furries and furry fandom

[madame bellatrix]

-okay,so in my research and writing of starfox fandom,i ran into furry fandom.now,nothing wrong with it,i'm a believer in that you can do whatever you want as long as nobody gets hurt...

anyway,starfox and furry fandom.

 

-how many people here are furries or like anthros? was starfox like a gateway to it?

 

-i'm not furry/anthro lover  per se,but i have an online friend who is and i myself have always had an appreciation for anthro art though i'll be honest,i always had a love for kemonomimi (you know,japanese manga trope,the people with the furry ears and tail,ex:inuyasha).i find it interesting ,but i didn't come to starfox because of a love for anthros or kemonomimi,but in spite of it.

 

 

 

[LoneWolf]

Yes, Star Fox is what got me into being a furry. After playing the games and loving the *shudders* Krystal art, I figured out that yes, indeed I am a furry. From there it's just perpetuated itself.

 

So yes, StarFox and another site called Scratch was my gateway drug to the fandom all the way back in middle school ages ago.

[Snys93]

I am a Starfox fan, but I'm not hardcore. It's the same with Star Trek. I watch the films and tv shows but I don't go to conventions and wear a Starfleet uniform.

[Thu'um]

That's a complex question. Despite my constant nagging on furries,, i am a furry. But hardly in the way the most furries are. I don't look at anthro art, i don't draw it, i don't craze over any of that. The only real reason i am a furry is because i like mice, and i think having a tail would be neat. 

[Dr. Orange]

I'm so furry they call me Sasquatch.

 

I was introduced to the Furry Fandom by Starfox... well it really started from a Google search result. Yet Starfox and specifically Krystal magnified it to make me a full out Furry, if there is such a thing.

So yeah. Since then I enjoy a lot of the Furry fandom and all it has to offer. Maybe even one day you can hear the story of "x87."

[Ori]

(Well, well, well, so the forum is about to explode again the topic is up. I always feared posting about this discussion because of the one result that is already common sense, and I'm sure it'd be a flat-out Internet Backdraft.)

 

Personally I consider myself as a Furry, but always followed by "not THAT kind, though" to finish my statements, or even keeping it untold until I feel like people already know it's not of my nature to be overly excited over some exceedingly fetishic 'fan-tastic' pieces of so-called art, and I assume you know how I usually react to them.

 

Now, that I do like anthros, I do, that's a fact. I've always been fond of the comic or otherwise cute (wow, I have to use that word more often) characters that are labeled Furry to/by the public. However I never had a direct contact with a Furry-exclusive environment, nor have joined a community where those are preferable members. Mostly it's because I'm not too good at fitting into groups, but it also is noteworthy that the Furry fandom isn't quite a 100% family-friendly utopia, but labelling everything Furry as bestial, amoral or otherwise any variant of inappropriate is as accurate as saying the capital of Brazil is Buenos Aires.

 

Trope Overdosing aside, I know some Furries here on SF-O that I would never guess they were unless told otherwise, which happens upon my own 'confession'. Pretty much normal people, with normal minds, normal lives, and normal likings. Only difference is that they are Furry.

 

I must admit, I've known some Furries around (especially dA) that at first (over)look can seem just at the borderline of sane. but when you actually get to talk to them, they sound just like the average internet user. Personally, I see no reason to see them as some sort of plague, unless noted otherwise (see: 'Yiff').

 

In short words: I am a Furry and there's nothing wrong with that. Other people can be Furries if they want, and it's ultimately their decision. In case they like and are Furries of some other sort, better just not bother trying to argue with them.

[OneUnder]

[The amount of times this kind of topic has popped up over the years is staggering. ]

 

Yup; Star Fox, Sly Cooper, and other anthropomorphic animal character-centric works have always greatly entertained me; I adore them and with my discovery of a little thing known as "the internet" I also found out that others shared the enjoyment.  SF-O acted as a gateway of sorts.

