Are Furries Bad???

[Icey!]

One of the most mixed opinions I have is my stance on the concept of Furries and the wider community around it. One part of me wants to like it as I do have a thing for cutesy ears and fluffy tails but that could just be me liking cute things. Another part of me will see the most embarrassing parts and then start to see why my siblings plus irl friends hate Furries and considering if I should be more like them in terms of their opinion.

What do I mean by embarrassing parts? Well... It's complicated, so complicated that I don't know how to describe it. But it's something that has to do with how furries act, their interests, their intentions, their lore, their... kinks... It's something that you have to see for yourself to truly see how weird it can make you feel to the point that it can make you cringe. It's like as if a human was trying to act like their pet(s), that's the best I can describe it.

For me personally, I am not a Furry but I am totally fine with others being a Furry as long as you don't make me feel uncomfortable about it, I will even accept a friend request if I feel like it.

[shevek]

Furries are just another community that has a wide variety of subgroups with different interests and intensity of commitment to the hobby and a few bad apples, like every other online community. There is a big overlap with neurodivergent and queer people as well as a big amount of them working in IT. While you could find certain aspects or groups of it "cringe" or embarassing, it's just another hobby, similar to cosplaying. I think at this point, the people truly hating furries are a minority while "hating furries" is a meme to most. I think a good approach is just to see what the furry you're interacting with is into and go from there.

[Guest]

I'm not exactly a furry myself, but I have friends who are furries and I've joined in with some of their antics before— like making a fursona etc.

Part of me feels incredibly seen within furry spaces. They're some of the most accepting people I've has the pleasure of interacting with— perhaps stemming from the way they're so scorned on and off line themselves. The whole idea of cringe is something I'm unable to interact with meaningfully because I unironically mean "cringe culture is dead" when I say that. The whole idea of "don't yuck someone's yum", y'know? And so seeing furries so wholeheartedly enjoy something so harmless despite the oftentimes unfair representation and bashing they endure really resonates with me. I relate to that a lot.

They're just some guys having some fun. There's nothing cringe or embarrassing about that in my opinion!

As for the less good parts I'm assuming you're referencing, without getting too graphic, I think the stories there are exemplified by the fact that it's about animals. And so any amount of "bad" will be extra bad due to the nature of the topic. I've only ever seen condemnation from the furry fandom at large for the truly awful acts that some have committed, which is good. It shows that the bad actors aren't a majority.

Cringing at them is fine, it's not everyone's cup of tea. But really, it comes down to keeping it to yourself. This isn't me going off on you! I think this is a good conversation topic. What I mean rather, is that so long as you don't try to stop them from having fun, then feel free to not like it.

[teatime]

i think your definition of a furry is a little off. the furry subculture isn't really about identifying as an animal (that's therian/otherkin, i think) but more about identifying with anthro animals/"just thinking that they're neat," like the meme says. there's likely an overlap between the two communities, but there is a difference.

as for my opinion on furries, i am not a furry but i think furries are pretty cool. they have to deal with so much shit from people around the internet (and in real life!) that i can't help but salute them. in order to kill cringe culture we gotta stick up for the people called cringe! their interest isn't hurting anyone, and if they're having fun i'm happy.

[tarraxahum]

I've never gotten into furry subculture myself, but it wasn't for the lack of trying. I always saw them as rather cool ever since my early teenage years - but I just found I personally click more with human* characters as far as fun roleplay thing goes. Would be rad to try on a fursuit one day, though.

*- well, human, or uuuh the slightly more monstrous iterations of such. Werewolves, for example. Which I suppose blurs the line a bit?

As far as 'bad apples' go... Well, first of all, I also subscribe to the philosophy of 'cringe is dead', all across the board. As long as it's not illegal/not actively harmful to anyone, anyone is free to do what they want to do, be it fursuiting, naruto running in public places or whatever else would be considered 'cringe' these days.

It's also true, as shevek said, that there's a big overlap with queer and neurodivergent communities there, so I'm always a bit skeptical towards the overall stigma where some people see furries as inherently perverse. Said stigma has been around for ages, definitely more than a decade, and while for many people it's just a meme now, I do have to squint and ask - are we sure the aforementioned overlap had nothing to do with it back in the less accepting times?

Sure, there is an abundance of explicitly non-queer NSFW content in the community and for some it's kinda the first thing that comes to mind, but, like... I've been on furry subreddits, for example, and as long as you don't go looking for one specifically labeled 'yiff' or whatever - the SFW ones were actually very damn wholesome. So were all the other furry folks I've met through fandoms by proxy.

