What is a furry? I think that it is not you

[jcstinks]

Internet. Hey, Internet. Yeah, we need to talk about this thing.

"Furries." You know them? I'll send you an example.



That is a furry.

This thing below is not a furry.



It is a person.

What I am trying to understand, Internet, is this.

The Internet often asks me if I am a "real" furry. I ask why it occurs to them to ask. What I hear is:

: I don't use the name and picture of one of my characters on any non-furry sites.
: I rarely play video games or watch cartoons.
: Most of people I know Online don't know what furries are, and almost none of the people in my real, actual life do.
: I never call myself "a furry" or go by the names of fictional characters I've created.
: If I know someone from this site well enough, I call them by their real name rather than the name of a character.

The big one is:

: I differentiate myself from characters I've created completely.

This is a big pet peeve for me. So far as I'm concerned, there is no worse thing a person can do but tell me that "*wags* I just met a new corgi who lives down the street today." Unless you are being unreasonably excited about a friend's pet, you did not actually meet a corgi. You met a human being. This is what I look to understand about animal people. What is it about the furry identity that makes it so obsessive?

I have the hardest time getting people to not call me by other names, even people I've known for the better part of a decade. I am just never going to be able to call someone "Gas Mask Fox." It is not possible for me. Persons on furry-related sites often ask me why I'm there if I don't have a fictional character on display to stand-in for myself. Can I not just go as myself? I don't understand why this is an issue.

Or rather, I do. The majority of people you see who identify as "furries" rather than simply visit sites for animal people fall into a pretty slim profile of adultlescents who play video games as a "hobby" and generally do not have much of a real-life persona. Rather, they make up a stage personality to live a separate life through on the Internet, where the vast majority of their Internet pen friends will do the same. This is something you see sometimes in young students who paint their faces white and call themselves "Masstress Alita of the Dark." It's not something you see of real, actual grown-ups, the kind who generally otherwise have lives, jobs, and personalities.

The separation is so distinct that I feel I can't have a real, actual conversation with many furries at all. Most of them refuse to talk about their real life except in the most perfunctory sense, even to people they know well. I do not have trouble with this talking to real, actual people over the Internet. The only topics of conversation that seem to work for furries are:

: Did you play the new video game?
: There is this children's cartoon I bet you will like a lot.
: Have you seen this funny link?
: Were you aware that the cake is a lie?
: HAY GUISE ITTY BITTY BABY ITTY BITTY BOAT hahaha wacky and random
: Want to pretend to have sex?
: I'm gay

This is a conversation that I do not like.

me: Hey. George.
George: hi
me: What's going on, guy? It's been a long time.
Furryous George: not much
me: Did I miss anything good?
Furryous George: no hey i've been playing the new hit men with swords game
Furryous George: have you head of it? here are links to lots of videos of me playing the game
Furryous George: so you can enjoy the game vicariously through my game playing experience
me: Oh hey that looks like a lot of fun here are a bunch of words about your game okay now.
me: Hey didn't you just get a new job? Congratulations! It's been a long time, hasn't it?
Furryous George: oh yeah i'm not going to talk about it at all
Furryous George: i am going to not have anything else to say about any other topic you bring up than video games now
Furryous George: did you know pac-man was originally called puck-man
Furryous George: here's a picture of a dog dick
Furryous George: japan is so weird here's a video of japan
Furryous George: want to play tf2
Furryous George: also i'm gay

So in conclusion, what I guess I'm saying is, I'd be much happier if animal people were anything more like real, actual people who did not perseverate on one thing until it becomes their entire life. I can try to appreciate video games and cartoons and animal penises as much as the rest of the Internet, but I'd like to know there's a real person under all that as well. Or perhaps furries are just an elaborate hoax controlled by a really good version of SmarterChild designed to sew lonely animal penises.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

[Guest]

quality thread here on phoenix dot corvidae dot org

[Zaraphayx]

Cool essay nerd lmao

[Zerig]

thats cool but did u no im gay

[Zeke]

What a valuable thread!

[evan]

3 minutes ago, jcstinks said:

So in conclusion, what I guess I'm saying is, I'd be much happier if animal people were anything more like real, actual people who did not perseverate on one thing until it becomes their entire life.

I go to school with musicians. I'm having trouble finding actual people that don't have this quality.

