The essence of being a furry

[E-mannor]

@ nargle

hehe, yea i was just using your analogy, i didn't want people reading into it because it was not in response to anything, just my opinion alone

 

[Giorgio Gabriel]

Allow me to address something someone will no doubt bring up eventually.

"But, Lord Giorgio, if you seemingly hate filth and perversion so much, why do you still remain in the furry fandom? You're even a dragon, for God's sake - the most filthy and disturbing out of all the species."

Why, that's a very simple question. And it's simply answered, as well. While I can be as mannered and inflect a bit of bonhomie into my usual behavior, enough to ease the fears of the normal folk, I also happen to be fully aware of the ugliness and the vulgarity of the world, in no small part to the Internet.

The furry lifestyle is so delightfully dirty, so full of utter unrestrained carnality that I cannot help but find myself attracted to it like a fly to shit. The furry fandom makes for a wonderful distraction, submerging yourself in a world of people who follow the urges of their loins and wear their fetishes like badges of honour.
The Seven Cardinal Sins that the Xtians fear so much runs rampant in the fandom - just look at a dragon snuffing a lesser creature for Wrath, or a morbidly obese fox or such swallowing another whole for Gluttony. And the best part is that Furries celebrate their perversities and revel in them in some delightfully disturbing show of Saturnalia-like fun on the Internet in their own communities.

A libertine man such as I, amoral and coarse, who does things for the sheer fun of doing it and savors the thick oily corruption of all the supposed evils that Humanity has to offer - why, Furries are therefore dreadfully interesting to me. Their lewd, orgiastic nature is a natural draw, of course. I am unafraid of the fact that I am indulging in a disgusting fetish that would make normal people raise their eyebrows at all the animal people fucking each other in the ass and mouth and such. One might even say I revel in it. That is why it annoys me when furverts attempt to make themselves look good by placing unnecessary importance on their fetish. I just want to enjoy my Dionysian culture of the obscene without DRAGON SPIRIT and INNER ANIMAL. I agree that everyone has an inner animal, but it's not restricted to furries. It's called the Id.

 

[SparkOfMortality]

Allow me to address something someone will no doubt bring up eventually.

"But, Lord Giorgio, if you seemingly hate filth and perversion so much, why do you still remain in the furry fandom? You're even a dragon, for God's sake - the most filthy and disturbing out of all the species."

Why, that's a very simple question. And it's simply answered, as well. While I can be as mannered and inflect a bit of bonhomie into my usual behavior, enough to ease the fears of the normal folk, I also happen to be fully aware of the ugliness and the vulgarity of the world, in no small part to the Internet.

The furry lifestyle is so delightfully dirty, so full of utter unrestrained carnality that I cannot help but find myself attracted to it like a fly to shit. The furry fandom makes for a wonderful distraction, submerging yourself in a world of people who follow the urges of their loins and wear their fetishes like badges of honour.
The Seven Cardinal Sins that the Xtians fear so much runs rampant in the fandom - just look at a dragon snuffing a lesser creature for Wrath, or a morbidly obese fox or such swallowing another whole for Gluttony. And the best part is that Furries celebrate their perversities and revel in them in some delightfully disturbing show of Saturnalia-like fun on the Internet in their own communities.

A libertine man such as I, amoral and coarse, who does things for the sheer fun of doing it and savors the thick oily corruption of all the supposed evils that Humanity has to offer - why, Furries are therefore dreadfully interesting to me. Their lewd, orgiastic nature is a natural draw, of course. I am unafraid of the fact that I am indulging in a disgusting fetish that would make normal people raise their eyebrows at all the animal people fucking each other in the ass and mouth and such. One might even say I revel in it. That is why it annoys me when furverts attempt to make themselves look good by placing unnecessary importance on their fetish. I just want to enjoy my Dionysian culture of the obscene without DRAGON SPIRIT and INNER ANIMAL. I agree that everyone has an inner animal, but it's not restricted to furries. It's called the Id.

