Housepets!

sliceofdog wrote:While those are certainly better than most of the "Are you a furry" questions I've seen, I don't think they're conclusive. I'd say "Because they're cute" and "Humans", but I'm still a furry. The reason I like cute animals is because they're cute, but I don't find human babies cute, so that can still be a 'furry' answer. As for the reading material one, I'd plump human because I like realism. My favourite characters, however, have always been the talking animals in books. Gaspode and Pantalaimon, for example, followed by werewolf characters. That doesn't mean I want all my characters to be talking animals. Humans are good for me because they are... normal, I guess. If the world itself is supposed to be normal, fill it with normal, human characters.
Sorry if this sounds like a rant, it's really not meant to. Just saying that those questions don't pin-point non-furries :p

I don't think it's a rant, however, there is a self-inflicted flaw in your argument.

My favourite characters, however, have always been the talking animals in books. Gaspode and Pantalaimon, for example, followed by werewolf characters.

While I think very few people ever want all characters to be anthropomorphic, if your favorite characters are anthro, that kinda says something.

And as for the cute answer, I didn't actually intend for it to be a conclusive question, I just used it as a starting point to help The Game out.

Nope. Honestly, I just think cartoon animals are adorable and funny. It just so happens that most cartoon animals are anthropromorphic. What are ya gunna do?

Ebly wrote:Basically I think furries think too much about being furries. The fact that furries think of themselves as being furries only reinforces an us-and-them attitude. Furries identify themselves by their enjoyment of anthropomorphism, which I think is ridiculous. The only group I've seen that does that kind of thing more than furries are political activists, and even then, not by much. Come on, I loved Calvin and Hobbes just as much as the next guy.

There's nothing wrong with considering yourself a furry in the same sense one considers him-/herself a gamer, or a jazz lover, or a Manchester United supporter or anything like that. I think the problems you mentioned only really come up when it becomes treated as a unique culture. The all-too-familiar example would be the idea of "fursecution" (things Sleet hates about furries #19: portmanetaus); no one ever accuses other people of being bigoted against them just because they like the New York Yankees. Heck, no one claims their human rights to be violated even when extremely nasty things are said against them because of their political opinions, which are a lot more important to one's identity than their entertainment opinions. Some people will act like an irrational hate of furries is a serious civil rights violation or a hate crime, and that's just silly.

In short: describing yourself as a furry to explain what you like is fine. Doing it to explain who you are is taking things too far. If every time someone says or hears "furry" they mentally add the word "fan" after it, then things would be dandy.

Sleet wrote:In short: describing yourself as a furry to explain what you like is fine. Doing it to explain who you are is taking things too far. If every time someone says or hears "furry" they mentally add the word "fan" after it, then things would be dandy.

Mmmhmm! Furry is a hobby, just like gaming and other such things. It just so happens that some furries take it a bit too far...of course, it's not like there are members of other fandoms and hobbies that take things too far. I wonder how many Trekkies there are who actually think they're a Klingon or some other alien? How many gamers slept outside of their local Best Buy for three days for the new Halo to come out? I wonder what makes furry so ripe for bashing? I'm going to guess: the reactions that they give off when provoked. The whole, "furry drama" thing, which oftentimes makes furries renounce being as such, but instead just, "like anthro." But how can you renounce a hobby and continue with it at the same time...?

*head spins*

Okay, now I confused myself...

The power a single word can have is interesting, no?

Buckdida wrote:Mmmhmm! Furry is a hobby, just like gaming and other such things. It just so happens that some furries take it a bit too far...of course, it's not like there are members of other fandoms and hobbies that take things too far. I wonder how many Trekkies there are who actually think they're a Klingon or some other alien? How many gamers slept outside of their local Best Buy for three days for the new Halo to come out? I wonder what makes furry so ripe for bashing? I'm going to guess: the reactions that they give off when provoked. The whole, "furry drama" thing, which oftentimes makes furries renounce being as such, but instead just, "like anthro." But how can you renounce a hobby and continue with it at the same time...?

*head spins*

Okay, now I confused myself...

The power a single word can have is interesting, no?

Yes, that is interesting. I know some people can be a little mental and believe they're something they're not.

