Furries are an important indicator species for online spaces. They are a sign of a healthy platform.
Look, you want the guy I know to fix your computer? Maybe deal with the wolf costume?
“Cool” is taking it a bit far.
The furry community is one of the most accepting and open minded communities because they understand what it’s like to be treated as outcasts and to be chastised for liking something that’s completely harmless just because it’s out of the norm. Most of the time it’s not even a sexual thing for them, it’s just something they like or something that makes them feel more comfortable out in public. It’s a way to make their exterior to be exactly what they want it to be. So in that way I think they’re pretty cool as a whole.
Honestly, it’s the exact opposite. Furries are pretty hot.
Yanno, because of all the fur.
I’m perfectly comfortable with taking it as far as “so long as it’s all consenting adults, it’s none of my fucking business, and I wish them all well.”
If it’s not my thing, no big deal. Some people like feet, and it’s not my thing, so no big deal.
Even if I find it personally gross, again, consenting adults, no big deal. Some people are into watersports, but hey, so long as they’re not leaving a mess or hurting each other, no big deal.
We’ve got enough trouble in the world without also trying to police what adults are doing in their goddamn personal lives. I yearn for a day in which more people could accept the “it’s none of my fucking business” ethos.
Yeah, I agree with all that. Doesn’t make anyone “cool” based on their sexual preference.
It’s not a sexual preference, it’s an artistic style and subject preference.
My hard line is at the sexualizing animals, no matter how disguised, but whatever. It’s fantasy. There are far worse role playing scenarios.
If you flip it around to giving animal features to people, is that fine?
It’s fine either way, add long as they can give consent. I’m just not attracted to animals, whether it’s a pig head on a human body, or an intelligent pig.
sexualizing animals
Anthropomorphized creatures with a blend of animal and human form/anatomy, and, crucially, human-level intelligence/sapience, are not the same as the real world’s “animals”.
No one at a furry convention is chatting with others about how sexy someone’s pet cat is, lol.
Huh?
“I do not like a certain subset of humanity because they are different than me and I feel safe punching down at them”
“I don’t think this particular hobby is cool” is not “I do not like a certain subset of humanity” and you are a clown for attempting such. If you’ve ever wondered why someone dislikes you, it is probably because of this behavior.
Unfortunately, that’s not what they meant.
Woah, you put a lot of words in my mouth. I don’t mind them at all. I just wouldn’t say they’re cool. Thinking about it now, it’s weird to think anyone is cool because of their sexual preference.
Turns out it was the bog standard “furries are sexual deviants” stereotype that’s existed since the early days of the internet.🥱
Still nothing about being a deviant, go cry about strawmen tho
Except it’s not a straw man though, because the furry=fetish stereotype has a verifiable source of when it entered the mainstream culture from a pair of TV episodes in the 90s and 00s - the famous CSI episode and one from a similar show that I can’t remember the name of. These two painted furry conventions as basically sex dens filled with orgies of people in animal costumes, and that was the first time most people outside of niche parts of the internet had even heard of furries.
Before furries, it happened to Trekkies. People said that people only liked Star Trek for the sexy green alien women. But it isn’t often that a fandom is treated like this and for this long. Anime had a similar but not quite the same stereotype, but that’s largely relegated to the really bad parts of the anime fandom.
And it’s very similar to the pathologization of trans women as men who get off on the idea of seeing themselves as women.
I’m not saying that they think that furries are sexual predators or something. I’m saying that the idea of furries being a fetish is a stereotype born from a malicious place that painted an entire minority as a bunch of sexual deviants for viewership on TV, and that they’re perpetuating that stereotype.
Woah, you put a lot of words in my mouth. I don’t mind them at all. I just wouldn’t say they’re cool. Thinking about it now, it’s weird to think anyone is cool because of their sexual preference.
Being a furry isn’t inherently sexual
Why is there this weird prudish subset of the internet that seeks to over-sexualize benign activities that make them uncomfortable.
