Why Furries Are Good and Who They Are

This has taken me a long time to post, partly because I didn't know if I wanted to post it, partly because I was not sure about what exactly I wanted to say on the subject, and partly because I wanted to say something very particular.  Most of all, I think it's important to explain a facet of our world that is really quite foreign to many people, but is very much a developed and interesting subculture.

I'm motivated to describe it in a very clear and descriptive fashion because I think that it's easy to put the subject into a box and label it as some sort of weird novelty.

I went to FurAffinity United this summer, August 16-18.  It's a furry convention.  To properly discuss this adventure, I need to define a few terms for the layman.  And, as a student of neuroscience and linguistics, I don't play around when I'm defining terminology.  So what you hear here is as precise as it will get.

The noun 'furry' can be used in two ways.  It can be used to describe fictional characters that have the appearance of human-shaped animals, which are less colloquially called anthropomorphic animals.  Bugs Bunny is a furry.  The term 'furry' is also used as shorthand for a person who considers themselves a fan of subject matter that depicts furries.  The adjective form of furry is used to describe things that pertain to the furry fandom.  There's also the term 'fursona', a noun used to describe a nonhuman persona that a person identifies with or acts out.

Furries in art: "Harbinger", by Blotch

The term 'furry' is incredibly loaded.  It means a lot to people who are familiar with the fandom because of all of the preconceptions and stereotypes there are about the demographic of people who frequent the online hubs of the community.  It also means a lot to many people well-versed in "Internet culture", if there is such a thing.  The furry fandom is certainly a diverse community, but because most of the community frequents the same small number of hubs, it's easy to characterize the way that those hubs work and be turned off to any of the main characteristics of those particular places.


For that reason, many people who would otherwise fall into a subset of the furry fandom prefer to completely distance themselves from the community entirely.  Different people have different criteria for what it means to 'be' a furry, and therefore people sometimes refuse to be referred to with that shorthand.  Take for example Lackadaisy; although this particular webcomic portrays furries, and the artist frequently uses furries as subject matter in other artwork, she doesn't like to be called a furry.

I'd say the inclusivity and ambiguity of the terminology parallels the quirkiness of the term 'queer' in a lot of ways.

A furry convention runs like any other fandom-based convention, like a comic convention or an anime convention.  It consists of some headline events, informational panels, and activities for people with interests that crossover with the convention's defining characteristic.  People dress in costumes.

Indeed, the most noteworthy characteristic of a furry convention is the garb.  As a playful expression of their affinity for animals, you'll see many people wearing tails, fluffy ears, other themed clothing, and outfits in the vein of the goth/raver scene.

(Anthrocon is another furry convention--the largest in the US.  Here's a small handful of professional pictures.)

I went to FAU6.  I was extremely hesitant about going, but I ultimately decided to do it for a number of reasons:

1. I like furries, and there are furries at furry conventions.
2. It's fun to watch people run around in fursuits; there's something about the dynamic that arises from people expressing their fursona that provides a breath of fresh air.
3. I was curious about what it was like to go to one, and curious about whether it's my cup of tea.
4. I don't feel like I have any one community that I totally fit into, so I wanted to test whether this could be that community for me.
5. This was a convention I could commute to, and the overall price tag was completely do-able.
6. Once I began to consider going, I introspected on my feelings, on whether it was a good idea.  I noticed that I was conflicted about going; I wanted to go because I thought it would be fun, and I didn't want to go because of social anxiety and my general hesitance to go outside my social comfort zone.  When I realized that the reason I was averse to going was mainly the fear of not fitting in, I knew I had to buy a pass for the weekend.
7. In my experience, I've found marginalized subcultures to be relatively inclusive.  I really like inclusive groups.
8. A convention like this is playful, and my outlook is rather grave.  I don't want to have a heart attack, and I don't want to be a Negative Nancy for all my life.
9. I wanted to know more about the people in the furry fandom, and learn about how they operate and what kind of personalities I'd find.  What dynamic existed.
10. I totally wanted to check out the merchandise.
11. There were some cool panels on the schedule, including one about fucking Mass Effect.
12. I wanted to investigate the veracity of the stereotypes of furries that exist in pop culture.
13. Going to the convention might provide a talking point if I ever wanted to find people who identify as furries.

