Are you Furry?

[Lita Kuragari]

just wondering how many here are furries.
or if anyone knows what a real furry is.

also I don't know how serious everyone will take this subject
but Its serious to me seeing as I myself am furry.

so how many are proud to be furry? and what do you feel of those who put a bad name to us Furries?  

[Demona_Darchanjel]

At heart I'm a catgirl. An anthro panthress. If they came out with a gene altering drug to allow the change to occur, I'd do whatever it took to get the drug. I'd pass over having children by artificial insemination just to be what I really am. A fun anime to watch with furries in it is Hyper Police. Do you know of others?  

[Lita Kuragari]

I'm an arctic wolf at heart.
my favorite show when I was a kid was "Road Rovers"
I love 'Wolf's Rain' and enjoy 'Hyper Police'
but as for other furry anime it really is hard to find  

[Lil Brat]

Can't say as I'm furry... though maybe in my next lifetime I can come back as a cat ~ With wonderful servant humans that feed me well and let me sleep the day away... 4laugh  

[Demona_Darchanjel]

Lil Brat

Can't say as I'm furry... though maybe in my next lifetime I can come back as a cat ~ With wonderful servant humans that feed me well and let me sleep the day away... 4laugh

Ah.... That would be the life.  

[WebenBanu]

While I am not Therian, I do have a strong bond with cats- domestic cats- and I often think of myself in feline metaphors. For a while, I wondered if I actually was feline in spirit and spent some time in the Werelist and Shifters.org. I met a lot of really great people there, and saw some fascinating and well thought out debates and discussion.

My end conclusion, however, is that I am very much human. Sometimes I wonder if my empathy with cats stems from my spirituality- I am a deeply spiritual person, and one of my main goddess figures is Bast; She often takes the form of a cat. Or perhaps it's the other way around, and my feline sensibilities paved the way for me to relate to this particular goddess more closely. I find the question interesting, and for a while I tried to find other Kemetic pagans who happened to identify as Therians to see if their theriotype matched with the animals sacred to their main god(s). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find enough of an overlap to really get an answer- so the best I can do now is to say that some do, some don't, and there doesn't seem to be any particular, direct link between the two communities.  

[Demona_Darchanjel]

WebenBanu

While I am not Therian, I do have a strong bond with cats- domestic cats- and I often think of myself in feline metaphors. For a while, I wondered if I actually was feline in spirit and spent some time in the Werelist and Shifters.org. I met a lot of really great people there, and saw some fascinating and well thought out debates and discussion.

My end conclusion, however, is that I am very much human. Sometimes I wonder if my empathy with cats stems from my spirituality- I am a deeply spiritual person, and one of my main goddess figures is Bast; She often takes the form of a cat. Or perhaps it's the other way around, and my feline sensibilities paved the way for me to relate to this particular goddess more closely. I find the question interesting, and for a while I tried to find other Kemetic pagans who happened to identify as Therians to see if their theriotype matched with the animals sacred to their main god(s). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find enough of an overlap to really get an answer- so the best I can do now is to say that some do, some don't, and there doesn't seem to be any particular, direct link between the two communities.

Awesome piece, one of my goddesses is Bast as well.... I feel a very strong feline connection wherever it leads me.  

[BlueberryJoy]

I'm not a furry, and I admittedly don't much understand those who are. A couple of friends of mine are into that lifestyle, and it seems to have something to do with...dressing up in fur suits, and getting sexual. eek Which is their business, I guess, but I don't personally see the appeal in it. But on the other hand, I'm not anti-furry, because what people do in their bedrooms is their own business. 3nodding  

[Sliverbolt]

i have always been intruiged by furries. I know that it is just people that have a deep connection to animals, or who feel like one in their heart. Somepeople just like to dress up as their fav chacter and go out on the town. Its actually a really big thing. Just remember to always have your pets spayed and nurtered. lol i couldnt resist.  

[Mrs_Black_Bear]

To a certain extent I am, I dont dress up like a cat or anything, the closest I would get to that would be dressing up as Cat woman from the Adam West Batman series rofl . However I do purr when I am extreamly happy, and have three diffrent levels of growl. Hmm and recently I have had this thing with paw pawing my hubbies chest. I think I am just this way because I have been around cats too long so have started to mimic them.  

