It’s not my thing and I truly don’t get it. That said, I’m curious about the initial draw, how you started and why. What does participating look like to you? Do you consider it an interest, hobby, kink or some combination/something else? I support you doing whatever you like so long as everything is legal/consensual. If you’re going to comment and you’re not a furry please be respectful.
Finally someone asking a real question. Been a whole bunch of bots recently.
If it isn’t bots it’s people taking their grievances here to be validated. (And usually not getting it)
What’s the point of bots on Lemmy?
Hot bot on bot action, knowing the internet.
Don’t know if I’d call myself a furry, but I did go to a convention with some friends awhile back, for the experience.
My big takeaway can kinda be summed up with, “Punk’s not dead, they just all became furries”. It was a very radically inclusive space, there were tons of openly queer people, lots of very political accessories (Anarchy A or Hammer and Sickle patches, keffiyehs, one person had a hand painted tshirt that said “Death before Detransition”, etc.), and there was a very DIY, countercultural vibe to the whole thing. At one point I talked to a Skunk about his collection of old PC sound cards.
It was super cool! I’d go again
A ton of factors, but I’ve been a fur for 22 years and I give zero fucks about what others think about it/me, so an unfiltered view.
Most of my friends are furry, and all of them are at least neutral on the topic. I had a clan I was in during my ‘okay yes fine I am a furry let’s make a sona I guess’ awakening, and I was booted for that fact. So everyone I’m friends with has to not be a dick, or you’re getting blacklisted.
Most of my friends are weird, and the furry ones especially. I know no innocent furries, we all have our vices, and I love that. A space where I can be weird, suggestive, kinky, lewd is liberating. But even beyond sexy stuff, it’s just this melting pot of weird interests, hobbies, aspirations, and everyone wants to see everyone else succeed. The ‘vibe’ as the kids call it, online or in person, is always positive. Compared to gestures to the outside world, yeah nah I’m staying in the happy bubble.
Most of us are quite intelligent, lots are STEM, many are post-secondary grads. Most are okay with atheists/non believers. I thiiiink the majority are gay/les/bi. Basically, a group of smart people who aren’t dicks to each other. Again, nice place to be.
With the exception of my first relationship, which was never made ‘official’ but we were together for a couple of years, I only date furries. For the above reasons and more, I limit the dating pool from like a billion+ to hundred-thousands (maybe millions?), then further by being gay (very limited homoflexibility). But I want to be with someone (one or several) who share my interests, excitement, ideas and topics; and who shares similar values, like not being a dick to others. These simple traits are… less common, in the general population.
And of course, the kinky stuff. I’m all over the place and with the exception of some obvious ‘yeah nah’ topics that are generally assumed unless stated otherwise by people, I am will to/have tried a lot of things. Again the sort of non-judgemental environment let’s me say something that would be absolutely wild anywhere else, and others will respond like it’s nothing at all. Being free of judgements is absolutely unique, in my experience.
There are a few shady characters, bad apples, and all that - every group has them. But I haven’t interacted with one myself, and it’s been over two decades, so I’m pretty confident in saying that the bad characters are a rounding error, and that ‘we are all in this for the positivity of each other’.
That all seems pretty pleasant. I’m honestly kind of jealous by how nice you make it sound.
Can I ask an honest question? My impression is that a large proportion of male furries are gay compared to non-furries. Is that just prejudice on my part or is there any validity and/or data on that?
Many of them are from just inferrince, but there is actually science on this realm: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376353096_Furscience_A_Decade_of_Psychological_Research_on_the_Furry_Fandom
Chapter 16, page 497. I remember there being more graphs but maybe they’ve updated the data. My data points are included, as I’ve been taking their surveys for a decade now.
Most of us are quite intelligent, lots are STEM, many are post-secondary grads.
