Yeah, my mom actually thinks that about anime, and my dad thinks that the furry fandom is weird/overly sexual. While I agree that furry is not an identity and that it is absolutely not comming out, there are still reasons why people choose to hide their interest. I'm open with my peers and my sister about being a furry, but I don't tell my parents because I know they hold a pretty unfavorable view of the stuff here.
You hide your interests more often than you'd think. Guilty pleasures have always been around and people have named them that for a reason. We're supposedly adults with an unusual attraction to cartoons (that alone is out of the ordinary), and a
specific theme in said cartoons -- aka: an obsession with anthropomorpholy. The usage of "fursonas" leads to people thinking we're "otherkin", and the amount of porn we as a fandom create and consume on a daily basis is extraordinary. Let's face it, we're an odd bunch, and we attract odd people -- like zoophiles -- and that will always be the case.
Not to say we don't deserve some merit! Our
fursuiters are hardworking people, our
art is adorably great and our
pornography is, perhaps, the top ranking erotic cartoon material on the Internet!. However, this is only if we judge ourselves by the "
elites" - the majority of people creates "okay" art at best, MS Paint fetish compilations and animations of transgender source ponies clopping with ginormous penises, while the other bunch writes criny roleplays and fanfictions. Some create music and other forms of art, but it has little to do with the fandom. So I wouldn't blame people for not understanding us. :/
