Why do people become furries?

I would never want to be a furry myself, although I love animals.

Personally I aim to look like a realistic human. Then one gets those who try to make absurd looking humans, either through intent or lack of skill.

My personal dislike in SL is people who play with guns and other weapons. But I accept that others want to do this and so I say 'live and let live'!

Dearly Darlings,

I'm usually my little old lady self with purple hair and glasses. Once in a while I'm a little purple fairy. Sometimes I'm a tiger. I like purple..I like tigers. I like penguins too they always look formal. I had a glass one on the top of our TV for years. I lost that during hurricane Andrew. I've never seen a penguin avatar here. If I can ever find a toyger (cat) marked the way I want it I'll buy one.

I always assumed that furry folk here chose their animal self much as American Indians chose their totem spirit guide.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

Mostly I'm a human in SL.

Sometimes, though, I wear a Nargus Raptor or Compy avatar.

Why?

Because they're COOL.

And kinda cute; I mean, check it out:



(That's me on the right.)

Nargus is one talented builder.

I am a blue husky furry, and people accept me for it, alot of my friends are human. And they all love a piece if tail. I was human at first but discovered that furries get more attention.

Maybe its because its because we look like pets.

YIFFY ALL

You're a bushbaby, too? YAY!

I wanna see! I'm more cartoony version, but I'd adore meeting you!

I'm gon' IM you as soon as I downlaod the update!

So, some people want to look like critters, or like anthropoid cartoon animals a la Disney and Looney Tunes. You don't like that? What do you have against creatures? What do you have against Disney animals? What do you have against people doing what they want to do and not bothering or hurting anybody, including you? Guess what? YOU have the problem.

One thing I've noticed is there is starting to be a slight difference between a "Furry" and an Antrho animal. I was at a friend's place and an anthro fox with a soldier outfit on came up and I said "Sup Furry".

She replied "OH HELL NAWW!!!" and everyone was like "oh no he didn't!"

I replied "What? You're in a furry av. You think you're not a furry?"

Needless to say I left soon after. XD

I think most people that don't have furry/anthro fans for friends seem to think that ALL furries consider themselves a particular race/group. That coupled with the animal genitalia that some of the "adult" furries wear (I put "adult" in quotes because it's funny to think of a cartoon character having sex as being an adult situation!).

My first exposure to furries was when I was a new guy walking around and heard people chatting some hardcore stuff, panned my camera to the other side of a house and saw a purple squirrel and a green bunny naked in specific positions. For the longest time I figured most furries were gross, but have now come to see there are a few groups in the furry/anthro category...

"Adult": they get busy and think people are prejudiced against them when in reality people wouldn't be if you just didn't wear dog genitals in public areas! They also seem to be more isolationist. When I think about who these people might actually be I picture Jim Carrey in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" when he was hiding in a memory of him in Jr. High. If you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about!

Cartoon fans: they like cartoons and stuff. They're usually the more creative ones in SL IMO. A lot of them are in armies like the Alliance and Mercz and such.

Other: people that just like the avs.

Personally I went through a phaze where I was a tiny elephant and would go talk to people and cuss a lot. It's funnier when something small and cute is obscene!

I don't care what you look like as long as you're not a jerk...however someone's av usually gives a clear indication of that person's personality. For example, I tend to shy away from bling.

i really dont think of myself as a furry.

though i guess, technically, i am? i love animals. i like fantasy. don't care much for people (no offense to anyone). so i like animal avatars (realistic), i like anthropomorphic avatars (they just look so cool), i like fantastical non-human things. i like creativity. ::shrug::
ive always been a shape-shifter, so i have very close ties to *being* an animal.
what's to recommend humans, anyway? just because they invented great things like the wheel, taxes, smog, and nuclear war? pfeh. ;)



my 'counter-question' is... why on earth do some people absolutely HATE furries? i mean this real, seething, loathing, they-all-must-die attitude like some people have against homosexuality. is it something religious? or what? what's the basis of this hatred? (people who just mildly hate 'cuteness' i can see. but this other? i don't get it.)

... and Second Life?

quite agree with all you say though .. what's wrong with cute?