Buckdida wrote:How many gamers slept outside of their local Best Buy for three days for the new Halo to come out?

These people are unlike the other two examples. They don't believe that they're actually Master Chief, or something. They're just really really dedicated to video games.

Most of the obsessive furries don't think they're actually animals either, though those exist too. They just take their existence as a furry as way too large a part of their personality to the point where it begins to define them. I'm a furry and all, but I'm still not likely to like a person who can be best described in one word as "furry."

Yes.

I do consider myself a furry, but I've had to keep it under raps because I got a reputation at school that I want to be kept as it stands. Since only fools mess with me.

I'll mess with you. :>

*Prods Cerberusx with a stick.*

Nah. No matter how you define it, I don't fit the description:
-Don't use an animal (anthropomorphic or otherwise) as an avatar of myself, a character, or seriously believe I am "him".
-Don't have a special place in my heart for arts using anthropomorphic animals as characters (I mean, normally I don't give a flying bologna about it, but if the story's serious I sometimes prefer actual humans. Otherwise feels kinda silly). If my "level of interest" denoted being a furry, everyone who has ever watched Bugs Bunny would be one.
-Last but not least, I'm not... uh, attracted to it in a "more adult" way (to each his own, I guess, but that's not what flies with me).

So yeah.

Hmm... there are more non-furries than I thought, really. I thought it'll be 2 or 3....

Considering "non furries" are not those who hate anthropomorphic animals but rather those that don't care about them... let's just say the author's writing is good enough to attract a wider audience. Only furry media I hate is that which spits it all over your face (like, I dunno, 2kinds' blatant tiger-girl fanservice).

Do you like cute animals because they're cute, or because they're animals? ... Do you like talking animals in reading material over humans?

Cause they're cute ^^

Coop wrote:Only furry media I hate is that which spits it all over your face (like, I dunno, 2kinds' blatant tiger-girl fanservice).

It's not just non-furries who feel that way, let me tell you.

I still read TwoKinds nonetheless. Also, good thing about Housepets!: there's no temptation to do things like that considering the anatomy of the females. :3

Coop wrote:Only furry media I hate is that which spits it all over your face (like, I dunno, 2kinds' blatant tiger-girl fanservice).

The exact reason I stopped reading it.

Slippery-Q wrote:I'll mess with you. :>

*Prods Cerberusx with a stick.*

Fist to your FACE!!! *BAM*

But I'm not joking, I would have to get physical, with those that call me out and stuff.

Giving my opinion, I'm a big gamer. I know some serious big gamers though...one's coming my house to force me into playing WoW again. Just because I have a lvl 80 and he wants to be boosted...I'm a lock...lock's can't boost (You may argue, but I find Locks to be the worst for boosting, next to priests). I went off track there a little...

Anyway, extremists are always picked on. Hardcore gamers/ no-life people who normally have anger management. hardcore Anime fans/ A load of people say cosplay doesn't work, yet they still do it. hardcore Furrys/ People who dress as half human half animals. See a patern? I think internet talk takes the cake however. Gamers talk so fast there are mistakes, and always things like 'ty, lol, rofl , np, lfg'. I'm not sure about hardcore anime/manga fans.. but hardcore furry's really can make me shiver. No offence, but I've never understood some things. "*person A glomps person B*". If person B isn't a furry, or doesn't realise what glomp means...you get the drift. I'm used to people talking in language scaresly readable (Hardcore Gamers) but if somebody's first words are "hai, do u liek mudkips?" I wouldn't continue the conversation. You may argue not all gamers talk like that, and many people who use the internet a lot talk like that. I agree. Of course, I haven't met a furry who begins a conversation like what I said before as of yet. Also, I only know one gamer who has anger management.

I...I think the above doesn't mean anything.

(Wow...I droned on quite a bit. I only really wanted to say I was using my Ipod and pressed the wrong button so I said I am a furry...even though my post said overwise)

...wat

I do consider myself a member of the furry fandom and community. I find it a nice place to meet new people.

ctcmjh wrote: These people are unlike the other two examples. They don't believe that they're actually Master Chief, or something. They're just really really dedicated to video games.

Not all of them, at any rate.

I AM SOLID SNAKE TRAPPED IN THE BODY OF A 19 YEARS OLD BOY.

