Subculture and Safe Space: Identity

Home , Furry convention, Furry fandom, Fursona (fandom), Otherkin, Rowrbrazzle, Samuel Conway

Expression and Exploration in the Furry Fandom

Nina Junior Research Project Seminar March 10, 2020

INTRODUCTION

In the last few years, I’ve noticed that the current generation of young people have redefined identity and how we, as a society, talk and think about identity.

Major dictionaries have added the words “cisgender,” “gender-fluid,” and “they” as a neutral pronoun. Along with these rapid language changes has come a paradigm shift to see gender as a complex, ever-growing, and flexible part of identity to be defined by the individual, rather than society. One of the places where these changes have been welcome is within the furry fandom. The furry fandom is dedicated to the celebration of identity drawn together by similar interests in animals, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic costuming, and art. It is a subculture devoted to the acceptance of identifying with an animal alter-ego, which is expressed and experienced in art, costuming, and online forums. The furry fandom has provided members with a safe space where they can experiment with identity and be themselves. The furry fandom allows identity to be flexible along species lines, as well as that of gender and sexuality. However, while the broader culture has largely adapted to changing ideas about gender, race, and identity in general, this particular subculture continues to suffer from taboo and negative stereotypes. Furries are often labeled as a fetish, a misunderstanding caused by misleading media that obscures the many beneficial effects for members of the fandom.

I am interested in this topic because I am a furry. I came to identify as a furry at the age of fourteen, after a lifetime of being an animal lover and several years being involved in online role-plays and art forums. Before identifying as a furry, I

created a character named Luna, a wolf, who evolved with me as I matured through my teen years. I drew and roleplayed as this character for around three years. This initial character was the gateway to developing my current fursona and finding a community of like-minded people online. When I discovered the furry fandom, I felt immediate recognition, and said to myself, “Oh, that’s what I’ve been.” This is a common feeling for many furries who suddenly discover “There are others like me.”

Belonging to the fandom has been empowering and given me a community where I can discuss my identity, both as a person and a furry. Many in the furry community are younger and queerness is common. The fandom provides me a space for self-definition. As I’ve become more open about being a furry, I’ve noticed the typically negative reactions of others who have preconceived notions about the fandom. I decided to research the fandom with a particular concern for the young members in order to correct misconceptions and provide a clear explanation of the value of the furry subculture.

The literature review covers the history of the furry fandom and how, even in ancient times, humans have costumed as animals, often for spiritual and ritualistic purposes. The history continues to the modern day evolution of furries. After researching the history of both animal-centered costuming and the furry fandom, I attempt to define the subculture and its elements of online interaction, art, and costuming. I further explore how the furry fandom allows for shifting identities by looking at academic theory and research on participants. I then examine the stigma

of the over-sexualized elements of fursuiting. Finally, I look at research about the emotional and community benefits to furry nation members.

I began my research wondering about the origins of anthropomorphic costuming and wanting to both explain and explore its modern manifestations. I do not cover the 5% of the fandom that does have a sexual element of fursuiting, although the fandom is generally sex-positive and I believe such openess is a strength for the community. Additionally, I do not go into detail on the process of making a fursuit or the particulars of the artistic genres, though again, I believe these outlets are a positive for the community. I also do not cover how the stigma of fursuiting increases the likelihood of violence towards furries. In my research, I have found the furry fandom to be a rich culture that continues to stretch the societal definitions and paradigms of identity. Throughout this paper, I will argue that, while the history of animal-centered costuming is not new, the development of the furry fandom from scattered elements of sci-fi nerd culture to a fully developed subculture, despite the stigma, has provided an anthropomorphic, safe community that challenges definitions of identity.

HISTORY OF ANIMAL-CENTERED COSTUMING

From anthropology to history to psychology, experts in many fields have noted a pattern of humans seeking an element of the primal or animalistic. In an essay accompanying Charles Fréger’s book Wilder Mann, a collection of artistic photographs inspired by the tradition of mask in Europe, Robert McLiam Wilson

explores the spiritual meaning behind connecting with animals and wilderness.