(a few more thoughts re: NSFW content under the spoiler - nothing explicit, of course, but I thought I'd give the opportunity to skip)

Spoiler

And the existence of rule34 is nothing new. I've been on deviantart long enough to see every kind of kink and fetish out there - starring human characters, too. I don't personally like it, but it'll always be out there. So what makes the exact same content, but in furry form different? The animal factor? I have a friend who earns money from drawing 18+ furry content (it doesn't pay him as much as the memes would lead you to believe) - I can assure you in real life he dates human men, though. The fur is a costume, a roleplay, a fun derivative from Disney cartoon sort of an 'animal' who we don't really see as an animal 'cause they act human, not a manifestation of some taboo attraction. I have no reasons to assume that the rest of such artists are any different, to be honest. And if they are just drawing kinky content for fun - well that's their biz, as long as it's properly tagged and does not jumpscare kids or whatever.

[close]

So like, calling out individual bs is good in every community, and every community will have drama, but (TLDR:) in my opinion the overall notion of furries being 'bad' is based solely on arguments of them being cringy and/or horny and I see none of those two things as bad.

[Necrosia]

I consider myself furry-adjacent because I don't actually partake in the community despite enjoying it and it's concepts.

As people above me wisely noted hating furry is a meme nowadays just like hating otakus were back in the 90's, hating a group for having harmless fun has always been the past time for a bunch of people, sadly.

I honestly don't see how a community that keeps to itself, is known for paying generous prices for commissions and is extremely inclusive and sex-positive can be something bad. Of course there will always be bad apples but they are exceptions not the norm.

[Frost Sheridan]

my personal opinion of the furry community is probably going to be a lot more negative than that of most other people here. i don't have an issue with the concept of furries and also subscribe to the “cringe culture is dead” philosophy, but the way that the furry community actually is is...not good, to say the least.

i was an active member of the furry community for several years and have attended a few different conventions around the US, but i finally decided to call it quits last year when i realized just how badly it impacted my mental health and overall quality of life. after cutting most ties with the community and no longer identifying as a furry, things have been going quite a bit better for me lately. (there are a couple vrchat events i still attend, such as furality and placeholder club, as those have a much better atmosphere than real-life events in my experience.)

my primary issue with the community is how “sex-positive” to them means that “everyone will shove the most creepy, graphic sexual content in your face at all times and you better be totally OK with it!!!”. (for reference, i’m as asexual as it gets.) at cons and meetups, if i ever make the mistake of mentioning that i think inflatables are cool, there will always be at least one person there who will pull up their favorite inflation fetish art of their fursona on their phone and shove it in my face in less than a second without warning. i’ve also had many instances of other furries making unwanted physical sexual advances towards me and taking advantage of my social anxiety to coerce me into doing… things with them that were deeply uncomfortable for me. whenever i mentioned issues like this to friends in the furry community, the response i would always get goes something like “that’s just how it is in every community, especially online!”

uh…no? in my experience, i’ve never seen another community i’m involved in act this way. the retro tech and web revival communities i’m active in have never been like this.

so yeah… in summary, furries as a concept are ok, but the community is just bad.

[wygolvillage]

I think furries and furry art are pretty cool but I've never been "in" the community of it or anything, so I don't really have an insider perspective. The talk of sexual harassment at cons is very disheartening and concerning to hear. That's not what sex positivity should be at all- being sex positive should at least require a healthy understanding of how consent works. IDK, I consider myself pretty sex/kink positive all things considered but I would never go into graphic details about that kind of thing to a stranger, or even most friends.

[lime360]

i am a furry and i can state that most furries arent bad

[devils]

Biased because I'm a furry myself, but the community is mostly pretty cool. As for the bad apples (which are really freaking bad), weirdos exist in every community.

A lot of furry hate is actually based on queerphobia- the furry fandom is mostly LGBT and extremely open about being «weird». I say let people be weird as long as no one's getting hurt.

That's just my furry opinion though

[Skykristal]

My opinion, and this is coming from someone who isn't a furry but is very active in furry places, is a bit mixed, mainly positive.
I've been in furry or furry-heavy places since I got into the online art community pretty much. (2014) simply because I only drew animal ocs and couldn't draw humans and wasn't interested in that until 2019 pretty much. I was surrounded by other furry artists, furries and the fandom as a whole. I however never identified myself with "furry" or the fandom itself. I personally think "hate" is often very unnecessary. People who hate on furries often don't even know what this is all about, and aren't even interested in trying to understand what it really is and what people do. They just be like "weird haha freaks with kinks" when this is not what a furry even is. Kinks and sexual content exist in pretty much any fandom, with the difference that you don't dress up as a fursona in other ones or identify yourself with a different species. Cosplay as a whole is a thing as well, with similar things going on, but nobody hates on that apparently.

