Quote Originally Posted by RyuDragnier View Post
I still find the whole dislike for furry and like for anime thing absolutely hilarious. Osamu Tezuka, the man who basically created manga and anime, had a hidden collection of drawings he made of sexy furry characters. Meaning manga/anime is pretty much an offshoot of furry. And no, I'm not joking about the furry thing (this is a link to an article about it from 2014).
It doesn't help that furries are seen as creepy people with weird fetishes who rub it into your face how NSFW they can get.

Time for another rant, but... Keep in mind that this is based on my experience and it's a loose explanation of a fandom that has decades worth of history (much of which is unknown to newcomers) and overall there are always exceptions. It's a gross generalization.

Yeah, there is quite a lot of NSFW content out there. But it's understandable why. It's there because it's really popular with sexual minorities, who view the fandom as an outlet to express their interests, many of which are taboo anyway. From stuff like bondage to vanilla things like expressing an interest in buff people, chubby people, tall people, short people, people of different shapes and colours, without ostracism. Because everyone is different, and there isn't a "normal". So many people do take it to the sexual aspect, and it just so happens that using animal shapes as outlets for it can get weird.

But, and I know it doesn't look that way given how many people act, it's not the main focus.

The whole point of it is, as I said before, to allow minorities to express themselves without the need for ostracism. Animals come in so many different shapes and sizes, physionomies and behaviours that us humans often deride. In the human world, sexism is a problem, but in the furry fandom you can have a curvy and colourful male persona as much as you want. In the human world, racism is a stigma, but in the furry spaces, everyone is a different colour and strives to be unique. There is no racism over whether your jaguar is black or white, whether your goo monster is pink or green, whether your lizard has horns or not. It often boils down to preference rather than ridiculous social phobia. In the human world, anything other than straightness is frowned upon. In the furry fandom, they're embraced, and you're encouraged to explore if that's your thing. And in the human world, transphobia is just utterly rampant, but you can break social gender norms and expectations with a singular fursona. You can have a fursona whose gender is fluid. You can have a fursona whose animal you based it on challenges the notions of gender as a construct and as a social interpretation of biology (seahorses ;3)

Rule 34 applies everywhere, not just us. Some people did make it weird and only focused on that component, but it doesn't mean that the fandom is exclusively there for the smex. NOR does it in any way mean people want to bang animals.

The fandom by its very nature is a place where kinks are one of the things that will be thrown around utterly unfiltered. And since it's a fandom of experimentation and personal expression, often times gender and sexuality are the most obvious things to saturate it. But the message is still there, it's a place of acceptance and creativity.

Are there rotten eggs in the furry community? Loads. I don't mean trashy people, those exist everywhere. There are nazifurs, those are a problem. There are pedophiles, those are a problem. Transphobes and Homo/Heterophobes too. Many people who try to take the fandom's core of being a welcoming place for expression and try to twist it to fit their problematic views and values and spread their ideas through the platforms. But those are often hammered down on the spot. The furry fandom doesn't take kindly to that whatsoever.

Furries care so much about the value of artwork and whenever someone tries to steal art, it gets frowned upon in an instant. Meanwhile artists who try their best to improve have the community's support and their prices may look exorbitant, but are honestly just how much people are willing to pay for their art. And furries want and thrive on art the most.
If anything, I've seen the furry fandom get together to raise money for charities and even help some people find homes. Because so many of them know what it's like to be ostracised.
When was the last time FF14 did that? Or any MMO community? I assume it barely happened, though I'd love to be proven wrong.

Furries by definition are animals with humanoid shape. Humans with animal traits are not furries, they are Nekomimis, and those fall in a different category and fandom who very lightly overlaps with furries.
Hrothgar, Pandaren, Tabaxi, Khajit, Argonians, Worgen, Charr, all fall under the umbrella of the furry fandom. But playing one doesn't make you into a furry. Enjoying one doesn't make you into a furry. Using one with the intent of being a furry makes you a furry, and anyone using "furry" as a slur is just an idiot. Because being a furry, for better or for worse, is an experience with a very specific message. If people want to interact with it, even if without any of the NSFW, they have every right to do so. Just as much as being an arse is a choice.

I have two fursonas, used to have different ones as I grew up. Right now I'm comfortably settled on a polar bear and a wolf-dragon hybrid. I feel like I get to enjoy aspects about myself far more on these representations than on my human, tired self that cannot express them in real life without people looking with severe discomfort. Not weird crap that's illegal, but stuff that shouldn't be. Like me being an adult into videogames, me being someone who's an absolute history and culture nerd and want to express my cultural background, my explosive but also pretty goofy personality who I know isn't for everyone, and yes, even my sexuality and preferences. That's what it's all about. People just need to stop feeling so weirded out.