Wilson asserts that the figure of the “wild man” can be traced back to the origins of

European culture and persists to this day from pagan traditions (10). He also states zoomorphic masks are universal and “demonstrate the links that unite man and his environment, in other words, culture and nature” (Wilson 244). Wilson explores the

“Wilder Mann” (wild man) as an opposite of the “civilized man.” Wilson notes the wild man changes throughout European history, but there is always a dark natural presence, “now a black emblem of atavism and fear, now a faintly comic grotesque, now a totem of sexual and behavioural licence. A harbinger of spring or winter, a strawman to be killed or feted” (Wilson 11). Wilson finds further connection in the literary use of the wild men as a metaphor, such as Mary Shelley’s novel,

Frankenstein, and in the cultural fascination with mass murderers or sociopaths in order to define ourselves as the “civilized man” in contrast to the monstrous (11).

By depicting the wild man through communal and public performance, people can act out collective “hopes, fears or drives” that are only recognized in the performance (Wilson 12).

The wilder mann (German) or l’homme sauvage (French) is said to be created by the sexual pairing between a woman and a bear. According to Wilson, it belongs in both the animal and human world and understands both. It is powerful

(super-man) and respected (identified as an ancestor in the middle ages) (Wilson

243). Wilson’s essay accompanies the photography of Charles Fréger, who captures the continued masking and costuming of different European traditions, holidays,

and rituals that continue to this day. The wilder mann zoomorphic masks show the link between man and animal, culture and natural environment, because animals have been given powers or symbolic meaning (Wilson 245).

Wilson states that many societies give certain animals or species higher power or symbolism. Animals have been believed to have mystical powers such as

“benevolence of the spirits, the fecundity of the land, the fertility of women, and good weather” (Wilson 247). The Goat and the Bear are particularly popular in

Europe and are often accompanied by a human who tries to gain power from them and fails (Wilson 246).

While Wilson argues that zoomorphic masking offers a contrast between the wild man and civilization, a way for humans to conquer the dark forces of nature,

Barbora Půtová suggests the opposite: that zoomorphic masking traditions are a way to better connect with animal powers. In Prehistoric Sorcerers and Postmodern Furries: An Anthropological Point of View, Půtová discusses how, during the Upper Paleolithic era in Europe and beyond, societies developed new creative and spiritual expressions in the form of masks and performance through the prehistoric figures of sorcerers, or shamans. In this 30,000 year old history, shamans chose to mask themselves as animals for their rites. Through this masking, Půtová suggests that shamans stepped over the threshold from the human world into that of animals.

This crossover from culture to nature, Půtová argues, can also be found depicted in cave paintings that show half-human, half beast creatures (Půtová 243). Půtová references the anthropomorphic figures as being between states of mind: “The

Upper Paleolithic art mediated a relationship between opposite elements of the aboveground and underground and a boundary between conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind” (Půtová 244). Půtová explores the idea that shamans, or anthropomorphic identities, played a crucial role in the development of these societies.

Půtová further finds a connection between the many ancient societies that worshipped certain animals or human-animal hybrids or gave them power above humans and the modern phenomenon of beings that join human and animal into one superior, god-like being (Půtová 244): “Postmodern relativism and the desire to seize the human substance with alternative resources gave rise to a new type of a sorcerer — half man and half animal — known as a furry” (Půtová 245). As Půtová points out, ancient shamans and modern furries share common traits, including altered states of reality, masking, and connecting to an animal identity.

Půtová goes on to develop the connections between shamans and furries, particularly in how they create fluid and personal identities with different ways of altering one’s state of consciousness. Shamans use masks, drums, costumes, sensory deprivation, and substances in order to step into another plane of existence that allows them to access their identity. Similarly, Půtová argues, furries alter their mental, emotional, and even physical state through costuming, but also through creating virtual worlds. This allows them to not only access their other identity, but also interact with others similar to them through that other identity (246-247):

Shamans living in traditional tribal societies have more than one soul, which enabled them to enter a supernatural world, where they got in contact with holiness. Post-modern furries enter the cyberspace where they can, just as

shamans do, generate different souls or take on different identities. Shamans and furries thus trespass the threshold of the profane world, though in different times, in order to modify their original personality and find new existential horizons of human feelings and cognition (Půtová 247).