[jcstinks]

2 minutes ago, Lemon said:

quality thread here on phoenix dot corvidae dot org

Wow, after I spent all that time making this thread, is that all you have to say to me? You know, you may have the right to disagree, but you didn't have to recklessly disregard my feelings it in their entirety. I honestly expect more from someone who claims to "represent" this community.

[kazooie]

im a goat

[Snagged]

1 minute ago, kazooie said:

im a goat

I'm on a boat

[Guest]

1 minute ago, jcstinks said:

Wow, after I spent all that time making this thread, is that all you have to say to me? You know, you may have the right to disagree, but you didn't have to recklessly disregard my feelings it in their entirety. I honestly expect more from someone who claims to "represent" this community.

On topic, I have legit met people that thought they were their fursonas, but they could only be the "real them" online. I thought it was something called otherkin, but...??

[Zaraphayx]

5 minutes ago, Zeke said:

What a valuable thread!

Thank you for your post.

[Zeke]

3 hours ago, Zaraphayx said:

Thank you for your post.

You are most welcome.

[kazooie]

Just now, Lemon said:

On topic, I have legit met people that thought they were their fursonas, but they could only be the "real them" online. I thought it was something called otherkin, but...??

I briefly lived in a house where everyone referred to each other by their usernames. The leaseholder was a bird.

 

He would perch on sofas instead of sitting on them.

 

i tried talking to him about birds once. he didn't care for them at all.

[Revates]

I am literally an animal person behind a computer screen. Thanks.

[jcstinks]

7 minutes ago, Zeke said:

What a valuable thread!

.-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-.
 *
 * Oh my gosh, that has got to be the nicest
 * thing I read all day. Thank you for sharing!
 * ^_^;;
 *
 .-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-..-:*'*:-.

[Astus]

I don't know.... I think I am furry; just look at my profile pic, that's me in real life!!!

[Snagged]

2 minutes ago, Revates said:

I am literally an animal person behind a computer screen. Thanks.

On internet, you can lie anything, anytime.

I am actually a dog. But nobody will find out because I am on internet

[Revates]

Just now, Snagged Cub said:

On internet, you can lie anything, anytime.

I am actually a dog. But nobody will find out because I am on internet

But why would anyone on the internet lie? :V

[jcstinks]

6 minutes ago, kazooie said:

I briefly lived in a house where everyone referred to each other by their usernames. The leaseholder was a bird.

 

He would perch on sofas instead of sitting on them.

 

i tried talking to him about birds once. he didn't care for them at all.

Every manimal I've met in real life goes by their handle in real life. They often didn't even know each others' names, after years of face-to-face communication. People would introduce me fully as "a lynx-fox, jcfynx." They would say, "oh, this is a lynx-fox friend of mine. I met him while I was with a cat friend of mine." They seemed to know absolutely nothing about each other whatsoever outside of what video games they liked and their mutual love of gross penises. And I think that's gross.

[Onnes]

The question that I think must be asked is: Where are you finding these people? If you look for people that are highly involved in any community, chances are that community will represent a disproportionate amount of their time and identity. Anyone that, for example, takes the time and sanity penalty to go to a furry RP IRC channel is probably in the top decile of furry enthusiasts.

[Ieono]

I tend to be the same as you. This is just something I have an interest in....my fursona is sort of like my muse. I'm not obsessive about furry-ism(?) at all, and I feel out of place when I'm around people that call themselves furries in real life. I have numerous interests, and its always hard for me to call myself this and that without being associated with the worst parts of that sub-culture. It's like that in all of them, I think. People's generalizations are oftentimes the worst aspects of a community, unfortunately. I just like the creativity and some of the art. So....yeah! 

 

[Zaraphayx]

I liked all the good posts in this thread, draw your conclusions from that what you will.

 

[kazooie]

3 minutes ago, jcstinks said:

Every manimal I've met in real life goes by their handle in real life. They often didn't even know each others' names, after years of face-to-face communication. People would introduce me fully as "a lynx-fox, jcfynx." They would say, "oh, this is a lynx-fox friend of mine. I met him while I was with a cat friend of mine." They seemed to know absolutely nothing about each other whatsoever outside of what video games they liked and their mutual love of gross penises. And I think that's gross.

