ThunderVolt wrote:"Otherkin" being not anything fitting into the parameters of "furry"?
Otherkin are more like a very specific type of furry. Vin covered Otherkin actually pretty well, but let me see if I can lay it out using more words. I'm going to try to avoid editorializing as much as I can.
Otherkin are a subset of furries. Most furries are like me: I am a wolf because that describes aspects of
the human being avwolf in ways that appeal to me. An Otherkin believes that they have the spirit of an actual animal trapped in a human body -- an Otherkin wolf is a wolf because they believe they really
are a wolf; they're stuck in a human body, but their "natural" body is more like that of a wolf. Most furries like anthropomorphized animals (literally "anthropomorph" means "human-shaped") and will depict ourselves using anthropomorphized animals, but we know that we're really human beings. An Otherkin does not believe they are "really" human.
Like any large community, furries can be further subdivided into smaller groups which still count as furries. The vast majority of the furry community are just people who like human-shaped animals. A small minority of them really believe that is the shape that they
should be: that they should be more like animals instead of humans and their natural shape would be more like animals. This minority is called "otherkin." There are groups of furries that prefer different aspects of the art, and tend to focus on those aspects. All these subgroups have their own names. Do you prefer snakes, lizards, and dragons? You might be a scalie. Do you prefer "baby" characters, like baby Looney Tunes characters? These people are called "cubs." Do you believe you are dual-natured, that you're not really a human, but you're not really an animal either; you split the different and are both of those things as various circumstances dictate? You may very well be a "were." Do you believe that you're not a human and are an animal in a human body? You are likely an "otherkin." Do you prefer less anthropomorphized characters -- characters that are more like Scooby Doo, and (often) can talk and reason, but go around on all fours? Those characters are "ferals." Are you one of the tiny minority for whom
being a furry is the most important aspect of your life and you try to live like you think a real anthropomorphic animal would? I believe the term for that is "lifestyler."
Even the group of people who attach sexual aspects to anthropomorphic characters are a minority in the greater furry community. A very very vocal minority, so vocal that they have established most of the stereotypes and public perceptions of furries, but a minority nevertheless. But these are still just people, and have their own specific kinks, just like non-furry people (in fact, nearly all of the kinks between furries and non-furries are the same). So "furry"
has to be a wide generality, as there are
so many specific sub groups. It's hard to talk about "furries" without accidentally actually be meaning one of the minority subgroups instead of the huge generality.
Fursuits happen to be a very visible thing, which is how they got associated with the fandom, but they're really no different than any other cosplayers, like Shar said. Suiters have to be reasonably well-off, as fursuits are
not cheap, and you've got to have the right body and personality for it. I don't have a suit, but I've always wanted to make my own. But I was a mascot in high school and I can tell you that wearing an outfit like that is a curious mixture of awesome and hell.