Furries are, at most, a place where a minority find it easier to express sexuality (such as homo-, bi-, pan-sexuality amongst others). This isn’t because it’s inherently sexual, but because they feel comfort and lack of judgment from their peers.
It’s a shame that you find that kind of acceptance to be uncomfortable
It’s a shame that you find that kind of acceptance to be uncomfortable
What the fuck are you talking about? I never said anything is the sort.
Nah you were just ostensibly judgy about a specific subset of cosplay enthusiasts. They put a lot of effort into the show. It’s a huge trigger.
If, for instance, you were a large-hat enthusiast, you might be put out if someone decided you fucked kids because of your sombrero.
Except, I didn’t do that.
Its not punching down to be uncomfortable with people sexualising animals
Dude, are werewolves the same as wolf-wolves to you? Because they are really not the same at all. It’s like saying a lemur is the same as a human. It is cognitively and anatomically very different.
Sure, but I’ve also seen plenty of content that is along the lines of “dog level of intelligence in caked up human body” (see: that slimy fucking “dog girlfriend” comic the one person posts to the comics community about once a week) and content that is “lets leave the anthro aspects on the shelf today” (Let me check my tag blacklist… pretty sure it’s tagged as “feral” on boorus).
Maybe this guy is talking about anthro stuff, or even catgirls, and is just pearl clutching. But there are also some quite concerning subgroups under the furry umbrella (much like many large groups). Just saying.
Yea I obviously agree that when the ‘feral’ category is sexualized, it is unimaginably gross, at that point you are really just making gross zoophilic art and invading furry spaces with it. But normal ‘feral’ art is just about cuteness and the intellegence is often scaled to be on-par with humans (think like Fox and The Hound). Do you beleive that version of ‘feral’ is bad?
It is when you generalize an entire subculture based on an episode of CSI from 1999
Yeah those fursuits look really hot to wear
why? i think they’re cool, is there smth i don’t know?
Nope
Yeah, I think it should be really warm in such costumes
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I can respect that they deserve to be treated a humans and still find it gross. because it’s gross.
Gross? What’s gross about it?
Mostly the related art. The amount of yiff communities I had to block to keep their porn out of my feed was surprising. I don’t begrudge them their lifestyle. You want to put on something and have sex with somebody, go for it. I’m not into even 1%. The amount of erotic art that exists is beyond astounding to me. Meanwhile, I struggle to find active communities about Halloween, Lego, and various games I play. Granted, I haven’t looked lately for new ones, but the ones I subscribed to previously aren’t very active.
That might be an instance issue, honestly. I have never seen porn of any kind cross my feed unless I specifically go looking for it. Your instance might just be federated with a bunch of furry porn communities.
My feed is basically exclusively 196, politics, Linux, Star Trek, and related meme subs to those - and I just set my feed to top 24 hours or sort by active on the all feed. But I also think a lot of communities outside of those are rather underrepresented on Lemmy.
From my understanding of federated instances, wouldn’t that mean your instance disconnected from whatever instance where those communities were hosted? Additionally, my instance either hosts those communities or is still connected with them, yes? I’m trying to explain Lemmy to friends. So, I’m making sure my understanding is accurate.
Yeah, that’s right. You’re on .world, right? Which I believe is federated with just about everything. There are all kinds of instances out there, and some are more selective of which instances they’re federated with to filter out communities like that.
That’s correct. I’m fine filtering them out manually, I was just very surprised at how much content I was seeing.
Fur suits and furry porn are two different things.
Sure, but nearly all of the furry art I’ve seen has been porn. I get that there are lifestyles and activities that are not porn-related. Either way if you’re into it, you do your thing. I’m probably not going to be commenting on their creativity because I find the whole thing a little creepy, but I also wouldn’t limit someone’s ability to live that way.
nearly all of the furry art I’ve seen has been porn
That’s a you problem, the majority of furry art is not porn, and it’s trivially easy on pretty much every site online where furry art is compiled, to filter out explicit material.
You said you find fur suits gross though, those aren’t inherently sexual.
