I just said they were more human towards each other.
I didn’t think that being more human towards each other would draw this much fire.
Also from the Antrhocon article: “Ryone Caru, 19, of Jacksonville, Fla. … said he was once fired from a McDonald’s restaurant because management found out he was a furry and misinterpreted it as a sexual fetish. Mr. Caru and others prowling the Westin Convention Center hotel yesterday stressed that the fandom isn’t about sex – it’s just about people who are devoted to animals with human characteristics, in a cartoonish way.”
I’d be curious to hear management’s explanation for this claim.
Thank you, furries in this thread. I thought furries all dressed up and drew furry art as part of a sexual fetish (I knew a guy in college who did like to draw clearly-sexual furry art). I was afraid to Google about furries if it was a sexual fetish, so thanks for setting me straight.
Interestingly enough, now I know that I accidentally explained furries accurately to my mother-in-law not too long ago. Somehow they came up in conversation, and she asked me what they were. I said they were people who liked to dress up in animal costumes, but didn’t mention anything about sex (I think I might literally die of embarrassment if I discussed that with my mother-in-law).
If they are, they have that in common with lots of other groups of humans. Dividing the world into “us” and “them” and being nicer to fellow members of “us” seems to be a very common human trait.
Glad to help.
Again, I felt that I had to put in my two cents worth in here, to separate the community at large, from the very, very few that do partake in those activities. I do not own a fursuit, much less use a fursuit in those ways.
Same here.
I personally belong to the larger anthrofan population as opposed to those who have an animalistic alter-ego but have known some who do.
What does that even mean?
you didn’t think claiming that your fan group is morally superior to all other humans would draw fire?
If you don’t know what it means to be human, then I can’t help you. It wouldn’t surprise me, given how you constantly attack me here.
Humane might make sense. Human just means, to me, different from animals. (Ironic, because of the furry thing?) You can be incredibly cruel to someone and still be human. Humans are known for some terrible acts.
Ok, so this perhaps was a bit harsh here.
I’m honestly not sure I can add much more to this conversation.
Constantly attack you? I don’t remember ever speaking to you before this thread.
I want to know what it means to be “more” or “less” human to somebody? Do you more humane? More compassionate? Do you seriously believe that your own little fan culture is more ethically evolved than all other humans on earth?
When’s the last time you saw a suicide bomber dressed as an animal? 
At PETA’s [del]chicken[/del] land sea kitten of the sea rally.
Going well out of your way to call a harmless group of people “maladapted losers” at a time and place at which members of that group will undoubtedly congregate **is **harassment. You must have known exactly the type of response you’d get, too. I can’t think of a single flattering reason you’d want to get into a fight with a bunch of people minding their own business.
If you honestly can’t see why claiming that members of your subculture are not human, but are in fact better than humans, would contribute to others having a bad image of this subculture then I don’t know that there’s anything I can do to help you with it.
shrugs I’m asexual (probably). To be honest, the idea of having anyone stick anything inside my bodily orifices squicks me out. I dunno how normal kids make the transition from “The opposite sex has cooties” to “The opposite sex is attractive”, but it just didn’t happen to me.
But, anyway, back to your regularly scheduled Furries.
He did the same thing in the other thread(s) about furries. I had tried to interact with him as if he were capable of reasoned debate then, but finally gave up after realizing that his mind was already made up and he didn’t want to confuse it with facts.
And not all furries dress up as animals, either. (For one thing, it can get expensive.) There are a lot of different types of furry fans.
Please show me where I said that I wasn’t Human. Please show me where I said that we were “better” than humans.
Did I state that in the [implied] context of Furries, that I was a Raccoon? Yes.
Did I state that Furries have a set of qualities that overall, in my experieince, leaves them better off than Non-Furries, in general, in my experience? Yes.
The OP implied that Furries were one thing. We are many things. The vast majority of us do not Yiff in fursuits. Further the OP had assumptions in it that were wrong. I was offering input on how the assumptions were incorrect.
It is clear to me that there is no moving some people off of their false assumptions.
Perhaps, the problem with assumptions is on me. I thought that Straight Dope memebers wanted to over come ignorance, and would welcome education on a given matter.
I reasoned further, that if people took the time to comment on a thread, they were at the very least, open to reading differing opinions.
The conclusion, therefore, was that I could educate everyone about what Furry really means.
However, I have nothing more to offer. Frankly, there is something going here beyond the Original Question. There is something going on here beyond what “Furry” means. Other people are doing far better jobs on it than I am.
I have informed a few people about the truth of Furries. For that, I am glad. That was after all, why I felt the need to comment here.
The other people can get the answers they want from other memebers, or the Internet at large.
I am done here.
–
To answer the original question:
NO. Disney does not have the Exclusive rights to converting people into becoming Furry. (If there was such a process, I would love to see it. I highly doubt it can exist.)
NO. Furry and Fetish are not the same thing.
Yes. A LOT of Furries do not have relations in costumes.
Yes. We are a LOT more complex than that, and we can not be boxed in, in terms of definitions.
I’ll admit, I’ve daydreamed about dressing up in a realistic cat costume.
Then I realized that no costume would be realistic enough to make me feel like a cat. I don’t want to be some fursuited weirdo. What I really want is to be as graceful as a cat. If there was some magic shapeshifting pill that would turn me into a cat for a few hours, I’d totally take it. But that’s not going to happen, and wearing pointy ears isn’t going to do anything for me.
This is exactly what makes you sound deluded and arrogant.