Thoughts on the Meaning of Furry
By Bengaley Summercat

For many people, Furry means different things. I once posted a journal on Fur Affinity asking what did Furry mean to people, and got several differing responses. As I've said to some: Words have meaning and that's the point of language, but then why do we all in the Furry Fandom have so many differing definitions on what 'Furry' means?

I have my own opinions on the matter (hence this little essay), and while the responses to my journal were not indicative of the general population of the fandom, they did break down into what I felt to be the definitions of what Furry means. To wit:

• Furry is sub-genre of art, music, writing and performing;
• Furry is a Culture;

• Furry is a sexual fetish.

  Certainly, attempts to define what is 'Furry' have been floating around since the mid-1980s, and I do not tread new or unique ground here. Where I do think I tread new ground is that these definitions; that of Genre, that of Culture, and that of Sexuality, are separate concepts that have an overlapping population, and people may end up enjoying any mix of them.

  It is these subtle yet distinguishable definitions of Furry that have led to a lot of confusion within the Furry Fandom as a whole. We are a Fandom of multiple things called Furry, each with the common thread of anthropomorphic animals.

Furry as a Genre

Furry as a Genre is often our first experience of the Fandom, and many consider it the glue that holds us together. We place our artwork, our music, our stories, and our performances into this category. Some say that this is the center of the Furry Fandom, and I would be hard pressed to disagree. I find exploring the Furry Genre and the multitude of ways the Genre is and has been expressed to be fascinating, and in the future will visit the topic in more detail.

Talking briefly on the Genre, many wonderful and enjoyable works have been made featuring anthropomorphics. Mary Lowd's “Otters in Space” portrays the morphological differences between species, and their resulting cultures, as important elements. Kyell Gold's Volle series was improved through use of species-based stereotypes, and Tempe O'kun's characters are given further life via their anthropomorphic features. The comic DMFA by Amber Williams was inspired by the social game Furcadia, and of course we have our Fursuits - the Furry version of Cosplay (albeit of our own characters).

One of the issues here though, is that Furry is sometimes not exactly a Genre, but a spice added to a story to give it a twist or flavor. 'Furry' stories are often ones that can mostly be told through other devices. Romance stories of the forbidden love between a wolf and a cat can easily be told without plot changes as a romance between a dwarf and an elf, or a Christian and a Muslim, or a Black and a White. Take out the anthropomorphic animal and replace it with a human, and in many cases the work remains largely unchanged. So can Furry really be considered a Genre at all?

I once asked a few published Furry authors that question, and they responded: "Why a dwarf and an elf at all?" A Furry race is simply an another invented race, a shorthand that can be used by a creator to express multiple aspects of a character, e.g. cats are aloof, dogs are loyal, otters are playful; and you can reverse or invert these traits. In addition, using animals as stand-ins for humans is an ancient literary device going back to Aesop. This 'One-Step-Remove' allows discussing subjects that may touch close to home, without tripping over preconceptions or personal hang-ups on topics. There is much that can be explored on this topic, but Furry is certainly a Genre.

Furry as a Culture

Once you start to scratch the surface of Furry, beyond the immediate visual arts and costuming, you find a second grouping; that of the Culture. This is less a singular grouping, and more of an umbrella that covers a lot of terms. There is not a singular Furry Culture, but several subcultures, with divisions over interpretations of the Fandom, the role of the Fandom, and the timeline of how the Fandom was formed.

There do seem to be a few common threads, such as an acceptance of the odd and the strange, a dislike of abuse (especially towards animals), an expectation that a member of the Fandom is to create their own character and setting, and an encouragement for creating more content for the Genre aspect of Furry.

Another common thread is a greater acceptance of the discussion of topics more traditional groups would keep behind closed doors. It is this last thread that often comes up when discussing Furry, because we talk about our relationship problems, our dislikes, our likes, who we love and intimate details of our lovemaking in public. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but to some observers it may seem that every furry lives in a glass house and revels in it. What other groups would keep private, people in the Furry Culture make public – the phrase “Wears their heart on their sleeve” very much applies.

The public outing of innermost feelings can be construed to indicate that the Id or inner child of those in the subculture is in control, leading to accusations of immaturity. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” is often a cornerstone of thought in Western cultures. But I feel that hiding away the truth doesn't help, and as CS Lewis extended the quote, “including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” The Fandom has its issues, its feuds, and its strife. But conversely they are all out in the open: people know who likes whom, and usually why, and thus people know where they stand with one another. There are always exceptions to that rule, but this is based upon my observations over the last 17 years.

Furry as a Fetish

Culture and Genre aside, you run into another major facet of what 'Furry' is: a Fetish. There's no denying that Furry as a Fetish is prevalent; approximately 30% of submissions to Fur Affinity are mature or adult in nature, and adult material sales at conventions are a similarly high percentage of the total economic activity in the Dealer's Rooms.

Furry Culture does mean that those who are part of the Culture tend to be open about their thoughts and feelings, including their erotic ones, supporting the idea that 'Furry is a Fetish and nothing more'. But is Furry as a Fetish something to be ashamed of? In my opinion, no. I do not feel qualified to give a proper treatise or essay on the nature of human sexuality, but based upon my observations, a Furry Fetish is mainly about form and perceptions, and is the same in kind, if not degree, as fetishizing height, weight, muscular definition, freckles, or eye color. Having a thing for redheads, or green eyes? Furry is the same concept.