According to Půtová, for both shamans and furries, costuming and the use of masks allow the true existence of an alter-ego or character.

In another of Charles Fréger’s books of photographs, Yokainoshima, he explores masking beyond European cultures to Japan where there is something called “yōkai.” Yōkai are spirits, ghosts, and other monsters in Japanese culture that inhabit the mythical island of Yōkai (Sekiguchi, 9). In an essay accompanying the book, Ryoko Sekiguchi explores the unique cultural belief in ghosts and other worlds that coexist with the living in Japan: “Mysterious yōkai (literally, ‘bewitching apparitions’), which appeared from beyond the sea, and bizarre kaibutsu (monsters), which descended from deep in the mountains, were invited into people’s homes as ‘guest gods’, and the act of welcoming them became deeply ingrained in the Japanese spirit.” (228). Sekiguchi suggests that the yōkai uniquely live with human beings (in contrast to other mystical figures) and are tied to

Japanese identity (9).

Much like Wilson, Sekiguchi asserts that these mythical creatures and their representation through mask and costuming embodies people’s primal sense of fear

(Sekiguchi 14-15): “Many masked rituals were devised as a response to natural threats such as droughts, floods, pests and typhoons. They are a human attempt to regulate the things that cause such events, using supernatural principles to alter the

inscrutable forces of nature” (Sekiguchi 239). Rituals, Sekiguchi argues, were and still are a defense mechanism against unexplainable events. Nowadays, she says, rituals are not used to explain natural events, but rather unnatural occurrences, such as murders, aliens, and ghosts (229).

HISTORY OF THE FURRY FANDOM

Along with ancient origins of furry culture, there are also more recent origins that brought the fandom to where it is today. Jacqueline Danielle Guerrier writes in her article, “Bringing out the Animal in Me: An Examination of Art and the Individual within the Furry Subculture,” that the furry fandom originates from the science-fiction fandom. The term “furry” was coined at the 1980 NorEasCon II

World Science Fiction Convention in Boston (Guerrier 9). The term “furry” was first used to describe characters in a comic series named “Albedo” by Steve Gallacci.

These characters were neither humans nor animals, so fans came up with the term

“furry” to describe them. In addition, fans of Gallacci’s work became inspired to make their own anthropomorphic characters similar to those in “Albedo,” and some began to cosplay – dress up or roleplay – as these anthropomorphic characters.

Slowly, these cosplayers used the term “furry” to describe themselves, because they were dressing up just like the “furry” characters in “Albedo.” However, Guerrier explains that the first Furry Convention did not happen until 1990 (Guerrier 10).

As the furry fandom has spread and unified, the definition of the fandom has posed some unique challenges. Guerrier argues that furries do not technically meet

the definition of a “fandom,” which typically revolves around one piece of entertainment or media, whereas the furry fandom is based off of a common theme

(Guerrier 17). Furries, however, do not define themselves by these terms and still consider themselves a fandom. As Gurrier states, “The single most important aspect of a Furry member is that they consider themselves a part of the Furry community”

(Guerrier 4). Guerrier finds that furries have shared principles and themes that define the fandom, particularly creativity and freedom of expression. “As [the] Furry

[fandom] has no central leadership or media,” Guerrier writes, “there are also no real qualifications for what makes a Furry a Furry” (18). Guerrier claims that this allows the furry fandom to grow in many ways and lets members fully experiment with their characters and ideas to find their position in the fandom.

There are many ways in which people find the furry fandom. Furry fandom historian Joe Strike explains the factors that typically draw someone to the fandom in his book, Furry Nation. He argues that one of the main factors that draws people to become furries is an uncanny fascination with animation, particularly animal-themed animation (Strike 13-14). Strike notes that Disney animations such as Bambi or Robin Hood have been furry favorites for a long time. Furries make their own characters based off of these movies and represent them in zines, online communities, art, and fanfiction. Strike suggests that the furry fandom spread in popularity because “zines became a thing in the 80s” (Strike 15). Furries would create pieces of literature or artwork to send into zines, which would then be compiled to form furry zines (Strike 15). The most well known furry zines, or

amateur press associations (APAs), are Rowrbrazzle, Yarf!, Vootie, and PawPrints Fanzine (Patten 36). Soon after, anime became very popular in media and television shows, such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Bagi, and The Amazing 3, with the latter three featuring anthropomorphic or talking animals (Strike 17-18). Strike emphasizes the anime origins of the furry fandom, claiming that a furry and anime fan, Ray Rooney, paved the way for the first East Coast fur gathering. Strike’s narrative of the first furry gathering and the origins stemming from anime differ from Guerrier’s narrative which posits the origins in sci-fi subculture. However, both authors place the fandom as originating in sci-fi, fantasy, and nerd culture.