Stop doing that. I don't know whether to burn you at the stake or worship you as a god.

 

[KaiserVadin]

It is a broad term. Not by it's definition, but because it's that thing along the lines of "someone who likes ice-cream" - who doesn't?


I'm sure it's up to people to decide what to consider themselves.

Thing is though - while watching football doesn't make you a football player, it does make you a football fan. And we just happen to be furry fans.

I put sugar on icecream when I was a kid to make it taste better but then I found out it had sugar already in it o.o

 

[Draco_2k]

Draco- Furries ARE the anthro people, and the desire to be one. A furry isn't someone who just enjoys looking at them. If that was true, every flippin kid would be a furry. But they're not. Plus, there's a reason it's called the furry fandom. The people are fans of anthropomorphic animals, thus they like drawing them or looking like them, but some feel the desire to identify themselves as a furry, becoming more then just a fan. I'm not trying to exclude furry fans from the fandom or anything, because they do in fact make up a lot of it.

Well, that's just silly. There's furry, and then there's furry roleplay - just like sci-fi roleplay, fantasy roleplay, whatever else roleplay. Some people take it close to heart - but so what? Neither is exclusive to just this fandom. Personally, I would say that someone who spends half of their time a day looking at furry art is a bigger fan than someone who casually plays a fursona of sorts.

As for kids watching Disney and stuff... Who said they're not? None of this excludes whoever likes mickey as a character from being a "furry" - casually or not. Noone might actually give a damn, but that's another thing.

All I'm saying is the mere liking of the art isn't enough to call yourself a furry.

Actually it is. It's the only thing everyone here has in common.

Let's put a cross example everyone seems to like around here: Does being attracted to your own sex make you gay? "Of course not, some people just like that sort of thing, but we can't call ALL of them gay. They wouldn't call themselves gay, right."

That is EXACTLY how "furry" I am. Like you just wrote out my beliefs right there. If THAT alone makes you a furry than I am completely and 100% furry.

Ah, the virtue of Dictionary.

In extension: Do you have to be a member of the fandom just for fitting the description? No, not really. Being part of a group is a social choice. Falling under a definition isn't.

I put sugar on icecream when I was a kid to make it taste better but then I found out it had sugar already in it o.o

I used to salt it. Everything tastes better with salt.

 

[TheGreatCrusader]

I used to salt it. Everything tastes better with salt.

Wouldn't that melt the ice cream?

 

[Draco_2k]

Wouldn't that melt the ice cream?

Don't remember. But thanks to you, I'll have to find out myself now.

 

[ZeeDog]

Personally I think oppositely from what you do... I don't see why one has to be completely "immersed" to be furry.

-I don't necessarily mean that you have to have it as your only or not even your main subculture, but to be consistent. If you admire furry art, don't attack things that are necessarily furry. If you really love it, let your furryness leak into your everyday life. But it's one or the other, either you like furry, or you don't, and either you are a furry, or you're not.

I don't think I'm an animal nor do I think I have some sort of connection to the animals that make up my fursona (just that I have things in common, sharing traits which I have explained in other threads);

-Well, then I'd say "ur doin it rong". I mean, half the fun is having an animal that is totally you, and that's how the furs I grew up with did it(unless the general idea of animalness is totally you). Also, are those thing in common just superficial things, or fundamental things? My theory only explains why furry art and acting like a furry is so good, not that you directly get to furry from where I explained.

I only wear my furry attire at conventions, with the exception of my hoof-slippers because, well they're slippers. x) But I like anthromorphic characters, both drawing and in other media forms (ie Disney and books), and I like animals in general so I call myself a furry. It seems I am less "furry" than you are and yet I still consider myself one (and my WoW guildmates relentlessly call me one as well because they think it's funny o_o). I just don't understand how you can compare a furry artist to a sports spectator. Furry artists are furries. "Furry" isn't some exclusive club just for RLYSRS or fanatical people.

