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Furry fandom is an artistic and literary genre that celebrates the humanization of animals, specifically in cartoons and comics.
The furry genre is a metagenre based on the idea of fantasy animal characters, rather than any one type of fiction. Any title in any type of media can be considered a part of the furry genre simply by having a fantasy animal character in it, though such characters are most often seen in cartoons, comics, science fiction, allegorical novels, commercials, video games and animated films.
Members of the furry fandom, known as furry fans, furries, or furs, particularly enjoy media that includes fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Some examples of anthropomorphic attributes are: exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, the ability to speak, walking on two legs, and wearing clothing.
Since the mid-1980s, furry fans have referred to any anthropomorphic animal character as a furry. The more accepted terms for these types of characters are funny animal and talking animal, or kemono in Japan.
The furry community has grown rapidly with the advent of the Internet. Content created by furry fans on the World Wide Web covers a wide range of interests, including fantasy, philosophy, sex, politics, religion and lifestyle. Some fans consider coverage of their activities by the mass media and entertainment industry to be sensational, as it tends to focus on fetishistic aspects of the fandom.
History and Inspiration
The term is used to describe one specific genre of fantasy art. The fandom for furry characters traces its organization back to a science fiction convention in 1980, when a drawing of a character from Steve Gallacci’s Albedo started a discussion of anthropomorphic characters in science fiction novels, spawning a discussion group that met at various science fiction and comics conventions.
Over the next several years, a gradually increasing number of furry fans developed fanzines and eventually began to have gatherings at house parties. By 1987 enough interest had been generated for the first furry convention.
As the internet became more accessible, it became the most popular means for furry fans to keep in touch and share their artistic efforts. This gained the fandom higher visibility and it began to grow rapidly. Virtual environments, such as MUCKs, soon became the most popular places on the net for furry fans to meet and communicate. One of the oldest and largest MUCKs in existence is FurryMUCK. 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 are represented by the titles below.
- From cartoons
- Roger Rabbit, The Angry Beavers, Rocko's Modern Life, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Wile E. Coyote
- From animated feature films
- Disney's Robin Hood and The Lion King, My Neighbor Totoro, The Secret of NIMH, Bagi, Madagascar
- From comics
- Usagi Yojimbo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Omaha the Cat Dancer, Shanda The Panda, Albedo Anthropomorphics, Maus
- From novels
- Richard Adams' Watership Down, Andre Norton's Breed to Come, Brian Jacques' Redwall series, Steven Boyett's The Architect of Sleep, S. Andrew Swann's Moreau series
- From games
- RuneQuest, EverQuest, the Star Fox series, Sonic the Hedgehog series, Jazz Jackrabbit series, Conker's Bad Fur Day
- From webcomics
- Newshounds, Boomer Express, The Suburban Jungle, Kevin and Kell, Faux Pas, Namir Deiter, Sabrina Online, Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures
Many members of the fandom have also cited as inspiration the historical usage of anthropomorphic animals in world mythology, including but not limited to Greek, Egyptian, Japanese and Native American. Aesop's Fables is also cited on many lists of furry resources.
To set them apart from more seriously-depicted animal characters, cartoon animals are sometimes also known "funny animals," a term that goes back to the early 20th century and seems to have been inspired by the use of animal characters in The Funnies, rather than as a reference to animal comedians. Additionally, in Japan there is a genre called kemono, a tangentially related but independent genre with different cultural associations.
There are dozens of webcomics based on animal characters. Many are created by furry fans and, as such, may be referred to as "furry comics." Some consider there to be little, if any, actual difference between a furry comic and a traditional funny animal comic.
Fan creations
Furry fans are eager for more material than is available from mainstream publishers. The demand is filled by fellow fans—amateur to professional artists, writers, and publishers who produce drawings, paintings, stories, independent comic books, fanzines, websites, and even small press books. Fans with craft skills put together their own plush furry toys, sometimes referred to as plushies, or build elaborate costumes called fursuits and wear them for fun or to participate in convention masquerades, dances, or fund-raising charity events (as entertainers). While many fursuits look like sports mascots, some fursuits go beyond that and include moving jaw mechanisms, animatronics, prosthetic makeup, or other frills.
Art and writing
Many furry fans participate in the arts, becoming amateur—and sometimes professional—illustrators, comic strip authors, painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, and craft artists. Primarily, the fandom produces hand- or computer-drawn artwork, although there are many sculptures, fabric pieces, stories, filk music pieces, and even photographs.
While the bulk of these fan-created pieces of art are distributed through nonprofessional media such as personal web sites and via email, some publish their works in anthologies, Amateur Press Associations, or APAzines. A few have mainstream, professional credits to their names.
Role playing characters ("Fursonas")
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. The oldest extant on-line furry role-playing environment is FurryMUCK, although it was predated by the GE-run BBS, The Beastie Board in which conversation sometimes led to role-play. Another popular online furry social game is called Furcadia, created by Dragon's Eye Productions, which has become significantly more popular than FurryMUCK. There are also several furry-themed areas and communities in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Second Life.