WHAT IS A FURRY?

Kathleen Gerbasi, Nicholas Paolone, Justin Higner, Laura Scaletta, Penny

Bernstein, Samuel Conway, and Adam Privitera are a team of scholars who have produced the majority of the academic literature surrounding furries. Gerbasi et al. have attempted to “define” furries through their study and survey of attendants at

Furcons (Furry Conventions). In “Furries A to Z,” the first academic publication about the furry subculture, Gerbasi et al. qualify their definition of furries with the disclaimer that there is no perfect definition. They nevertheless summarize a furry as:

“a person who identifies with the Furry Fandom culture. Furry Fandom is the collective name given to individuals who have a distinct interest in anthropomorphic animals such as cartoon characters. Many, but not all, furries strongly identify with or view themselves as one (or more) species of animal other than human. Common furry

identities (fursonas) are dragon, feline (cat, lion, tiger), and canine (wolf, fox, domestic dog) species. Some furries create mixed species, such as a folf (fox and wolf), or cabbit (cat and rabbit). Furries rarely, if ever, identify with a nonhuman primate species. Many furries congregate in cyberspace, enjoy artwork depicting anthropomorphized animals, and attend Furry Fandom conventions” (Gerbasi et al. 3).

In this same study, the authors also compared furry identity to gender identity disorder, in that both describe people who don’t connect with their body or birth identity. Although it provides a significant amount of information and data about furries, “Furries A to Z” sparked a flurry of academic writing on furries, and many scholars and furries alike criticized the methods and language of Gerbasi et al’s study.

The furry community is largely defined by its online culture, art in the form of fursuits, visual arts, cosplay, and the members that make up the fandom. The online community is analyzed in Joseph Trinidad Casteneda III’s “Queering the

Fandom.” The author argues that the internet allows people to create alternative versions of themselves by allowing free gender expression and “nonnormative” species expression, or gender and species expression other than what was assigned at birth (Casteneda 1). Castenda refers to Judith Butler’s theory on gender to suggest that furry identity is performative in the same way that gender is performative in mainstream culture (5). Thus, Casteneda points out that cyberspace is perfect for the performative interactions and challenges to normative identity that are integral to the furry community:

[Online] disembodiment offers the opportunity for the individual to operate on a sense of escapism apart from the constraints of a socially

stigmatized identity within digital social spaces. Simultaneously, through virtual bodies, the participants of the technocultural process of disembodiment form everyday local and global communities whilst constructing performative identities. (1)

These online identities, Casteneda argues, challenge the idea that each individual has a “single core identity,” and by using these online personas, furries are able to build fictional realities through the use of cyberspace (Casteneda 3). Furry communities proliferate in cyberspace. Casteneda is quick to point out that many academic studies focus on the physical existence of furries (i.e. fursuiting, furcons, and meetups in costume), while the reality is that much of furry culture and activity happens online (Casteneda 5). The online community of chatrooms, art, and social media is, Casteneda claims, a rich landscape for furries.

Furry culture exists in the real world too, through visual art, fursuits, and other cosplay. Jakob W. Maase explains in his dissertation, “Keeping the Magic,” that furries will create elaborate backstories for their fursonas that are separate from their own to give them distinct personalities and to explain their characteristics, and they will use these characteristics in visual art, whether they make the art themselves or commission someone to do so (Maase 52). He further argues that

“even if furries are inspired by popular culture their creations are not based in it.

Their fursonas, fursuit performance, fursuits, and fursona art is their creation”

(Maase 28). Maase explains that although fursonas often represent people and their alter egos, adopting ocs (original characters) at art auctions that have their own name, gender, species, and set of characteristics is also popular (Maase 57). Maase

also notes that fursonas change as people change, and one of the primary functions of a fursona is to create an ideal self which changes over time (Maase 73).

