The term “furry” gets thrown around a lot but that doesn’t mean you know what it means. In fact, there’s a lot of misinformation and false information that has made its way into the public consciousness around the community. Knowing that furries wear costumes and engage in fetish is the extent of knowledge that most people have about them, but neither is always true. The term gets confused with other subcultures on a regular basis and that’s where most of the confusion comes from. We’re going to break it down for you and let you know what’s accurate and what’s not.
Definition of a Furry
To start things off, we’ll define what a furry is to give you an overview. The definition of a furry is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters. Some examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs, and wearing clothes. The term “furry fandom” is also used to refer to the community of people who gather on the Internet and at furry conventions. A subculture, as defined by Merrian-Webster is an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society. Let’s continue breaking down the other terms.
There are two definitions for “subculture” and both of them can apply to furries. The first is described or thought of as having a human form or human attributes. The second is ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things. That means that a furry is a person who’s a part of a community that enjoys animal characters with human characteristics. That’s basically the long and short of it. Notice how it has nothing to do with sex or dressing up. Those things come as additions to the individual’s interests.
History of Furry Fandom
Furry fandom is typically thought to have begun in 1976 when two cartoonists created an Amateur Press Association titled “Vootie.” This publication showcases art focused on animals and many of them depicted sex acts. The comic strip “’Omaha’ the Cat Dancer”, for example, followed the story of a feline erotic dancer named “Omaha.” This title amassed a community of fans that began to meet up at comics and science fiction conventions. This all happened before the concept of a furry had emerged and fans simply shared an interest in Vootie and its titles.
Many fans of furry culture consider the birth of the community to have taken place a decade earlier. The fictional works of Kimba, the White Lion in 1965 and Watership Down in 1972 are considered to be the birth of furrydom by this subgroup. No matter when it began, the term “furry fandom” first came into existence in 1983 and was standardized by the mid-1990s. The first furry convention, known as “Confurence 0” took place in 1989 and was held at the Holiday Inn Bristol Plaza in California. The subculture became accessible to the general public once the internet started becoming widely available in the 1990s.
What Furries Do
While no one person is going to be into everything that this subculture enjoys, there are a few things to look at when you’re trying to figure out what makes someone furry. The first is known as the “fursona.” This is the unique character that a furry creates for roleplay. They’re anthropomorphic creatures and are used in MUD games, on internet forums, and in person. While there are lots of different species that furries use, over 60% of them end up with carnivores. That means that most furries can be expected to roleplay as animals like foxes, wolves, and other predators.
Crafting can also be considered as a common furry hobby and adds to the practice of dressing up as their fursonas. Crafting can come in the form of making plush toys and sculptures, but the most well-known activity involves creating fursuits. These are costumes created by furries to be worn at conventions and other events. They create the anthropomorphic bodies and heads of their fursonas and these elaborate crafts can cost anywhere from $500 to over $10,000. While only 20% of furries go to this extreme, most create partial costumes consisting of tails, ears, and other body parts.
What Furries Aren’t
While talking about furies and furry fandom, it’s important to talk about the things they’re not. They get confused with other subcultures constantly and it leads to lots of problems that could easily be avoided. Schools are currently experiencing issues related to students identifying as furries and the amount of misinformation and misunderstanding around it leads to friction among parent groups, the schools, and their students. The major bit of misinformation is that furry fandom has anything to do with sex. It does not. Then there are the other groups with which they get confused.
Otherkin
Otherkin are a separate subculture of people who identify as nonhuman. Some identify as partially nonhuman while others identify as completely nonhuman. This subculture also grew out of online communities, and it all started with people who identified as elves. This identification can come from spiritual beliefs, metaphors, or even neurodivergence. The important thing to understand for this piece is that otherkin and furries are not the same thing. Furry fandom does not believe itself to be nonhuman. A furry is simply a fan of anthropomorphic animals and enjoys roleplaying as such.
Therian
Furries are also a separate subculture from therians, although they’re often confused with each other. It’s easier to confuse a furry with a therian because therians believe themselves to be fully or partially animals that have existed or currently exist on Earth. A good example of this is a person who identifies as a wolf. While that sounds similar to the person who roleplays as a wolf-life furry, there’s a difference. Therians believe themselves to be these animals with no anthropomorphizing. They see themselves as animals and nothing more or less. There is also no roleplay in this subculture.
