An Open Letter From A Furry To The Media, and Society In General
With the recent emergency evacuation of a furry convention due to a chemical attack bringing furries reluctantly back into the national spotlight ever so briefly, once again the resultant response reminds us that there are still plenty of people who wholeheartedly support freedom of expression and individualism….so long as they can personally relate to it.
When something is foreign to us, we have 3 choices: honestly seek to learn more about it, make a snap judgment based on what we already (think we) know, or ignore it. Obviously the first one is the least likely, it takes not just an open mind but actual effort to distinguish the hype and myth from reality. The last one takes no effort but at least does not perpetuate false stereotyping. It’s the other choice that is by far the worst, and sadly it’s the one that gets all the attention.
It’s amusing, all the various myths that seek to either explain or decry our interests. Furries are unattractive. They were picked on in their childhood. They are socially maladjusted. They have psychological issues. They’re sexual deviants. After all, there must be SOME REASON they are interested in seeing and being animals who look or act like humans. While all of these are certainly true for some furries, all are also true for ANY SUBSET OF SOCIETY, whatever the common denominator.
One of the biggest problems is that furries tend to like things that are typically viewed by society, or at least American society, as “for kids”. Cartoons, comic books, costumed characters. Once we all “grow up”, we’re supposed to move on and “act like adults”. It’s no longer acceptable to appreciate make believe, to let our imaginations run free. We all must forever shoulder the heavy burden of responsible adult life and eschew whimsy, silliness and even most physical contact.
The fact that furries not only embrace that which society tends to label as “children’s entertainment” but are also known to (horrified gasp!) sexualize parts of it, virtually guarantees scorn from those unwilling to consider human psychology or even history. No matter that Native Americans and tribes have been dressing up like animals for centuries, no matter that anthropomorphic figures have long been found in other ancient cultures and landmarks, no matter that people were even Doing Naughty Things In Animal Costumes in victorian London over a century ago (https://shrineodreams.wordpress.com/tag/john-james-quintain/).
So let’s tackle the fuzzy elephant in the room. Unsurprisingly, if illogically, when you take something people have long associated mainly with children (such as cartoons and cartoonish costumes) and associate it with sex, many people instantly tend to abuse transitive law and assume that suddenly there is something to do with seducing children. This is not only grossly offensive, it’s grossly inaccurate. If one is to actually consider what individual factors would make an anthropomorphic character or animal costume physically appealing, suddenly the shock value is stripped away to reveal things that probably make some sense to the same people who are quick to outrage: fur is soft and feels nice, getting to play a role of someone who is not the same as yourself is exciting, some animals are quite beautiful to look at and have long been symbols throughout history for various positive traits (virility, strength, etc).
It would be remiss not to point out something that frequently gets overlooked....the gigantic majority of people who ARE attracted physically to characters and fursuits, didn't wake up one day and decide to feel that way any more than a gay person decides to be gay. Every person in the world with a sexual interest that does not fall within society's generally accepted (and incredibly limited) norm did not decide, "Hey, maybe today I'll be hopelessly attracted to something that will make me live in fear for most of my life that someone will find out and mock, hate or even seek to injure me for it. Being automatically dismissed by strangers because of what I'm attracted to sounds pretty kick ass!" People like what they like and sometimes that can cause a lot of self-doubt and confusion. They don't really need the judgment of strangers to point out that it's "weird". They know. They live with it every day.
Back to kids for a second. The only thing that kids have to do with furry isn’t remotely sexual. Many fursuiters (furries with costumes) have devoted their time to entertaining children at hospitals as well as numerous public and charity events. They don’t do it for money or fame (there isn’t really any of either to be had). They do it because they were kids once and they remember how magical it felt when you still believed that cartoon characters can walk off the TV and give you a big hug. They do it for the smiles and reactions they get. Costumes are hot, bulky, often have poor vision or mobility and are insanely expensive, but they temporarily give you a magic power to suddenly make people who would otherwise probably ignore you pay attention. As a big silly animal, you can actually make a positive influence on them from anywhere from a few moments to much longer, depending on the person and the situation. What could be better than doing something you love when it can elicit mirth from total strangers?
We don’t expect or need to get credit for the time and effort we spend trying to entertain others. Truthfully, we don’t even need you to notice us at all. We just need you to not make our lives harder by automatically lumping every single one of us into the most lurid, explicit and unpleasant story you read on the internet or heard from your friend who read it on the internet. Most of us are just trying to have fun while inspiring others to have fun. We know what we do is fairly unusual, and we don’t feel like we should have to apologize for it or pretend that we’re all saints. We’re people. Adults. Human beings. We have real jobs, real feelings and real lives.
We're cool if you feel like laughing at us, though obviously we’d like it much more if that laughter is inspired by our zany antics and not your imagined moral superiority. But we don’t need the world’s approval, as much as it would be nice not to feel pressured to keep our interests secret from society. We just need you to either give us a chance or give us our space. We are trying to make the world a more colorful, interesting and joyful place by sharing something that we love.