Let Me Tell You All About This Great Game Called Undertale And Describe In Great Detail All The Characters I Would Like To Bone (Ha Ha Ha) In It

[Zaraphayx]

4 minutes ago, kazooie said:

Let Me Tell You All About This Great Game Called Undertale And Describe In Great Detail All The Characters I Would Like To Bone (Ha Ha Ha) In It

Classic JC

[DrDingo]

I'm impatient so I just looked at the start and brushed the rest

 

I think the pictures are the other way round. Like so:

Furry = Person who is an anthro fan

Furry fandom = A stupid name given to the fandom made up of furries. Because 'anthro fandom' isn't a catchy name.

[MuttButt]

Furry is just short for "furry fan" when referencing the people who enjoy anthropomorphic animals, but it can also be another name for anthropomorphic animals. Kinda confusing, but not that confusing.

Source: our lord and savior uncle kage

 

[Zerig]

3 hours ago, MuttButt said:

 

Source: our lord and savior uncle kage

 

didn't your mum ever tell you not to trust nerds

[Calemeyr]

@jcstinks your issue is you keep running into losers. They have no lives outside of furry. They are just boring people who, for whatever reason, have decided to make cartoon animals their version of a Trekkie's Klingon lifestyle.

Maybe they've tied their sexual orientation to furries and think everything in their life must be rainbow sparkles and dog dicks.

Maybe they're autistic.

But most likely, they are very sad and lonely people who have used the fandom as an escape from the world they cannot handle. But this fandom is a stairway down, not up. It's easier to pretend your problems don't exist in some fantasy land rather than face them. But they only get worse if you follow this path. It's the equivalent of the fetal position. You're just sitting there pretending everything will go away, but it's out there, waiting for you.

This isn't limited to furries at all. A lot of fandoms have this, especially anime. Hell, go into any bar late at night and look for the guy drinking alone. But for some reason, so many damn furries are like this. 

In short: broken people run away from their problems rather than address them by pretending to be a 5-year-old teddy bear named Mr Cuddles. *Insert pedophile joke here.*

Edited February 18, 2016 by Calemeyr

[diretractor]

2 hours ago, jcstinks said:

They often didn't even know each others' names, after years of face-to-face communication.

Interesting. I know the furry fandom is very much into role playing, but  wonder how much of that is due to people not wanting their personal identities getting out.

Good post by the way.

41 minutes ago, Calemeyr said:

But this fandom is a stairway down, not up.

I have noticed that, especially when it comes to people trying to become artistically proficient and getting a career as a creative, (My field of work is probably biasing my thoughts on that though). Are there any furry groups that are trying to do the opposite by creating a stairway up? There's a number of fandoms that have organizations to help build people up and grow professionally. I'm wondering if the furry fandom has something like that.

[Calemeyr]

3 hours ago, diretractor said:

I have noticed that, especially when it comes to people trying to become artistically proficient and getting a career as a creative, (My field of work is probably biasing my thoughts on that though). Are there any furry groups that are trying to do the opposite by creating a stairway up? There's a number of fandoms that have organizations to help build people up and grow professionally. I'm wondering if the furry fandom has something like that.

Not really. The point of the fandom is to be a mostly self-contained subculture. We tend to not acknowledge the world outside. People will only want to draw furries or consume furry products. It's an obsession. It's like bronies with ponies or deviantart and anime. Artists need to look outside of the fandom for advice on how to expand. Fursuit making is one exception. But in general, it's hard to move away from the fandom when we're so insular.

 

We need to stop acting like a leper colony and actually acknowledge the world outside of the fandom. We need to break character.

 

That being said, I really do enjoy pretending to be a sergal.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Calemeyr

[Spot]

Sadly, I have to agree on a few points. I have gotten to know quite a few people over Skype that I have had to blow off because of how disconnected they are from the human condition... I mean don't get me wrong, I enjoy a little role-play and talking about nerdy shit and all of that jazz, but the second the human element goes out the window is when I'm like nope, I'm outta here.  

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

I just call myself a lion for fun and my friends always know I'm joking. When a situation calls for it, I know when to turn that stuff off. Simple really  I feel bad for people that can't really be anything else but that hobby they enjoy

[Vallium]

4 hours ago, jcstinks said:

Internet. Hey, Internet. Yeah, we need to talk about this thing.

"Furries." You know them? I'll send you an example.



That is a furry.

This thing below is not a furry.



It is a person.

What I am trying to understand, Internet, is this.

The Internet often asks me if I am a "real" furry. I ask why it occurs to them to ask. What I hear is:

: I don't use the name and picture of one of my characters on any non-furry sites.
: I rarely play video games or watch cartoons.
: Most of people I know Online don't know what furries are, and almost none of the people in my real, actual life do.
: I never call myself "a furry" or go by the names of fictional characters I've created.
: If I know someone from this site well enough, I call them by their real name rather than the name of a character.

