An in depth look at The Furry.

What is a Furry?

According to Tyra Banks' short explanation for people with limited attention span, a furry is someone who has sex while dressed up in a fur suit. Consequently, her short explanation of what a furry is has lead to much anger and flame wars. I pity those who took part in this. Wait a minute, I'm taking part in this war by stating this fact. Shit. Oh well, I might as well try and defend Tyra, she was there to showcase a furry who had sex in a fur suit, that was mainly why this person was a furry and she stated the fact. It was a petrol and the match all over again.
Please read on and forget about this...

Chapter 1: What defines a furry fan?
There are almost as many opinions and theories about what defines a furry fan as there are furries themselves. It's a never-ending debate among many people who know of or who are part of the furry fandom, usually furries themselves tying to find the line between being an ordinary person and being a furry.

The problem is the broad range of different types of furry fans out there who all share the furry label. It's increasingly difficult for others to know what makes someone a furry.

In my opinion, using the word furry to describe a cartoon character has become obsolete. In my experience as a furry, I have never once seen a cartoon character being referred to as a furry. That label is almost always reserved for the people who worship fictional animals with human characteristics. This includes the following:

Cartoon animals
Probably the most common interest in the furry fandom. Examples include Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and almost anything that is too far from being based on any real animal, a totally unique look in regard to what they are. Others may also include Birds, Reptiles, Fish and even insects. Anything that has features of a human; expression, speech and emotion, its under this category.

Realistic animals
with human like intelligence such as the rabbits in the novel Watership Down.

Humanoid animals.
Examples include Disney's Robin Hood, and the bioengineered animals in the novel The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Animal-like aliens.
The best known examples are Wookies and Ewoks, but there are many, many others in science fiction,
such as the Kzin (Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars), the Quozl (Alan Dean Foster's Quozl), and the Sholan (Lisanne Norman's Sholan Alliance).

Mythological creatures.
For instance, centaurs (half horse, half man) and satyrs (half goat, half man).

Anime cat-girls.
A common feature in Japanese animation, basically normal humans with animal ears and a tail,
most often feline, and usually possessing no other animal qualities.

Chapter 2: The furry stereotype.
There is much tension within the furry fandom about what it means to be a furry, many furrys are sensitive about how outsiders (the normal ones) perceive them, many do not like to be thought of as people who have a sexual deviation relative to the fandom, even the ones who do in fact deviate towards sexual behaviour involving furry characters.

Like any group of people, be it religion, television reporters (the media), and especially homosexuals in general, there are stereotypes the follow each one independently. Reporters are sharks who will stop at nothing to get the news, religious people want to convert the whole world and own your soul, homosexuals are feminine, prancing, pink shiny plastic men who sweat glitter. All of the above are one or more stereotype that follow each group, they are false in the fact that they represent ALL of the people in the selected group, but they do represent a PORTION of people in the relevant group.

Stereotypes are generally formed in a negative basis, as demonstrated by my example above. The stereotype will represent the whole group of people even though just a portion of them are true to the label. Furries are not immune from the stereotype label. There are a portion of furries out there who are very sexually deviant individuals, they are part of the fandom and their interests, art and all the other things he follow are easily accessible through the internet along with all the other furry content that is from the rest of the the fandom that is not deviant.

The type of furry vary vastly and the differences are very significant, as much so as the difference between a butch homosexual male and a feminine homosexual male. These two men are completely different in every way, but still homosexuals. In the same regard to furries, there are ones who are sexually attracted to cartoon characters, and some who like to dress up as their favourite character and role-play with others. These two people are totally different from one another in every way and are of separate parts of the fandom, but they are BOTH furries. The negative aspect of the fandom is the one the is most prominent, most known by the outsiders. This is the sexual deviants, that is the stereotype the furries of all kinds are labelled as. Just like not every homosexual man wants to dress up in drag and be someone's bitch, not every furry want to dress up in a character suit and have a fur-pile orgy.

Just like reporters, religious people and homosexuals alike, you will not know what type each one is until you know them, many of them are good people who contribute to society, but there are a portion of each who are not. So please from now on, think before you slap the "DIRTY" label on someone just because they're furry, even if the odds are that he or she actually is.