Comparably, in Jay Johnston’s “On Having a Furry Soul,” he talks about therians and otherkin, which are similar to furries. Otherkin are people who strongly identify with a spirit animal, and see themselves as that animal trapped in a human body (rather than creating an animal alter-ego). Not unlike furries, otherkin blur the lines between the human side of themselves and the animal side. However, furries seem to be better at distinguishing that line (Johnston 294). Therians are very similar to otherkin, but they typically kin – meaning identify with – with mythical creatures, such as dragons or unicorns. These people are closer to those who have a spirit animal. Therians and otherkin exist in and out of the furry fandom.

Those who are in the fandom will use fursuiting as a way of coping when they are uncomfortable and “kinning” is a way to express that, such as crossdressing might help gender dysphoria (Johnston 298). These off-shoots of the furry fandom provide similar psychological benefits to fursuiting.

FURSONAS AND FURRY IDENTITY

In Courtney Plante, Stephen Reyson, Sharon Roberts, and Kathleen Gerbasi’s study Furscience, the authors assert that fursonas are one of the most important parts of the furry fandom. Fursonas are an anthropomorphic character that a furry designs as a way to explore their animalistic side.

Joe Strike also claims that most furries have a fursona that represents their anthropomorphic self. Some furries take their fursonas beyond the realm of a hobby and into a lifestyle. Strike claims that you may be a furry lifestyler if you:

“have a fursona, collect or draw furry art, attend the occasional furry convention, own a fursuit, commission artists to create furry art to your specifications, decorate your living space with furry art or images of your fursona animal, live with or do almost all of your socializing with other furs, chat online with other furs as your fursona wear your fursuit around the house, own several fursuits, attend more than two or three furry conventions per year, think of yourself interchangeably or simultaneously as your human self and your fursona ” (Strike 36) …

The authors of Furscience explore how a fursona is formed in the publication, “Ingroup Bias and Ingroup Projections in the Furry Fandom,” and find that it is

“impossible to fully capture the numerous variables that contribute to the species that a furry’s fursona manifests as” (Reyson et al. 62). Some furries choose a species on a whim, while others choose a species with characteristics that align with their own sense of identity or ideal identity. In Furscience, Plante and his co-authors claim that fursonas are a way for people to create an idealized self-image that can help boost self-esteem: “Fursonas may play an important role in a furry’s sense of self.

And, generally speaking, the healthiest fursonas seem to be the ones that represent a composite of who you would like to be and who you are right now” (Plante et al.

76). Furthermore, Plante et al. suggest that using fursonas is similar to using chatrooms, both of which create virtual identities where one can act as an online persona, and in furries’ case, fursona. Having a fursona is, thus, similar to an online identity, and can in fact be an online identity. In some cases, the fursona can exist in

reality in the form of art or fursuit. Most furries feel as though they have at least some connection to their fursona, usually by the species’ defining characteristics

(Plante et al. 63).

The authors of Furscience also noticed the diversity in people and fursonas within the furry community. Plante et al. note that innumerable different species are found in a survey of around 6,000 individual fursonas, the most common being hybrid species, the least common being insects. Other popular species include wolf, fox, dog, big cat, and dragon (51). The authors also state that the furry community is more sexually diverse and inclusive than numbers reflected in the non-furry world.

To support this argument, the authors cite the statistic that over half of furries have a fursona whose gender is the same as their own, and around 40% are open to a possibility of a fursona with a gender different from their own (Plante et al. 67-68).

The authors suggest that having a different gender identity for one’s fursona could be a form of self-expression for a different part of one’s identity, or a way to experiment with gender such as role-playing, cross-dressing, using new pronouns, or emphazing more femme or masc appearances (Plante et al. 68). Fursonas allow furries to experience gender and identity in a novel way they wouldn’t in ordinary life, while also appealing to an idealized self (Plante et al. 75).

