This has nothing to do with zoophilia. It’s not even furry yet. Zoophilia is about non-human animals and furry would be humanized animals (2 legged but fur all over).

Here is a chart for reference:

But real thoughts: i get what you mean, but not its no inherently sexual. People with animal features (tail and ears) are quite common these days. But also digital art from all cultures is way more accessible then it ever was. First there was no internet, today we even have generative ai. So your chance to be exposed to some aesthetics is more common.

Now i am going try to describe what i think this aesthetic is. Split up in 3 parts.

1: humanoid with “animal features”, these have exists since the ancient ages. Evyptian and celtic gods may ring a bell. But those depictions aren’t comparable

2: Japanese culture, Japanese have an obsession for cute. Moe anime/manga is characterized by an exaggeration of visual and paychol “kawaaii”, huge eyes for example. Doesn’t take a genius artist to look at a cute cat and a cute girl and mush them together. I find the psychological effect in Japanese media often plays a larger role then realism. I am just assuming but it explains much of the weirdness.

3: the internet is for porn, but not everyone is fucking their stepsibling. Every aesthetic can be made either sexual and not sexual. On the internet you will find both, but not in equal ammounts.

I also find that a while ago furry culture was a bad word and many would want to avoid everything that might relate to it. But these days there is more understanding of that every culture consists of people, for better or worse, sexual and not.

First: What the fuck dude? How the hell did you get from anime girls with cat ears, to bestiality?

Second: Look up the term “kemonomimi”. It basically just refers to characters with some animal features. Most commonly ears. It’s just something I think is cute, and neat. For something I find hot, you might look to !fitmoe@lemmy.world or !cybermoe@ani.social.

My primary goal with all of the “moe” communities though, is to show off fantastic charachter art, if the art also happens to be mildly arousing to me or others… Cool.

“Moe”, is a japanese term that refers to an intense feeling of affection/attachment/attraction towards something cute. Most commonly characters in manga/anime. It does not need to be sexual at all, but it can be.

And though I may allow arousing imagery, it’s not the point. The moe communities are not in any way intended to serve as actual fap material.

I’m using the term like a tag to pull together these communities I’ve set up for posting character art, and unlike the corresponding subreddits, I’ve not restricted their rules to just female characters. Though thats primarily what I post myself.