Can Someone Please Explain the Appeal of "Furries" to Me?

[the_sage86]

Hey guys! Contrary to the snarky title, I'm actually curious to know more about the whole "Furry" genre.

A girl that I went to high school with was obsessed with furries ("they're not furries - they're anthromorphs!" was her catchphrase) and I never understood why.

Fast forward to today when I'm trying to break into pop culture writing. I'm about to play Dust for the first time and I have no idea where to learn more about this whole phenomenon.

Do you have any recommendations or suggestions for legitimate websites that I can visit to learn more? I'm not looking to become as involved as my friend was - I just need a place to start.

Thanks!

[jpc1918]

A very basic explanation
To put it in a nutshell:
We simply like the idea of anthropomorphic animals, as yusupov generalized some of us dress up in fursuits and...
It's like any other fandom with art, music, stories and animation
The community is friendly and accepting

Can't really suggest any sites without the danger of porn

Now i wouldn't mind if someone else gave a better one since i'm horrible at explaining things

[randomizer]

Can you explain the appeal of coffee? The reason why one person likes something may not in any way connect with you, and in fact may disgust you (eg. the flavour of coffee). I don't think you're going to gain much from this sort of question. You're asking people to justify their preferences, which rarely ends well.

Luckily you did this before the game goes on sale though. The furry hunters haven't arrived to make a mess yet.

[ReleaseTheKraken.exe]

It's not a "Furry genre" per-say.

If you wish to know where it started, I can't give you an absolute beginning, but many people now-a-days found their appeal in anthro styles and themes from old saturday morning cartoons that they watched when they were younger (but I believe the interest goes as far back as the 80s). Back in the day, cartoons with anthropomorphic characters were the norm. It even reached to the video game world with games like Jazz Jack Rabbit (which the creator of Dust actually had a hand in by the way).

The community is generally filled with nice people (a good amount of my friends are furries and some of the nicest people I know), but there are those who are part of the darker side which includes a lot of porn and fetishes which I'm sure you have heard of. And some people believe the sex is all that there is to it, which has a lot to do with the media's portrayal.

If you wish to know to basics, you can simply look up "Furries" in wikipedia which should lead you to some sources that you can continue your research with.

[the_sage86]

@yusupov: I don't know a whole lot of people like that but I also know that they're out there...

@jpc1918: That's a pretty awesome overview of what I needed to know. I appreciate your hesistance as far as suggesting websites is concerned. I don't want to stumble onto the darker side of the fandom although it is something that I might explore academically.

@randomizer: I've always had a hard time asking specific questions so I guess I'll need to drill down a little further. I like the "fandom as coffee" analogy. I know plenty of people with personal tastes that other people don't understand. Take my sister for example: she takes pictures of people's feet as a hobby. It's not because she has a foot fetish per se, but because she likes to do it.

@ReleaseTheKraken.exe: I never really knew that about the history of the genre but it does make sense. Every time I picture an 80's cartoon in my head there's always at least one anthropomorphized character in it. I'll be sure to check that Wikipedia page out and go from there.

Thanks for the info, guys!

[the_sage86]

@Ranstone: I never really thought about the fandom in that light. Ironically, I'm about two hours away from going to the library. Do you have any book recommendations so I don't have to troll Steam any more?

[MystMan]

awwww you making this topic makes you so innocent.

Walk away.

Some knowledge are better meant to remain unknown, you will see and read things that can never be unseen/unread. Dust is not a furry game whatsoever, you will enjoy it a lot. That's all you need to know.
Furry started out innocent, but the today's internet and pop culture have twisted it into a deviant thing. Kinda like how originally the Swastika was always a symbol of luck for centuries before you-know-who perverted it forever into a symbol of hate.

Walk away.

[jpc1918]

Originally posted by MystMan:

awwww you making this topic makes you so innocent. :tlove:

Walk away.