Furry Kink
Of course, just because sex isn’t the basis for the furry fandom doesn’t mean that it can’t also be a kink. It’s not the furry part that’s bringing people to the sex, though. In fact, it’s the opposite. The people who engage in the furry kink are already furries. They’re simply attracted to other people who share their interests in roleplaying as anthropomorphic animals, which makes a lot of sense. If you want to find someone you can feel close to, you’re going to find someone inside your social circle who shares the same interests as you have and the National Institute of Health ran a study on it.
This study surveyed 334 male furries to find out how their sexual orientations and motivations played into their furry kinks. They found that “If some furries are sexually motivated, they may be motivated by an erotic target identity inversion (ETII): sexual arousal by the fantasy of being the same kinds of individuals to whom they are sexually attracted. Furries with ETIIs would experience both sexual attraction to anthropomorphic animals and sexual arousal by fantasizing about being anthropomorphic animals, because they often change their appearance and behavior to become more like anthropomorphic animals.”
To take things further, they looked into the sexual orientations of the men they surveyed to find out if gay men preferred male furries and if straight men preferred female furries. Unsurprisingly, they found that “male furries tended to be sexually aroused by fantasizing about being the same kinds of anthropomorphic animals to whom they were sexually attracted, with respect to gender and species.” That means that a person’s sexual orientation stays the same whether they’re roleplaying as their animal counterparts or not. That goes further to prove that the furry fandom isn’t about sex, but furries enjoy sex just as much as any other people.
Fursuit Sex
It should come as no surprise that non-furries imagine furries as wearing their fursuits simply to have sex with each other and satisfy their kinks, but it likely doesn’t happen as often as most would think. The fact is that fursuits are very expensive and typically worn to social engagements and little else. Just imagine putting on your $500 suit to have sex with someone. That’s not likely to happen at all. Wearing an expensive suit during sex will, at best, make it dirty and, at worst, destroy it. It’s the same with fursuits.
Of course, there are always exceptions to that, and some furries do enjoy sex in their fursuits. Its just not as strange as other people would want you to believe. It’s pretty much the same thing as wearing expensive lingerie during sex. It’s on for sexual arousal and is considered to be a special type of clothing to make that happen. It could also be considered the same as wearing fetish clothing for sex. A fursuit plays the same role as leather or latex and it doesn’t get any stranger than that when you think about it.
Furries in Schools
The biggest issue surrounding the furry fandom is its inclusion in schools and how desperately a subgroup of parents want to keep them out. Just like with any subculture, there’s much misinformation about it and people are more than happy to suck it all up and spew it back out at others. It’s been happening for as long as humans have been around, and this is no different at all. You just have to look back a few decades to see it in full force and directed at something considered common and somewhat banal in the current day.
The 1980s and 1990s saw a massive backlash against the heavy metal subculture that fostered accusations of Satan worship, human sacrifice, and sex slavery. High school aged fans of heavy metal music were targeted by parental groups and considered to be outsiders by other youth subculture and that same thing is on tap for the furries. Ridiculous claims of furries wanting litter boxes in schools and sexual deviance have been lobbed at young furries who are now facing no small amount of ostracization and bullying because of it. As usual, those with the lowest levels of information are the loudest when it comes to furries in schools.
Furry Porn
Finally, we get to furry porn. There’s no lack of in on the internet and it’s not difficult to find. In fact, furry porn enjoys about 400,000 views each month on Pornhub and that’s showing no signs of going down anytime soon. These views are coming from furry fetishists as well as non-furries who are simply curious about it. Whether you think you’re a furry or not, this is a great way to see what it’s all about and find out how you feel about it. If you already know you’re a furry, it’s the best way to find out what the sex would be like without ruining your own fursuit. Leave that to the professionals and keep your suit clean and dry until you get your tickets for the next con. Just keep in mind that much of the furry porn you come across is made by non-furries to appeal to the furry audience. If you want to see furry porn made by furries then you’ll have to do a little bit of digging for it. Of course, you could also make your own with AI!
Share your Fursona with Us!
If you’d like to share your own fursona, then all you have to do is send it to submissions@allaboutkinks.com! It can be as full body or as partial as you want! AllAboutKinks.com is all about learning and growing and the best way to do that is to share with the community! We can’t wait to see what you send us and you’re going to love seeing it up on the site! Anyone can comment on them and talk about how much they love them. Give it a shot and let us know what you’ve been up to. You can also let us know if you’re trying out something new that you learned on the site! It’s how the community is supposed to work and there are never any limits that you have to worry about! We’ll deal with all that stuff so you can just focus on enjoying the experience! We hope to hear from you soon!