The big one is:

: I differentiate myself from characters I've created completely.

This is a big pet peeve for me. So far as I'm concerned, there is no worse thing a person can do but tell me that "*wags* I just met a new corgi who lives down the street today." Unless you are being unreasonably excited about a friend's pet, you did not actually meet a corgi. You met a human being. This is what I look to understand about animal people. What is it about the furry identity that makes it so obsessive?

I have the hardest time getting people to not call me by other names, even people I've known for the better part of a decade. I am just never going to be able to call someone "Gas Mask Fox." It is not possible for me. Persons on furry-related sites often ask me why I'm there if I don't have a fictional character on display to stand-in for myself. Can I not just go as myself? I don't understand why this is an issue.

Or rather, I do. The majority of people you see who identify as "furries" rather than simply visit sites for animal people fall into a pretty slim profile of adultlescents who play video games as a "hobby" and generally do not have much of a real-life persona. Rather, they make up a stage personality to live a separate life through on the Internet, where the vast majority of their Internet pen friends will do the same. This is something you see sometimes in young students who paint their faces white and call themselves "Masstress Alita of the Dark." It's not something you see of real, actual grown-ups, the kind who generally otherwise have lives, jobs, and personalities.

The separation is so distinct that I feel I can't have a real, actual conversation with many furries at all. Most of them refuse to talk about their real life except in the most perfunctory sense, even to people they know well. I do not have trouble with this talking to real, actual people over the Internet. The only topics of conversation that seem to work for furries are:

: Did you play the new video game?
: There is this children's cartoon I bet you will like a lot.
: Have you seen this funny link?
: Were you aware that the cake is a lie?
: HAY GUISE ITTY BITTY BABY ITTY BITTY BOAT hahaha wacky and random
: Want to pretend to have sex?
: I'm gay

This is a conversation that I do not like.

me: Hey. George.
George: hi
me: What's going on, guy? It's been a long time.
Furryous George: not much
me: Did I miss anything good?
Furryous George: no hey i've been playing the new hit men with swords game
Furryous George: have you head of it? here are links to lots of videos of me playing the game
Furryous George: so you can enjoy the game vicariously through my game playing experience
me: Oh hey that looks like a lot of fun here are a bunch of words about your game okay now.
me: Hey didn't you just get a new job? Congratulations! It's been a long time, hasn't it?
Furryous George: oh yeah i'm not going to talk about it at all
Furryous George: i am going to not have anything else to say about any other topic you bring up than video games now
Furryous George: did you know pac-man was originally called puck-man
Furryous George: here's a picture of a dog dick
Furryous George: japan is so weird here's a video of japan
Furryous George: want to play tf2
Furryous George: also i'm gay

So in conclusion, what I guess I'm saying is, I'd be much happier if animal people were anything more like real, actual people who did not perseverate on one thing until it becomes their entire life. I can try to appreciate video games and cartoons and animal penises as much as the rest of the Internet, but I'd like to know there's a real person under all that as well. Or perhaps furries are just an elaborate hoax controlled by a really good version of SmarterChild designed to sew lonely animal penises.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

I agree with and not agree with you on a lot of things.

One thing is separating my sona from myself, It has a separate name that I dont go by. I go by my own name. Even though I like to consider my sona as a reflection of myself its also a separate thing. I know a lot of people go by their sonas name but not me.

But secondly, I dont really find it weird that furries like fun stuff like games and all that. Recreation and fun are all nice things. The furs here dont seem to be obsessed though and will branch out into more real world and intellectual topics.

It doesnt bug me if you call someone their sona species in a certain context, like referring to furries. I wont go "I have a friend who is a fox" unless its in the context of talking about the fandumb.

I agree thoug that furries who can branch out and talk more personably are the most fun and easy to get along with. Some people I met who live as their avatars full time and only erp make me really uncomfortable and dont strike me as an actual and real person.

Hmmmm, on a final note, I dont care what silly nicknames people gby, furry or not. Personally I like to know people's real names because thats how I am but I will opt to use their username too, ESPECIALLY if they wish to go by their username and not their actual name. Thats just good form and proper social standard, for me.