Well, I'm trying to see why exactly people like furries and want to act like them. And it's not a matter of degree, but of quality. It's either you are a furry, are not, there is no middle ground. I emphazise that the point where you are a furry yourself is when you openly express your anthromotphication, not just when you reach a degree of adquired mishmash of different themes found in furry. Such a definition is impractical, since eventually we'll inflate the meaning of the word and make it meaningless.

I'll be responding to different posts throughout the topic, don't mind me

 

[ZeeDog]

Well I like costuming and if there was a way to become my fursona without some sort of consequence (which includes being ostracized from society ) then I supposed I would. Nonetheless I still think of "furries" as any member of the FURRY FANDOM.

First off, don't live of the world's uneducated opinion, explain to them why you love furry, don't shyly try to sneak it in. And as I said, I've honestly have not seen it defined like that until recently. I say it would be more practical if the definition was a quality and not a degree, since then anybody could call themselves furries for any relationship to anthro stuff, which would essentually make it more popular at the expense of the idea of furry.

that sounds good. Being called a furry is a very subjective thing IMO. I personally believe that people who have a love for furry art (not just a neutral liking -for it) could be called a furry, a minor one at that.

I also believe, that there are different levels of 'furryness', loving the art as the low point and acting like an animal all of the time and wearing fur suits a lot as the high point.

Personally, i fall in the point to where i do wish i was an anthro and do show some traits of dogness in my personality (ie, i growl when not pleased, i also tend to raise my upper lip when made so it looks like i have a snaral (sp???), etc... all without realy trying to do so.). I don't personally own a fursuit, but that is only because i don't have the money for one. so i guess i could be called a furry

-Yes, even if it's just a little, under my definition you would be considered a furry, even if it's only a light interest in anthromorphizing yourself, not just furry in general

Wait, what?

"Furry" is a short for "Furry fan", always has been. Neither implies roleplaying or whatever else just because said stuff happens to be relatively popular among other fans - it's just about liking anthros.

I grew up with the definition being anthromorphizing yourself, so I don't know

Also, this quoting system confuses me o_o

 

[ZeeDog]

Not necessarily. I am a furry because I like anthropomorphic animals. I always have, and I always will. I was drawn to things like Robin Hood and Crash Bandicoot because I thought anthros were cool, but I have no desire to be one, and that is where you are wrong. By your definition, I'm not a furry.

I don't draw, I don't wish to be one, I don't fursuit, I don't even have a fursona. Am I a furry by your definition? No, I'm not. Am I a furry under mine? Yes, I am.

Well, then lets argue which is better

Nargle, it's fine for you to have that opinion but it irks me that you keep stating it like it's a fact. Who are you to tell people whether they can consider themselves a furry? I think the above poster is a good example.

-Lets not worry about who we are to say this or that, but what we say.

We are ALL furry fans. "Real" furries, aka anthromorphic animals, are not real. So it doesn't matter if someone thinks they are one, they are still a fan, not an actual furry. Furry as we use it is merely a term for a member of the furry fandom, which consists of a wide spectrum of people ranging from people who just appreciate anthromorphics in various medias to people who think they're werewolves.

-As I explained, furries are romanticized people, so they are obviously not real, it is the ideas behind them that matter, like a dogboy meaning you are playful, etc.

 

[Draco_2k]

I grew up with the definition being anthromorphizing yourself, so I don't know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandom

I wouldn't call out anthropomorphising yourself as anything different to basic roleplaying. All of us do it - someone wants to be a knight from their favourite novel, others want to learn the way of the Force - and some of us want to be a talking dog standing on it's hindpaws.

Sure, some of us (e.g. me) take it fairly seriously - but that's the special thing about one's affection, isn't it.

Also, this quoting system confuses me o_o

You could hit "Quote" a few times and then paste the results from each tab into a single one, if you have anywhere near decent concentration skillz.

