Not furry

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Vintage
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Re: Not furry

#16 Post by Vintage »

ThunderVolt wrote:Ask somebody like Vintage or SirJahar.
eeeeeh, I wouldn't be the community guru on furriness. I might be one of the only ones that's attempted to define it recently, though.
But basically what mini said -
minime wrote:You're only a furry if you want to be, there are no perimeters or set rules that make you one or not
- is a great way to put it.

It's very common to have a fursona, but it's definitely not a requirement. I believe that recent polls in the fandom show that most people don't own fursuits, which actually makes sense when you think about it. The only thing that I can really think of that all members in the fandom share completely is a sense of being part of a community (which makes sense too because without a it a fandom literally can not exist).

Tom, for example, draws an anthro comic - yet he doesn't call himself a furry or participate in the furry community. Because of this, it seems to reason that he is, in fact, not a furry. You wouldn't call Jim Davis a furry because he draws a comic about an anthro cat, would you? Bill Watterson wouldn't be a furry because he draws Hobbes, either. The creators of Scooby Doo wouldn't also fit in this "category" for the same reason.

So it might be that being a furry really only determines whether you want to be part of a community or not (and, of course, like anthro art by extension).
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Re: Not furry

#17 Post by SionnachSaysHi »

Okay, I'm a bit more confused now.

So, it's common to have a fursuit, but most people don't have fursuits?
And you're part of the community if you're a furry, but if you're to be a furry you have to be part of the community?

I have very obviously gotten something messed up here...
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Re: Not furry

#18 Post by ReBob »

SionnachSaysHi wrote:Okay, I'm a bit more confused now.

So, it's common to have a fursuit, but most people don't have fursuits?
And you're part of the community if you're a furry, but if you're to be a furry you have to be part of the community?

I have very obviously gotten something messed up here...
Do you want to call yourself a furry? Congratulations, you're a furry.
Do you not want to call yourself a furry? Congratulations, you're not a furry.

It's pretty much that simple.
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Re: Not furry

#19 Post by SionnachSaysHi »

ReBob wrote: Do you want to call yourself a furry? Congratulations, you're a furry.
Do you not want to call yourself a furry? Congratulations, you're not a furry.

It's pretty much that simple.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I should have understood that from the beginning.
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Re: Not furry

#20 Post by Vintage »

ReBob wrote:
SionnachSaysHi wrote:Okay, I'm a bit more confused now.

So, it's common to have a fursuit, but most people don't have fursuits?
And you're part of the community if you're a furry, but if you're to be a furry you have to be part of the community?

I have very obviously gotten something messed up here...
Do you want to call yourself a furry? Congratulations, you're a furry.
Do you not want to call yourself a furry? Congratulations, you're not a furry.

It's pretty much that simple.
Yeah, that's the point I was trying to make.
SionnachSaysHi wrote:So, it's common to have a fursuit, but most people don't have fursuits?
Er, not quite. I said having a fursona is common. Fursuits are way more rare.
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Re: Not furry

#21 Post by avwolf »

Vintage wrote:
SionnachSaysHi wrote:So, it's common to have a fursuit, but most people don't have fursuits?
Er, not quite. I said having a fursona is common. Fursuits are way more rare.
To offer a note of further clarity, "fursona" is a portmanteau of "fur" and "persona." It's essentially a representation of yourself (or an aspect of yourself) in the style of an anthropomorphic animal. Specifically, it's a furry animal (people will occasionally use "scalesona" if they prefer lizards or snakes, for instance), but it's commonly used to describe this representative character more generally, without regard to the animal in the depiction. As Vin said, they are very common (though also not necessary or sufficient to be a furry, partly because furries tend to like to depict their friends, even non-furries, or well known personalities, as furry characters; this person might acknowledge the image to be a representation of themselves, but still not they themselves be a furry). Using "fur-" (and "mur-") portmanteaus in conversation is a pretty good indication of being a furry. :P