Well, it sounds even more ridiculous than people claiming to be dragons. If only a little bit.

I think you guys are talking about cosplayers. Fursuiters is cosplay after all (costume play). Master cheif is the only good cosplayer I've seen...well that and ODST troopers. Other then that, nothing else works.

Of course, I'd say (forgive my unedicated guess) Fursuiter's have a fursona right? A fursuit fursona but a fursona non-the-less. There are people who believe to be their WoW or City of Heroes characters...I guess. There are at least WoW cosplayers who are their character.

Huh...if a fursuiter is a furry extremist. That makes cosplayers Anime and gamer extremists.

44R0NM10 wrote:I'm not sure about hardcore anime/manga fans...

Narutards. martians-freaks. Otaku.

Coop wrote:I AM SOLID SNAKE TRAPPED IN THE BODY OF A 19 YEARS OLD BOY.

That's nothing. I'm not just a portly high-school football coach with a bad knee, but also a stoic gambler and conman, a low-level production assistant for a television station and a laid-back (and rather talkative) mechanic. At the same time.

Nope. Not a Furry.

That's nothing. I'm not just a portly high-school football coach with a bad knee, but also a stoic gambler and conman, a low-level production assistant for a television station and a laid-back (and rather talkative) mechanic. At the same time.

Well I'm a streetwise thug, expertly trained in the use of all weapons known to man, with a grudge against enemy gangs and the mission to release my brother from prison and avenge me mother and other brother. I'm a vigilante, fireman, freelance photographer, licensed pilot (including, but not limited to, police helicopters, Harrier fighters, Apache gunships and RC WWI scale models), can drive thanks, successfuly infiltrate top secret government facilities, remove limbs with a chainsaw, beat homeless people to a bloody pulp, drive over middle-aged high-class women, steal taxis and drive them into the ocean making the passengers drown, drive every kind of boat avalaible to me, punch random people on the street to death with my bare hands, win swordfights and burn whole battalions of US National Guardsmen alive with nothing but molotov cocktails.

I'm a virgin though. God forbid I ever had sex with a lady, that would scar the kids.


Sorry for the off-topic post but couldn't help myself.

OK, pushing several forum rules at this point...

Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily use the word "extremist" to describe fursuiters. That's just one thing that some furries are into; it doesn't automatically make you a huge furry, but it does require a certain significant level of "furriness" to want to do in the first place. There are plenty of extreme furries who never even want to wear fursuits.

I'm a hobbyist, not a lifestyler. I do other things outside the fandom. I would like to do these activities with other furries.

Coop wrote:

That's nothing. I'm not just a portly high-school football coach with a bad knee, but also a stoic gambler and conman, a low-level production assistant for a television station and a laid-back (and rather talkative) mechanic. At the same time.

Well I'm a streetwise thug, expertly trained in the use of all weapons known to man, with a grudge against enemy gangs and the mission to release my brother from prison and avenge me mother and other brother. I'm a vigilante, fireman, freelance photographer, licensed pilot (including, but not limited to, police helicopters, Harrier fighters, Apache gunships and RC WWI scale models), can drive thanks, successfuly infiltrate top secret government facilities, remove limbs with a chainsaw, beat homeless people to a bloody pulp, drive over middle-aged high-class women, steal taxis and drive them into the ocean making the passengers drown, drive every kind of boat avalaible to me, punch random people on the street to death with my bare hands, win swordfights and burn whole battalions of US National Guardsmen alive with nothing but molotov cocktails.

I'm a virgin though. God forbid I ever had sex with a lady, that would scar the kids.


Sorry for the off-topic post but couldn't help myself.

lol, i lol'd.

Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily use the word "extremist" to describe fursuiters. That's just one thing that some furries are into; it doesn't automatically make you a huge furry, but it does require a certain significant level of "furriness" to want to do in the first place. There are plenty of extreme furries who never even want to wear fursuits.