 

[ZeeDog]

One of my fave quotes (that never seems to amuse anyone else) is Victor Hugo (you know, the guy who wrote the book Les Miserables-- yes it was a book before it was a musical!):



Personally, what I think lies at the root of the fandom is a fascination. And at the root of that fascination are two instincts (fairly well documented by evolutionary psych guys) we evolved to have:

One is a fascination with living things, their forms, habits, and essential "character" or "essence" or "spirit." Thus, catness, dogness, horseness, etc, especially if you've ever been aroud cats, dogs, horses, respectively.
The other instinct is a fascination with/awareness of other intelligent beings-- and the reflexive attempt to try and understand or "model" what's going on in their minds.

-Yes, concepts and the beings that derive them.

When you put the two together, you inevitably have an inborn human fascination with the idea of animals with a human point of view (and by extension, intelligence, language, even hands and the rest.)

-Well, I wouldn't say with animals, but with ideals and concepts in general, and a fascination with people who are examples of them, like heroes, villains, furries, larger than life characters, etc

From there, I think it's fairly normal to try and elaborate this sense of fascination and awe, into a distinguishing part of one's identity. Like you said, people notice that a person has certain "catlike" features, ergo, they identify with a cat.

-Yes, as I said, this works with other ideas as well, but furries are the ones who use animals as their symbols

Through history, human spiritual practices have always found some set of inspirational ideas to latch onto. In some eras, it's the cycle of the seasons and vegetation growth, harvest, death, rebirth-- and the slain-and-ressurected king that goes along with all that. In others, it's the complex but regular patterns of the stars and planets. In others, the perfection and nobility of human form and reason. In many of the first, as with our ancestors over the millenia of the great hunt across the plains of Eurasia-- and I would argue, strongly emergent in the furry fandom-- the fascination is with animal forms and powers.

I agree that it's flimsy to go with some definition of "furry" most of us know misses the mark, like "anthing goes!!!"

On the other hand, I disagree that an especially intense identification with an animal is the most basic thing. The most basic thing is the fascination itself.

-However, I separated the fascination(the fandom) from the furries

I think another thing that comes from identifying with an animal or species, is the whole make-believe game of "what would it be like to be such an animal," and the biggest deal for whitebread joe like me, at least, when it comes to that, is that animals obviously live largely free of the ordinary social baggage and jarringly artificial circumstances we humans find ourselves trapped in.

-Though I have seen some furs say that, I don't see how they reached the conclusion they became furries to escape it, as furries are symbols for people, fundamental symbols of what those people are. So there has to be some sort of reason to come to furries in the first place, to want to be a fur of all things(as it will bring you more baggage), a reason why they love furries more than other people, and that is that furdom is fundamentally and idealist view of life, so it's more about an idea than an escape.

One of the words I hear furries use to describe this imagined state of mind is "innocence." However you describe it, this similar-but-different, social-but-not-trapped, uncomplicated, baggage- and disgust- and superstition-free attitude toward life that we can imagine having as animals-with-a-point-of-view, is the other part of what I've always seen as essentially furry, and I think you may have been getting at it too, in a way.

Anyway, that's my take on it. Inborn fascination with the idea of thinking animals plus the daydream of naturalness/innocence. That's furry.

-No, it's not animal innocence, it is the peace of living properly, of worshiping ideals and ideas, and revolving your life around them.(hmmm, I wanna expand on this)

 

[SparkOfMortality]

Don't look at the encyclopedia dramatica definition is all I'm saying >__>

 

[ZeeDog]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandom

I wouldn't call out anthropomorphising yourself as anything different to basic roleplaying. All of us do it - someone wants to be a knight from their favourite novel, others want to learn the way of the Force - and some of us want to be a talking dog standing on it's hindpaws.

-No, there's more to it than just a desire to RP for fun(also, I don't mean RP specifically, barking, animal mannerisms, wearing a collar, could make you a furry). There's a reason why we love the fandom and our fursona's so passionately, why we pick an animal that fits us, why we identify with it. My theory is that it is ideal worship.

Sure, some of us (e.g. me) take it fairly seriously - but that's the special thing about one's affection, isn't it.