The thing about Furry as a Fetish is that it is nearly all fantastical, thus can easily be a companion to other fetishes, especially other fantastical elements. Transformation is certainly a common one, but also inflation, vore, macro and micro, snuff, male pregnancy, tentacles, age progression and regression, gender-bending: All of these can be found with relative ease on Furry sites, but similarly each of those fetishes also exist without Furry, and can be found all over the internet without any Furry aspects.

Part of the fantastical nature of Furry also means that it is at one-remove from the viewer, similar to the same concept in the Genre. With a distance between the 'self' and the 'character', someone can feel safe to explore more extreme and unusual fetishes, as well as alternate sexualities. As I once suggested to someone, “Edwin Smith” might not have any interest in guys, but his character, “Ripfang Snarltooth”, can be regularly balls deep in some twink male fox without being a threat to "Edwin's" identity. Being at a distance from the self can allow someone to explore what they would never consider doing in real life, from the fantastical elements to exploring their sexualities.

Furry as a…

I'm certain that there are many other possible definitions of Furry that I have missed, or have judged and discarded as not yet strong enough or distinct enough to fully include here.

One aspect that I often see is Furry as a Spirituality, based upon that one way of making a Furry persona is choosing an animal we identify with, whose qualities we see in ourselves, or desire to emulate, or hold in high regard. This can give the sense of a greater connection to that type of animal. However, without a significant or cohesive population following the same elements, I do not feel that Furry as a Spirituality needs to be separated from the Culture.

Similarly, some suggest Furry as a Religion, but while I can see a Furry Religion developing in the future, without a common cohesive thread to differentiate it I do not include this as separate from Furry Culture. While there have been attempts to make a Furry Religion, none have ever taken hold within a community or moved beyond the original founder's group, and these attempts have all shared very few common elements.

Then there are suggested negative definitions, such as Furry as a Mental Illness. I think the closest would be in some extreme cases, body dimorphism: the physical sense of a body being the wrong shape. Ultimately though I do not consider Furry to be a Mental Illness, unless you call having any sort of preference for a genre or a fetish to be a mental illness. There can be made an argument that fantastical escapism is bad, and I agree it can be an issue if taken too far, but disagree that it is a problem inherent to or commonly within Furry.

Finally, there is Furry as a Market, a concept I have thought on since first writing this essay. I do not mean Furry as a Target Market (i.e. people who can be sold to), but rather the entire economic activity of Furry for Furry activities. Primarily, these are sales and commissions for artwork and other 'luxury' items, but also include services such as printing, editing, and reviews. There are businesses that are furry owned or run that sell website or game server hosting, and also businesses that sell Furry clothing and accessories. I don't propose this as a definition for Furry as yet, for two reasons: First, it is still an ill-defined and nebulous concept, and secondly and more importantly for my purposes here, the terms for discussing a Furry Market are already distinct, reducing chance of confusion and miscommunication.

In Conclusion

I could be wrong about all of this. Furry as a Genre could be simply nothing more there than a sub-category of a sub-genre of fiction, that perhaps Furry is no more than a literary device rather than a Genre in of itself. Furry as a Culture could be nothing more than mistakenly grouping unrelated trends part of the wider Web 2.0/3.0 internet culture, and are not specific to Furry. Perhaps Furry as a Fetish being a distinct item from the Genre is incorrect. What is a fetish, after all, but enjoyment of an object or aspect to such a degree one would enjoy things more with it present?

I feel that I am right. I have been in this Fandom, this Culture, this overlapping community for seventeen years. I've worked at two conventions, I've helped run one of the largest Furry websites, I've made and sold Furry products. I've met and talked to people all over the world, from all walks of life, made friends with people with whom I've nothing in common, except for Furry. This understanding of Furry, the understanding that I've outlined here in this essay, has been guiding me through all of my efforts, and has yet to fail me.

Here is where I lay down my disclaimer: These are my thoughts and observations based upon being in the Furry Fandom since 1999. I make no claim to authority – I in fact reject the concept of authority over Furry as a whole. This essay is my viewpoint, and I will defend it, suggest it, and base my explanations upon it – but there is no authority to mandate it, nor do I claim such. People are free to disagree. People are free to tear holes in my arguments and assumptions – and I welcome that, as long as it remains civil and polite. The point is to begin talking, to begin thinking, about what Furry really is, and why so many people have different opinions on what it is, and one cannot have a discussion with differing definitions.

For me, Furry is a Genre, a growing one with more authors and artists publishing, and more services cropping up to support them. For me, Furry is a Culture: one that accepts and encourages everyone to make their own story, their own world and characters, rather than playing in someone else's. For me, Furry is a Fetish, one that allows us to explore what would otherwise be the unimaginable. In the future, Furry may one day develop to the point where I will say there is it is a Furry Spirituality, a Furry Religion, or a Furry Market.

For me Furry is all these things at the same time, a series of distinct yet overlapping sets on a Venn Diagram of the population of "Furries": fans of the Genre, members of the Culture, and those who enjoy the Fetish. Furry is not a single piece, a single whole. We are a Fandom of multiple things called Furry, each with the common thread of anthropomorphic animals.