I completely agree. In fact, I'd say most fursuiters aren't crazy/extreme/whatever other phrase you want to use. It's the effect of anonymity, the kind of thing that's been happening since we first started making masks. When we were still living in mud huts and sacrificing children to the spirits of mountains there was the belief that when you put on a mask you became that mask's personality, and as such could act differently without being judged (At this time in a literal sense, because if you killed while wearing a mask it was the mask that killed and not you, but more recently of course just in a social sense)
Apply that to modern day, you realise that fursuiting, for many people (If not most) is a form of escapism. You get people who spend most of their lives in an office cubicle, slugging away at 9 to 5, always having to act a certain way. Particularly men about 30+ are expected to act to a certain standard. So when they put on a fursuit, suddenly no one is judging them (For the same reasons anyhow) and they can act the same way anyone else might. No one's going to say "Look at that stupid old man. How childish", instead they say "Haha. Look at that guy dancing around dressed as a tiger, how funny is that!"
The same thing happens in a lot of social groups, from well known art movements (The effect of being able to act the way you felt just by wearing a mask was a big part of the creation of the Dada movement) to going out drinking in fancy dress. It just so happens that the 'mask' furries choose to wear, more often than not, is an animal suit. It's not hurting anyone, so I don't see how it can be so looked down upon, particularly when there's the whole pr0n side of the fandom, which in my experience the fursuiting bit is quite seperate from.
And before anyone asks, no, I'm not personally a fursuiter and have never worn one. These are just observations :p

No offence, but I feel inclined to raise my oppinion again on extreme furrys. You say that it is just a pass time/escapism...but can't the same be said about smaller acts of any culture? When I'm on my Xbox, I feel like I've escaped from my world, and the same is true when I'm on my computer.

A better example would be how I'm a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. I used to only play with friends at school. Sure, nerdy but a pass-time non-the-less. When I went to a tournement (and came second!) would you call me an extremist? To the public eye, that does seem a little extreme. Is it just a pass time? Or is it a form of extremism?

While I don't see anything wrong with what you are saying, I'm still inclined to believe it is a little extreme.

Also...I've just looked up what extremism means...and I feel I need to make an apology to my previous post...

Everyone has their own opinion, and I don't think everyone has the same opinion of extremism. Some might think that you draw, read and write furry stuff for example, they might think of you being extreme, while some other only see those dressing up in fursuits as extreme. This is just my opinion though, and I don't really care about extremers, if it makes them happy, I won't judge.

Yes, I'm a furry |3

Short answer for me, Yes. (I have a FA page if anyone's interested. But I will not link it here. Just PM me).

saying you like something is perfectly fine, but part of being a furry or a gamer or an activist is that in that wonderful little indefinite article you are defining yourself with it, and attributing yourself to it. No, I do not think it is healthy if you have gotten to the point of gaming that you are considered "a gamer" as opposed to a guy that plays games, or a guy that thinks furries are pretty cool.
yes okay that argument seems to be attacking the use of the indefinite article but i swear it's calling out attribution, i promise

Either way, I have no problem with "hobbyist furries" or whatever the heck you want to call yourselves these days to remove the creepy associations. I work on a case-by-case basis. I will generalize but it won't genuinely affect my opinion of a person.

A lot of what you've just said is fine, and certainly people should only claim to be 'a furry' or whatever other title if they are willing to accept the judgements that will bring, even if those judgements are incorrect. However, I think you're still bringing a little too much into the idea of claiming to be part of this group, or any group. I am wary about calling myself a gamer, because I don't play online often, and generally play casually, but if I were talking to someone who didn't play games at all, I may call myself a gamer by comparison; I have clocked upwards of 50 and 60 hours on games I particularly like. Sure, it's spread out over a long period, but that would still seem obsessive to people who never played games.
Point being, there is a lot to explain until people have enough information to gein a "case-by-case" attitude towards anything. I don't really like titles, because as you said people get too serious about it, and let it define them. However, most titles are used to sum up large sections of your personality in a short amount of time. Imagine explaining your musical tastes. You won't list every band you like, you might instead say "I'm a bit of a punk/mosher" or "I mainly listen to pop/classical/rap" or whatever. The same logic can be applied here. People who consider themselves 'furries' obviously consider whatever aspect of furry they identify with to be a large part of their personality, and so they are attempting to explain their personality in a small amount of words. It will never be fully accurate, but even your nationality is not fully accurate. I would describe myself as English, when I'm actually also part Irish. If I decide to accompany that and call myself British, I need to take into account my small amount of Spanish heritage, and so on and so forth. Nothing is clean cut and black and white, but taking everything into account would be impossible.

