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Furry fandom is a subculture distinguished by its enjoyment of anthropomorphic animal characters. Examples of anthropomorphism in the furry fandom include the attribution of human intelligence and facial expressions, speech, bipedalism or walking on two legs, and the wearing of clothes. Members of this subculture are sometimes known as furry fans, furries, or simply furs.

Since the 1980s, the term furries has come to refer to anthropomorphic animal characters in general. More common terms for such characters are funny animal, in use since the 1940s in the comics and cartooning industries, as well as talking animal and cartoon animal. In Japan, anthropomorphized characters are known as kemono.

Art and entertainment celebrated by furry fandom may be any fictional work that employs the concept of animal characters with human characteristics, rather than any particular type of fiction. For this reason, any work, in any medium, may be considered part of the furry genre simply by inclusion of a fantastic animal character, although such characters are most often seen in comics, cartoons, animated films, allegorical novels, and video games.The science fiction and fantasy genres make frequent use of anthropomorphism, and as a result, are especially popular in furry fandom.

History and inspiration

The fandom for anthropomorphized animals is believed to have been originated at a science fiction convention in 1980, when a drawing of a character from Steve Gallacci’s Albedo initiated a discussion of anthropomorphic characters in science fiction novels, which in turn initiated a discussion group that met at science fiction and comics conventions.

However, many fans consider the beginnings of furry fandom to be much earlier. Some consider the furry fandom to have its origins in the early animist societies such as Egypt, where the various Egyptian gods and goddesses took on the for of a very diluded version of furry animals, similar to catgirls in Japanese Anime.

In the mid-20th Century, fictional works such as Kimba, The White Lion released in 1965, Richard Adams' novel Watership Down, published in 1972 (and its film adaptation, released in 1978), as well as Walt Disney's Disney's Robin Hood are oft-cited examples of the beginnings of furry fandom.

During the 1980s, the increasing number of self-professed furry fans began to publish fanzines, developing a diverse social group, that eventually began to schedule social gatherings. By 1987, there was sufficient interest to stage the first furry convention.

Throughout the next decade, the Internet became accessible to the general population, and became the most popular means for furry fans to socialize; as a result, furry fandom gained higher visibility and began to grow rapidly. Virtual environments, such as MUCKs, soon became the most popular places on the Internet for fans to meet and communicate. One of the oldest and largest MUCKs in existence is FurryMUCK; while one of the newest virtual environments to attract furry fans is Second Life.

Examples of the types of animal characters that typically inspire furry fans include characters from:

• Cartoons characters: Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, Roger Rabbit, The Angry Beavers, Rocko's Modern Life

• Animated feature films: The Lion King, The Secret of NIMH, Bagi, Madagascar

• Television series: Kimba the White Lion, Disney's Rescue Rangers, SWAT Kats, Road Rovers, Rex the Runt, The Raccoons, Arthur, Dinosaurs, Father of the Pride

• Comics: Usagi Yojimbo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Omaha the Cat Dancer, Shanda The Panda, Albedo Anthropomorphics, Maus, and Over the Hedge

• Novels: Andre Norton's Breed to Come, Brian Jacques's Redwall series, Steven Boyett's The Architect of Sleep, S. Andrew Swann's Moreau series

• Games: RuneQuest, Lugaru, EverQuest, the Star Fox series, Sly Cooper series, Sonic the Hedgehog series, Jazz Jackrabbit series, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Furcadia

• Webcomics: Newshounds, Boomer Express, The Suburban Jungle, Kevin and Kell, Faux Pas, Namir Deiter, Sabrina Online, Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, VG Cats

Many members of furry fandom have cited as inspiration the historical usage of anthropomorphic animals in world mythology, including Egyptian, Greek, Japanese and Native American. Aesop's Fables is commonly cited on lists of furry resources.

To distinguish them from seriously depicted animal characters, such as Lassie or Old Yeller, cartoon animals are often referred to as funny animals, a term that came into use in the 1940s century, inspired by the use of animal characters in comics and cartooning industries.

