What is furry

[foxguardian]

thank you for giveing your straight opinion
i realy enjoy the thaught that we can discuss wat many people just dont understand ^^

and i fully agree

[Oni]

Straight Opinion?

[SimbaSpirit]

Yeah I agree with you Oni on the part about the 20 animal people. that's  just an animal lover, not a furry. I've met someone like that before and it always bugs me.


BTW I think when fox said straight answer I think he meant "thanks for telling it how it is" lol

[Oni]

Meow I think this  topic and the What is Furry Topic SHould be murged...what do you guys think.

http://www.akcommunity.com/index.php/topic,121.0.html

[Warrah]

I dont think it maters what people call theirselves. so what if they don't like fursuits? They are not for evryone, they are hot and can be uncomfertable. I don't think that cat girls are really furry but if they act like cats it is kind of the same thing to me. That is how i feel about it I don't  care who calls theirselves a furry and what peoplle like and not like.

[Kritter]

It’s only human nature to categorize/ cut off from folks who are not similar to their own.

So by that, I think it’s quite funny to see groups such as the furry and gay community folks would judge others on how devoted she/he may be to that group. Does someone have to like and do mostly everything that one group does? And if she/he doesn’t that makes them less of member of that group? I don’t think so. If someone claims to be furry and yet the fur doesn’t involve her/him self to the community then that’s their choice. No one has the right to judge on how devoted or how “furry” one is. Deep down, it’s up to that person and what she/he believes in.

[foxguardian]

i cant believe how true that is ... i guess i have a new out look on them
i must admit i used to be the same and i hated it when they said im not a furry
but now i think every ones furry its just... to wat extent?

[Kritter]

Glad to know that I help you see a different prospective. 

[SimbaSpirit]

It’s only human nature to categorize/ cut off from folks who are not similar to their own.

So by that, I think it’s quite funny to see groups such as the furry and gay community folks would judge others on how devoted she/he may be to that group. Does someone have to like and do mostly everything that one group does? And if she/he doesn’t that makes them less of member of that group? I don’t think so. If someone claims to be furry and yet the fur doesn’t involve her/him self to the community then that’s their choice. No one has the right to judge on how devoted or how “furry” one is. Deep down, it’s up to that person and what she/he believes in.

Just a bit of reductio ad absurdum

I guess that means I'm part of the KKK... I've never worn the suit, never killed a <insert politically correct word here, I can't keep up with it..>, and never burned a cross, but I say I'm part of it.

Do I sound like a KKK member?

[Oni]

nope  not really just a normal person. everybody no matter who they are seems to have some type of descrimanation in them

[Kritter]

Just a bit of reductio ad absurdum

I guess that means I'm part of the KKK... I've never worn the suit, never killed a <insert politically correct word here, I can't keep up with it..>, and never burned a cross, but I say I'm part of it.

Do I sound like a KKK member?

How I see it, if you believe you're a KKK member then you're KKK. Plain and simple.

There are few KKK members who are actually quite nice. I would know because I knew one! This KKK member was actually good friends with my parents (Hispanic family). My parents trusted him well enough for him to babysit me!
Hmmm, now that I look back to my childhood life, I knew a KKK member and one of those Neo-Nazi's!!!! And when I saw "knew them" I mean that I have been to their homes, played with their kids, and gotten to know them.

nope  not really just a normal person. everybody no matter who they are seems to have some type of descrimanation in them

I back you up on that statement Oni.

[Goman Fox]

"if you don't like fursuits and furcons and furry art, then I'm sorry, but as much as you would like to wear the title, you're just not a furry they call themselves furries, but they don't like fursuits or anything, only nekos"

I doubt it was meant this way, but by wording it "if you don't like fursuits and furcons and furry art" you're saying there are three requirements for being a furry.   And I personally don't like fursuits or furcons, but that doesn't make me any less furry.

Honestly, I think having requirements like this for someone to fit into a VERY broad category like furries is stupid.  The only thing furries have in common is the interest in anthropomorphic animals, which the "catgirls/boys" and such fit into.  While they may not have as much in common with the rest of the community, that doesn't make them unfit to be called "furries."

It'd be like saying that to be "furry" you have to have sex with animals, because plenty of furries do that.  Or you have to wear dirty adult diapers, because some furries do that.  Or you have to be gay or bisexual, because most furries are like that.

Or it'd be like saying you can only be "gay" if you have gay sex regularly, or you can only be "American" if you serve in the military.

I just think it's stupid to put additional requirements on who can call themselves what, when there's really only one single thing they need to follow.

Personally, my idea of what a "furry" is mixes in with therianthropy, but that's my personal belief, and as much as I'd like to, I don't hold it against other "furries" because that would exclude a lot of them, including plenty of "furries" that I consider friends.

So yeah, I think people into anime catboys/girls have every right to call themselves furries.

[foxguardian]

and agin i say my thaughts have been changed upon the subjuct ^^   *smiles-wags tail*

[Oni]

I was having an email conversation with someone who asked what furry was, and after trying just about everything this is what I ended up telling her.

Keep in mind that every furry has there own thoughts on what Furry is, so its basicaly unless you area furry you wont know what furry is.

Let me start off to say that this information was put down in no order but as it came to my mind so please bear with that.