Edited February 18, 2016 by WolfNightV4X1

[Conker]

I feel like this is a problem with all kinds of online communities. We log in as usernames and in some cases, become our online personas. I'm a bit different in the real world than I am online, though perhaps not as much as I used to be. I used to troll a bit more online, but now I'd rather just be polite and talk about shit, if at all possible.

Anyhow, so this one video game forum I'm part of, we all go by our online handles there. So I'm Conker and one guy is LINX and so on. Well, one day we all get together and go, "why don't we try to do a video game podcast?" because we all listened to them and it sounded like a fun excuse to chat about stuff for an hour or so a week.

The first thing I did was ask those i didn't know very well what their real names were. I wasn't going to call LINX that through audio. It's one thing to type, but this is a conversation. We have real names.

And no one wanted to give them up! I dunno if it was a privacy thing or if calling someone Jim instead of Metroid777 was too real or what, but it was really really strange.

The podcast did not get off the ground. (though that wasn't the reason, but it didn't help.)

The furries you run into are like that, only worse because they are disgusting furfags, is what I'm saying.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Conker

[MuttButt]

5 hours ago, Saxon said:

I'm fine with whatever people want to go by, provided they don't expect me to call them mr tiddles at a formal event. 

I don't actually have a fursona, mostly because of indecision, but it doesn't stop some people calling me fox or 'puppy', and frankly I'm not going to complain because I enjoy all of that silly furry shit. 

My girlfriend calls me puppy and I think I'm way too into it  >.>

[Mentova]

I'm a fox IRL

[LazerMaster5]

4 minutes ago, Mentova said:

I'm a fox IRL

Shh, you're leaking secrets. The Council of Foxes will not tolerate such disobedience.

[Newt]

 

9 hours ago, jcstinks said:

This is a conversation that I do not like.

Furryous George: oh yeah i'm not going to talk about it at all
Furryous George: i am going to not have anything else to say about any other topic you bring up than video games now
Furryous George: did you know pac-man was originally called puck-man
Furryous George: here's a picture of a dog dick
Furryous George: japan is so weird here's a video of japan
Furryous George: want to play tf2
Furryous George: also i'm gay

 

Related Protip: never associate your Steam name or avatar with furries. You will get tons of friend requests and messages from this type of person.

This is what I get for thinking it would be funny to make my Steam name "Big-Tittied Herm Shark."

[#00Buck]

19 hours ago, kazooie said:

im a goat

I thought you were a bird cuz your picture. 

Also I'm not a furry. 

[Xaende]

Depending on who I'm talking to, both or neither might be called furries. One thing about these animal characters, and the people who like them, is that it's possible to talk about either without using words like furry. A cartoon animal can be just a cartoon animal, and a guy wearing a hat can be just a guy wearing a hat.

[kazooie]

15 minutes ago, #00Buck said:

I thought you were a bird cuz your picture. 

Also I'm not a furry. 

the bird is not something to be

the bird simply is

[willow]

my first thought was that "what is a juggalo song" by ICP and now I'm mad because it's stuck in my head

anyway I'm a pink dragon irl

[malibu]

I hear people talk about socially inept furries and it makes me feel really lucky that I haven't ran into one yet. All my furry friends and I talk about is work, tv, food, and a bunch of normal stuff. 

[Conker]

17 hours ago, Newt said:

 

 

Related Protip: never associate your Steam name or avatar with furries. You will get tons of friend requests and messages from this type of person.

This is what I get for thinking it would be funny to make my Steam name "Big-Tittied Herm Shark."

I get some of it just by going with "Conker" and having a picture of him as my Steam avatar. People see anthro and just assume.

I've ran into some strange, strange motherfuckers that way

[#00Buck]

7 hours ago, Conker said:

I get some of it just by going with "Conker" and having a picture of him as my Steam avatar. People see anthro and just assume.

I've ran into some strange, strange motherfuckers that way

Is there such a thing as a normal person who has sex with their mother?

[Yarra]

JCstinks, (I'm responding to the first post) -Loquaciousness is not a citation I've earned here.  

As you know now there are a lot of different animals here.  It's a fucking zoo.  It's a ton of fun and I love everybody even though I don't agree with everything but you have to roll with it like a white water rafting trip.  

Don't worry about Red Fox's "new friend" or the incessant celebration of the german shepard vanquishing the "boss level" .  It's temporary and fleeting. You're going to have to deal with the bad breath.  We all do.  Some claws look long and sadly they are.  It's a grooming problem. 

Some of us don't give a shit.