Even though the cartoon aspect doesn’t appeal to me and I have no compelling interest to identify as an anthropomorphic animal, and furrydom as it exists on the internet has no appeal whatsoever to me. I can recognize its link to the universal animal totem religions and resulting rituals and dances of many indigenous peoples since time immemorial. I believe it is mankind’s way of identyfying with and respecting the animals that we have dominated, bringing us together and realizing our non-seperation from the animal world. A type of psychological or psychic completeness- Instead of lording over animals we recognize we are in fact animals and try to adopt their best features in admiration and respect.
Are Shaolin Kung Fu Masters of the five animal forms Furries? I honestly don’t know…
Cat, I’m a kitty-cat, and I dance, dance dance, and I…
Oh, never mind. >_>
But…yeah…cat. Well…cats, since I have several personae I take on at various times, ranging from a physically normal house cat (albeit with human intelligence), to his more anthropomorphic form (he shifts back and forth pretty randomly as the mood hits me), to an anime-style catgirl - who again has an occasional tendency to get moved through the anthropomorphism ladder, mostly by others, though. She only goes fully feline if treated as such by others…whether she’s fully furred, or just a nekomimi can be a matter of my mood.
Not a lifestyler, not a suiter. Fan (and sometimes producer) of art and literature, and role-player.
I kinda…fell into it. I’ve always been interested in the concept, and even without knowledge of a semi-organized fandom, I’d have still read, watched, written, drawn, and RP’d anthro characters.
Not really…I have a circle of friends, some of whom are more active in the wider fandom than me, but I’m happy just hanging with them.
Not sure what this question means. >_>
Some do, some don’t. Furry fandom is far from monolithic, but a certain segment has a lot of contempt for ‘humans in animal suits’ which the catgirl (or other kemonomimi types) would be taken as the ultimate example of.
The ones that do…Are why I don’t get too involved with organized fandom.
Hardly. Do you have to have sex in a stormtrooper outfit to be counted a Star Wars fan? No, but if you own every edition of Star Wars there is, your reading collection consists primarily of Star Wars novels, you enjoy writing your own fiction set in the universe, and you have long conversations with your friends about Star Wars, you may be safely said to be a fan.
Similarly, if your reading and movie collections consist primarily of stuff involving anthropomorphic animals, you like to talk about anthros, and you otherwise spend a significant amount of leisure time on the concept, you may be safely said to be a furry.
Don’t work the excluded middle fallacy. I don’t believe anyone’s pointing and saying “You liked Robin Hood! You’re a furry!” However, if that’s your favorite movie of all time, if you talk about how it’d be cool to be a fox, if of all the movies coming out this summer, you were most excited about Kung Fu Panda, and so on and so forth, it goes rather beyond merely ‘liking’ something, doesn’t it?
What, exactly, is your basis for deciding that every person who calls themselves a furry is doing it out of sexual interest? Have you extensively interviewed furries? Gone to a convention? Do you at least know a couple? Because right here we have self-described furries saying that it is not a part of their sexuality. For some people it is, but not for everyone. Nobody’s saying that, “We’re all furries at heart!” anymore than they’re trying to claim that everyone who watches Star Trek is a Trekkie. Don’t let the shades of gray scare you.
ETA: I’m not a furry, but I’m friends with a couple, and I enjoy interacting with people who are in their animal personas. I got to pet and play with a kitty once, and it was a lot of fun.
I like to think of my brain as pliable, but it won’t wrap around it either. As a kid, I was into birds: liked to pretend I could talk to them, change into one, whatever. Great fun, but I moved on to other things around age seven or so. If it were still “totemic” in my life at my age, I think I’d beg to be euthanized.
Like levdrakon, I also think the sexual-fetish angle is downplayed—despite the bleats, bellows, gibbers, and roars of self-professed furries and their homo sapiens sympathizers.
I didn’t say they’re doing it out of sexual interest, I said it’s a fetish, which doesn’t have to be sexual.
