The Furry Community

The furry community is a fandom of people who roleplay as anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and physical characteristics online and/or offline. A furry is an individual who identifies with the furry fandom, though the term requires self-identification, and thus who constitutes a furry and who may simply have a passing interest in the community is unclear. Furry behavior seems to differ online as opposed to offline, particularly in respect to the wearing of fursuits, as an online gathering often lacks others to see or appreciate another's fursuit. Many furries do not create fursuits, and instead roleplay their furry identity. Whether online or offline, however, furries adopt their fursona, their anthropomorphic animal character - a portmanteau of "fur" and "persona" - when they participate in furry spaces.

Furry Sairys Wolf, a well-known member of the furry community, in fursuit

The furry community is expansive, consisting of art and literature websites like FurAffinity, furry social media and personal ads sites like FurNation, furry conventions, and even a furry wiki.

The furry community is not necessarily a sexual one, though as 79% of furries report sexual interest in furries, the sexual elements of this community are tangible. Supposedly, furries feel that the media and social researchers are "mainly obsessed" with the sexual aspects of their community, which they feel evokes negative stereotypes about them by non-furries; unfortunately for those people, this blog is sexological in nature, and so I will indeed focus on the sexual aspects of their culture.

 Perhaps one of the things about their depiction that displeases furries is the connection some make between furriness and beastiality. Though furries adopt fursonas and/or may desire to engage in sex with other furries, they are not zoophiles, those with sexual interests in nonhuman animals. (This part's for you, Rick Santorum; I don't want you to get too confused and start saying terrible things about furries like you do about gays and bisexuals, ok, baby?) A central element to the fursona is the human psyche, one that is theoretically capable of consenting to sex. Given this element of furry identity, the furry community does not promote sex with animals.

Furthering a discussion about their sexual identities, there seem to be higher rates of homo- and bisexuality among furries than in the general public, with one study finding that 25.5% of furries identify as homosexual and 37.3% identify as bisexual, way, way higher than modern demographic studies of sexual orientation. The same study found that 32.7% of respondents identified as straight, lower than any research I have ever seen (which the possible exception of the demographics of Cher fans). I am apt to believe that this research is biased in some way, but various other furry sources report similar findings. Inversely, 48.9% of erotic furry art depicts opposite biosex sex while same-sex encounters are depicted 45.6% of the time.

A furry's fursuit may or may not have sexual elements. The aesthetics of fursuits differ greatly from furry to furry, some looking extremely cartoonish or sports mascot-like, others taking the appearance of a human wearing an animale-style outfit (think Catwoman), and others with a much more realistic appearance. Interestingly, very few furries actually own fursuits, as only 18% report owning at least one. (However, fursuits can supposedly be expensive and difficult to make, so the fact that few furries are fursuiters probably has more to do with economics and technical skills than desire or interest.) Of those that do own fursuits, however, many seem to exhibit sexual features, such exaggerated secondary sex characteristics like muscles for males and breasts for females or anatomical holes for penises, vulvae, and/or anuses.

A furry named Rabbit in the Moon in her sexy fursona, Autumn Vixen.
Notice Autumn Vixen's curvy body, makeup, and exaggerated breasts. 

A definitively sexual element of the furry community is well-known neologism, "yiff." The word "yiff" has a complex etymology, but its most common usage seems to be an invitation to engage in sexual activity as one's fursona. Additionally, the continuous aspect of the word - yiffing - is a derived clipping that functions as a community-specific neologism meaning "sex." I suspect that "yiff" was inspired by the bear community's "woof," though no furry sources mention this possible connection.

The cornerstone of furry sexual expression seems to be erotic art. Popular art sites like deviantART and y!Gallery, which are not furry-specific, both include large furry clubs and communities, though FurAffinity (linked earlier) - a furry-specific site - is the largest such hub. The subject matter of such art varies greatly, with furry-on-furry, furry-on-human, and transformation art seemingly to predominate. Transformation, sometimes called shapeshifting, is a genre of furry narrative in which a human morphs into their fursona. Notably, though furries are humoids, artistic depictions of furry genitalia are vastly human, often enlarged or otherwise super-human.

Though visual arts are the center of their erotic products, furry-themed literature also plays a large role in the community; transformation stories are the most common form of furry written erotica. Interestingly, many transformation stories involve nonconsentual change of form, such as when a person is made into an animal/human hybrid against their will by magic or technology. These stories suggest an interesting power dynamic element to the furry community, which I will develop later.

The second-most common form of furry sex expression seems to be online roleplaying. In an online roleplaying session, participant(s) will gather on a forum to engage in en-fursona cybersex. Furries rarely seem to meet for over VOIP technology for roleplaying that involves face-to-face elements, which I feel reflects the fact that few furries own fursuits.

Offline, face-to-face sexual contact between furries seems to be the least common furry sexual expression, though it is possible that real-life pairings involving at least one furry choose to keep their sex lives rather private, as is our cultural norm. However, recordings such as this fantastic, typical exampled called "Literal Wolf Action" expose what I think is a foundational underpinning of furry sexuality: power play. In this video, the non-fursuited individual is rather dominated by the wolf fursuited furry. The human doesn't seem to have much say in the experience, while the furry acts as a service top. Power play is also reflected in furry literature and art, particularly in transformation stories, as many involve the transition of a human into a furry against their will. Lastly, power dynamics are seen in the very subject matter of the furry communities, as there is fascinating interplay between humans and animals that manifests themselves in furry art through unconvential ways, such as bulls - domesticated animals of labor - and lions or wolves - capital predators - that penetrate or dominate humans.

Though not specifically a sexual community, sexuality clearly plays a large role in the drawn to and self-identification with the furry community. For me, two major factors of furry identity yet require more research and thought: why do gay and bi-identified furries appear in such greater populations than in the general population and what roles do power dynamics play in the formation of furry identities? If you're a furry reading this post, write me and let me know what you think about my understanding of your community and identity!