There’s a lot of anti-furry sentiment here comparing it to beastiality and zoophilia which is nothing new, but it’s too early in the morning for this.
To all those arguing this: You do not understand what being a furry is.
The furry community is firmly against fucking real animals as they obviously cannot consent. Any sex that happens in the community is among consenting adults. It isn’t a “stepping stone” to fucking animals either. The community has worked hard to expel zoophiles (people actually fucking animals) and Nazis (different tangent but also interesting).
The sensory experience of fur (or scales or feathers) is nice, and wondering what having a tail or multiple appendages would be like is fun, but some people have a problem with it when adults want to enjoy that with other adults.
This video is the best explanation I’ve encountered on the topic and has way more information than what I can put in a comment. NSFW and there’s a lot of sex jokes strung throughout.
https://youtu.be/ws9g3igw51s?si=pcILDYodPTi-0ZuU
TL; DW: There is a common experience of being dehumanized which the LGBT+ community experiences as well as those who are autistic which is one of many reasons both groups are drawn to the community. Animal comparisons are a good way of contextualizing how you would like to be interacted with. Furry is nothing new, and we have plenty of depictions of gods seducing people as animals because of the juxtaposition of power dynamics, divinity, humanity, masc, and fem.
I credit the fediverse, specifically Mastodon with ahem “humanizing” furries for me. I never had any exposure to them outside of memes and jokes before that. Now they are just members of another harmless subculture to me. Furries (and trans peeps!) also seem to be overrepresented in the fediverse and infosec communities, so respect and thanks to all the rad furries out there!
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I combine them. Gimme a bright, rainbow colored dog suit.
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The anti-furry dogwhistle is overwhelmingly used for anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments. The furry community is almost fully LGBTQ+ (80%+), and the idea that the LGBTQ+ community would be at odds with them shows that you are really misunderstanding the point of the rainbow flag. As the OP meme notes, furries have part of the LGBTQ+ community for a very long time and if you think this is some new phenomenon I really wonder what you’re doing trying to speak for us.
As far as I know being a furry isn’t about sexual attraction to animals, that’s a misunderstanding on your part I’m pretty sure.
Pretty much. Generally speaking furries are fans of anthropomorphic characters, which inherently require a human component.
A lot of the hate the furry fandom gets is carryover from it being a very LGBT positive space in the early days of the internet, when that was a significantly less popular opinion to have. This led to a lot of false rumors (and one really inaccurate csi episode) getting spread around.
This video does a decent dive into the history of the whole thing. Basically it started from larger animation studios wanting to censor artists, leading to a bunch of artists getting together and putting all their weird stuff in one place.
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Thank you! Someone finally said it
People who don’t think furrys are sexual haven’t accidentally been invited to a furry party in San Francisco like I have. Trust me, they are pretending to be dogs fucking, and it crosses the beastiality line.
Furrys are not a part of the LGBTQI+ community.
They may not be part of your LGBTQ+ community, but there’s a large percentage of furries that are LGBTQ+, so they’re mostly a part of the same overall communities, with, or without their fursuit on.
Honestly, I didn’t think there would be this much judgement from members of a community that should know how important inclusion is.
It’s fine to not be a furry, it’s fine to not want anything to do with furries. This is in the same way that has been yelled at the cisnormatives for a long time. It’s okay to be straight, gay, lesbian, queer, trans, bi, (etc), and it’s only to not be a part of that as well. Straight people are supporters of LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms, while not being LGBTQ+. I would think that someone who had to fight and struggle with being accepted by society, and in many ways is still shunned and ostracised by some communities, would understand that different isn’t bad, and you can support people in their freedom to express themselves, without feeling the need to express yourself in the same manner. That different isn’t bad, it’s just different.
I’m disappointed right now. Holy heck.
I’m not a furry, and I have no sexual interest in anything that looks like an animal or anthropomorphic animal looking things either, but if that’s what they like and enjoy, then fine. As long as they’re not going out and engaging in actual bestiality, who cares? (They’re not, btw)
Your judgmentalism is showing.
