# Is the "Furry" fetish a product of Disney animal cartoons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2009, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211 "2009-07-25T10:32:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/41 "2009-07-29T21:03:08Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > To borrow **Silver Tyger Girl** as an example, I don’t recall ever seeing a roar or purr from her. She was talking all about her whiskers and her tail and whatnot in at least one thread. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/42 "2009-07-29T21:06:30Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Was _every_ gallery porn? Or was there non-porn as well? If there are people producing furry art that’s non-pornographic, that’s probably a fair indicator that there are people who are interested in furry art for non-sexual purposes. Not to mention that some artists are more apt to draw porn than others and some porn was undoubtedly created because the artist was paid for it. Sex sells. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/43 "2009-07-29T21:08:49Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > My point was that the reason people make fun of furries isn’t because of some negative image perpetuated by the media, but because of direct observations of the websites and the people themselves. This is something I’ve always wondered about. Furries contend that the sex stuff of furry-dom is the minority and that the obsessive “losers” are but a small portion of the community, but Dio’s right, that’s not how it comes across. If these undesirables are such a small number of the furry population, why do furries try so hard to include them? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/44 "2009-07-29T21:12:42Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The first random images I clicked on were furry porn. You obviously didn’t use the Deviant Art links; their porn is age-restricted. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/45 "2009-07-29T21:17:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > She was talking all about her whiskers and her tail and whatnot in at least one thread. You mean [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-480907.html), that I linked earlier? I don’t know about you but I’d say an “ask the furry” thread gets a pass. Point is, that behavior doesn’t permeate her posts. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/46 "2009-07-29T21:19:51Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > You obviously didn’t use the Deviant Art links; their porn is age-restricted. [This](http://ksapphire8989.deviantart.com/art/Windri-131356827) is on the page you linked to. This isn’t porn? In the thumbnail, I guess it looked more explicit at a glance than it looks full scale, but it’s still unquestionably intended to be an erotic image, as are the vast majority of furry art I’ve seen on the internet. If furrydom isn’t primarily a fetish or an erotic imge affinity, it sure as hell LOOKS that wya to outsiders, and that isn’t the media’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/47 "2009-07-29T21:22:26Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > [This](http://ksapphire8989.deviantart.com/art/Windri-131356827) is on the page you linked to. This isn’t porn? She’s dressed and showing a camel toe. Not age restricted = not porn. > [@](#): > > _If furrydom isn’t primarily a fetish or an erotic imge affinity, it sure as hell LOOKS that wya to outsiders, and that isn’t the media’s fault._ Oh? What if your initial introduction to furry-dom was that CSI episode? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/48 "2009-07-29T21:28:04Z")
In the thumbnail, I thought it was a vulva, but whther or not it’s technically “pornographic,” is it not pretty frankly sexual? Do you agree that the eroticized images are the majority of what outsiders are going to find in casual searches for furry art? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/49 "2009-07-29T21:31:40Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > In the thumbnail, I thought it was a vulva, but whther or not it’s technically “pornographic,” is it not pretty frankly sexual? Only to those turned on by a camel toe. > [@](#): > > Do you agree that the eroticized images are the majority of what outsiders are going to find in casual searches for furry art? Again: > [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > [T]he internet is for porn. Plug just about anything in Google Image Search with Safe Search off and you’ll get porn. It’s about the tags, not a comment on proportions. The absolute most popular furry image on Deviant Art? A giraffe in a scarf! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/50 "2009-07-29T21:38:58Z")
Say, wouldn’t having sex while wearing a furry costume present a serious danger of heatstroke? ---
**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:** [July 29, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/51 "2009-07-29T22:01:58Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I think otherwise. “Kinky” to me has weirder connotaions, but I guess its subjective. It’s not really all that subjective. A fetish, properly speaking, is a non-sexual object without which a person is unable to achieve sexual gratification, although in common parlance, it has a much wider definition. A kink is simply any sexual aspect that’s not mainstream. Fetish is unambiguously the stronger term. > [@](#): > > No, but it means that lesbianism is a _sexual_ oreientation. The sexual aspect is what defines it. It might not be _all_ of it, but it’s essential. You’ve managed to miss the point I was making by a very impressive margin. What I was trying to get at is, if you did an internet search for lesbian, the only data your going to get is how lesbians are presented