Furry fandom is a category (or sub-genre) of fantasy dedicated to anthropomorphics: fictional animal characters given human personalities and characteristics (see furry for more details). It originated as a fusion of science fiction, comic book, and animation fandom during the 1980s. It has thrived and grown, evolving into its own branch of fandom and finding adherents all over the world – enough that they may be regarded as forming a subculture. Furry fandom has a large presence on the Internet, and many furry conventions in North America and Europe are held every year, the largest being Anthrocon in Philadelphia in July. Further Confusion, held in San Jose, California each January, is almost as large. The total number of people attending furry conventions exceeded 7,681 in 2004, a growth of 25% over the previous year. In 2005, 18 such conventions will take place around the world. The original furry convention was the now-defunct ConFurence, based in southern California.

Furry fans, sometimes referred to as furries or furs for short, are eager for more material than is available from mainstream publishers. The demand is filled by fellow fans – amateur to professional artists, writers, and publishers who produce drawings, paintings, stories, independent comic books, fanzines, Web sites and even small press books. Fans with craft skills put together their own stuffed plush furry toys, sometimes referred to as plushies, or build elaborate furry costumes called fursuits (with features such as ears, fur, long tails, moving jaws, and even animatronics) and dress up in them for fun, or to participate in convention masquerades, dances or fund raising charity events. Charitable works are a tradition in furry fandom; many conventions feature an auction or fundraising event with the proceeds often going to an animal-related charity. Further Confusion has raised more than $34,000 for various charitable beneficiaries over its 5 year history. Anthrocon has raised more than $50,000 for animal-related charities since 1997.

Some furry fans create furry personas (imaginary characters based on their own personalities) by which they become widely known in the fandom. A yearning to explore self-identity is common among these fans. They may write stories centered on their characters, build or commission fursuits so they can "come to life" as their character, commission artwork, or engage in role-playing sessions on one of the many furry-themed MUDs on the Internet, the oldest of which is FurryMUCK. When such furry fans meet one another in person, they may be more familiar with one another's online personas than with their real identities.

Because "funny-animal" characters are often used in children's entertainment, furry fandom has long faced a dilemma that has caused numerous arguments and divisions within the fandom. A large number of furry fans are adults who enjoy themes that are generally considered unsuitable for children (which parallels other fandoms, such as science fiction and horror). In particular, the fandom possesses a thriving pornographic element, which furry fans refer to as yiff or spooge. Fans supporting unrestricted content in furry fandom (including a wide range of adult-oriented material) are constantly opposed by fans who seek a "cleaning up" of the fandom in order to present a more family-oriented image to the general public. In some cases furry fans have expressed that this task is more of a trial than anything else, as they maintain that the media coverage of the fandom has in some instances damaged its reputation by casting it in a more deviant light than it deserves. Opponents of the adult element of the fandom generally claim that the pornography makes up a disproportionately large amount of the fandom, and estimates of the relative amount of adult content present in the furry fandom vary widely. Most fans, however, are perfectly content with the standard practice of keeping potentially offensive material cordoned off in areas that are clearly marked "adult" and assume that anyone who can see well enough to view the material should have no difficulty making out the huge disclaimers.

For many, the fandom is just a hobby and a way to meet others who share the same interests. However, some people like to incorporate their furry feelings into their daily lives to such an extent that they live a "furry lifestyle". This dichotomy is not unlike that found in science fiction fandom between those who believe "Fandom is Just a Hobby" and others who assert that "Fandom is a Way of Life." Most, however, seem to use it as a simple escapist activity.

Dichotomies such as that between the hobbyist and lifestyler also form a source of tension; individuals regularly declare that they are giving up and leaving because they are dissatisfied with other fans' viewpoints, and many dearly wish that they would actually leave. Those that publicly remain within the fandom tend to be the most tolerant and open, for they discover tolerance to be the only way to build any kind of community out of the diverse range of interests that furry encompasses. The major exception to this, of course, consists of the creators; artists, writers, and other craftsmen who make some or all of their money from the fandom tend to produce whatever the market demands and become highly respected for their skills, regardless of personality or ideology. Creators indeed sometimes unwittingly discover the fandom by creating a popular work online without knowing their audience, and then express varying surprise, acceptance, amusement, or rejection, depending on their own preconceptions.

As with some sports fans who dedicate their energies to supporting their favorite teams (sometimes at the cost of their personal lives), or political activists who devote their entire lives to their causes, there are those who obsess about their furry interests. Their role-playing may become so elaborate that they have difficulty determining where their "real" persona ends and their furry persona begins. A particular group (the size of which, again, is frequently debated) sexualizes the experience to the point of paraphilia, having sex in their fursuits or with their plushies; those in the latter group are known as plushophiles. While these activities are disapproved of and indeed derided by many within the furry fandom if not completely ignored, the media has frequently focused on these extremes. For example, articles in Vanity Fair and Loaded magazines and dramatized fiction portrayed on television shows, including ER and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, are considered by many within the fandom to be shadow-playing upon the darker side of a fandom that is, in most cases, generally open with what it does, and how it wishes to be perceived (namely, as harmless nerds in fursuits). However, the media depiction is more complicated than that perception. For instance, the episode in CSI also had the team's leader, Gill Grissom, noting that the fandom is akin to a more modern version of ancient animal spirit worship, which he finds deeply fascinating. Ironically, the weirder fetishes seem to be more popular outside the fandom than within.

This sort of behaviour is intriguing from a sociological perspective in that this sort of behaviour may be a way of combating loneliness. Many use the fandom as a medium through which to meet and interact with people of like mind. Indeed, some furs will relocate to be near other furs, occasionally forming small, sometimes fairly casual and often-short-lived communes. First World societies are structured in such a way as to create an environment that makes it very difficult for its members to interact with each other as comes naturally to humans, and such small communities may serve to create a more suitable medium of interaction. The use of non-human avatars may be a sort of informal system by which to communicate aspects of personality, cultural background, and so on.

See also

• Animal transformation fantasy
• Otherkin
• Clinical lycanthropy

Further reading

• Craig Hilton: Furry Fandom - An Insider's View from the Outside, part 1, South Fur Lands #2, 1995
• Craig Hilton: Furry Fandom - An Insider's View from the Outside, part 2, South Fur Lands #3, 1996

External links

Information

• A Chronology of Furry Fandom (early days through 1996)
• The Sociology of Furry Fandom written and researched by David J. Rust; a member of both SF Fandom and Furry Fandom.
• Furry fandom category at DMOZ
• PeterCat's Furry InfoPage - Repository for FAQs, lists, periodic postings
• Anthropomorphic Fandom Convention Information Sheet - Historical attendance figures for all furry fandom conventions

Discussion

• Planet Furry (community BBS for furry fans)
• Yiffchat - An atypical Furry Chatroom, loosely based on Sex

Media

• Yerf - A furry art archive with restrictions on quality and mature subject matter.
• VCL - A mostly-unrestricted archive of furry art and fiction.
• DeviantART Traditional Media Drawings (Anthros) - An anthropomorphic art subsection of the enormous DeviantART repository; also check the corresponding section in Digital Art
• Yiffstar - A mostly-unrestricted Furry Fiction Site. Please read the disclaimer.
• TFCentral – A portal dedicated to TF. Hosting, forums, image gallery, story archives, and chat.