I guess I’m still confused. Maybe I like action movies. I don’t walk around wearing a Bruce Willis mask. If I did, that would be a fetish lifestyle choice type thing. But, having made that choice, I wouldn’t feel like telling other people they are basically like me because they like action movies.
Again, nobody has done that. At best I’ve said that nobody bats an eye at mainstream movies and cartoons, even though they’re part of the ‘furry’ genre too. It’s not considered ‘weird’, so it can’t be part of the fandom.
I think if you don’t ‘get’ furries, you don’t really get geeks in general. It’s just that furries are far enough out of the mainstream to be a target.
All but F are, unless F only enjoys movies with animals in them - but you specified funny and cartoons with that as well. Well, and D is kinda iffy. If Deedee is just doing it for the hell of it, like one week she’s a goth, one week a sloth, and the next week a Catholic schoolgirl, no. If she puts herself in the middle of the furry community on SL, then she is likely a furry.
No, unless you were actually cosplaying, say, Felicia, and feel like doing more furry cosplays in the future (key word being furries, not just because you like the character).
If you just wore cat ears and a collar for your ‘cosplay’, then you are a weeaboo. But that’s beyond the scope of this discussion.
Maybe what it comes down to for me is, I don’t have to accept furries because deep down, I am one. No. I watched cartoons when I was a kid and had stuffed animals, but you don’t have to convince me “there’s a little bit of you in me.”
I’m a “be it harm none” kind of person so you don’t need to rationalize what you are to me. As long as you aren’t forming murder-gangs, I don’t care what you are.
Honestly, if my friend wants to walk around with Spock ears on, I’m not going to accept of reject him because his rationale was “you like Star Trek.”
Really, all anyone’s saying is that there’s a spectrum from you (a hypothetical liker of Disney animal movies) and furries, same as there’s a spectrum from you and the hypothetical guy who walks around in a Willis mask. Same as there’s a spectrum from someone who likes a firm smack on the ass once in a while to, say, Evil Captor
The intent is not to compare normal people to people who have orgies in fursuits, but to point out that the average person who considers themself a “furry” is likely closer to you than they are to the fursuit-sex–no offense to the OP is intended when I say there’s a massive overlap in furries and asexuals that I know, mostly because cartoony animals don’t have sex in this culture and it’s a very comfortable zone for someone who’s at all interested in it.
As for it being a “fetish”, what’s the line between a fetish and a hobby and an interest? Bruce Willis mask to “I own every Bruce Willis flick” to “Who? Oh, yeah, he was in Die Hard.”
Unfortunately, many people hear the word “fetish” and assume that you (the general “you”, not you specifically) mean a sexual fetish. When you (see previous note) use it when referring to furries, who are often painted with the brush of being sexual weirdos, they are likely to assume that you are using it in that manner. Perhaps if more people commonly used the word fetish in a non-sexual manner this would not be a problem.
To address your actual question, I don’t remember anyone claiming that everyone who watches, or even likes, movies with animated animals in them is a furry. Yes, that is one subset of furry fandom, but I know a few furries who aren’t into that particular thing. I happen to like them, but I don’t see it as an aspect of my furriness because that isn’t what attracts me to furry fandom. When I go to conventions I admire the fursuiters because of the amount of work that they out into them, but it’s not something I want to get into (well, there was that one woman in a skintight leopard outfit …).
In my book, it does. Of course, in my book, practically everyone’s furry to some degree. I grew up on Bughs Bunny and Mickey Mouse. I still think Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge comics are some of the brest ever made. From what I’ve seen at conventions, to a lot of people “furry” means no more than liking “funny animal” art and stories. And heck, we’re brought up on those, and you can trace the damned things back to ancient Egypt. From there it’s a long, multidimensional spectrum to other aspects – including the people who like to draw “sexy” animals and those who put gentialia on them, and those who write furry porn of varying shades. But the folks who identify with these creatures, or dress up like them are a pretty extreme subset way off on one end of that spectrum, despite the fact that people seem to automatically think of them when the term “furry” is mentioned.