on the internet, and not how they are in the real world. Let’s take it as given that a Google search on “furry” returns a preponderance of pornographic images. This doesn’t tell us anything about furries as a group. All it tell us about is furries on the internet. It’s entirely possible that the subset of furries who are into porn are disproportionately represented on the internet. And it’s not hard to hypothesize why this might be. The most obvious reason would be that, if you’re not interested in pornographic furry art, there are endless amounts of mainstream outlets for your interest, so there’s less need to create an internet presence specifically catering to that interest. If you want furry porn, there aren’t any mainstream sources for it, so a larger internet presence developed to meet this otherwise unfulfilled demand. > [@](#): > > I don’t know, I didn’t look at more than one page of images. So what if it’s not all porn? If not all pictures of lebians are pornographic, does that mean that lesbianism is not a sexual orientation? Well, one major difference is that if you ask any lesbian in the world to define “lesbian,” they’re all going to include a sexual component. If you ask any furry in the world to define furry, most of them are not going to include a sexual component, and insist that the interest is not inherently sexual in nature. I’m guessing that will hold true even for those who _do_ have a sexual interest in furries. That right there would be a pretty big indicator that it’s not necessarily a sex thing. Now, here’s an interesting contrast for you. If you asked people who are into bondage to define bondage for you, how many do you think would define it as a sexual interest? I’m guessing pretty much all of them. And I think the same would hold true for pretty much all non-mainstream sexual kinks. Why do you think that furries would be the exception? If furries are so clearly and absolutely a sexual fetish, why are so many so adamant in insisting the opposite? Smart money says it’s because they actually know what they’re talking about, having spent some significant amount of their time in the fandom, talking to other people in the fandom, going to furry-themed events, and so forth. Certainly, more time then is necessary to type “furry” into a Google search bar, which is the extent of your expertise on the subject. > [@](#): > > I don’t really see this as a meaningful difference. I still think it’s silly and childish, as I do with all role play. Can you justify that? What, specifically, about it is silly or childish? > [@](#): > > They choose their behavior. I’m not tripping cripples. If someone’s going to pretend to be a moose, and give himself a moose name, and talk about his antlers, I’m going to have a hard time not seeing them as ridiculous. Sorry. I’m not going to hurt any of them, or harass them or anything. They’re entitled to do as they please, but they’re not entitled to necessarily be taken seriously. Am I expected to read this as some sort of rebuttal? Great to know you aren’t out there kicking people’s ass for wearing bunny ears, but that’s not what I accused you of. I said you’re immature because you get your jollies making fun of people who are different from you. And I stand by that. A grown up doesn’t feel the need to put down people for having different interests than they do. That’s not a mature attitude. It’s the sort of thing you expect from a fourteen year old, not an adult. ---
**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:** [July 29, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/52 "2009-07-29T22:07:07Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > This is something I’ve always wondered about. Furries contend that the sex stuff of furry-dom is the minority and that the obsessive “losers” are but a small portion of the community, but Dio’s right, that’s not how it comes across. > > If these undesirables are such a small number of the furry population, why do furries try so hard to include them? I’m not sure that question makes sense. What do you mean by “including” them? If they’re calling the porn fans obsessive losers, and insisting that they’re a marginal portion of the fandom, that’s sounds pretty exclusionary to me. What else can they do? It’s not like there’s an International Board of Furry Authorization that can make the porn fans stop using the word. Some guy who likes pictures of Bugs Bunny fucking Daffy Duck wants to call himself a furry, what can you do about it? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/53 "2009-07-29T22:16:00Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It’s not really all that subjective. A fetish, properly speaking, is a non-sexual object without which a person is unable to achieve sexual gratification, although in common parlance, it has a much wider definition. A kink is simply any sexual aspect that’s not mainstream. Fetish is unambiguously the stronger term. I know the technical definition of “fetish,” and I disagree. I think “kinky” is the stronger term. > [@](#): > > You’ve managed to miss the point I was making by a very impressive margin. What I was trying to get at is, if you did an internet search for lesbian, the only data your going to get is how lesbians are presented on the internet, and not how they are in the real world. Except I would NOT be wrong in assuming that the definition was primarily sexual, so your comparison falls apart. > [@](#): > > Well, one major difference is that if you ask any lesbian in the world to define “lesbian,” they’re all going to include a sexual component. If you ask any furry in the world to define furry, most of them are not going to include a sexual component, and insist that the interest is not inherently sexual in nature. I’m guessing that will hold true even for those who _do_ have a sexual interest