Unironically if a plane crashes heading to a furry convention it would literally bring western software to its knees overnight. There would be outages. “He’s our most experienced engineer! Only John knows how this system works!” Bank of America goes dark
Different scale, but a couple years ago at Anthrocon one of my servers in my homelab threw a warning that the cache drive was running low on health/remaining writes. Odd since it was like, not even 6 months old, but whatever, I’ll fix it once I’m home. Literally like 6 hours later the drive went read-only and died. I had to head to the hotel and make sure the system didn’t lose any data, and would recover successfully, on one of the laptops I brought to the hotel. Then shop and order two new drives, so when I got back home I can do a swap and config. Then back to the con space.
If I was on that plane or whatever, my family and to a small extent my friends, would be totally fucked. I have stuff automated as much as I can across all systems, but eventually something will require manual intervention and the cards start to fall. And I’m the go-to guy in my social circle, so everyone will just start screaming and panicking.
A tail is like a necktie for your butt.
- Recognized, goldstar furry
Im not a furry but I can tell you the answer is all and some combination. I used to go to cons and con folk could range from those who just like sci fi, fantasy, anime, etc to those who are really into one particular aspect to those who its like their whole lives. Many con folk over time sorta developed a consona. They bought clothing and such and over time what they wore to the con would be pretty consistant. My wife has a story about them stopping off at a guys house and he opened the door and when he saw it was confolk he closed it and after a few mins was back in his con outfit. Like no one at the con should see him without it. For me furries are just one of the interests people could be big on at cons. I missed them when they got their own con because the general con they used to go to had two dances and the fur dance had the AC cranked to max. You could go dance at the reg dance and once you were hot and sweaty go crash the fur dance.
Not a furry but I see the appeal. The character design possibilities greatly expand, and they tend to look cute or cool. If it didn’t work, Disney wouldn’t do it so often!
tl;dr it’s a creative hobby
Not a furry per se (yet maybe) but I’m in the same social circles, ymmv. Basically it’s just oc cosplay, and like all hobbies and crafts some people have a more enthusiastic, personal approach to it; and some like it surface level.
Essentially, it’s a joint art style in a large art community. People get to create their own characters and share in that art culture, and for some it’s a very powerful escape and a way to explore yourself in a different way.
Escapism was my main thought on why based on next to no knowledge. That aspect definitely makes sense to me. Art/artistic expression being central is also reasonable.
Guy I used to date said he thought people would just be cuter with tails.
Fair point
I would only want a tail if I could use it to swing a hammer.
Real feline energy with this one
What counts as “being a furry?” On a scale from Garth to ‘I identify as a non-human animal’, where’s the cut-off?
I feel like there are probably a lot of people who don’t consider themselves to “be furries,” as such, but wouldn’t say no to Lola Bunny, for instance.
(Also, compare: Kinsey scale vs. furry scale.)
TIL the furry thing is not just an internet meme
Our biggest by attendance conventions have hit like 18k attendants. And while I am clinically online, these do indeed take place irl.
I said “I’m in a hurry”.
Geeze. Someone’s got a one-track mind.
V= IR, nerd 😉
What the hell dude!? I literally just studied that today! Dayum.
Saw the user’s name and couldn’t help myself.
Ohhh I just noticed the name.
I thought you found something nerdy about him and said that at first
when i look at some furry art it can be quite appealing and i sometimes have unusual feelings. i don’t seek it out or anything though. my theory is it’s some vestigial thing from our evolution. we are just mammals, after all
Speaking only about the porn, I like drawings, and real images of real people usually make me uncomfortable for whatever reason. The quality and volume of the art has increased dramatically over the years, lots of furry nsfw artists are really, really good at what they do.
Yeah there’s definitely no shortage.
No, but honestly mostly because I have enough kinks to keep me entertained already. Sweaty anonymous orgies with random people in fur suits is definitely a path I would follow if I was bored enough.
Humans are boring. I have to live as one everyday.
I’m more into monsters and beastkin, but there’s a big overlap with that and furry design so while my models are more on the realistic side I do count myself as a furry.
