I’m a little unclear on how the furry identity works. Is it like an LGBT+ thing where you just are this thing regardless of your feelings or desires, or does wanting to be a furry make you one? Like, I’ve fought against being trans much of my life, but now I see I pretty much always was. But I don’t know if liking the puppygirl idea makes me a furry, or if that’s something I have to have always been? (this is not a reaction to a recently popular puppygirl, I’ve meant to ask this for a while) I also may be terribly misunderstanding furries; that’s a taboo subject where I live, so I don’t know much.
Long-time furry here. Let me try to break it down a bit.
“Furry” at its core is simply an interest in anthropomorphic animals. That covers a wide spectrum of people ranging from those that only have an interest in the art to therians who identify integrally as nonhuman. Whether you are a furry or not is just a matter of self-identification and whether you choose to engage with the fandom. I know incredible artists with whole-ass fursonas that don’t call themselves furries and that’s totally fine.
The puppygirl idea is something worth exploration though. Being into that doesn’t necessarily mean you are a furry. There’s an entire subculture of pup play that exists and while there is a fair bit of overlap between that and furry, it is a separate, distinct thing. Just food for thought!
If you want to be a puppygirl or furry, you can just be one. Self identify.
To be trans, you don’t have to “always have been” either
I guess that makes sense. About the trans thing, I guess that’s just how it’s been presented to me. I came from a deeply conservative background and am working through a lot of deprogramming and relearning. Also Tumblr lib programming to undo too.
It’s okay. I think it’s a pretty common conception. For years, the phrase was “I am a woman who was born in a man’s body”
I think the trans community has a more mature grasp on gender these days that focuses on gendered experience rather than innate qualities.
I’m glad you found your transness and made it here after being in such a conservative place
Hi, I just came out as gay, and as a furry last week! After spending over a decade in the closet…
So, here’s a short history of my experience of the Furry fandom.
When I was a young lad (teen), I noticed I felt attraction toward guys, but not girls. Boobs don’t really do it for me. I grew up in a conservative christian household, so even those thoughts were considered evil. So, repressing those thoughts along the merry way, I found furry communities online. For the first time, Queerness was not punished. Queerness was not shamed, it was celebrated with art, writing, and “art”. The online Furry community was a safe haven where I could imagine a world where I didn’t have to repress all those things anymore, and be more of myself.
Now that I’m out (to my close friends), I’m noticing that Queer acceptance is a major cornerstone of furries. Next important thing to me, is the appreciation or enjoyment of the ideas, art, or media. Third is just a dash of Chemical X (weirdness), or more accurately, the courage to be yourself, enjoy yourself, and be cringe.
Yes, there are kinks, but I’ve heard the quote: “There is pornographic art and room parties, you’re out of your mind to deny that stuff exists, but that isn’t unique to furries. Think of Anime, Star Trek, etc. These fandoms and cultures don’t have sexy or kinky things because of the content, they have those things in it because they are created by (and for) human beings.” The furry fandom likely gets more shit for it because of A) the open queerness and B) actually it’s probably just the open queerness.
Oddly, I’ve become slightly less attached to the Fandom, while enjoying it more, if that makes any sense.
There’s tons of YouTubers that do documentaries on the stuff. There’s like a 1.5h film festival submission that won awards on YT, describing the history of modern-day Furries.
Historically, pictures and stories of animal-people are as old as civilization itself. Even the Epic of Gilgamesh had a Furry character in it, off the top of my head.
There’s like a 1.5h film festival submission that won awards on YT, describing the history of modern-day Furries.
Link to said documentary (The Fandom):
A Buddhist monk once told me all that is required to “be a Buddhist” is just to decide one day to be Buddhist. There’s no ritual or prayer or demonstration; there’s no exam to make sure you’re “Buddhist enough”.
It’s the same way with furry and lgbtq+. If you think you are, you are. Welcome.
“born this way” has always been more of a rhetorical device than anything else. Your identity is valid even if you ‘decide’ to change into a new one because of a thing you like. That’s just as true for gender and orientation as it is for something like being a furry. You do you!