[StarFoxfan-FUR_ever]

I think part of the reason I am a furry goes beyond the fact that in terms of video games, there was Star Fox and Sonic. It also comes from the fact that a lot of TV shows from my childhood involved anthropomorphic animals. Some examples were: Rocco's Modern Life, The Angry Beavers, Digimon (I know they weren't real "animals" but for me it still counts since they are based on them)...and I suppose we could include The Wild Thornberries as well. Of course, there are other examples that go as far back as the majority of the shows that were featured on Nick Jr. back in the early - mid 90's.

 

So even though I was introduced to the fandom by Sonic and immersed into it by Star Fox (in the worst possible ways, mind you @.@) I have reason to believe that I was molded in such a way as to make it easier for myself to imagine characters with human traits as represented in the form of animals. I understand that some people find stories "weird" because they are centered around animals as opposed to cartoon versions of humans.

 

Because of how much I enjoyed the SF series, I accidentally found this community. In fact, if I remember correctly, I was noticing that there was a lack of SF fan-made flash games on the internet (the SFW kind anyways...) and I had actually searched up "Star Fox Online game". The wonderfully accurate [/sarcasm] google search engine found SF-O for me. And because of my exposure to this site, I found a group of furries who weren't completely corrupted. It was like a breath of fresh air, and probably helped save me from becoming like the other part of the fandom.

[Vulvokunvrii]

Yeah I'm a furry (Pokefur to be accurate) and part of the fandom. And yes, StarFox was big main contribution gateway for my entry. (Disney back when it didn't suck as much also helped, but will not be meantioned for personal reasons that will get me frustrated)

[OneUnder]

and probably helped save me from becoming like the other part of the fandom.

 

You say that like it's a bad thing. - Unless you're describing the particularly hideous and abhorrent side of that side of the fandom.  In that case I'd agree with you. xD

[Ori]

(@Crazyfoonic's first post: Really? Wow, I'm living under a rock it seems.)

 

Oh, and as I've trailed off into silly troping I forgot about the second part of the discussion; Yes, StarFox: Assault specifically got me into the SF fandom, which later evolved into a Sonic pathology, and a general Furry syndrome which led to my dA debut, and more legitimate Furry contact which I won't bother mentioning at the moment. More recently I've been quite interested into Pokémon, too.

Point is, SFA got me into, and my silly Furrified[?] brain thought from the trailer that Krystal was a decent character, hence the deception upon playing the games. That later evolved into the aspiration of writing fanfiction (the good kind) of StarFox, hence my decaying project crossover. The team's characters, Krystal in special, got me into a syndrome of inspiration strikes... At the most inconvenient times, when I am unable to write immediately or otherwise note it down.

 

But that's a story I'll save for a later thread. Anyway, as you see the SF fandom Furrified me by the invocation of the 'Everyone's Furry For Krystal' SF trope, in a good way, or at least, less exaggerated than most of the fans. Now flat-out Furry OrbiterSpore can be found at his natural habitat constantly talking about the Furry fandom and its hidden true arts, if not making fanworks involving Furry characters, in special Krystal and Tails. NOT to be confused with the pedophilic KrysTails shipping.

 

And personally I am quite in a anti-Furry stereotype on one hand, since I have an aversion to sites such as FA. I don't actually know what's going on there, but sometimes, given the known Furry mainstream, I REALLY don't wanna know.

 

Also:

 

You say that like it's a bad thing. - Unless you're describing the particularly hideous and abhorrent side of that side of the fandom.  In that case I'd agree with you. xD

 

If you get to said point in which you, quote, lose "that little voice inside your head that keeps you from lusting after dogs", it's all downhill from there, no exemptions. Both Furry-wise, and social-wise speaking.

 

I really un-recommend following that road. Just. Don't. For the good of all of us.

(Except the ones who are dead.)