That was someone else. I’m not the original commenter on this comment chain.
When they asked them what they thought was gross you answered, so I would assume you share that opinion. Do you not?
Y’all smell under that suit.
thats a plus for some
Uh, read their username
I, unfortunately, do not have a suit 😭
A certified furry classic uwu
Its one of those niche communities that makes me smile - a lot of creativity there. They’re my kind of critters (absolute geeks and nerds).
Same I’ve been to so many furcons and it’s a fandom full of geeks and nerds. The creativity of the community is awesome and it’s something you don’t see in any other fandoms. Them fursuits do be crazy expensive too and it’s really just a form of cosplay which is what people don’t understand.
Did meet disgusting furries too that painted my view in a not-so bright light. Oh well, I’m now just more cautious all-around.
There are horrible people in every group. Unfortunately, it tends to be the worst offenders that stand out and define the rest.
The community is so awesome. I have never felt like I truly belong in anything but the fandom.
I’ve blocked every furry community that hits my screen - not my cup of tea - but I also see quality posts from you all the time in the corners of Lemmy that I do frequent. You 100% belong here, to Lemmy at large and not just the furry subsets of it. 👊
i’m not a furry
i don’t f/w spaces if i don’t see furries around & welcomed
for one i want to know its a place people don’t have to pass to feel safe
To be clear: I harbor no resentment against furries. They have a right to do their thing, I just don’t want to be involved.
If furry porn didn’t exist, then I might have less of a prejudice against furries and furry content. But as it stands, I will actively avoid anything with the furry aesthetic, because the porn is too weird for me to stomach. You will never be able to remove that association; the damage is done. When I see video games that I might otherwise like, but the art is furry art, I think, “ah, that’s a shame. Won’t be playing that.”
…every furry i’ve known has been a cool person: i’m not saying it’s universal but the fandom tends to attract geeky fun-loving personalities and those are my favorite kind of people to play with…
…as for furry sexuality (which of course isn’t strictly synonymous with the fandom): well, it may not be my jam but neither are men, so i don’t feel any differently about it than i do corset-rippers or gay erotica; as long folks keep their kinks tastefully discreet, go with the gods…
(really the only kink which gets under my skin is objectification / degredation / humiliation / exploitation, and that’s sexuality-agnostic)
Idk, I can enjoy a good set of bunny ears or tail
I still have an old comment on my computer from Kongregate where I disliked a game just for having a wolf character.
I now hang out with furries more than other types of people.
Imagine refusing to play Tunic because of this.
Tunic has a very different art style from furry art IMO.
I don’t care for furries, but I actually dislike the common art style that Western furries use. They always have this aesthetic that make them look like knock-off DreamWorks characters. Not sure if they count as furries but I find animal-based characters in anime much cuter. Also, I’m not a huge fan of their R-18 stuff popping up on my feed.
Unless they are Nazi or pedo furries.
That goes for all people
Have you met one? Truly curious.
Also turned on by system administrators doing sequential straight leg lifts while walking, can’t help it
I’ve seen a few in my time. Hell, in another post I mentioned that I used to like 2 the Gryphon’s content. He was like a furry Maddox. Hadn’t thought about him in years, looked up if he was still around and discovered he was arrested for possession of child porn and joined a neo-nazi group. :/
On some discord servers over the years I have. Especially related to any games with historical warfare involved like WW2.
I have lots of friends who are furries. I just tell them I’m too old and don’t get it, but have fun.
Those outfits look really impressive upclose.
Not a furry either but I really appreciate just the sheer amount of effort these people put into the costumes. must take a lot of time and money to do but these people love what they do and go to these conventions where they have tons of fun. props to them!! 👍
Dedication and creativity
had a strange discussion a couple years ago with someone who insisted their fursona / fur suit outfit should be protected like LGBTQ rights have been enshrined. I took exception to that and still do because I do not want to see this as a lever to justify excluding / persecuting LGBTQ folk who have fought for a century for their rights. The way they put it was that ‘stonewall’ was for furry rights as much as LGBTQ rights and my mind said: yeah but they did the fighting, they’ve been in the struggle, you just showed up with a fox suit with crotch zippers… my dawg…
I’m not advocating for their persecution, nor do I believe ‘we have enough diversity and should close the door’… but I still don’t see it as an equivalent.
edit: and so instead of explaining, someone just downvotes. this isn’t going to help your premise.