Chapter 3: An in-depth look into the sexual aspect of the fandom:
The other aspects of the furry fandom are relativly self explanatory, so we won't be exploring them here. It's the sexual aspect that gets us scratching our heads the most and constantly wondering: Why do some furries have this odd sexual attraction cartoon characters? Well, the answer to that isn't very clear as of now, asking why these furries are the way they are is rather like trying to ask why gay men are gay; it can't really be answered with a definite scientific-backing reason. So for now, the next best thing to go by is a theory by a furry such as myself based on my own personal experiences.

In my oppinion, the sexual attraction to cartoons is similar to homosexuality in the fact that its not consciously chosen by the individual, he or she just is by some cause; early life emotional experiences or otherwise. No one chooses his or her sexuality, you may disagree and I accept that, I urge you to please read on with an open mind. These furries can be either strait or gay, from what I've seen, a most male furries are gay. It is at this point that I ask you to please not discriminate against furries who are sexually attracted to cartoons, something has caused it and it cannot be switched off simply because someone doesn't like it. Let me remind you that not all furries are this way; it's an aspect of the furry fandom, not the point. A number of theories exist about male homosexuals who are furries, such as the confusion of being gay resulting in the sexual attraction to cartoon characters as a way to cope. There are just too many things that can contribute to what causes a person to become sexually attracted to cartoons, so I cannot explain them all, I can only state this fact.

I believe there are two types of furry who have sexual relations with cartoon characters. One type is more about sex and fetishes with a variety of characters, there's no emotionally binding relationship with any of them. Relationships with characters would be loose, lust objects if you will. Such a person may have the same sexual attraction towards cartoons as he or she would toward humans, he or she may also be in a healthy relationship with another human at this time. The other type is someone who takes the lust towards a character a few steps further by becoming emotional partners, as if the character were real and essentially relieving the person of his or her single status. To understand this, remember back, to when you last had a burning lustful crush on someone, feel the love that you felt. Imagine having that same feeling towards a particular cartoon character and never towards any human or living thing for that matter. There are furries out there who have this feeling towards certain characters, me being one of them, see part two for more detail on how I am. For these people, cartoon characters are the primary sexual attraction; human beings are of no or little interest. Cartoon characters will be looked at the same way a normal man should look at women, assessing how attractive they are, all the usual routine, the only difference being that they're cartoons, not real people. Because cartoons aren't real, there's no flirting, no dating, no messing around. So when he or she finds a carton character attractive, usually it takes a few programmes before a sexual attraction builds, involving finding the character very cute, just loving it. Next it'll be all about how sexy it is, how great it would be to be able to grab that body one and for all, take it in and taste that first passionate kiss. This is about the point where you can call the character a lust object. Many characters can accumulate as lust objects, one that are occasionally masturbated over with numerous fantasies, kind of like finding your favourite porn; it's not a love affair. The final point is when you form an emotional attachment with one of the characters, no longer giving it lust object status. A good example of when a character is fully loved rather then looked at as a lust object, is such when you'd rather look at the characters face, not focusing all the attention so how sexy the body is. When all you want to do it look into the characters eyes, kiss long, gently and passionately, and just hold each other forever and ever. When the point of each Saturday morning is to lie in bed and just be with the character, to just look at, love and cuddle for hours. Basically it all boils down to the relationship not being all about sex, when its wanting to be with, to hold onto, and to be real, more then just the want of sex. One of the other benefits of having this sort of relationship with a character, is there's no inconvenience of having a partner, not having to work your life around someone else. If you're able to get past being alone, and be able to not feel lonely, there's no real need to have a human companion in your life. These furries are very self-sufficient. They may be different, but they're probably happier then you, as much as you might hate to admit it, and they don't even have a lot of control over it.

Some may argue that people who are sexually attracted to cartoons are socially aquad, weird even. Truth be told, some of these furries are. As usual, bad news is more interesting then good news, you only have to watch TV1 at 6PM to know that. So people tend to only pay attention to the weird ones, they forget the most people who care sexual furries are actually normal, that these people may very well be your boss at work, or that big road works guy who gives you the thumbs up as you drive by. I feel that I have stressed the fact enough that this is so similar to homosexuality regarding being able to tell just by looking at how someone acts.

