Furries: Harmless fandom? Or dangerous deviants?
Open Discussion for Premium Subscribers
We are hearing a lot about furries these days. There are stories about litter boxes in schools that have been debunked repeatedly, yet these stories keep surfacing. Is there, perhaps, some truth to them after all? Does anyone know? And does this possibility even have anything to do with furries?
Many within the “furry fandom” say being a furry is just a fun, creative, cosplay-type interest, and that it’s not inherently sexual. And yet, others would label it, not just sexual, but an entire sexual orientation!
Parents and teachers are observing that kids are calling themselves furries, and sometimes claiming animal genders at school. What is that about?
For this week’s open discussion, we encourage you to talk amongst yourselves about this issue. What are you seeing? How prevalent is this trend? How much is harmless fun, and how much is dangerous and deviant?
Comments are open for Premium subscribers.
It seems to me that Furries are somehow inextricably bound up with the changes to childhood since the 70s: the blurring of the boundaries between adults and children; the linking of sex and personal identity; the reorganization of childrearing around the authentic self (versus socialization). Children are thrust into the adult world too soon, and sometimes individuals never break with childish things, to the detriment of themselves and the children they project their own sexual feelings on to. It’s as there are a lot more Michael Jacksons around. It’s a sort of stunted sexuality. And that’s even if it’s adults cavorting naked in their green fox tail. It’s so hard to pass judgement today because that’s become the cardinal sin but I think we should be clear that this is not a lifestyle that should be validated or celebrated even if the people involved in it mean no harm. And I’m not at all convinced that they are capable of respecting boundaries.
It’s probably a bit different for young people. It might be more about having learned that all breaking of boundaries is good coupled with too much time online and too little time in the flesh.
That’s my thinking on it right now— and that leaves aside the whole issue of the aggressive fetishist, which is a serious problem for everyone but especially kids.
While I find the whole concept of dressing as an animal baffling especially since from what I understand the costumes are hot and uncomfortable, the furries I've known personally say it isn't a sexual thing, and these people can be uncomfortably open about other areas of their sexual lives so I don't see why they'd lie. So it doesn't necessarily include a sexual component. My experience has been that it's strange but harmless.
I'm in a conservative area and the only time I saw it mentioned around my kids was at a Halloween party. A 9 year old girl had dressed as a cat (cat ears, a leotard and a tail type thing) and two other kids started calling her a furry as an insult until she broke down crying. After the parents got onto their kids for being mean to her I overheard a discussion among some of the older kids about how disturbing furries are and how its not a nice thing to call someone at the schools where my kids go apparently.