In a separate publication, “Ingroup Bias and Ingroup Projections in the Furry

Fandom,” the authors of Furscience found further ways fursonas strengthen sense of self identity as they think their fursona species is the best. In this study they noted in-group bias, or biases and preferences from within the fandom, to prefer fursona

species of one’s identity. Social Identity Theory (SIT) posits that people naturally find others like themselves and form groups, which creates an ingroup bias towards the people of their own group and boosts self-esteem (Reyson et al. 49). The authors argue that fursonas have been a source of further resilience for furries because SIT connects furries through the perceived benefits of one’s own species, i.e. (people like me) and “in group favoritism” (people like me are best) (Reyson et al. 51). This happens according to people with the same species of fursona. The authors also argue that ingroup bias changes interactions between different species of furries in order to conform to their species’ typical characteristics (Reyson et al. 52).

In his dissertation, “Keeping the Magic: Fursona Identity and Performance in the Furry Fandom,” Jacob W. Maase further examines the in-group connections of fursonas and also how fursonas manifest in both the real world and the virtual world. Masse is primarily interested in fursona creation and depiction, but finds the community interactions are essential to a fursona’s existence. He writes that fursonas have endless options and possibilities with which one can customize a fursona: “Overall fursona creation is limited only by the imagination following the dominant cultural schema of the larger network the furries inhibit. Furries need unique fursonas to recognize a face online” (Masse 77). Much like Reyson et al.’s in-group bias study, Masse finds that furries are attracted to certain other furries online. Masse emphasizes the role of online spaces as communities for fursona interaction and another way for a fursona to exist and manifest itself. Online spaces

are where most furries interact with each other, usually through chatrooms or roleplay or through social media in order to share and trade art. Masse finds that,

Furry art represents the complexities of furry expression as fursona and character depiction can range from the everyday into fantastic worlds of an individual’s imagination or popular media. It can also take a plethora of styles, and for this reason aesthetics depend very much on the individual's choice, often reflected in their fursona (Masse 96).

Maase claims furry art is as important as a fursona because it allows fursonas to manifest in reality instead of existing only as a concept. Unless one has lots of nearby furry friends, or a fursuit, it is much harder to exist as one’s fursona. Online community and art allows the ability to talk and act as one’s fursona and connect with other fursonas as well.

MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA AND OTHER FURRY MISCONCEPTIONS

There are many common misconceptions about furries, along with stereotypes and furry “norms.” In a study titled “Furries from A to Z”, authors

Kathleen Gerbasi, Nicholas Paolone, Justin Higner, Laura Scaletta, Penny Bernstein,

Samuel Conway, and Adam Privitera work to better understand common declarations about the furry fandom, such as gender ratios, sexuality ratios, and the mental health of furries. The authors draw a parallel between furries and people who have gender identity disorder (GID). The authors relate furries who do not feel comfortable in their own body to GID, but instead of the source for discomfort being the wrong gender, it is the wrong species. The authors state, “The parallels between the distorted furry dimension and [Gender Identity Disorder, referred to as GID]

criteria are remarkable. Distorted furry types may possibly represent a condition which we have tentatively dubbed Species Identity Disorder” (Gerbasi et al. 26). The authors classified furries in this category as “not feeling 100% human” or “wishing to be 0% human” (Gerbasi et al. 213). This study was done in 2008, when understanding of furries and conventions were new and few. The study claimed to be the first “academic” study to investigate furries. The study’s connection between

GID and furries caused a critical response in the community and catalyzed the debate around furries and mental health.

Fiona Probyn-Rapsey wrote a response to the “Furries A to Z” study titled

“Furries and the Limits of Species Identity Disorder: A Response to Gerbasi et al.” In her response, Probyn-Rapsey criticizes “Furries A to Z” for its limited methodology and quick assumptions about similarities between furries and GID. Probyn-Rapsey points out that critics say that a GID diagnosis pathologizes individuals and perpetuates heterosexist standards (Probyn-Rapsey 297). She goes on to point out the fact that one can’t use gender identity as a comparison because it is too complex just by itself, so making up a new psychological disease based off of an already controversial “disease” is unfair and wrong (Probyn-Rapsey 299). Transphobia (fear or dislike of transsexual or transgender people) and aphobia (fear or dislike of people who are aromantic or asexual or are agender and don’t conform to the gender binary) are prominent and real, and the concept of transness or having a trans child is more concerning to parents than the actual existence of transness

(Probyn-Rapsey 297). Probyn-Rapsey also claims that trying to stop one’s child

from being trans is the same as telling society to get rid of stuffed animals to prevent one’s children from being furries. She states that one can't just cut animals out of one’s childhood because they’re everywhere, and thus identifying with an animal is inevitable for certain people's identity (Probyn-Rapsey 298).