[Battlechili]

Well, I first found out about the furry fandom while in the brony fandom, shortly after I gained access to the internet here at home in late 2011. I occasionally heard people mention furries, comparing bronies to them (ranging from people saying things like "bronies are closet furries" or "bronies are even worse than furries"), looked it up, and I found out what they were. It particularly troubled me shortly after finding out what a furry is that the internet tended to hate on them, as I could not understand what there was to hate. Sure, there was porn, but what fandom doesn't have porn, and why is porn such a big deal? It's not something I really understand. I found the furry fandom interesting, and I understood it wasn't all porn like the internet often likes to think, and not even the porn bothered me. As time went on, I forgot about the furry fandom for the most part. Late 2012, I played Starfox Adventures, which I loved as a game, perhaps even more than what I had played of Assault before it, and I especially loved the art. I shortly after started looking up information on Starfox, which somehow or another led me back to noticing the furry fandom, which I quickly started researching, and, in the last few months, I've decided that I was a furry. I have spent a large amount of time on furry oriented sites (FurAffinity Forums, especially, as I've found it filled with so many people that I get lots of different conversation and perspectives on things). I've found the fandom to be filled with a lot of weird people, as well as a lot of cool people.

In short, yes, I am a furry, and yes, Starfox is the reason I'm in the furry fandom now, though I was curious about it about a year before Starfox. I love some furry art, though I will admit some of it looks really weird and some of it is disgusting

 

I actually noticed today just how much I was a furry, in that I'm obsessed with the Starfox series, today bought the game Solatorobo; Red the Hunter, have been waiting for the soon Steam release of Dust: An Elysian Tail, recently watched Bagi, Monster of Mighty Nature, have been thinking about buying Spice and Wolf, and might buy Starfox Command soon. And that my favorite Disney movie was The Lion King, and that I've been wanting to see Kimba the White Lion as of late.

[Fana McCloud]

I'm a furry by definition, and yeah Star Fox was my window into that. People on the Star Fox fan forums I frequented in my early days on the Internet were furry or linked to furry sites and thus my awareness of anthro animals having their own fandom developed. Before that I watched a lot of cartoons that had furries as characters and loved 'em so it was certainly fertile ground for later dubbing myself a furry.

 

The irony however is that I believe myself to be skewed towards the asexual end of the spectrum, thus I fit very few of the sometimes negative stereotypes about members of the fandom. XD None the less I kinda have to be careful about how I throw around the term "furry" in regards to myself because many people I encountered while going to school clearly had negative or mocking impressions of what it means to be a furry. It was rather disheartening.

 

I'm kinda dissuaded from dealing with places more dedicated to furry fandom in general because dealing with horn dogs who think "Hey, wanna yiff?" is a suitable first topic for making new friends annoys the hell outta me. I tried those furry friend finder services and yeah, that was most of what I got. Rather disappointing. I'm not too good with socializing in the usual ways so building up a friend base in more natural ways doesn't come naturally to me. XD

[Battlechili]

 XD None the less I kinda have to be careful about how I throw around the term "furry" in regards to myself because many people I encountered while going to school clearly had negative or mocking impressions of what it means to be a furry. It was rather disheartening.

I have friends at school who noticed I liked furry art. Now they joke about it in a rather negative way, as if I'm doing something wrong for liking such art. It's rather irritating how many people have such negative view of furries.

[OneUnder]

If you get to said point in which you, quote, lose "that little voice inside your head that keeps you from lusting after dogs", it's all downhill from there, no exemptions. Both Furry-wise, and social-wise speaking.

 

I really un-recommend following that road. Just. Don't. For the good of all of us.

(Except the ones who are dead.)

 

That's the big difference.  A member of the furry fandom generally participates in it as an outlet of fantasy of sorts.  The "point" in which you describe refers to a distinct lack of normalcy and potential deeper problems involving life and the human psyche; of which there should be a distinction made between participation in the fandom and such questionable perspectives.  One does not lead to the other. 

[Battlechili]

That's the big difference.  A member of the furry fandom generally participates in it as an outlet of fantasy of sorts.  The "point" in which you describe refers to a distinct lack of normalcy and potential deeper problems involving life and the human psyche; of which there should be a distinction made between participation in the fandom and such questionable perspectives.  One does not lead to the other. 