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You’re close but coming in from an odd angle. The furry fandom is foremost extremely accepting, especially of people considered minorities or “weird” by normal society (LGBTQ+/autism/anything “cringe”). Putting on a fursuit or a furry avatar online and being able to pseudo-anonymously show the true parts of yourself is very liberating to those that don’t feel safe being themselves IRL. As an example, I’ve seen many trans people first switch the gender of their fursona to see how it feels to present as their preferred gender, and how it feels to be acknowledged by others as the person they are inside. I won’t say having a fursona is a mandatory part of being in the furry fandom (there are basically no rules on being included), but for many people that have one a fursona is often an idealized version of themselves and who they wish they could be IRL. So yes the furry fandom is often pivotal in a person’s “stages of acceptance”, but it has nothing to do with any kind of internalized “masking” and everything to do with the fandom’s external supportive community helping them become more comfortable with who they’ve always been.
I’m with you here. For some it may be a transitional “phase” of getting to know yourself privately in the company of others.
I’m sure there’s plenty of other reasons to put on a fursuit or fursona, most of which we wouldn’t know about, and would vary on an individual basis. The fact remains that furries shouldn’t be excluded because of a minority having some inane thought that they’re somehow promoting bestiality. IMO, that’s as wrong as saying all trans women just want to get into the ladies washroom for reasons.
This community should well know what it’s like to be ostracised, so I would have a hard time believing that the LGBTQ+ community would reject furries because of a few people who have unfounded hangups about it.
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In an accepting world I think the furry fandom would still be quite large. The accepting community is why a lot of people stick around, but there are many other reasons for it to exist which aren’t influenced by being persecuted. Some people feel like they’re inherently furry from birth, like a gay person would, and some pick it up during their life as something they want to be associated with aesthetically or otherwise. You’ve also got therians and various other subcultures that are heavily based around the furry/animalistic themes themselves without considering any sort of societal values.
I also personally think pseudo-anonymity is healthy even when all of society is accepting, and I suspect there’s a large draw in being to socialize and try out different versions of yourself while keeping the option to burn your account and start again if you make mistakes. Now more than ever in our surveillance state, it’s nice to leave your identity behind and say things without worrying about it coming back to you IRL. I personally find furry/animal avatars to be a fun way of achieving this without needing to pick something boring and impersonal.
As for gender disparity I don’t think this is any inherent aspect of the furry fandom but just how predominantly-online cultures are weighted in general. I’d expect this to change given enough time. You can see recent gender studies here, and I highly recommend checking out some of the other pages from their findings if you’re interested in some of the bizarre trends that furries have compared to the average person. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that being furry is heavily biased by specific genetic circumstances, and that the explosion of furry culture is a figurative opening of Pandora’s box.
Edit: Also I found this page and the graphs+text have a lot of overlap with this topic.
Ignoring everything else I could say about your comment: What’s wrong with RPing non-consensual situations?
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Furries and animal-fuckers are different groups. And if you’re lumping them together, you’re bound to get criticized for it.
FYI: furries are people with an interest/love for anthropomorphic animals.
My friends look like the left panel.
I have friends in both panels. As a 6-foot goblin I am less fabulous than either, but love and regard you all as a point of principle.
In my experience people like on the left tend to be upper class so that’s probably why they’re marketed to. There’s a lot of jokes about furries all being engineers and aircraft technicians and stuff but there’s not really enough rich ones to be worth marketing to for massive corporations. No offense but that kind of “gay pride” stuff is bougie as fuck these days. I feel alienated by it but not by the furry fandom despite not being a furry.
fursuits apparently are extremely expensive so i guess only people with high enough salaries can own them, that might explain the stereotype
Well, the comments of this thread show me that it’s time to leave this lemmy community
Trust me. No one is going to miss you.
Permanently banned for bigotry, hatred, and a failure to follow rule 1.
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Close minded how, exactly?