However, even with all that, yes. There are people who a) let it define them when really they probably shouldn't and b) People who call themselves furries and then get angry when people make assumptions that, in their eyes, are perfectly reasonable.

sliceofdog wrote:most titles are used to sum up large sections of your personality in a short amount of time

I think that this is turning into a debate over labels themselves. I will use labels to sum up "large sections of your personality in a short amount of time", but I have more to say about that relating to furries later.

sliceofdog wrote:Imagine explaining your musical tastes. You won't list every band you like, you might instead say "I'm a bit of a punk/mosher" or "I mainly listen to pop/classical/rap" or whatever.

Moot point on my behalf, but a fun little oddity about me: I don't work that way. Every time someone asks me about my musical tastes I groan miserably and start on the Epic Tale of Ebly's Musical and Non-Musical Appreciation, since people don't like evasive and general answers like "I like whatever". It's not just music that I'm like that with, but since that was your example, it was mine too. 8D

sliceofdog wrote:People who consider themselves 'furries' obviously consider whatever aspect of furry they identify with to be a large part of their personality

Here's where I say more about that relating to furries.

"I enjoy electro house" is expressing an opinion. "I am a raver" is expressing an identity. It's the difference between enjoying classical art and being a classical artist. Yes, it is identifying with it as being a large part of their personality. In fact, that's precisely what I see as to being an issue. My whole view on the furry thing is that it's essentially a small preference that should not have a massive bearing on how a person behaves - enough to say "oh I'd rather read Lackadaisy to Gunnerkrigg Court" (to be fair, there's a lot of differences between those two, but I don't know enough webcomics to make comparisons) but I don't see it as needing to go much further than that. It's an opinion, not an identity - and having it as an identity is exactly where the problems stem from. Yes, it's going to be a part of your personality - heck, the influence of those around me means that it's probably a part of mine, too, without even identifying as one - but I see the degree of personality it holds as being far too extreme for some. The identification as a furry and thus anthropomorphism being a significant enough part of your life to 'be' a furry is the first (or last; I could never tell) step.

Again, when it comes to dealing with people directly, I do work on a case-by-case basis, and I do explain myself thoroughly and express myself in detail when in person. That might lead you to further understand why I hold the view I do.

Moot point on my behalf, but a fun little oddity about me: I don't work that way. Every time someone asks me about my musical tastes I groan miserably and start on the Epic Tale of Ebly's Musical and Non-Musical Appreciation, since people don't like evasive and general answers like "I like whatever". It's not just music that I'm like that with, but since that was your example, it was mine too. 8D

Excuse the question, but ain't that mighthy annoying? I also enjoy most of the music there exists (a travel through my music library is a magic journey from Techno to Rock, from Classical to Reggeaton to Rap to Military Parades) but, even if saying "meh, I like pretty much everything" is annoying wouldn't it be worse to go on a detailed description of the multitude of genres you enjoy? I find it better to answer with a simple "I enjoy lots of music, mainly prefer rock though" or something similar.

I don't even know what the discussion's all about no more, this just caught my attention.

EDIT: You're discussing the definition of "furry", or who to label as a "furry"? That'll prove to be ultimately useless, not even furries can agree on a definition. There's a line to differentiate non-furs from furs but it's hella hard to draw it: Is it when they have a fursona? When they draw anthro characters? Is it the adult fantasies? Dressing up? No one knows. It's easier just considering a person a "furry" when someone starts using the label to describe themselves.

EDITx2: Or maybe you weren't even discussing that. Well, feel free to imagine me with a shoe stuck in my mouth.

Coop wrote:I don't even know what the discussion's all about no more, this just caught my attention.

Like you said, because the definition of "furry" is disputed asking about who's a furry inevitably leads to discussion about said definition.

Liam wrote:

Coop wrote:I don't even know what the discussion's all about no more, this just caught my attention.

Like you said, because the definition of "furry" is disputed asking about who's a furry inevitably leads to discussion about said definition.

Kind of like political opinions.
IT'S A NEUTRAL COMMENT I SWEAR

It's easier defining a liberal or a conservative rather than a furry.