I'm a furry part of the time, a dragon part of the time, human part of the time and a vampire part of the time. We become what we want to become, some of us enjoy certain asspects more then others. Hence people that stay furries or dragons or whatever. SL is all about becoming what you can not be in real life. I happen to love animals and Dragons and have always wondered what it would be like to have the power to shape-shift. That however is my own personal reasons for my diversity in avatars. Which frankly is what its all about..Personal reasons..and frankly I'm about tired of people who take pleasure in hurting others, and thats all hate of furries, or anybody else is all about.

Yea..look at me! I'm cute as hell! Seriously though...I have a lot of furry friends and I accept them the way they are. Isn't that what SL is all about?

Mandy C

The first time I ever met a furry was many years ago on an IRC channel. We did some roleplaying there and he loved to be a cat and "jump on people's lap". I never could resist "petting" him I had never heard of furries at the time, but I immediately felt sympathy.

By the way, how did you furries act out this fantasy before SL? In cosplay maybe?

And another question: Does a smurf count as a furry?

"I'm human in my first life , why would I want to be one in my second life?" .

Such is my view , sometiems I'm a dragon , sometimes a 6ft tall lnyx , whatever seems cool at the tiem I'm shopping for a new av.

Because they can.

Yup. I have several fur tails that I can attach to the back of my belt. If I was going to a furry con, I might even wear a pair of pants or a skirt that had been altered with a 'back fly' for the tail to poke through in a more realistic manner.

I know of people in the Furry community who have spent thousands of dollars on full-body 'mascot costumes' as vixens or other furry forms, complete with blinking eyes, and power-animatronic tails that can wag and swish realisticly!

I'm in SL because I want to be everything I can think of! That includes all manner of people and animals including mammals, insects, reptiles, crustaceans....

Right now I'm inspired to make some avatars based on some 19thC illustrations by J.J. Grandville which are mostly humans with animal heads. I figure that's a pretty easy entry into avatar building for a novice. For now I'm just examining some freebie furries I picked up and trying to discreetly examine any non-humans I happen to run into.

Dress-up is fun!

Regardless of his intentions here, I have to thank the OP for starting this thread, as I have enjoyed reading the responses... Furries were something I only discovered when I came to SL... but I immediately saw the attraction, though not a furry myself... yet hehehe.... I loved Thundercats! and all the other tv shows as a kid which featured creatures which were essentially, furries!
Animals with human qualities have been part of human fantasy since ancient ancient times, and then probably before that... I see nothing wrong in adopting a furry identity for fun in sl... nothing particularly kinky or weird at all.... because if thats too weird, well then so is anyone who makes their av anything other than an exact replica of themselves in rl!!! (of course I myself look exactly like this... size 0, perfect perky... umm... hehehe)

Furries, you rock! Youre a community of very special,. talented and creative individuals overall, who look out for and care greatly for eachother, who usually offer great roleplay and are extremely fun to be around.

I have NEVER been griefed by a furry, and believe me I seem to get griefed a lot lately... no furry ever asked me for a bj.... no furry ever drew a stoopid newbie gun on me... no furry ever begged me for free money! All I get from furries is friendship, inspiration and a tolerance of the ignorance they face in sl every day. GRACEY LOVES FURRIES!!! YAAAY!

G xx

The gays have a belief that those that are the most anti-gay, and speak out the most against them, are really closeted gays themselves. I believe the same is true for furries, those that are the most anti-furry (like many of the regular posters on Second Citizen), are really furries struggling to hide their furryness.

My guess is that it is all part of our human Uncanny Valley response to things that appear too close to humanity, yet are not:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley

Some text from this piece:

"The phenomenon can be explained by the notion that, if an entity is sufficiently non-humanlike, then the humanlike characteristics will tend to stand out and be noticed easily, generating empathy. On the other hand, if the entity is "almost human", then the non-human characteristics will be the ones that stand out, leading to a feeling of "strangeness" in the human viewer."

May explain why some people get uneasy with furry eroticism:

"According to evolutionary psychology, throughout millions of years, natural selection would have logically favored features in the brain that provide a high capacity to sense and be repulsed by macro and micro-anomalies in the overall appearance of a member of the same species that reveal genetic disorders or a lack of genetic fitness. So, we might be alarmed by the potential impact that these abnormal humanlike entities could have on the human gene pool. This could explain why it is particularly disturbing for the human eye to see these humanlike entities engaging in sexual activity."

