in this long thread, I mentioned Furries in a not so positive light.
My knowledge of Furries is based on an article in Vanity Fair. Surfing the net to find a link further cemeted this image in my head.
Phoenix Dragon tells me that there is more to Furries than this article suggests…that these Furries are not the norm.
so, someone fill me in.
Here is your chance to fight ignorance.
(Uncle Cec would be proud. :))
Believe it or not, this may be better suited to GQ.
I’ve heard the type of person you seem to be referring to in the linked thread as “plushies,” but maybe there’s a fine distinction I’m missing. Try searching GQ or IMHO for that term and see what you get.
Hope this helps.
The Anthrofurry Infocenter is a good place to start. Be sure to read the linked newspaper article. I could be considered a furry because of my collection of toon artwork but some people go as far as furry roleplaying, check out FurryMUCK for info on this.
There’s also a thread on that Vanity Fair article around here somewhere and I believe one of us said that the article did confuse furries with plushies.
I stand corrected, and I may be half-remembering that same thread. Thanks, Jeff Olsen!
Don’t ask me; I’m an ex-furry, now reformed.
I did a few slightly kinky things, though nothing worse than what happens in AOL chatrooms across the country every night. I started losing the taste for furrydom, though, after going to a few conventions and seeing what passed for normal among the rest of the community.
I’ve looked around the websites just a little bit but will look some more to see if I finally get it.
What the hell?
this is my reaction too.
but apparently there is more than meets the eye.
p.s.
e-mailed mod to move thread.
Man, I’m just not getting this, maybe I need to look around more. Do these people pretend to be animals, just like to draw them, or get turned on my them?
I’m so confused!
Diane, I found a good list of Definitions.
I thought that the plushie people had the weirdest fetish going, until I found out about folks with balloon fetishes. What the hell? I can almost understand getting off on nice, cuddly “fursuits”. But squeaking and popping balloons? That’s a little too foreign.
:eek: Thanks. I feel so naive!
To the first two, ‘yes’. (Not all furfen fall into either group but both have a strong showing, and there’s plenty of overlap.)
To the third…well…many, though by no means all furs are sexually attracted to humanoid anthropomorphs - think Bugs Bunny, but up the humanness of the body. We, as well as many furs who don’t share the fetish, or understanding non-furs tend to get a little peeved by people confusing or conflating this with bestiality - though I’ve gotten to the point of dispairing that anyone who doesn’t grasp the difference instinctively will ever understand.
(This is not meant as an insult to Diane, but I admit I might sound a little snarky - as I said, it’a a bit of a pet peeve. (Pardon the pun))
Also, no hijack intended but I found a link to a Balloon Fetish site.
[sup]Don’t worry, mods, there’s nothing there that would be considered pornographic by most standards.)[/sup]
The balloon people are divided in two categories, popping and non-popping, and they don’t get along very well. There’s even an offshoot of this, people who like plastic pool toys. For background on nearly all things fetish, check out Deviant Desires by Katharine Gates. I hear that the inflatophines (pool toy fethisists) are noticibly absent from this book.
There’s also those interested in body inflation.
I know I’m repeating what I said yesterday, but I -really- have to get back to the SDMB more than once every day. Would have contributed to the thread myself if I’d gotten here in time, but it looks like everyone else beat me too it 
Plushies? Furries? Furophiles? Haven’t these people ever heard of a good ol’ fashioned, shtup?
My familiarity with this subculture comes from an old friend of mine. She is a very (very) talented artist, and the only thing she really likes to draw is these “furry” characters. The best-known mainstream example of this style of art would be the characters in Disney’s animated Robin Hood, although as you may imagine a lot of the art produced in the furry community ain’t exactly G-rated. It ranges from standard comic book action-and-spandex stuff to graphic violence and pornography. I think the former (or the low-middle spectrum) is the most popular, but the latter category naturally attracts the most attention.
It is also the most profitable for an independent artist – a significant percentage of my friend’s income comes from selling “furry porn”. I’m sure it is a small percentage of the furry-fan community that really gets off on pictures of humanoid foxes doin’ it, but those who do are willing to pay well for pictures – after all, this isn’t something you can get at your local newsstand.
I don’t have any personal experience with people who dress up in furry costumes, but I’m sure it’s just like any other sort of roleplaying game. There are bound to be a few real sickos and pervs, but the majority of people involved are probably at worst geeky.
I have some absolutely shocking news for you. Actually, several pieces of shocking news.
“Furries” doesn’t necessarily involve anything sexual. I think we discussed that already though.
People with any sort of fetish are generally aware of the existance of vanilla sex. We aren’t interested in other things because we don’t know about ‘normal’ stuff. I don’t have an anime thing because I’ve never seen a real person naked, for example.
It’s not mutually exclusive anyway. Yes, I think quite a few animated characters are really hot. I think quite a few real people are really hot too. I’ve (gasp) had sex! With someone other than myself! It’s the same thing as if I assumed that since someone likes chocolate ice cream they can’t possible know about or have any interest in strawberry.