Many webcomics feature animal characters, and are often created by furry fans; as such, they may be referred to as "furry comics." One such comic, T.H.E. Fox, was first published on CompuServe in 1986, predating the Internet by several years.

Fan creations

Furry fans are eager for more material than is available from mainstream publishers, and this demand is often met by fans, who range from amateur to professional. These artists, writers, and publishers produce their own drawings, paintings, stories, comic books, fanzines, puppets, websites, and even small press books.

Art and literature

Many furry fans participate in the arts, becoming amateur—and sometimes professional—illustrators, comic strip authors, painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, and craftspeople. The fandom produces a prolific amount of illustration, as well as sculpture, textile art, fiction, music, and photography. Some of this work is erotic, or pornographic, in nature.

While most fan-created art is distributed through nonprofessional media, such as personal websites, some is published in anthologies, by Amateur Press Associations, or in APAzines. A few works of furry art have been released in mainstream culture, and furry artwork has appeared on commercial apparel.

Crafts

Fans with craft skills often create their own plush toys, sometimes referred to as plushies; others build elaborate costumes called fursuits, which are worn for fun or to participate in parades, convention masquerades, dances, or fund-raising charity events (as entertainers). While many fursuits feature simple construction and resemble sports mascots, others feature sophisticated construction that includes moving jaw mechanisms, animatronic parts, prosthetic makeup, and other frills, which may cost their creators as much as $1000. Some furry fans pursue puppetry, recording videos and performing live.

Role playing

Some furry fans create anthropomorphic animal characters in order to engage in role-playing sessions on the Internet; these characters may be used in MUDs, on Internet forums, or on Electronic mailing lists, and are known as fursonas. The longest-running online furry role-playing environment is FurryMUCK (although it was predated by the GE-run BBS called The Beastie Board in which conversation occasionally led to role-play). Another popular online furry social game is called Furcadia, created by Dragon's Eye Productions. There are also several furry-themed areas and communities in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Second Life.

Conventions

Sufficient interest and membership has enabled the creation of many furry conventions in North America and Europe. The largest of these is Anthrocon held annually in Pittsburgh in July . A convention called Further Confusion, held in San Jose each January, closely follows Anthrocon in scale and attendance. The total attendance for furry conventions exceeded 9130 in 2005, an increase of 13% since the previous year. In 2006, more than 25 such conventions took place around the world. The first known furry convention, ConFurence , is no longer held; Califur has replaced it, as both conventions were based in Southern California.

Many conventions feature an auction or fundraising event, with the proceeds often donated to an animal-related charity. For example, Further Confusion has raised more than $62,000 (USD) for various charitable beneficiaries throughout its eight-year history , and Anthrocon has donated more than $66,000 (USD) to animal-related charities since 1997. In September 2004, Mephit Furmeet raised more than $15,000 for an organization known as Tiger Haven.

Furry lifestylers

The phrase furry lifestyler is used to describe people with beliefs similar to those of animistic religions and philosophies, such as Shamanism and Otherkin. Many furry lifestylers believe they have a totem animal that watches over them, or that they are the reincarnation of an animal spirit.

Some lifestylers also adopt physical attributes of an animal, such as hair styles, tattoos, and articles of clothing or jewelry which emulate the physical appearance of animals. Instances of people such as Stalking Cat and The Lizard Man undergoing extensive body modifications are documented (as broadcast on the Discovery Channel program Humanimals: Wild Makeovers) but extremely rare.

The phrases furry lifestyle and furry lifestyler first appeared in July 1996 on the newsgroup alt.fan.furry during an ongoing dispute within that online community. One group within furry fandom believed that any peripheral interest not directly relating to furry art, literature and fantasy should not be directly associated with the fandom, while others believed that the definition of what constituted furry could only be decided by the individual. The dispute was resolved by the creation of the newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry in August 1996, created to accommodate discussion beyond furry art and literature. Memebers of this newsgroup quickly adopted the term furry lifestylers. Among most furries, the fandom and the lifestyle have been considered separate social entities since that time.