Food for thought. Good thread.

I'm suprised this topic didn't get trolled like the others about furries in the past...

For those not aware of it, the furry fandom did not originate from second life, it has always been here even before the internet. The internet just brought us closer together is all. It's much older then SL. I have been a furry for about 10-11 years now, and only found SL about 2 1/2 years ago. yes my name means sex, but that don't mean i do it much. ;p I like the name because it goes good with Yaffle. My real Furry name is Wolfee Darkfang. The fandom teached me a lot about myself and others.

To answer the question this topic is for, What got me into being furry was the Imagination aspect of it. When i was about 12 i think, i used to watch the Sonic the hedgehog cartoons comic books, and games. In a way THAT was my entry to the fandom. Once i got in, my persona was picked by myself and i fit in perfectly. As time progressed i wanted to be something other then what i picked and i became Wolfee. The purple furred Spirit Wolf. I enjoy all aspects of this culture and will always be proud that i found it, and became one.

People always judge us because of our choices. We choose to RP as anthropomorphic beings, and are insulted by others who refer to us as being involved in bestiality. As you can see in my Forum signature, i created a scale of references to prove them otherwise. however it doesn't work against the most retarded of all the trolls, who love to dictate those links and find workarounds to keep them in control of the argument. I usually just ignore those idiots, and others should to. people simply hate us because we are different then them. That is part of human nature. it is why hitler did what he did.

I've been furry LONG before starting here in SL, and going on a decade at least...

Like Yiffy, I too enjoyed SEGA's series, and it was the first link I had to the fandom, though it wasn't the direct catalyst.

Though looking back, I'd always identified with felines, especially the TRUE kings of the jungle, the tigers (hell, when I was a LITTLE kid, my mother, talented seamstress she is, had made a set of tiger pajamas [with ears, tail and all], that I dearly LOVED wearing... and if tape still exists, it might even be visible somewhere, as I'd worn it to the taping of a local bowling program [yup, love THAT game too])...

So, after a friend introduced me to SL (on Halloween, of all nights), she was lucky enough to win a contest, and loaned the prize money to help me get my first furry av (a tiger, of course!). So, within half an hour, I shucked my n00b av, and never went back to it.

Today, you'll see me as either:
a tiger,
a jogauni (metal tribe; a kind of dog)
recently, I've been getting the novelty out of being a bunny (Luskwood gave away a special bunny av for Easter),
and rarely:
a jackal that thinks himself an ancient god,
Mewtwo,
or even ol' blue and speedy himself.


Of course, I've long since trashcanned my human av.


Now, as for the dreaded 'y-word question'...

Well, the best way I could answer it is how ELSE do you think we'd breed?

For the most part, we're human-like in the mind, with a (sometimes) soft coat of fur covering us. We enjoy everything humans do, including sex. That we're more open about it simply means we feel it's a natural (some may say even the most important) part of life, and we accept that.

And it could be worse, when you think about it. All we say is 'yiff'. Let's look at part of the list for what HUMANS refer to it as:

f@#$ing,
screwing,
doing 'it',
getting laid,
the horizontal polka,
whoopie,
getting nookie,
banging,

and the list goes on. So really, tell me who's more messed in the head?

heyas;

deunan: interesting concept and article. and i can see how a very human-looking thing with some sort of sub-perceivable twitch could arouse a 'creeped out' feeling.

i dont really see how this could apply to furries, though. (granting, however, that different people might have wider or differently-located 'valleys.') i mean, if a quad furry looks off because it has kinda jerky motion and the joints dont all bend right... that's just a computer glitch. sorta like the default walk for humans in sl. it looks dorky, but doesn't make anyone scream. much ;)

plus, of course, hatred of furrydom has preceeded second life.




tygaris: also an interesting theory, but it still doesn't answer the underlying question.

all right, some people hate homosexuals because they belive that is 'unnatural' or it is against their religion, etc. therefore, if they have homosexual tendancies, they would be afraid of being unnatural/sinful or whatever.