Is he referring to people being literally attracted to dogs, or anthropomorphized dogs that look kinda human seen in the furry fandom sometimes?

Because I'm not so sure the latter would necessarily mean the person has deeper psychological problems. The former sure, but the latter, not really, cosidering the things look human like anyway.

[OneUnder]

Is he referring to people being literally attracted to dogs, or anthropomorphized dogs that look kinda human seen in the furry fandom sometimes?

Because I'm not so sure the latter would necessarily mean the person has deeper psychological problems. The former sure, but the latter, not really, cosidering the things look human like anyway.

 

That is precisely what I meant by that; an attraction of sorts to a provocative piece of artwork that is pretty much a human anyhow is one thing that is perfectly acceptable; the former that you mentioned and that he meant, however, is undoubtedly troubling. 

[Vy'drach]

 

 

I am because being human is just danged boring. How many people out there play humans in games when there are good alternatives?

 

Anthros open up many possibilities for variety. Do you go the route where it's just a clusterfuck of different animals as you see fit? Or how Jay Naylor did where species is determined by nationalities. Either way makes for much more entertainment possibilities. Especially when nonhuman characters often come with nonhuman problems.

 

Take this issue of Broken Plot Device, for example.

 

[Battlechili]

I am because being human is just danged boring. How many people out there play humans in games when there are good alternatives?

I used to prefer humans over any other alternative in a game since I thought most other alternatives usually look kind of ugly. Recently I've been getting out of that mindset though.

[Ori]

That's the big difference.  A member of the furry fandom generally participates in it as an outlet of fantasy of sorts.  The "point" in which you describe refers to a distinct lack of normalcy and potential deeper problems involving life and the human psyche; of which there should be a distinction made between participation in the fandom and such questionable perspectives.  One does not lead to the other. 

 

I realize the difference. The problem lies in the essential fact, that they are also Furries. All mainstream interference aside, one DOES lead to another if they have serious brain damage. Okay, that's a lie. What I'm saying is that there are extremists that have the innocent part of the fandom as a gateway, and so you see people that are extremely disgusted of humans essentially preferring Furries (which are obviously nonexistent) at that one matter. This makes them unleash their fetish side into the place where they can be everything they want, the internet. So openly, I must say, that it gets to be scary.

 

Now, that there should be a difference, there should, and there is, but cue stereotype. Good ol' stereotypes always there will trick people into thinking that, if you are Furry, you HAVE to have a thing for anthro animals. If the so-called part of the fandom you mentioned earlier on, the 'Yiff' gets drawn into places where you always know that there will be porn and stuff and will proceed into at your own risk (I.E. Facepunch, 4chan, and what FA has been turning into), then I'm okay with it since there will be nothing for me to be exposed to. Clearly there will be a consequent difference, and people will think "Hey, that person is  a Furry but never said anything about that 'Yiff' or told that hates porn, he's not a [insert pejorative stereotypical classification here]".

 

Is he referring to people being literally attracted to dogs, or anthropomorphized dogs that look kinda human seen in the furry fandom sometimes?

Because I'm not so sure the latter would necessarily mean the person has deeper psychological problems. The former sure, but the latter, not really, cosidering the things look human like anyway.

 

I'm referring to both, actually, but only to the anthro part if you are willing to literally shape your body like an anthro animal's and implant a tail. No, I'm not meaning fursuits, I'm meaning people who literally hate being human and want to be anthos. 'That just ain't right m'boi.' In this [il]logical(?) extreme you are actually hating something you can't change at the current time at least; genetics. In case in the future you get to change your body, you're laughing. But we all know that's not gonna happen, at least in three years or so. What I'm saying is, accept the truth: If you think humans are ugly, there's nothing to do about it. Now if you think you can solve your individual problem by attempting to create an unholy offspring via actual animals, then something is really wrong with you.