Some other communities, such as the were or therian communities, share similar beliefs with furry lifestylers but wish to distance themselves from the term furry, as they are not necessarily interested in furry fandom or do not wish to see their beliefs "trivialized" by association with what they describe as a "cartoon fandom."

Sex and furry fandom

Differing approaches to sexuality have been a source of controversy and conflict in furry fandom. Compounding this matter are stereotypes regarding furries and sex. Protests have been made by members of the fandom against what they regard as "distasteful, unrelated, or deviant aspects" of the fandom, in particular by groups such as the "Burned Furs" a group active in the 1990s who thought their image was being harmed by the increasing sexual aspect of the fandom).

Examples of mainstream "adult" aspects within furrie fandom include erotic furry art, a style sometimes known as yiffy art (from the subculture term "yiff" referring to sexual activity or arousal), and pornographic movies of sexual activities between participants wearing fur suits.

The term furvert (a portmanteau of "furry" and "pervert") specifically refers to the subgroup of the fandom that sexualizes anthropomorphic animal characters. The term may be used pejoratively, as a self-referential joke, or merely as a descriptor.

Many furry conventions communicate their codes of conduct, which restrict sexually explicit material and behavior as furry fandom includes people of all ages.

Fandom survey

A survey which examined social and sexual attitudes in furry fandom conducted by David J. Rust published as The Sociology of Furry Fandom, interviewed 360 respondents (325 in person, 35 online). Rust's results indicated that in regards to sex:

• Furries "report a rather non-judgemental attitude" to some aspects of sexuality
• The fandom contains a large proportion of people reporting homosexuality, bisexuality and/or polyamory, or other non-traditional forms of relationship
• 48% reported bisexuality, 25% reported heterosexuality, 19% were homosexual, and 8% were uncertain. Additionally, 2% stated an interest in zoophilia, and fewer than 1% stated an interest in plushophilia.
• Furries have "a higher tolerance for variety in sexual orientation and activity"
• Heterosexual furries "participate in mixed-gender social body language between members of the same sex without any apparent threat to their sexual identity"

He cited these findings as reasons why inaccurate perceptions of furries arise. However, the accuracy of such statistics is questionable for two reasons: as Rust's survey required respondents to submit their legal names and 90% of the respondents answered in person, the reluctance to answer some questions truthfully may have resulted in a statistical bias; furthermore, the constantly increasing size of furry fandom may render these statistics obsolete (the research was based on data compiled in 1997 and 1998, and published in 2002).

Media coverage

Coverage of furry fandom in mainstream American media is rare, but usually unflattering. Media portrayal is generally dismissive, although occasionally derisive, depicting furries as a fanatical subculture whose members exhibit antisocial tendencies and who celebrate bizarre behavior. Many reports focus excessively on the sexual aspect of furry fandom. Prominent examples include articles in Vanity Fair and Loaded magazines, the syndicated sex column Savage Love, and dramatized fiction or documentaries portrayed on television programs such as ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CSI: Episode #406: Fur and Loathing), The Drew Carey Show , and Sex2K. A newspaper article widely known by furries noted that "despite their wild image from Vanity Fair, MTV, and CSI, furry conventions aren't about kinky sex between weirdos gussied up in foxy costumes," but instead about "people talking and drawing animals and comic-book characters in sketchbooks."