Lets face it, if someone's sexual 'thing' isn't something you yourself do, its perverted and wrong. You will (probably without knowing until now), close your mind off, and just say NO as we try to tell you that its really not that bad. I'm sorry to direct this in such a way that make you out to be ignorant, but even I know every well that I have been guilty of the same act. We have a tenancy to forget about things that are, in reality, much worse. At this moment you may think that having a sexual attraction to cartoons instead of humans is really sick, and something that needs to be sorted out. Just wait a minute, what happens when its put in perspective? Someone may be yelling and screaming, as the leaders of Burned Furs did, about some furries being 'perverted'. At the time of their preaching all that is right, they forget. They forget that what these furries are doing has practically no ill effect to anyone or anything. Compare it with normal human porn: In some way or another, it inflicts harm, sometimes physically and/or most commonly psychologically. Next time your looking at your porno, remind yourself that you're looking at someone's daughter. You're looking at a person who has very likely made the biggest, most humiliating decision of their life. This 'actor' is a real person with feelings, and she's giving herself away, exposing herself to hundreds of thousands of people, who are all whacking off to her humiliating situation. I don't know many porn stars, but from what I've seen on Dr Phil, not many of them are proud of what they do. Now, take another look at these 'perverted' people who have sexual fantasies about cartoons. Does this person, in any way contribute directly or indirectly to any sort of harm or any type, if any at all? There's nothing but this person, and lines on paper, and maybe even a soft toy with a few sticky scuff marks on its behind. A furries sexual fantasy is confined entirely to the individual, there is in no way, any harm to people or property that you can speak of. So why do we write them off at 'really sexually perverted' or 'sick'. Tell me, what is it that's really wrong with it? Sometimes it seems to me that furries are held to the same conviction that bestiality offenders are held to. Look at it like this: Norbert Beaver minds if anyone makes love to him on a regular basis. He will not yelp as you shove your non-beaver size thingy into his behind, nor will he suffer severe, painful injury from your sexual poundings. Norbert will never get a disease from the infested petrii dish that is your blood stream. He will not suffer near-permanent psychological harm that your continued abuse over the months will result in. Norbert Beaver is no more then nicely arranged, two-dimensional colours on a flat surface. He's not real. It will be argued though, that the idea of someone fantasising about having sex with a cartoonised dog for example, is too close to bestiality for comfort. When I think about it, these people who think this have good reason to. In some cases it's similar to a man who has drawings of naked little children, instead of photos, his interests are basically the same and I would be very worried. Truth be told, I do have to account for the portion of furries whose sexual attention will stray every now and then from fictional characters, over to real bestiality fantasies. Narrowing the percentage even more, most of these furries don't go further then fantasy, there's very few who would seriously take part in such acts. It's simply inevitable that there would be a portion that would. These people just an aspect of the sexual aspect of being a furry, they are quite a small percentage of the furry population, and they hardly represent the fandom as a whole. In most cases, sexual behaviour towards fictional characters will be limited to just that. It's a love of particular characters that goes beyond that of normal persons.

Chapter 4: The Burned Furs final solution to the negative steriotype.
*Based on information found at www.furrydolphin.net
*The burned furs group are an example of how Rule #19 of the internet always comes into play: The more you hate something, the stronger it gets. They set an unrealistic goal and failed before they even started, failed even more when they were running, and have been laid to rest in the museum of fail here:

The Burned Furs were founded in 1998 by Eric Blumrich and Charla Trotman, also known as Squee Rat. People of this group, in the words of Charla, "are furs who have spoken up against fandom perversion and been 'burned at the stake' for it." The Burned Furs started out on the basis that the anthropomorphic fandom is being overrun by sexually dysfunctional, socially stunted and creatively bankrupt hacks and perverts. There was much controversy over the exact nature of the Burned Furs beliefs, they were often accused of wanting to impose a kind of anti-sexual vision over the fandom. There were even certain members of the group that were intolerant of gays, furry life-stylers and even Christian furries. Burned Furs claimed that none of the above was a problem, as long as it was kept private, within the law and not displayed in an attention getting manner, especially through the media. Many critics considered the Burned Furs to be a hate group, due to the harsh in-your-face tactics, offensive shirts made by the group, and even physical threats made towards other furries. The Burned Furs were opposed by a peace group called the Freezing Furs who believed that the Burned Furs were a hate group. Two more groups; Non-aligned Furs and Furry Peace were formed around the factional conflicts which resulted from the formation of the Burned Furs. By 2001, the Burned Furs had almost completely vanished, having many of the members leaving the fandom. Along with them, the peace groups also faded out, no longer having any need to be around.

I hope reading this has been of benafit to you, no matter what your orientation.