The heart of the idea of "being a furry" is just "someone that likes anthropomorphic characters." But it's also a self-selecting group: as ReBob said, you're a furry (meaningfully speaking) if and only if you want to be a furry. (Like any group, it may be more complicated than that simple statement, but it's what you should first and foremost consider.)
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Re: Not furry

#22 Post by amenon »

avwolf wrote:As Vin said, they are very common (though also not necessary or sufficient to be a furry, partly because furries tend to like to depict their friends, even non-furries, or well known personalities, as furry characters; this person might acknowledge the image to be a representation of themselves, but still not they themselves be a furry).
And this can hold true even when one is really rather taken with how they've been depicted, and finds the whole business quite fascinating! I'm someone who doesn't even use character avatars -- pun notwithstanding -- because the only anthropomorphic form that feels like a valid representation of myself is my actual body. (Assuming, of course -- purely for the sake of argument -- that I am anthropomorphic :P)

So while I find the whole idea really interesting, it's just not a way in which I think of myself. At least, not so far. There's a whole lot of inertia around my self-image, but it's not like it's set in stone.
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Re: Not furry

#23 Post by Vintage »

ThunderVolt wrote:In other words, not an animal. :P
That reminded me of something - I should make a distinction between furry and otherkin. "Otherkin" usually refers to a group of people who believe they're a different species other than human. "Furry" I tend to think of as artful fun. My 'sona for example, is just something I made for fun. I don't actually think I'm a dog.
avwolf wrote:-snip-
That's a really good way to put it, av. I should've actually described what a fursona is in the first place, so thanks for doing that.
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Re: Not furry

#24 Post by Shar »

First off, i AM a furry and count myself as one.
My FA page is here if any of you are interested :kathrin: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/blargleblargle/

Ok... i am going to give the definition of furry as i understand it and is likely the most widely used anyway.

Do you like anthropomorphic art? if yes your a furry if no than you are not a furry.

Really that's all there is too it. The fandom is nothing more than an umbrella term for fans of any aspect of the genera. You can like all of it or only one small aspect, depth is irrelevant. In that respect "Furry" is nothing more than liking Sifi. You don't have to like every aspect, all you have to do is like part of it and your part of the fandom of that type of thing.

The Furry Fandom as a result is very loose and covered things that are sometimes radically different but are all "furry" because they use anthropomorphized art.

Some people like to fur-suit, just like some people like to dress up as Klingons or Storm troopers. In recent years there i have heard that there has been an influx of people who draw the wrong type of attention but as someone who personally attends cons and likes to cosplay at the conventions (even if its just some accessories like a tail) i can tell you that the people who give furries the undeserved reputation that they sometimes have are no more than a very publicized minority. To most people furries are "different" so TV tends to sensationalize it and grabs onto the few people that get out of line in order to say "look this is different! Fear it!". If anything we all need to support the fandom and help break this stigma rather than run away because a few people get out of line :)
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Re: Not furry

#25 Post by Loveknowsbest »

Shar wrote:First off, i AM a furry and count myself as one.
My FA page is here if any of you are interested :kathrin: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/blargleblargle/

Ok... i am going to give the definition of furry as i understand it and is likely the most widely used anyway.

Do you like anthropomorphic art? if yes your a furry if no than you are not a furry.

Really that's all there is too it. The fandom is nothing more than an umbrella term for fans of any aspect of the genera. You can like all of it or only one small aspect, depth is irrelevant. In that respect "Furry" is nothing more than liking Sifi. You don't have to like every aspect, all you have to do is like part of it and your part of the fandom of that type of thing.

The Furry Fandom as a result is very loose and covered things that are sometimes radically different but are all "furry" because they use anthropomorphized art.

Some people like to fur-suit, just like some people like to dress up as Klingons or Storm troopers. In recent years there i have heard that there has been an influx of people who draw the wrong type of attention but as someone who personally attends cons and likes to cosplay at the conventions (even if its just some accessories like a tail) i can tell you that the people who give furries the undeserved reputation that they sometimes have are no more than a very publicized minority. To most people furries are "different" so TV tends to sensationalize it and grabs onto the few people that get out of line in order to say "look this is different! Fear it!". If anything we all need to support the fandom and help break this stigma rather than run away because a few people get out of line :)
Thanks for explaining it for me. I do believe it is wrong to judge the majority of people for the actions of the few. But people do it. I have respect for the art.