See also

• Animal transformation fantasy
• Anthropomorphism
• List of furry comics
• List of furry role-playing games
• Parahuman
• Yiff

References

1. Kurutz, Daveen Rae (June 17, 2006). "It's a furry weekend". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. Staeger, Rob (July 26, 2001). "Invasion of the Furries". The Wayne Suburban. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. Cite error: The named reference WashingtonOverTheHedge was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. Dagna, Justin (2005). Fera Vita: Pax Draconis. Technicraft.
5. Tatara, Paul (June 22, 2001). "Furries funny, humans not in 'Dolittle 2'". Retrieved 24-12-2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
6. ^ Patten, Fred (February 2, 1999). "Chronology Of Furry Fandom". YARF! The Journal of Applied Anthropomorphics. Retrieved 2006-07-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. http://www.arclight.net/~yarf/YARF_Chronology.html
8. Patten, Fred (2006). Furry! The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction. ibooks.
9. Muth, Douglas (January 15, 2006). "Furries! Introduction to the Furry Fandom". Claws-and-Paws.com. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. Sandler, Kevin S. (1998). Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Rutgers University Press.
11. The Commodore 64/128 RoundTable. http://cmdrkey.com/cbm/genie/geniefiles/Information/T.H.E.-FOX.TXT. Retrieved 2006-10-26. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |dateyr= ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
12. Riggs, Adam (2004). Critter Costuming: Making Mascots and Fabricating Fursuits. Ibexa Press.
13. Larson, Alina (January 23, 2003). "Animal Instincts: Fans of Furry Critters Convene to Help Mankind". Tri-Valley Herald. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. "'Furries' Descend On Golden Triangle". WTAE-TV. June 16, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
15. Peralta, Eyder (May 28, 2006). "In Second Life, the World is Yours". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-07-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Furries Descend On Pittsburgh". KDKA-TV. June 16, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. Cooksey, David. "Anthropomorphic Fandom Convention Information Sheet". Retrieved 2006-06-30.
18. Anthropomorphic Arts and Education. "AAE, Inc. - What we do". Retrieved 2006-08-26.
19. Brian Harris, Anthrocon charity auction director. "Anthrocon Charity Auction FAQ". Retrieved 2006-08-26.
20. "Mephit Furmeet website". Retrieved 2005-02-04.
21. ^ Orion Sandstorrm. "Catalogue of nonhuman communities". Retrieved 2006-07-11.
22. "alt.lifestyle.furry - Frequently Asked Questions". 2001-05-08. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
23. "Burned Fur - Frequently Asked Questions". Retrieved 2006-08-26.
24. Katharine Gates. "Deviant Desires: Furverts". Retrieved 2006-08-26.
25. Dr. Samuel Conway (2006-03-28). "Anthrocon Standards of Conduct". Retrieved 2006-08-26.
26. David J. Rust (2000-2002, based on data 1997-1998). "The Sociology of Furry Fandom". Retrieved 2006-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
27. Belser, Ann (June 18, 2006). "All about 'furry fandom' at confab". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
28. "Pleasures of the fur". Vanity Fair.
29. Video of CSI episode and video of furry scenes from ER's furry episode
30. The Drew Carey Show on WikiFur, accessed 2006-08-26
31. MTV. "Sex2K Fursuit Video". Retrieved 2006-08-26.
32. Meinzer, Melissa (February 2, 2006). "Fur Ball In The Works". Pittsburgh City Paper. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
33. Meinzer, Melissa (June 29, 2006). "Animal Passions: The furries come to town — and our correspondent tails along". Pittsburgh City Paper. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

• Craig Hilton: Furry Fandom — An Insider's View from the Outside, parts 1 & 2, South Fur Lands #2 & #3, 1995, 1996

External links

2. Part 2

Information

• WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia — furry fandom's community wiki
• A Chronology of Furry Fandom (early days through 1996)
• The Sociology of Furry Fandom written and researched by David J. Rust; a member of both SF Fandom and Furry Fandom
• Funny Animal Comics — An explanation of anthropomorphic animals as a genre
• Template:Dmoz

Art

• Yerf — A furry art archive with restrictions on quality and mature subject matter
• VCL — A mostly-unrestricted archive of furry art and fiction
• Fur Affinity — An archive that contains furry art, fiction, poetry and music. Content is restricted until the viewer signs up as a user of Fur Affinity.

• Furry
• Fandom
• Comics terminology
• Fictional animals