 

As I've mentioned before, there's a 'Furry test' that has been sighted around that wretched hive of a MemeCenter. The demotivational poster depicts a female Furry in a blatantly provocative pose and facial expression, wearing no much more than a bikini set. The label claims that 'if you get turned on because of that picture, I have bad news'. I guess I passed, since the obvious backfire on me caused more of a Squick ("squeamish ick", not to be confused with Squee, which I once in a blue Mün (or vixen) happen to do, if it's not porn or plain stupid nudity).

 

That is precisely what I meant by that; an attraction of sorts to a provocative piece of artwork that is pretty much a human anyhow is one thing that is perfectly acceptable; the former that you mentioned and that he meant, however, is undoubtedly troubling. 

 

+1 Confirm, that the human being is very easily attracted to the figure of basically anything humanoid that it finds provocative. I myself can tolerate provocative things, to a certain extent. The concept of 'sexy' that has been defined lately apparently is more of 'slutty', but in my book, it's synonymous for 'extremely attracting, otherwise pretty-looking'. Certain poses can actually make one's mind have second thoughts, like in my latest Garry's Mod picture to-date in which a sticky situation can lead to a wrong assumption, when the actual context is more of comical/mocking intents. I can perfectly tolerate someone making a joke that is just a bit over the line, but go and say to me 'fap fap fap' or 'hey wanna yiff' and you're sure getting a ***killion rants at you, and possibly a bad opinion from me; which will mean you'll get a deadpan snarker, (not-so) harmless troll, spockish guy, straw Vulcan and consequent annoyance at your head. I'll use everything I and even you have against yourself and eventually a Chewbacca Defence will be used to ruin your argument. If you take it to the amoral rock bottom of wanting either about non-anthro animals or child Furries and want to involve me, write that down; ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE AT YOU.

 

Being the stereotypical personality figure of a conservative guy, yes, I am very biased in some matters. On the other hand, when I see only the tendency which I snipe at, not the person, is and feels wrong, I am more open to a flexible workarounds. Think of it as 'you have your line, I have mine, we can both get along if we don't cross each other's. Friends?'.

 

 

 

-snip-

 

I agree on that one point. I may not be as Furry enough to go out tattooing paws on my shoulder or writing 'furry' to my hand, but I understand the concept that when you have the option to use that as a device to enhance variety and creativity, it's not any kind of crime. Referral goes back to where I said, in the internet, there's no holds barred unless told otherwise. As much as it sometimes feels awkward to have a conversation on another forum where I don't really know if [X User Group] will accept me as a Furry, since I know how they may see the fandom, but I generally try (note, try) to avoid the subject unless I know the person is a liberal or doesn't really know much of the fandom at all.

 

Thinking a bit outta the box, not exactly related to the subject, but relevant:

 

User: Do you know what a Furry is?

 

CleverBot: A furry is someone who thinks they are an animal.

 

User: I figured you'd say that. It's a stereotyped assumption. Not very clever, you know.

 

(Edited because of an incorrect 'an' in place of 'a'.)

Edited April 28, 2013 by OrbiterSpore

[DZComposer]

I like anthro characters, but I do not consider myself a furry. I have created some characters before, but none of them represent me and I wasn't really serious about them either.

From what I see, what makes a furry is someone who likes to imagine themselves as an anthro character. The whole "fursona" thing, if you will.

There's also the whole furry subculture which I have no desire to be part of. Not having a character but participating in this culture I think also qualifies one for the "furry" label.

[Drasiana]

Yeah I just like character designs and stuff but I don't consider myself a furry by any means.

[Patch93]

Yeah, I like anthros and all but I don't imagine myself being one. : P

[Ori]

On that note, I actually can imagine myself as a Furry/anthro character. I must say though that it'd be... Pretty weird.

[OneUnder]

I look at it in a similar light; I do have anthropomorphic role-play characters and do participate in the occasional role play - strictly in a character playing form, however.  It is nice to break from the boring aspects of daily routine in the same way that Vydrach described, and, in essence, "become" something that holds fascinating attributes that you could never be IRL.  I admire the varying pieces of anthro-artwork for the same reason; I enjoy the overall designs/forms, freedoms associated with them, etc.  No harm done there.

 

*casually adds new GIF to signature*