I bet that was a learning experiance. I would not call furry a sexual fetish no. I would say that there are fetishes with in the furry community. Like there are furry fetish people that take there version of what furry is to the bed room. There is furry porn, there are even those that do body paint, dress up, ect to create more of an anthromophic feel about them when in the bed room.

Ya it is an over simplifaction to say furries are a sexual fetish. lol. In my view that is the mis guided view of furries, commonly given by those that dont know much about them. Kinda like the view that if you are gay you have alot of premiscouse sex. LOL.

Furs have there own lanuage of sorts. Like the word for Sex is Yiff. Yiff is a word that has degenerated over time from its origional meaning of a "Cheerful greting, and energetic Yes" to now an expersion of sexual interest. They even make .... well some odd shaped toys. LOL. Some furries take there likings for animals a bit far...umm I could explain that one...but....lol ya....

There are furry conventions and some times people meet up at those convetions just for Yiffing. (I like the word, I think it sounds cute lol) Furries also have there own version of the a "Pet" Like in a Master/Slave situation A pet would belong to a Master, but the Pet would not nessarly be a Slave but more some one that is cared over and tought by the master, some people do take it more into the slave thing and into the sexual thing. Alot of furries were collars.

For example Fox and I have a Collar.

Fox and I's collars would be like the engagement ring in comparison I supose. It was the official sign of the start of our relationship. And to me means alot, it don't mean that I am his slave or his is mine or anything like that.

I am pretty open about myself, and not offended easly. So please feel free to ask me anything.

there is a web site called www.wikifur.com that has all sorts of information on it.

There is a Comic...a Furry Comic but really more of a comming out gay comic. That is a really good read. Though it does have some adult context in it. It is Called Associated Student Bodies. I have a copy and could lend it to you if you like. The book is less about the sex that goes on in it, but more about a Lion Cub going to college and struggling with being Gay. It helped me oddly.

Oh a side note about furry. I would estimate that 80% of furries are male, and of those 80% of those are gay or bi.

Out side of Sex though the idea of furries range from the simple "I like Cats" To "I am a Cat, and want to be with Cats" I think of myself as a cat. Always have. As far back as I can remember. I am only a furry of 3 years, because I accidently triped across the fandom/community about that time. Prior to that I was just a person that associated himself with cats, both in my personality, and my representation of myself. When I triped accross furries I thought it was cool, and now talk with a bunch. It's kinda a side hobby of mine to track down furs in Alaska.

For some furries, it may be more of a spiritual thing, although these beliefs aren't actually "furry."  They go more into another subculture that is similar to, but completely different from, furries.  Therianthropy.  In most cases, these people believe they are animals, usually in a more spiritual sense, but in some (strange) cases, they may go as far as to say they physically are animals, despite the fact that they are actually human.  This becomes a bit more unusual when they insist they are physically mythical animals, like dragons or unicorns...  But again, that's not the most common case.  Another term that's been used for therians has been "weres" although it's generally not used anymore because of the confusion caused for people outside the therian community that thought therians believed they were like werewolves, changing shape depending on the phase of the moon, which wasn't true for the community.  To sum it up, therians (and furries that also identify as therians, whether they know the term or not) feel a spiritual connection to an animal, sometimes believing they have the "soul" of that animal, or seeing it as like a totem animal.

With the art work, that is done from everybody from furries to non furries. For example the artist who did the pic of me and Fox on the Sofa, does not consider herself a furry, but people this she is because of her facanation with cats and dogs, and the art work that she produces.

There is what is called Fursuiting.

Wich is a practice done by some furries. It is a costume that is typically designed after there fursona. Normaly warn at conventions, and a few are even designed for .... bedroom activities.  What you saw me wearing was just a sad attempt at what I call a PET set. Paws Ears and Tail. that's  what I am comfortable wearing. Though I would like a more elaborate set, that I will get one day (when money grows on tree's lol)

To some furs though it is the sexual attraction to anthropomormophic animals that is  part of what makes them furry. Furries have been kinda bashed in the media for it, and made to look like ... well perverts of a nature. MTV and CSI both did shows on Furries...oh they were the funnies things i ever saw because of the amount of things they got wrong, and  the stereo types the over exerated. Though some people are that weird. lol.

Then there are those that would be called furry lifestylers. That is another term that like furry varies from furry to furry.

The broadest and most simplest definition of a lifestler would be that that was given by Renard Foxx that states "a lifestyler is any person for whom furry extends beyond a simple interest and effects there daily life" By that definition I could be considered a lifestyler.

Then there are those in the furry community that dislike the trem lifestyler because it is given to those who flaunt and publicly display there furryness. In situations and or social events, and in public were it is not socialy acceptable. Kinda like when I went to Cord. I was wearing my Collar, Ears, and Tail. Though I do it for fun, and because no one has given me any trouble, a few people have even reconized me as a furry. I thought that was cool.

To others the Definition "Furry as a way of life" fits much better. For them furry is not something that you do, it is something that you are, something that is part of youself. It may even be part of there spirityuality. This is diffrent from that of a Furry fran, who is some one who can choose to "not be furry" at times.


That like many things of the furry community, definitions varies from person to person. There are sexual componets such as the art work, or in dress up, to the spiritual.
So to basically as a friend of mine once said. Unless you are furry you will never understand furry.

So I hope this helps ya all. Please feel free to comment

[foxguardian]

ok so i have come to the conclusion that it doesnt matter what other people think if you think you are and or want to be then you are if you dont want to be then your not