I went.  I had an incredible experience.  I bought more merchandise than I intended.  I saw art, spoke to artists, spoke to fellow geeks.  I had a lot of fun just being in the atmosphere.  

Side note:  the ~400 attendees at this convention raised $10,516 for the NJSPCA.

There was a parade of fursuits:

And games:

I wouldn't say I made friends, but I did become a lot more comfortable casually socializing with people in the community.  I just, ya know, talked to people occasionally and kind of flitted around the hotel.  And I went to the panels and learned a few things about people and the subjects talked about.  There were lots of activities that I skipped because I felt like an observer, stuck on the outside.  But when I realized that it was a place for people like me, that it was a group of people with an interest in an artistic genre that I happen to have, I decided that I'd do my part to make some friends and develop the confidence to participate more fully.  As trivial as this may seem, it's a huge emotional revelation for me, and thinking about things from this perspective will almost definitely help me overcome a large part of my social anxiety.

It turned out that the group of people I met was far from the stereotypical view that most people have.  In all honesty, I'd say that everything people attribute to furries stems more from the dynamic of contemporary socialization on the Internet than their interest in anthropomorphic animals.  The people who I (and my non-furry friends who came with me on the last day) met were all very affable and interested.  The only thing I would say was categorically applicable was a certain childlike air about the place.  I would convey the mood by comparing it to the way that animals play.  If you watched cats or otters just mess around and act without inhibition, then you can probably picture the way that this group of people interacted.  It was silly.  It was carefree.  It was surely escapist.

Fender, photo by Abrahm Lion

People there were nerds of one sort or another.  Plenty of them were intensely awkward, and many lacked certain social skills that are usually taken for granted.  They're pretty weird.  But overall, people just wanted to have fun.  Maybe the affinity that people have can be attributed to some symbolic perception we have of animals.  Maybe it stems from xenophilia.  Maybe it's simply an appreciation of nonhuman animals for some aesthetic or spiritual reason.  Whichever way, the various components that have evolved in the furry fandom are things that people find solace in.  They provide outlets for a certain form of expression that is not mainstream.

All in all, I'm pleased.  And I'm glad I had the chance to learn so much about who furries are.  I hope that I was able to accurately portray some of a subculture's dynamic.  There is plenty more to it, of course, but you'll find that in any inflammatory 4chan-type summary, or in a simple google search.  I don't feel compelled to address the common questions, but am happy to give further depth

Maybe my desire to explain this all is a projection of the way I like to look at the world.

There are many worlds of ideas, concentric about the world of physical reality.  Each interacts with each other, but can seem distinct from every other.  It's as if they are self-contained entities that all have their own unique identities and sometimes send each other letters.

One of my favorite things to do is look at those worlds, examine how they overlap, and find the spark that makes each unique.  There are so many ways to understand the world, so many perspectives, so many ideas.  Questing for the nooks, the niches, and the mysteries of the universe fills me with wonder.  I especially love to understand those different views, to simply admire what snapshots I've gathered from so many different kinds of people.  I aspire to feel the ineffable warmth towards certain realms that resonate with me in some way.  I'm content with the fact that, no matter how hard I try, I'll never gain a complete understanding of anything.  I'm also okay with knowing that each mystery solved is a mystery gone.  Because it's neither desirable to be ignorant nor preferable to know it all.  There's beauty in both learning from what's around you and in appreciating the mechanisms of the many concentric worlds.

"One Sleepless Night" by silverfox5213

As I venture to create the world of my imagination, I strive to learn more about the one I'm currently in.  I hope to find the things that make me happy, as well as the all-around best ways to obtain them.  Most of all, I move unceasingly towards those things that bring me awe.