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LGBT+ Furry Identity Formation and Belonging Online Mary Heinz Goucher College, [email protected]

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LGBT+ Furry Identity Formation and Belonging Online Mary Heinz Goucher College, Heinzmarye@Gmail.Com “There’s A Little Bit of That Magic Where I’m Becoming Something Else”: LGBT+ Furry Identity Formation and Belonging Online Mary Heinz Goucher College, [email protected] ABSTRACT Active and open identification with animals and the creation of anthropomorphic (or zoomorphic) fursonas have become infamous on the internet, yet published research on the subculture is lacking. This ethnographic study explores this under-examined subculture by considering how individuals who identify as LGBT+ and as furry find and experience community online in ways that contribute to feelings of belonging, inclusion, and overall well-being. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, it was found that participating LGBT+ furries experienced an increase in self-reported emotional well-being when allowed to engage with online furry fandom. Given that furry identity is inherently non-normative, the fandom becomes an accepting space for other non-normative identities, like LGBT+ identities. By creating accepting online communities, those without access to supportive communities in their off-line lives can learn about and explore non-normative identity without judgement. These spaces may allow for the accumulation of multiple non-normative identities, all of which are in relative harmony within online furry fandom, which serves as a “catch-all” identity. Existing within this space had positive affects on the well-being of the participants. Keywords: anthropomorphism; dialogism; furry fandom; intersectionality; LGBT+ ISSN 2369-8721 | The JUE Volume 10 Issue 2, 2020 21 fandom by outsiders tend to frame furry experience as exclusively erotic in nature (Jeannsone 2012, 5). This leads to backlash from non-furries in the form of bullying or exclusion. A notable example of maliciousness from non- furries to furries occurred in 2014. Midwest Furfest, a large, annual furry convention in Chicago, was interrupted by an “intentional gas incident” that some consider to be a terrorist attack. Nineteen convention goers were hospitalized due to chlorine gas exposure. As n 1993, Peter Steiner illustrated a comic reports of the attack spread, what followed suit featuring two dogs for The New Yorker: one was not horror but humor at the expense of the is on the computer while the other looks on. I convention goers because they were furries. The first dog says to the other, “On the internet, Additional claims were made that, because nobody knows you’re a dog” (Steiner 1993; see furries are considered deviant, they deserved also Wikipedia, 2020). At that time, the the attack and bullying that followed. Victoria anonymity of the internet was alluring and McNally (2014) writes extensively on the presented users with the opportunity to be incident. Although this is an extreme example, other people or to play with their identity it emphasizes how furries are viewed by (Boellstorff 2008). Today, in 2019, the opposite mainstream society. Many furries also identify has become true. According to some studies, with the acronym LGBT+, which can exacerbate the internet is no longer as seductively the backlash they experience since LGBT+ anonymous as it once was, as contemporary identities are also commonly considered users of social media are more likely to present deviant. In the context of this paper, the LGBT+ their in real life (IRL) selves instead of label refers to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, constructing entirely new identities (Davis and transgender people, as well as the many other Weinstein 2017). nuanced individuals that find themselves If you identify as or with dogs on the internet identifying with communities and labels outside today, everyone seems to know about it. Active of heterosexual and/or cisgender identity. and open identification with animals and the Furry fandom is much more beyond creation of anthropomorphic (or zoomorphic) stereotypical views. Joe Strike (2017), a self- fursonas have become infamous on the identified furry, defines a furry as anyone with internet. Anthropomorphism indicates the an above-average interest in anthropomorphic application of human characteristics to animals, characters, even if they do not self-identify with whereas zoomorphism is the application of the term. The few academics who have pursued animal characteristics to humans (Gerbasi et al. the study of furry subculture, however, consider 2008). Within the literature on furry identity and furries to be those who strongly identify with, or identity performance, the terms appear to be view themselves as, an animal or other non- used interchangeably, with anthropomorphism human creature and use the term to label used more frequently. For the sake of this themselves (Gerbasi et al. 2008, 198; Jeansonne paper, anthropomorphism will be used to 2012, 73; Půtová 2013, 246). For the sake of this describe both phenomena. study, I will use the academic definition of a Furries and non-furries alike enjoy making furry: one who actively identifies with the term. jokes and memes at the expense of furry Furries engage in the creation of art and music, fandom, a prominent internet and IRL participate in video gaming and dance subculture. Yet, infamy does not lead to competitions, and organize events ranging from understanding. Popular conceptualizations of several thousand visitors at a convention to ten furries often paint them as mentally ill sexual friends at a bowling alley. Furry fandom has a deviants (Gerbasi et al. 2008, 199). While thriving physical and virtual culture that sexuality can be a part of one’s experience with involves more than what is perceived to be furry identity (Strike 2017), perceptions of the sexual deviance by outsiders. The JUE Volume 10 Issue 2, 2020 22 Identifying as a furry can lead to the creation Additionally, the ways in which furry identity of a fursona, or an anthropomorphic character intersects with other identities, like LGBT+ depicting the real or constructed personality of identities, and how that affects belonging and the maker (Jeansonne 2012, ix). Fursonas are well-being is unexplored by the available made manifest through artwork shared in literature. The following study aims to expand online spaces or fursuits—a handcrafted suit academic understanding of furry identity and allowing the wearer to become their fursona in how it intersects with LGBT+ identities through physical reality (Gerbasi et al 2008; Jeansonne an exploration of the ways in which these 2012). In this way, a furry may experience a self- identities are formed online and how they hood that is composed of dual identities or affect well-being and belonging. Based on the identifications. This, and the way furry fandom findings of this study, I assert that furry functions as an online community, is not widely fandom, because of its role in the lives of explored by the available literature. Studies participants as a positive and accepting space, tend to focus on the physical embodiment of grants those with socially deviant identities a furry identity through fursuiting, instead of on place to belong and thrive. the formation of identity and influences of the online furry fandom community on well-being. What Do You Mean “Furry”? It is important to distinguish the embodied The fandom gained traction as a North experience of identity and physical community American subculture in the 1980s when the from the performance of identity and online “founding” members of furry fandom began communities for several reasons. There is a meeting at conventions intended for science notable cost barrier for physical embodiment. fiction media enthusiasts (Strike 2017). Fursuits, full or partial, can cost thousands of Anthropomorphism is, however, a much older dollars, making it difficult to access that means practice. Půtová (2013) compares contemporary of identity embodiment. A wider range of furries, in their physical embodiment and online people can express their identities online presentation of identity, to anthropomorphic because of the lower cost of entry to the depictions of sorcerers in cave paintings, some community, making the scene more diverse in dating back to 30,000 BCE. She notes how both terms of socio-economic status and racial furries and sorcerers have the ability to identity. The internet, as explored in the study transcend reality and assume multiple identities presented herein, is also a place where through their animal self or selves (Půtová individuals learn to accept and be themselves 2013, 247). Although what transcendence through access to information and other means for the individual experiencing it is not individuals who are socially deviant. This further defined in the article, Půtová’s (2013) work is contributes to the diversity of the fandom still noteworthy because she is the only online, as individuals from all over the world academic author in this literature review to can be exposed to the fandom and learn about reference the role of the internet in furry it without physical exposure. Regional, racial, identity. She claims that the internet allows and socio-economic factors influence identity, furries to create multifaceted alternative selves, furry or not, but these factors are not explored which further allows transcendence from the within the previous literature on furries. Past “real” self to a different form of self (Půtová ethnographers attended conventions and 2013, 247). studied fursuiters. Due to the cost of entry to the convention and fursuiting as a practice, Similar to other fandoms, furry fandom those studied in past literature were, in general,
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