The authors of Furscience, Courtney Plante, Stephen Reyson, Sharon Roberts, and Kathleen Gerbasi, have noticed that a common misconception about furries is that they have a mental illness. In fact, Gerbasi’s first furries study and article did compare furries to people with gender identity disorder (GID) and received a lot of criticism from the furry community for contributing to the idea that furries struggle with an identity disorder along species lines. However, this later study, Furscience, approaches furry mental health differently. The authors counter the claim that furries have a mental health disorder by stating that furries may have more vivid mental imagery and imaginary worlds, and although these qualities are associated with some psychological dysfunctions, studies show that furry imaginary worlds are not disproportionate in comparison to the rest of the world. In other words, furry imagination is proportionate to the imaginative worlds of non-furries. (Plante et al.

127). In fact, Plante et al. argue that “Furries were equally as good as non-furries at distinguishing fantasy from reality, suggesting that while furries engage in more fantasy than non-furries, it is not due to an inability to distinguish between the two”

(Plante et al. 127). The authors then sum this up, stating, “To put it another way: while furries may be distinct for having vivid fantasy lives, they are not dysfunctional for it” (128).

Another misconception of furries is that fursuiting is a sexual fetish to them, an assumption largely due to how it is portrayed in the media (Guerrier 5).

Guerrier’s article points out, “Due to poor representation and backlash by the media, [...] Furries often have to fight being labeled as ‘sexual deviants’” (Guerrier 6).

Even before furries had truly been created as a fandom, or even a concept, the sci-fi fandom has had its fair share of stigma as well. Guerrier identifies that stigma as

“geek stigma”; the idea that the sci-fi community attracts nerds, outcasts, and men typically unsuccessful with women.

Sherry A. Jeansonne addresses the stereotype of sexual deviancy in her article “Breaking Down Stereotypes: A Look at the Performance of Self-Identity in the Furry Fandom” in which she points out, as other authors have, that furry is an identity, and furthermore, that any sexual aspects to the furry culture are no different than sexual aspects in any other subculture. She points to three television shows that have featured the furry subculture as a sexual fetish, creating the misconception: MTV’s True Life: Sex2K (Herwick and Stone 2003), CSI’s Fur and Loathing (Lewis 2003) and NationalGeographic’s Taboo: Secret Lives (Abraham 2012) (Jeansonne 7). These shows focused on the act of “yiffing,” or having sex in a fursuit. Jeansonne points out that this over-sexualized portrayal gave rise to many anti-furry websites including 4chan, GodHatesFurries.com and TrueChristian.com, which are online forums with disparaging opinions on furries and the fandom.

Furries are upset by the furry community on TV portrayals (Jeansonne 8). There are also many articles online that misrepresent the furry fandom. Jeansonne explains

that furries are typically equated with other groups and fetishists. One of the most well known articles that popularized this idea is the Vanity Fair article, “Pleasures of the Fur” (2001). The article follows one furry who happens to yiff and then concludes that yiffing is the norm for furries, and associates furries with plushies

(who get erotic pleasure from stuffed animals). Another article is “Johnny

Manhattan Meets the Furry Muckers,” in Wired magazine, which also confuses furries with bestiality. She also points out that “as newer fandoms emerge on the internet like Bronies, they latch onto the older, more established fandom of furries, causing the group further public associations as ‘weird’” (Jeansonne 65).