I do not want to see this as a lever to justify excluding / persecuting LGBTQ folk
You are the one pushing the lever of exclusion by arguing to remove ‘just a bit’ of the Q from LGBTQ.
Re-read this thread replacing ‘furry’ with any other form of queer and tell me that there’s no struggle, fighting, persecution, etc. An equivalent of what you just said would be:
The way they put it was that ‘stonewall’ was for drag rights as much as LGBTQ rights and my mind said: yeah but they did the fighting, they’ve been in the struggle, you just showed up in clown makeup wearing a dress… my dawg…
Re-read this thread replacing ‘furry’ with any other form of queer
do the LGBTQ folk consider furry a form of queer? or is that just more of the same assumption on furry folks part?
honest query because that’s a lot more important to me than furry folk considering themselves lgbtq.
In order to be welcomed into the “LGBTQ community” you must gain acceptance from the elder queers via the standard committee process. The specifics are written down within the gay agenda if you care to get into the weeds, but ‘furry’ is currently pending review and is in the queue after a consensus is reached on ‘asexual’. /s
Serious answer:
- LGBTQ folk are not a monolith and neither are ‘furry’ folk.
- This folk, me, would include them as such if that is how they self-identify because that is how you treat people.
- You do see how your questions are othering and engaging in the worst kind of gatekeeping right?
of course, you can be gay and furry, but this doesn’t answer the query which was: is furry lgbtq. does a cisgender, straight furry have any claim to the same struggle as stonewall - which was the comment that prompted my query.
you do see how you are continuing to confuse what should be a fairly straight-ahem-forward thing to answer, right?
because I don’t see this as gatekeeping at all, I’m not in either community, but consider myself a strong ally of lgbtq people whom I’ve advocated for my adult life, both in and out of the military. I get that these things are very fluid for some people and titles / permissions aren’t granted by the committee, BUT ALSO, I do listen to my lgbtq peers when they take exception to rando’s hopping onto their float claiming it was built for them.
hence my genuine confusion. it’s not an attempt to limit people’s rights or to man the gates, it’s a genuine question.
does a cisgender, straight furry have any claim to the same struggle as stonewall
If you read through this thread replacing “furry” with any other identity label the levels of discrimination and phobia should be extremely apparent, and this is a rather tolerant and accepting space for them compared to more general cultural attitudes.
Also it’s not like stonewall was the struggle and now that that’s done all the struggle is over. In my opinion the core of “the struggle” is to advocate for inclusivity of all those marginalized. There’s a lot of marganilizing going on in this thread.
you do see how you are continuing to confuse what should be a fairly straight-ahem-forward thing to answer?
To some degree, but the problem is that gender and sexuality is not that straightforward. Do you have suggestions on how to make it less confusing?
I do listen to my lgbtq peers when they take exception to rando’s hopping onto their float claiming it was built for them.
That’s gatekeeping. The only thing it does is further wedge issues and perpetuate divide and conquer exploits. That argument and line of thinking is the exact same one that TERFs, etc. apply. I think they are unaware of the work that the furry community does to help propel that specific float if for no other reason than it adjusts the Overton window.
it’s not an attempt to limit people’s rights or to man the gates, it’s a genuine question.
I know, which is why I’m engaging at all. I apologize as I’m a crotchety old person annoyed at having to constantly repeat the same thing over and over again which always seems to boils down to “discrimination is bad, yeah?”. My frustration isn’t directed at you and I apologize that it’s leaking(spraying) out, but I’m trying to provide a genuine answer to a question with a flawed premise.