-Well yes, as we should take our ideas seriously and be consistent.

 

[Draco_2k]

-No, there's more to it than just a desire to RP for fun(also, I don't mean RP specifically, barking, animal mannerisms, wearing a collar, could make you a furry). There's a reason why we love the fandom and our fursona's so passionately, why we pick an animal that fits us, why we identify with it. My theory is that it is ideal worship.

That's still called "roleplaying" though - and personal ideals might or might not be part of it. The Knight/Jedi example I used before applies here as well.

 

[ZeeDog]

That's still called "roleplaying" though - and personal ideals might or might not be part of it. The Knight/Jedi example I used before applies here as well.

I'm saying that there's more to furry roleplaying than say Knight/Jedi roleplaying. Or maybe not. Depends on the principles behind it.

 

[Draco_2k]

I'm saying that there's more to furry roleplaying than say Knight/Jedi roleplaying. Or maybe not. Depends on the principles behind it.

Inherently, there's no reason there should be. I'd say it depends on each individual case.

 

[kayko]

i can support that i love the way you used your words

 

[ZeeDog]

Inherently, there's no reason there should be. I'd say it depends on each individual case.

Well, anyway, it would be a conclusion that leads to role playing, among others. But the point is, it's the open anthromorphization of oneself that I refer to. Not sure if this can all be considered role playing, stuff like wearing collars, being cuddly and demanding pettings, as you're not really role playing as expressing your inner identity. Basicaly, RPing as a furry makes you a furry, but being a furry can be things other than RP.

 

[AnyaDServal]

Don't look at the encyclopedia dramatica definition is all I'm saying >__>

Take that about as seriously, if not less, than anything you see on crushyiffdestroy, something awful, or portal of evil. It's all just LULZ (god I hate that term).

 

[Draco_2k]

Well, anyway, it would be a conclusion that leads to role playing, among others. But the point is, it's the open anthromorphization of oneself that I refer to. Not sure if this can all be considered role playing, stuff like wearing collars, being cuddly and demanding pettings, as you're not really role playing as expressing your inner identity. Basicaly, RPing as a furry makes you a furry, but being a furry can be things other than RP.

In roleplaying, participants adopt and act out the role of characters, or parts, that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own.

We commonly use the word to refer to people in internet chatrooms or up at some hills somewhere playing out their characters in public, but the actual definition would be this.

Having a fursona is hardly somehow different - and neither are possible idealisation or emotional/personal attachments, etc. It might be a popular thing inside the fandom (actually, we don't have the numbers on that), but that's another matter.

 

[ZeeDog]

We commonly use the word to refer to people in internet chatrooms or up at some hills somewhere playing out their characters in public, but the actual definition would be this.

Having a fursona is hardly somehow different - and neither are possible idealisation or emotional/personal attachments, etc. It might be a popular thing inside the fandom (actually, we don't have the numbers on that), but that's another matter.

Well, basing it on that definition, a fursona is definitely different, since it is basically a idealized or fundamental view of yourself, instead of some random character you have no connection to. That would mean that furry RP is different because the character is essentially you. Hell, I talk with my mate about work and pet him in the same conversation.

 

[Draco_2k]

Well, basing it on that definition, a fursona is definitely different, since it is basically a idealized or fundamental view of yourself, instead of some random character you have no connection to. That would mean that furry RP is different because the character is essentially you. Hell, I talk with my mate about work and pet him in the same conversation.

Not "random", just different from actual you - as in, flesh and blood.

 

[ZeeDog]

Not "random", just different from actual you - as in, flesh and blood.

Well, there would be the problem, the fursona is the fundamental you, while the Knight may have nothing to do with you

 

[Draco_2k]

Well, there would be the problem, the fursona is the fundamental you, while the Knight may have nothing to do with you

You are not the embodiment of your ideals in flesh and blood - that's why remain ideals as such.

Being a knight of shiny armour might be someone's deepest ideal. Being a furry might be a role assumed just for fun, as well.