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Re: Not furry

#26 Post by Shar »

ThunderVolt wrote:I feel that's the main reason why furry haters get triggered.
Which part?

Sorry it was a long quote and covered several things so i am not sure if your referring to the media giving too much attention to the bad, the fact that its a very different hobby, or because people are defending it openly and saying that the stereotype is generally wrong. After all as crazy as it sounds i have met people who are put off by an unrealistic stereotype but when you tell them that its just stereotype (and an undeserved one at that) suddenly they go on the attack. Not because of the initial issue but because how dare you think they are wrong. I've seen all three first hand >.>
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Re: Not furry

#27 Post by avwolf »

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.
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Re: Not furry

#28 Post by midnightblink »

ThunderVolt wrote:Well, currently furries live 80% of their lives in a "human" world, so...
Right, and most furries live in the human world just as well as non-furries, it's just that we have a certain interest, similar to video games, sci-fi TV shows, or anything else that creates a fanbase, that helps us connect to other people and create a community. Being "furry" doesn't have to be your entire life, in a way, there's a range of "furries". There are those that own multiple fursuits, go to every con, and create art of their personas daily, and then there are those that sit down at a computer every once in a while and browse FurAffinity because they like the art, they might not even have a fursona. Both are furries, and both are completely ok to live their lives as they see fit. Haters are triggered because, lets face it, furries are weird, and at the same time, largely not understood, or even heard of, so whenever furries are used in mainstream media, they latch on to the more extreme side, because it's more fun to create extremes than it is to create realism, and it's also more fun for the general public to point fingers and go "look at the freaks" (i.e. that one CSI episode [also, fun fact, they actually TALKED to actually furries about the community before writing that episode, and then tossed it all out the window because it wasn't interesting enough]). Because of this, furry haters are spawned who only know of the extreme minority of the community (zoophiles, perverts, think they are literally animals, ect.), and are opposed to all that. Honestly, even I'm opposed to most of those extremes, but I have a "live and let live" attitude. Obviously, a lot of furries get offended by these stereotypes, and proceed to lash out, which creates more hate for the haters
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Re: Not furry

#29 Post by Shar »

ThunderVolt wrote:Well, currently furries live 80% of their lives in a "human" world, so...
If we are gonna get technical we live 100% of our lives in a human world.... I have yet to find a way to escape >.>.

The vast majority of furries do not "Yiff" and are not in in for sexual reasons. But the 15% or so (i haven't seen the latest real demographic so that's an old number) who are in it as a fetish are extremely over-represented in the media. That being said it is a very diverse group as far as sexuality's are concerned. This is a compilation of studies from Wikipedia "Homosexuality and bisexuality are overrepresented in the furry fandom,[13] by about a factor of 10 compared to the United States average self-identified rates of 1.8% bisexuality and 1.7% homosexuality.[37] According to four different surveys, 14–25% of the fandom members report homosexuality, 37–52% bisexuality, 28–51% heterosexuality, and 3–8% other forms of alternative sexual relationships" (I am technically Ace myself). Ironically, and despite the stereotype Furries are also statistically less likely to suffer from zoophilia than the rest of the population. A 1998 Study reported only 2% of furries were interested in it. lower than the general population.
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Re: Not furry

#30 Post by minime »

ThunderVolt wrote:Well, yes, you are right, we do live our lives in a 100% human world, but when I said that 80%, the other 20% was if a furry rented a building for a "furry convention", and that's where the 20% takes place, due to being whatever you want there, furry or no.
Or maybe non-furries are looked down upon in those circles?
In conventions furries do what any other fandom does, just a little bit different due to the type of fandom, and furries don't look down on those that aren't in the fandom, other than the few [censored] that you get in all fandoms, the furry fandom is probably one of the most welcoming fandoms out there
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