Some knowledge are better meant to remain unknown, you will see and read things that can never be unseen/unread. Dust is not a furry game whatsoever, you will enjoy it a lot. That's all you need to know.
Furry started out innocent, but the today's internet and pop culture have twisted it into a deviant thing. Kinda like how originally the Swastika was always a symbol of luck for centuries before you-know-who perverted it forever into a symbol of hate.

Walk away.

Meh Deviant Art is the safest you'll get
BTW isn't the nazi Swastika turned 45 degrees? the actual one isn't turned
Small differences my friend, they matter as there will always remain an innocent side to the fandom (maybe nudity but it's just artistic nudity not porn)

But i agree Dust is simply a game that happens to have anthropomorphic animals as it's characters

[Trehek]

You ask what the appeal is, but I ask what the hell is wrong with them? When I was little they were commonplace. They were animated characters same as any other, without any real distinction in our minds. There were human characters and there were animal characters. Then the Internet rises and this furry porn element appears and suddenly everyone's like "yeah I hate ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ furries". It's like suddenly it's not cool to like these kind of characters anymore because they're "furries". Pretty funny if you ask me!

[.//slayer]

I remember watching a lot of cartoons with animals as characters in my childhood, the most notable of which probably was Redwall. Damn, those were fun times and thrilling adventures. Playing games like Dust lets me experience the taste of my youth yet again, remembering all those glorious sunny days, only this time I actually control one of the little furry heroes!

Altho it wouldn't make that much of a difference to me if the characters were human, as long as the game mechanics is good.

[Trehek]

Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny, for crying out loud! Nobody complains about them! (except that Bugs should wear pants, which is an equally silly complaint than this whole furry business)

[Itharius]

People get obsessive about things, and it becomes a lifestyle for them. Being a furry isn't entirely a sex thing, but furries will incorporate their lifestyle into their sexuality. Often times people just see the furry porn and think furries are all sick perverts. They selectively ignore all the SFW things that furries do, like art conventions and roleplay.

Look at other fandoms like Trekkies, Harry Potter fandom, MLP fandom, Kill La Kill and other anime fandoms - the list goes on and on. Same deal as furries. Some people just really get off to the idea of being a Klingon or having cutie marks. Other people get off to the idea of anthropomorphism.

Furry fandom isn't necessarily the same as zoophilia because anthropomorphism is the transformation of the human body into something with animal like features, while zoophilia is the attraction to actual animals. Some furries will border on zoophilia by experimenting with "feral" transformations and the like, but most don't. However, if you look at furry fandom, there's actually a ton of deviant sexuality, and an inproportionately high plurality of furries are LGBTI - I think it's in large part because the fantasy of anthropomorphism opens the door to broader and less constricted views on sexuality and sexual experimentation. It's actually really interesting from a sociological perspective, and something absolutely no one in academia touches because of taboos.

There's tons of stuff out there written about Trekkies though, because they've been around since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

[Itharius]

Originally posted by MystMan:

Walk away.

No need to walk away. Things can be understood if people learn to speak about them in a clear and comprehensive way. The only thing holding back understanding at that point are the biases and misconceptions of the listener.

[jpc1918]

*shivers*
Please no feral porn...
I do like the art

That aside:
I'd be surprised if someone actually explained it any better while keeping it simple

[erierii]

Nothing particularly harmful with mild obsessions over characters with furry ears and tails - I think some people just equate it with "adorable/cute/etc." Being able to hear and perceive things like animals do probably is another reason why some people are interested. I suppose werewolf fandom can be another variation of it?

Now...for the creepy stuff...you'd have to visit a furry convention for that methinks. Guuuh.

[PorcelainUnicorns]

I'd hesitate to recommend anything. The closest thing I can think of is WikiFur but I haven't looked at it much and I'm pretty sure you'd have to be careful what you clicked. But then again, the same applies on Wikipedia.

I personally would like to throw the fur-haters out of a window. Not a furfan myself but honestly its just as bigoted as hating on LGBTIA. Most of it is just another identity, either sexual or non. Some people feel wrong in their own skin, which sometimes takes a religious view, some believing they were reincarnated or born in the wrong body.