It may be odd, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome as well.
When something is foreign to us, we have 3 choices: honestly seek to learn more about it, make a snap judgment based on what we already (think we) know, or ignore it. Obviously the first one is the least likely, it takes not just an open mind but actual effort to distinguish the hype and myth from reality. The last one takes no effort but at least does not perpetuate false stereotyping. It’s the other choice that is by far the worst, and sadly it’s the one that gets all the attention.
It’s amusing, all the various myths that seek to either explain or decry our interests. Furries are unattractive. They were picked on in their childhood. They are socially maladjusted. They have psychological issues. They’re sexual deviants. After all, there must be SOME REASON they are interested in seeing and being animals who look or act like humans. While all of these are certainly true for some furries, all are also true for ANY SUBSET OF SOCIETY, whatever the common denominator.
One of the biggest problems is that furries tend to like things that are typically viewed by society, or at least American society, as “for kids”. Cartoons, comic books, costumed characters. Once we all “grow up”, we’re supposed to move on and “act like adults”. It’s no longer acceptable to appreciate make believe, to let our imaginations run free. We all must forever shoulder the heavy burden of responsible adult life and eschew whimsy, silliness and even most physical contact.
The fact that furries not only embrace that which society tends to label as “children’s entertainment” but are also known to (horrified gasp!) sexualize parts of it, virtually guarantees scorn from those unwilling to consider human psychology or even history. No matter that Native Americans and tribes have been dressing up like animals for centuries, no matter that anthropomorphic figures have long been found in other ancient cultures and landmarks, no matter that people were even Doing Naughty Things In Animal Costumes in victorian London over a century ago (https://shrineodreams.wordpress.com/tag/john-james-quintain/).
So let’s tackle the fuzzy elephant in the room. Unsurprisingly, if illogically, when you take something people have long associated mainly with children (such as cartoons and cartoonish costumes) and associate it with sex, many people instantly tend to abuse transitive law and assume that suddenly there is something to do with seducing children. This is not only grossly offensive, it’s grossly inaccurate. If one is to actually consider what individual factors would make an anthropomorphic character or animal costume physically appealing, suddenly the shock value is stripped away to reveal things that probably make some sense to the same people who are quick to outrage: fur is soft and feels nice, getting to play a role of someone who is not the same as yourself is exciting, some animals are quite beautiful to look at and have long been symbols throughout history for various positive traits (virility, strength, etc).
It would be remiss not to point out something that frequently gets overlooked....the gigantic majority of people who ARE attracted physically to characters and fursuits, didn't wake up one day and decide to feel that way any more than a gay person decides to be gay. Every person in the world with a sexual interest that does not fall within society's generally accepted (and incredibly limited) norm did not decide, "Hey, maybe today I'll be hopelessly attracted to something that will make me live in fear for most of my life that someone will find out and mock, hate or even seek to injure me for it. Being automatically dismissed by strangers because of what I'm attracted to sounds pretty kick ass!" People like what they like and sometimes that can cause a lot of self-doubt and confusion. They don't really need the judgment of strangers to point out that it's "weird". They know. They live with it every day.
Back to kids for a second. The only thing that kids have to do with furry isn’t remotely sexual. Many fursuiters (furries with costumes) have devoted their time to entertaining children at hospitals as well as numerous public and charity events. They don’t do it for money or fame (there isn’t really any of either to be had). They do it because they were kids once and they remember how magical it felt when you still believed that cartoon characters can walk off the TV and give you a big hug. They do it for the smiles and reactions they get. Costumes are hot, bulky, often have poor vision or mobility and are insanely expensive, but they temporarily give you a magic power to suddenly make people who would otherwise probably ignore you pay attention. As a big silly animal, you can actually make a positive influence on them from anywhere from a few moments to much longer, depending on the person and the situation. What could be better than doing something you love when it can elicit mirth from total strangers?
We don’t expect or need to get credit for the time and effort we spend trying to entertain others. Truthfully, we don’t even need you to notice us at all. We just need you to not make our lives harder by automatically lumping every single one of us into the most lurid, explicit and unpleasant story you read on the internet or heard from your friend who read it on the internet. Most of us are just trying to have fun while inspiring others to have fun. We know what we do is fairly unusual, and we don’t feel like we should have to apologize for it or pretend that we’re all saints. We’re people. Adults. Human beings. We have real jobs, real feelings and real lives.
We're cool if you feel like laughing at us, though obviously we’d like it much more if that laughter is inspired by our zany antics and not your imagined moral superiority. But we don’t need the world’s approval, as much as it would be nice not to feel pressured to keep our interests secret from society. We just need you to either give us a chance or give us our space. We are trying to make the world a more colorful, interesting and joyful place by sharing something that we love.
It may be odd, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome as well.