okay, so furries are 'unnatural.' but then why don't people freak out about centaurs or cyclopses in mythology and such? i dunno, do people want to burn greek mythology books for their 'unnatural' content? do the same people hate dragons and unicorns? what's up with that?

why would they fear being furry?


oh, years ago it was ridiculed if any scientists ever ascribed ANY thoughts or emotions to their test-victim animals. but we've mostly come out of that un-enlightened era. maybe furry-haters are throwbacks to this mindset? hmm.

then there's the religious belief that animals have no souls, only humans do. also have to feel sorry for anybody who still beleives that. but i don't see how pretending to be furry could be blasphemous, except by a long stretch.


finally, if people despise furries because of any sexual aspect.... sexual perversion? well, you gotta despise the whole human race for that. really, that's more of the human end of things, rather than animal. so hating furries for that is kinda dumb.

not that humans aren't dumb. :X


(man, luskwood gave out bunny avatars for easter and i missed it!? ah, but at least i have my bloopy easter fish!)

Reading all this makes me want a tiny, purple Kitten AV! (hehe) Anyone know where I can get one?

I admit I'm not terribly clued up on the subject but I've never met a furry or a neko (are they the same?) that wasn't friendly or at least polite. I visited a few of the clubs and wa impressed by how colourful everyone looks, furry AVs offer incredible scope for diversity after all. SL is for eveyone's enjoyment and everyone should be happy to express themselves as the please.

I like to think of AVs as an expression of the person, not simply a physical representation. Maybe some people are just furry inside (hehe) and SL gives a chance to better externalise that side of themselves. For others there may be even more to it but I'm not going to speculate on what I don't know.

So long as it doesn't bother anyone else, what's the problem?

It's been my observation that people are furry for different reasons. I think it has to do with a pre-programmed stress response. People come up with rituals to deal with stress, they can become more complicated with time. If we look back into history, many societies have rituals involving the putting on of clothing that 'transforms' the person, takes them away from themselves. The ritual itself may be part of a planting or harvest festival, people worry about will the food last or if there will be enough food for the coming year, the festival itself releases some of that stress. An individual who is less stressed makes more intelligent decisions; statisticaly those who can cope better with stress are more likely to successfully reproduce (as they won't have killed themselves via bad choices, stress also effects fertility). When it comes to dressing up for a ritual they dress up as something they know about, they personify it to an extent. Plants and rocks are hard to personify, animals are easy to personify, they have comparable anatomy. Man has been living in groups and making art for at least 30,000 years. Thats a long enough time for these stress coping structures to develop in the brain.

Managing stress is more then just a coping strategy, it's a survival strategy. If you can come up with a coping strategy that gives you an edge, they you have a greater chance of survival. Example: Person is stressed, they are cold, the stress motivates them to light a fire, they survive the night. Neighbor next door isn't motivated by the stress, choosing to conserve energy instead, and freezes to death. The idea that doing work to light a fire results in you not dieing is abstract. To come up with an idea like that the brain needs to be able to accept what may appear to be an illogical coping strategy. This ability to take risks in the never ending search for stress reducing strategies is probably the most important factor in what defines us as humans.

Finding happiness is a coping strategy (when you are happy you are not stressed or the stress doesn't bother you).

Modern society isolates people. People are left to come up with their own coping strategies to stress. Like the those who came for thousands of years before them, they have looked for new strategies in their environment and at the strategies used by those around them, adapting them and building on them. The particular reasons behind why people choose furry as their coping strategy are as diverse as the explanations for every other coping strategy.

The better question is why do people pick coping strategies that are less socially acceptable? 1) They don't know its not socially acceptable, 2) traditional strategies aren't working or 3) they have an anti-establishment streak. Traditional strategies may break down in situations where the level of stress is too great or the person is socially isolated. It's been my observation that most furrs fall into the second category.

Another good question is: Why is furry such a successfully coping strategy? Why do people stick with it?

I love playing my furry tinies! I have a folder in my inventory just for them and their accessories. One day, a couple of us were having a blast switching to different furry tinies and generally being silly and a friend said "Y'all are sick" then she logged off. I was thinking "Huh??? what did we do?" Until that moment I didn't even consider my furry for SL sex but I guess some people just have dirty minds!