[WebenBanu]

BlueberryJoy

I'm not a furry, and I admittedly don't much understand those who are. A couple of friends of mine are into that lifestyle, and it seems to have something to do with...dressing up in fur suits, and getting sexual. eek Which is their business, I guess, but I don't personally see the appeal in it. But on the other hand, I'm not anti-furry, because what people do in their bedrooms is their own business. 3nodding

There seem to be two groups of people associated with the "furry" lifestyle. There are the people for whom it is an aesthetic- or an artstyle (and sometimes a highly sexualized one)- and there are the people for whom it is an identity (usually more spiritual or psychological). The groups I've encountered tend to have different terms for these two groups- "furries" usually encompass the art and sensuality group, in my experience, and that may explain your reaction to the term. "Therianthropy" refers to the condition of having a profound spiritual connection with a particular animal (or sometimes group of animals) which the person expresses in a number of ways- sometimes as a totem animal, sometimes as being that animal. These folks are usually called "therians" for short.

Like you, I don't think there's anything wrong with either group, so long as they don't intrude on the rights and privacy of other people- but they are definitely two very different orientations. I've had much less confusion since I adopted the devision of terms. However, I learned them from the groups of therians with whom I was interacting at the time, and probably not everyone in the community would agree with them.

Demona- Nice to see another Bast kid around! It's good to meet you! I'm also a fan of Hyper Police, and love Wolf's Rain too. There's an interesting anime called Fruits Basket which, while it doesn't actually have any anthropomorphic animals in it, does some interesting crossover between the human and animal worlds. I thought it was cute, too.^_^ And there is a movie called "Pom Poko" which is about the effects of increasing urbanization on the raccoons of Japan. There are anthro animals there, although later in the movie there is frequent reference to male genitalia there as well. It's actually not sexual- I think it's a cultural reference to the well-endowed anthro raccoon statues which Japanese shops sometimes keep outside as symbols of fertility, abundance, and prosperity. The raccoons in the movie make interesting use of these trademark parts to accomplish their goals, and I personally thought it was extremely funny. I recommended the movie to a friend recently, however, and she got really weirded out by it, lol. She never finished watching the film, so from now on I'm making sure to warn people that viewer discretion is advised.  

[Demona_Darchanjel]

I own Fruits Basket actually. ^_^ Thanks for the comments and info, apparantly I'm more of a Therian than a furry. Though I'd so totally wanna meet with and be with a neko. Something about the tail is so fun...  

[Lita Kuragari]

WebenBanu

There seem to be two groups of people associated with the "furry" lifestyle. There are the people for whom it is an aesthetic- or an artstyle (and sometimes a highly sexualized one)- and there are the people for whom it is an identity (usually more spiritual or psychological). The groups I've encountered tend to have different terms for these two groups- "furries" usually encompass the art and sensuality group, in my experience, and that may explain your reaction to the term. "Therianthropy" refers to the condition of having a profound spiritual connection with a particular animal (or sometimes group of animals) which the person expresses in a number of ways- sometimes as a totem animal, sometimes as being that animal. These folks are usually called "therians" for short.

Like you, I don't think there's anything wrong with either group, so long as they don't intrude on the rights and privacy of other people- but they are definitely two very different orientations. I've had much less confusion since I adopted the devision of terms. However, I learned them from the groups of therians with whom I was interacting at the time, and probably not everyone in the community would agree with them.

^-^ very good! I considered my self to therian/otherkin years and years ago and when I found the furry fandom a little over a year ago, I was very happy cause I had found a way to "look" the way I felt at heart. (although I have yet to get a fursuit)  

[Miniar]

A furry is not a theriantrope.

A furry is a person who is attracted to anthropomorphic representations of animals on a personal, emotional or even sexual level. I myself find anthropomorphic representations of animals absolutely fascinating.
A furry can be used to represent people who have inclinations towards beastiality but do not wish to act on "actual" beastiality as well as to represent a person who thinks werewolves are beautiful.

A theriantrope is a human being who identifies a part of themselves, no a non-physical level, through psychology, reincarnation, incarnation, (or to a rare few, genetics), to be partialy non-human (specifically a terran (that is "from earth") animal). And that identification and belief is a significant part of their personal mythology and sense of identity.  

[Kirasami]

A theriantrope is a human being who identifies a part of themselves, no a non-physical level, through psychology, reincarnation, incarnation, (or to a rare few, genetics), to be partialy non-human (specifically a terran (that is "from earth") animal). And that identification and belief is a significant part of their personal mythology and sense of identity.

I must be a bit of a therian then. I'm a big fan of all types of cats both wild and domestic and ever since I was little, that's been my favorite animal. My chinese astrology is a fire tiger and my other sign is leo and I love to imagine that inner part of me being a cat.