Furries are one of the kindest people ever. This fandom feels extremely sweet and caring. However I kind of feel bothered by the "in character" part. when people act like their fursona when I just try to have a normal convo. That has happened a couple of times over the years and is something I never experienced outside the furry fandom. (not talking about conventions or IRL stuff, I don't visit). It made me super uncomfortable, I'm strictly a none-rp-person. It's not my thing at all.

About the cringe part, not a big deal, really. There are just a couple of things however that I don't like and bother me (personal preference stuff. not related to anything bad). But I judge nobody for being weird, expressing themselves ect. harmless stuff.

In my humble opinion nsfw is also not something I put a red flag on either. It again, exists in every fandom. I'm not very into it (moreso just shocked about how incredible some people can draw lol). This obviously doesn't include illegal, inappropriate things in that field (which I don't think I need to mention), but this, again, is also an issue in other spaces. In some more, in others less.

To summarise: for the most part, hate is unjustified. you can dislike something, we all are allowed to dislike something. I know I dislike a lot of things. But 'hate' is a pretty strong word to me and something that I feel like is used very meaninglessly.

[Guest]

I consider myself a furry, but outside of an IRC channel I'm in I've yet to interact with the larger furry community outside of following some furry artists on Mastodon. Mostly for reasons like this:

my primary issue with the community is how “sex-positive” to them means that “everyone will shove the most creepy, graphic sexual content in your face at all times and you better be totally OK with it!!!”. (for reference, i’m as asexual as it gets.) at cons and meetups, if i ever make the mistake of mentioning that i think inflatables are cool, there will always be at least one person there who will pull up their favorite inflation fetish art of their fursona on their phone and shove it in my face in less than a second without warning. i’ve also had many instances of other furries making unwanted physical sexual advances towards me and taking advantage of my social anxiety to coerce me into doing… things with them that were deeply uncomfortable for me. whenever i mentioned issues like this to friends in the furry community, the response i would always get goes something like “that’s just how it is in every community, especially online!”

uh…no? in my experience, i’ve never seen another community i’m involved in act this way. the retro tech and web revival communities i’m active in have never been like this.

[doubleincision]

as someone who actually has been involved in the furry community in some capacity for most of my life i can tell you that the vast majority of the furry community is extremely hostile toward zoophiles and sexual abusers. especially in the era of callout posts, fandom discourse, and social media drama, younger furries especially are more hostile than ever toward that kind of behavior. i've actually had to stop talking to a fellow furry friend before because they were too obsessed with witch-hunting anyone they judged as a creep.

there definitely are creepy people who identify as furries, but that's because furries are just....people. there are creepy people in every community. if the standard for labelling a group of people as Sex Creeps is "i knew one guy who was a creep", then by that logic we have to label all non-furries as Sex Creeps, too. [edited - removed extra sentence]

in any case, labelling a very large community made up predominantly of queer people, neurodivergent people, disabled people, and people of color as sexual-abusing degenerate freaks is a HUGE red flag to me.


~Admins note: a minor edit has been made to fit forum guidelines (to the author: I sent you a pm, feel free to remove this note)

[Melooon]

i don't hang out with any furries

Hi, after a discussion with X about some of their posts we agreed they might not be ready to participate here (they were quite young) - they seem to have chosen to delete their account and I have removed their comments here. I think it might be appropriate from a right-to-be-forgotten perspective for you to edit out their details here, or remove the quote outright as it's not really a well-formed discussion anymore.

EDIT:
A reminder for anyone following this thread - please see the How to Report Posts topic - if there are issues here that Im not understanding - please report posts! https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=839.0

[doubleincision]

Hi, after a discussion with X about some of their posts we agreed they might not be ready to participate here (they were quite young) - they seem to have chosen to delete their account and I have removed their comments here. I think it might be appropriate from a right-to-be-forgotten perspective for you to edit out their details here, or remove the quote outright as it's not really a well-formed discussion anymore.

i see! i'll remove the quote from my post. i think the rest of the post is still relevant to the discussion without it, regardless