived; the amount over a large-scale infringer is the stuff of legends. > [@](#): > > Based on the websites I’ve seen, furries tend to be more into gender-bending and bisexuality than the average population. Have you noticed this as well? Oh, definitely. As I mentioned in the other thread, for the first few years in there, I knew more MTF-trans people than bio-females. Most RPers seem to play across genders at least once (I knew one man playing a lesbian skunk who had a note in his RP-prefs that he didn’t want to deal with cross-gender RPers, which blew the irony meter at the time). The bisexual thing is complicated, though I think the short answer is yes. It depends on how you define it. A lot of the RPers I know have gone both ways at various times (it might even be a majority), and a lot of people collect art in different gender-pairings. I’m not sure how it goes in real life. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/35 "2006-04-27T01:29:46Z")
I keep instinctively wanting to turn to the glossary at the end of the book. ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/36 "2006-04-27T01:49:01Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > I keep instinctively wanting to turn to the glossary at the end of the book. What can I help you with? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/37 "2006-04-27T01:56:09Z")
> [@MrJackboots](#): > > What can I help you with? “inflation porn” “shreddies” 😕 ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/38 "2006-04-27T02:05:59Z")
Inflation porn revolves around the idea that a body (yours or your partners) can be pumped up like a balloon, either with air or with a fluid of some sort. Extreme inflation people like to fantasize about pumping to the point of bursting. Shreddies are vore people (people who get off on the idea of eating or being eaten by their partners) who are into the rip-tear-bleed idea, as opposed to swallowing or being swallowed whole. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/39 "2006-04-27T02:27:47Z")
> [@](#): > > What can I help you with? What’s a furry? I thought I knew, but now I’m not so sure. What’s an anthrofan? ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351/40 "2006-04-27T02:42:02Z")
Wikifur, the wikipedia for furries has a section on what it means to be [furry](http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/Furry). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-ex-furry-please-dont-spit-on-me/354351.md?page=3)