What's up with furries?

[Lastcall]

Can someone tell me how furries got started, and why they are so darn popular? I can't seem to figure it out. To me, they're just animal heads with human bodies. ...What's the appeal?

People say I'm like a jittery little squirrel, so I guess I'll draw myself as a furry:

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Hmmm, another one of these threads. If you ask 10 different people what furries are or what the point is, you're likely to get 13 different answers.

I just think they're cool. I use animals as characters to match up or contrast with certain personalities. Some popular mainstream comics that do this pretty well are Usagi Yojimbo and Blacksad. And if people don't like them, then that's fine. God knows I dislike lots of things myself. If you like everything, then you may as well be Joel Siegel.

[Sortelli]

This thread is going to be sweet, sweet treasure. I can feel it in my bones.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

This thread is going to be sweet, sweet treasure. I can feel it in my bones.

Heh, totally. It's gonna rule.

[MixedMyth]

Not that I'd really know, but there are different gradations, too, aren't there? By which I mean, different layers, I guess, depending on what aspects, if any, one is involved with the subculture.

[Sketchywallflowr]

I like furries. I mean, it's no weirder than sci-fi, with alien races and Trekkies and all that jazz. Only instead of having antennae, you have a fluffy tail. It's a trade-up, I'd say.

If I were an animal, I'd probably be a puma.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Well, some people just like to draw animal characters and comics, some people get some kind of spiritual thing out of it (I don't understand that, but oh well), some people like to dress up in fursuits, and for some people it's some kind of fetish thing.

One big misconception is the fursuit thing. Fursuiters are vastly in the minority. At Anthrocon '07, there were only 300 fursuiters out of the 2800 people that attended. And they aren't having sex all over the place. That would be a tv show called CSI.

Some people really like hating on it, but like Sketchy said, it's no weirder than anime conventions or star trek conventions. Basically if you're not hurting anyone, I don't care what a bunch people nerding it out do. I myself don't like watching over-paid men play with their balls in a baseball stadium, but tons of people enjoy that. Power to them.

[MixedMyth]

This thread is going to be sweet, sweet treasure. I can feel it in my bones.

I can feel it in your bones, too. But that's mostly because of these surgical tools I found out back.

[Sortelli]

I like furries just fine, but I get a huge kick out of furry bashing none the less. The hyper defensiveness it provokes is endlessly entertaining for reasons I shouldn't be too proud of.

But hey. I like plenty of ridiculous things that are mock-worthy. And I'm of the mind that while there's really nothing wrong with consenting adults humping in fursuits in the big sense . . . laughing at that behaviour to the point where it's kept private is probably a good thing.

Artistically though I think it's pretty cool to visualize humans as animals.

[Sortelli]

This thread is going to be sweet, sweet treasure. I can feel it in my bones.

I can feel it in your bones, too. But that's mostly because of these surgical tools I found out back.

Stop messing with my bones, I found them first! You're getting chips and nicks in them all!

[Garneta]

I don't really care one way or the other about them...but I do like them better if there's a reason for them, and the comic isn't just furry for furries sake.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I view that on a case by case basis. There's really no reason for the Ducktales characters (the original comic series and the tv show) to be animals other than the visulal style. The same for Usagi Yojimbo. That's actually why Stan Sakai used animals for Usagi. He was doodling and drew a rabbit with its ears tied into a topknot and thought it looked cool. It actually kinda does.

But yeah, there are many instances in web comics where it seems forced. But remember that most webcomics vary in quality anyway since anyone can make one.

[Lastcall]

I don't really care one way or the other about them...but I do like them better if there's a reason for them, and the comic isn't just furry for furries sake.

I like that logic. Heh, sorry...I hope this thread doesn't become an "argument" thread or anything--I just seriously don't get furries. I was hoping for some elightenment. But Suburban, you mentioned something that helps:

I use animals as characters to match up or contrast with certain personalities.

...Which is why I would probably draw my husband as a gorilla.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I don't really care one way or the other about them...but I do like them better if there's a reason for them, and the comic isn't just furry for furries sake.

I like that logic. Heh, sorry...I hope this thread doesn't become an "argument" thread or anything--I just seriously don't get furries. I was hoping for some elightenment.

That's cool. I don't understand it myself really. I'm like that with most things I like though. I couldn't explain why I like drumcorps other than that it's awesome. I also can't ecplain why I like watching soccer sometimes even though I don't like sports in general.

But Suburban, you mentioned something that helps:

I use animals as characters to match up or contrast with certain personalities.

...Which is why I would probably draw my husband as a gorilla.

Heh, I know lots of people like that.

Speaking of matching up personalities, one interesting thing I noticed about Blacksad is that all the people in law enforcement are canines, the news reporter is a weasel, and the main character is a cat who happens to be a detective. That matches up pretty well.

[MixedMyth]

I guess, right or wrong, in my head I always seperated out 'furries' from 'anthro' from 'cartoon animals.' When I hear 'furry' I think of the subculture, when I hear anthro I think of human like animals in general, and when I think of cartoon animals I think more of bugs bunny and the like.

[Garneta]

Yeah...I guess I always just counted Ducktales and Bugs Bunny and stuff as more of the 'cartoony' sort myself, too...but Sublet kinda got me thinking now...it really is the same principle, isn't it? About the visual style...

[Rkolter]

I like furries just fine, but I get a huge kick out of furry bashing none the less. The hyper defensiveness it provokes is endlessly entertaining for reasons I shouldn't be too proud of.

You and I share a peverse sense of humor, Sortelli.


Furries are just geeks, doing what geeks do. More power to 'em. The few who get to the point of trying to have sex in fursuits on yiff piles... well, the more power to them too. Every group has its extremists, and as extremists go, that's reasonably harmless behaviour.

[Tellurider]

I think it probably stems from a sort of personality-induced thing, like SubLet said, combined with (especially re: DuckTales, Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, etc) a common childhood facsination with "what if I were an animal"?

Probably the best example of personality furries are the Daemons in Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. They're not even vaguely human-shaped, but they're the souls of their respective humans and can talk.

Most kids like animals, and wish that they could talk to them, or could be like them. Furries fulfill this fantasy.

Historically there's a lot of facsination with anthropomorphic animals. Examples: native americans and spirit guides, Egyptian gods with bodies of humans and animal heads, Greek myths involving animal transformation (Gods, Odysseus' crew, etc.) Modern day furries are usually linked to the kinky thing, but really, that kind of thing has been around for a long time (see: the more ew-provoking Roman arena events)

For most people, especially in webcomic-land, cartoon furries are probably a combination of "I like to draw in this style," "anthropomorphic animals are interesting," and "they're so much cuter than humans."

But really, Lastcall, I think it's kind of like jazz. If you have to ask, you'll never know.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

I like furries just fine, but I get a huge kick out of furry bashing none the less. The hyper defensiveness it provokes is endlessly entertaining for reasons I shouldn't be too proud of.

Same reason I tell Mac users that I like right clicking. What that Macs have that and all, but the way they like to get all upset about it makes me laugh.

[Killbert-Robby]

Furries are horrible horrible things! Anthopomorphic creations are perverse and sick. I never watched Looney Tunes, I never ate a Kellogs product, and Crash Bandicoot? Bleh.
[/irony]

Furry is a style of art, not just a kind of porn.