what’s exactly a furry?
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There are two splits to this. A Furry can either be a person who is a self-identified member of the “Furry Fandom”, or a character designed as an animal with human characteristics, such as walking on two legs. I’ll clarify each a bit further.
A Furry character, rather unintuitively, is any character that is an animal with human-like traits. This applies to furred animals like the name implies, but also covers birds, reptiles, insects, fish, and more as a blanket term. There are specific terms for each if you’d like to narrow things down, such as “scalie” for reptiles, but “furry” covers them all. These characters are usually based on animals (their designs often containing an animal head, a tail, fur/scales/etc, and the like) but have traits such as walking on two legs, standing upright, having forward facing eyes and a facial structure to match, and generally having human proportions. Like any design though, none of these traits are 100% set in stone and can be tweaked or even ignored entirely.
The Furry Fandom, in its most broad definition, is just a fan base of people who like these Furry characters. This can apply to characters from any medium and any age rating. In this essence, it’s no different from how a fan of trains, guitars, or whatever would work. The term “furry” in this case is used to refer to someone who actively identifies with this fan base, often by using a furry character to represent themselves. The fan may also choose to make a furry character of their own, and may then choose to use it to represent themselves. In general, characters used this way are referred to as a “-sona”, from the word “persona”, followed by a word that explains what fandom they represent. For the furry fandom specifically, they would be referred to as a “fursona”. They may even go so far to create a suit in the likeness of their character, referred to as a “fursuit”, so they can act as this character outside of pretend or virtual spaces.
When someone is called a Furry, it’s generally used in popular culture to refer to someone who enjoys furry characters, uses an image of a furry character to represent themselves, and is turned on by furry characters. That last part is due to the fact that the furry fandom also covers a shockingly large amount of pornography, which is always a big draw for people. People who are turned on by this content are referred to as having a furry fetish, and unlike most other fandoms, it’s prevalent enough to warp pretty much all other definitions of “furry” to be associated with it. Due to the relative closeness of the two, the term “furry” may often get lumped in with the bestiality fetish (an attraction towards animals without human traits) when used by people with uninformed or hostile outlooks towards furries.
I hope that helps clear things up a bit, and feel free to ask if you have any questions!
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