To some degree, but the problem is that gender and sexuality is not that straightforward. Do you have suggestions on how to make it less confusing?
yes, by not involving costumes!
That’s gatekeeping. The only thing it does is further wedge issues and perpetuate divide and conquer exploits.
it’s gatekeeping to listen to queer people. Huh. that’s a new one.
“discrimination is bad, yeah?”
and how are they being discriminated against? Are they being refused medical care, marriage rights, the ability to serve their country? I can’t see these as equivalent as they represent two fundamentally wildly different cases - a person wants to wear a costume, vs., a person’s sexual preferences that have been observed in humans and the animal kingdom everywhere.
I’m sorry if my premise is flawed, and I’m not trying to create arguments where there people should find love and support. If people came out of the womb identifying their fursonas perhaps I’d feel differently.
yes, by not involving costumes!
All clothing is costume. People costume to express all sorts of identities, it’s not any more complicated than skirts, dresses, burkas, etc.
it’s gatekeeping to listen to queer people. Huh. that’s a new one.
Textbook
“I have a black friend” fallacyfriend argumentIf people came out of the womb identifying their fursonas
Nobody comes out of the womb identifying as anything. If somebody transitions later in life does that make it less valid?
people should find love and support.
That is all I’m arguing for. If somebody self identifies their sexuality as anthropomorphic fictosexual who are you to argue with that? If they define their gender as otherkin why are you telling them that’s not allowed?
Edited to use more technical phrasing to avoid accidental aspersions.
So I agree with your result but not with the path you took to get there. If we find out tomorrow that there’s some other part of gender or sexuality and people start identifying as that because now their life makes sense with this new label then they should be allowed in even though they didn’t fight or struggle.
But furries aren’t a sexuality or gender, they’re a hobby. It’s just a fun suit and roleplay. That can be enough to base a life around, but it’s a learned hobby like video games or d&d. Not something they’re born with that would cause persecution along with gay and trans rights
Not something they’re born with that would cause persecution along with gay and trans rights
yep.
Not something they’re born with
Sexuality and gender are a complex interaction of nature and nurture, the belief that homosexuality is exclusively a ‘nature’ thing is predicated on eugenics with the goal of eliminating it. The ‘something they’re born with’ counterargument comes from Alfred Kinsey, et al’s work which showed it’s something everyone carries and so it can’t be eliminated that way.
Traumas, experiences, medications, etc. can all cause changes to an individuals sexuality and gender often in unpredictable ways.
Would you be this exclusive of someone who self-identifies as lesbian after an abusive heterosexual marriage?
If you just want to fuck people wearing wolf costumes then it’s okay dude. You didn’t have to write all that
You gonna do some introspection on that defensiveness and why you’re trotting out the homophobic “you only support LGBTQ people cause you’re gay” trope?
That’s not what I’m saying at all. I have no idea where you’re getting that from.
I’m saying that you are probably a furry and you think your hobby belong in the LGBTQ space instead of lumped in with other roleplay hobbies like dungeons & dragons or LARPing.
Literally nothing about being gay or homophobia, that’s a completely different subject and the fact that you brought it up means you’re the one being defensive.
I have no idea where you’re getting that from.
Let me try wording it another way. You are using a very specific rhetorical ad homenin argument where you first engage in “othering” so that you can then confidently dismiss anything said.
I was hoping that wording it in a historical context as opposed to a technical description would help you see it without having to spell it out.
Went to pride march recently. We obviously saw some absolutely wild costumes, lots of skin on show etc, but the furries took it to an extreme level. Like couldn’t you just tone it down a little bit in public so you’re not traumatising children.
so we have pride parades that are all out full nudity here heh. PNW. But it’s easier to explain for me. They might see some tiny shriveled dinkies. That’s the majesty of human forms kids. It’s not the skin that would bother me, it’s the mixing of adult and kid stuff that you get with furries. A valid counter-argument is, we sexualize motherhood as well - hell the Venus of Willendorf is some people’s ideal - and that’s not seen as taboo.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all develops in the next few decades.