Conventions
Sufficient membership and interest has allowed for the creation of many annual furry conventions in North America and Europe, the largest being Anthrocon in Pittsburgh in July . Further Confusion, held in San Jose each January, is almost as large. The total attendance figures for furry conventions exceeded 9130 in 2005, a growth of 13% over the previous year. In 2005, 18 such conventions took place around the world. The first known furry convention, ConFurence , is no longer held. (Califur has replaced it, since both conventions were/are based in southern California.)
Many conventions feature an auction or fundraising event, with the proceeds often going to an animal-related charity. For example, Further Confusion has raised more than $44,000 for various charitable beneficiaries over its seven-year history , and Anthrocon has donated more than $66,000 to animal-related charities since 1997.
Furry lifestylers
The phrase furry lifestyler is used to describe an individual with beliefs similar to those of animal related religions and philosophies, such as Shamanism and Otherkin. Many lifestylers often believe they have a totem animal that watches over them or that they are the reincarnation of an animal spirit. Others may believe that animal instincts exist within humans as part of a genetic code.
Some lifestylers may also adopt physical attributes of an animal, such as animal-related hair styles, tattoos, and articles of clothing or jewelry. Cases of people undergoing extensive body modifications are documented, as shown on the Discovery Channel program Humanimals: Wild Makeovers, but are 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 community. One element 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 was up to the individual. The dispute was resolved by the creation of the newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry. August 1996 to accommodate discussion not relating solely to furry cartoons, artwork and literature. Posters to this newsgroup quickly attracted the term "furry lifestylers." The fandom and the lifestyle have been considered separate concepts 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 have their beliefs trivialized by association with a "cartoon" fandom.
Sex and furry fandom
There exist online galleries which host erotic furry art. This art style is known as yiff in the Furry fandom. Pornographic material focusing on intercourse whilst participants wear fursuits also exists.
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 joke, or merely as a descriptor.
Furry conventions have established guidelines of conduct that restrict sexually explicit material and behavior to appropriate areas and situations .
Protests have been made by members of the furry fandom against what they regard as "distasteful, unrelated, or deviant aspects" of the fandom.
Media coverage
Portrayal of the furry fandom in the mainstream media in the past has been rare, but several shows and magazines have featured furries in some way. Some members of the furry community felt these focused too much on the sexual aspect of the fandom. Examples include articles and columns in Vanity Fair and Loaded magazines, the syndicated sex column Savage Love, and dramatized fiction or documentaries portrayed on television shows like ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CSI: Episode 406: Fur and Loathing), The Drew Carey Show , and MTV's Sex2K. More recent news stories, however, have 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
- Funny animal
- Kemono
- List of furry comics
- List of furry role-playing games
- Macrofurries
- Otherkin
- Parahuman
- Talking animal
References
- 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) - Definition of metagenre
- Thomson, Desson (May 19, 2006). "Critters Offer Consumer Retorts in 'Over the Hedge'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Staeger, Rob (July 26, 2001). "Invasion of the Furries". The Wayne Suburban.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "'Furries' Descend On Golden Triangle". WTAE-TV. June 16, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-30.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ 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) - ^ "Pleasures of the fur". Vanity Fair.
- ^ Video of CSI episode and video of furry scenes from ER's furry episode
- 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) - Patten, Fred (2006). Furry! The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction. ibooks.
- 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) - Sandler, Kevin S. (1998). Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Rutgers University Press.
- Riggs, Adam (2004). Critter Costuming: Making Mascots and Fabricating Fursuits. Ibexa Press.
- 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) - 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) - "Furries Descend On Pittsburgh". KDKA-TV. June 16, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-30.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Cooksey, David. "Anthropomorphic Fandom Convention Information Sheet". Retrieved 2006-06-30.
- http://www.arclight.net/yarf/YARF_Chronology.html
- http://www.anthroarts.org/activities.html
- http://www.anthrocon.org/charity
- http://orion.animaltracks.net/compare.html#furlif Retrieved on July 11, 2006
- http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/lifestyle.txt
- http://orion.animaltracks.net/compare.html#furlif
- http://www.deviantdesires.com/map/furverts.html
- http://www.anthrocon.org/rules-conduct
- http://burnedfur.mv.com/faq.html
- The Drew Carey Show - Furry Episode, article on Wikifur
- MTV's Sex2K Fursuit Video
- 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) - 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
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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
- Template:Dmoz
- PeterCat's Furry InfoPage — Repository for FAQs, lists, periodic postings
- A Historical And Cultural Commentary On The Object Of Furry Fandom — A furry author examines the history of the furry genre and fandom
- The Furry Subculture — Information on furry fandom along with links to various pages
- Funny Animal Comics — An explanation of anthropomorphic animals as a genre
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 — A deviantART style website for anthromorphic art, music, and literature
- deviantART Traditional Media Drawings (Anthros) — An anthropomorphic art subsection of the enormous deviantART repository; also see the corresponding section in Digital Art
- Rabbit Valley — A furry comics and art website
Other
- Crush Yiff Destroy - A website proclaiming to focus on the "outstandingly bizarre aspects of the furry fandom".
- FurSuitSex.com - A pornographic website specialising in sex whilst wearing fursuits.
- God Hates Furries - A website critical of furries.