in furries. That right there would be a pretty big indicator that it’s not necessarily a sex thing. How do you know that “most” furries would not include a sexual component. Cite? I don’t believe that for a second. > [@](#): > > Now, here’s an interesting contrast for you. If you asked people who are into bondage to define bondage for you, how many do you think would define it as a sexual interest? I’m guessing pretty much all of them. And I think the same would hold true for pretty much all non-mainstream sexual kinks. Why do you think that furries would be the exception? If furries are so clearly and absolutely a sexual fetish, why are so many so adamant in insisting the opposite? I don’t believe they ARE an exception. I think most of them would cop to the sexual aspect, though maybe a small minority just have a juvenile fixation on role play with no sexual component…even for them, I don’t really believe there’s NO sexual component. > [@](#): > > Can you justify that? What, specifically, about it is silly or childish? The part where they like to make believe they’re furry animals. > [@](#): > > Am I expected to read this as some sort of rebuttal? You’re supposed to read it as a statement that I have a right to think they’re silly if I want to. I’m not harming or harassing them or impinging on their rights in any way, so who is anyone else to try to dictate what I have to think about them? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/54 "2009-07-29T22:21:16Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m not sure that question makes sense. What do you mean by “including” them? If they’re calling the porn fans obsessive losers, and insisting that they’re a marginal portion of the fandom, that’s sounds pretty exclusionary to me. Wait. I though calling people “losers” was immature. So it’s ok if you’re a furry, but not if you’re not?? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/55 "2009-07-29T22:21:42Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > This is something I’ve always wondered about. Furries contend that the sex stuff of furry-dom is the minority and that the obsessive “losers” are but a small portion of the community, but Dio’s right, that’s not how it comes across. > > If these undesirables are such a small number of the furry population, why do furries try so hard to include them? That’s sort of like asking why Star Wars geeks who actually like Jar Jar are still considered part of the fandom. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/56 "2009-07-29T22:22:56Z")
I’d like to see a cite that the fetishists are a minority. I flat don’t believe that. How could that even be measured? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/57 "2009-07-29T22:37:47Z")
Hey! I’m techincally a furry, and I’m perfectly… uh… never mind. But my weirdness has nothing to do with my animal-centricism. I don’t think. I’m obsessed with animals, and animal people, and my metaphorical self portrait was an [anthropomorphic blue cat](http://www.flickr.com/photos/9624983@N05/3769742203/). But I didn’t even know what a furry was until I saw **Silver Tyger Girl** ’s thread. I have no interest in having sex in fursuits. (I have no interest in having sex, period, but certaintly not in a giraffe costume). I don’t look at animal porn. I don’t hang out with some secret community of basement-dwelling animal people. So don’t go around dissing furries from what you’ve seen on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/58 "2009-07-29T22:40:16Z")
From [http://www.furryweekend.com/faq/miscellaneous](http://www.furryweekend.com/faq/miscellaneous) **Do I need a fursuit to attend?** No! It is a common misconception that everyone who attends an anthropomorphic or “furry” convention wears a fursuit. Only a small percentage of our attendees - somewhere between 10% and 15% - attend Furry Weekend Atlanta with a fursuit, and even fewer are in suit at any given time. Most attendees are just everyday people interested in anthropomorphics. * * * I’m not sure what you are looking for, or if anything we provide you will suffice. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/59 "2009-07-29T22:43:14Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > What I was trying to get at is, if you did an internet search for lesbian, the only data your going to get is how lesbians are presented on the internet, and not how they are in the real world. > > Let’s take it as given that a Google search on “furry” returns a preponderance of pornographic images. Quick sample from the first page of a Google Image Search: “furry”, two obviously nude female anthromorphs, one female anthromorphed clothed in–and attached to–bondage paraphernalia, one image of what appears to be a family of fursuiters, a woman dressed as her poodle, a female anthromorph kissing a male human, five more images of fursuiters, three images of not-nude catgirls, and one image of a pair of anthromorphs copulating. “lesbian”, 17 images of nude women, eleven of which depict obvious sexual contact, four images of clothed women in various poses, one image of two women kissing, and one image of [pebbles](http://www.ruthannrobson.com/wordpress/uploads/_images/lesbian-legal-theory-legacy.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211/60 "2009-07-29T22:44:41Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > So don’t go around dissing furries from what you’ve seen on TV. I haven’t seen anything about furries on TV. I don’t know where all this “media” coverage of furries is supposed to be. The only place I’ve seen it is on the internet. On second thought, I guess I did see that one episode of _Entourage_, but I’ve never thought of that show as remotely realistic about anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-furry-fetish-a-product-of-disney-animal-cartoons/504211.md?page=4)