POSITIVE OUTCOMES OF THE FURRY FANDOM

In “Prehistoric Sorcerers and Postmodern Furries” Půtová looks at the long history of anthropomorphic dressing, often for spiritual ritual, and claims this practice allows individuals to experience shifting and multiple identities, which is a freedom one could not obtain otherwise. Půtová explains the cultural and spiritual value of anthropomorphic attire:

The shaman’s ecstasy is perceived as a kind of altered state of consciousness. From this point of view, cave paintings are captured shaman visions of entering the supernatural world. The shaman has more than one soul and these souls leave the body in trance and set on a journey to other worlds A furry acquires extraordinary abilities … when entering virtual reality in the form of a personal furry. The virtual space creates possibilities for constructing new identities that may provide more perceptual experiences, fantasies and illusions. (247)

Půtová notes that both shamen and furries use altered states of reality in order to create another persona or soul. Shifting identities are very important in both shaman and furry culture, as they allow a person to represent an ideal selfhood

(Půtová 246).

Similarly, the authors of Furscience argue that using these altered states of reality allows furries to create ideal self images (Plante et al. 74). One of the key points of the fandom is creating alternate personalities, typically a fursona with idealized personality traits, which in turn boosts confidence and self esteem (Plante et al. 75). A majority of furries surveyed responded that fursuiting allowed them to either express their true self or experience an ideal self; many more identified fursuiting as allowing them to experience something novel (Plante et al. 74-75).

Although there is a lot of stigma surrounding the furry fandom, Jeansonne finds the positive outcomes of participating outweigh the negative for furries. She states:

An outsider observer may think of a furry’s fursona merely as a performance because many of the member’s personalities change when in costume. However, some members say that they are always a furry no matter who is around and that their fursonas are just a better way of showing who they really are. (Jeansonne 42)

Jeansonne interviewed a furry named “Van,” who explained how a fursona can change their attitude and interactions:

I have a shy nature and at times feel the pressures of the world are too much and feel the need to crawl into a hole and disappear for a while. [But while in my fursona] I am artistic, creative, a person who loves to

push the envelope on creative experience. I also like entertaining people, giving away smiles and laughs. (Jeansonne 43)

Throughout her interviews, Jeansonne finds furries testifying to the positive social and emotional benefits of belonging to the furry community.

Along with being able to create fluid and ideal identities in the furry fandom, the fandom is noticeably LGBTQ+ friendly and accepting of difference. Plante et al. found that furries are more accommodating to people with any type of psychological condition (143): “Furries with disabilities used their fursonas for different functions, with some functions being more frequently adopted than others. In particular, the more popular fursona function for furries with disabilities was as a means of forgetting one’s condition” (Plante et al. 145). They found that 20% of surveyed furries have a fursona with a gender different than their own and “it is apparent that fursonas are significantly less heterosexual than their creators” (69).

Fursonas allow their creators to communicate their identity and desires freely by shifting them onto their fursona.

Because furries have such an active virtual life, the community found online offers a safe space for experimenting. Not only do chatrooms and art forums connect furries over long distances, but having a screen name gives some protection to the person. It also allows creativity through anonymity (Maase 71). Maase points out that “There is always suspension of belief in roleplaying Roleplaying belief in some … ways always does tie into identity, religious and spiritual disposition, but the extent

is based on the individual” (40). Furries create a safe and creative community that protects the identity individuals are afraid to share in public.

Creativity is one of the primary manifestations of the furry fandom. Maase notes that the fandom promotes creativity and provides a safe community for furries to be themselves (Plante et al. 75). In Jakob Maase’s “Keeping the Magic,” he explains that furries wish to create an element of magic while in suit, acting like their fursona and interacting with people in ways that they wouldn’t normally

(Maase 85). This is another way that creativity manifests itself within the fandom.

Maase finds this performance to be an artform that “breaks the everyday surroundings, turning it into something fun, memorable, and out of the ordinary”

(86). In order to preserve this element of magic, many furries will not talk in case their voice ruins the fantasy (Maase 89).

Overall, furries find community, support, and the freedom to be themselves, often as an alternative to real lives that include bullying and judgment. In her essay,

“Furries Among Us,” researcher Sharon E. Roberts speaks from a furry perspective as an academic to define the positive outcomes of the furry fandom:

... members of the fandom got from this connection with others, and it was special. Life-saving, even, in some cases. I understood why they experienced “post-con depression” when they went home. For some of these people, their most sincere human contact and expression with others came at conventions, and they went home to mundane worlds where they hid, were ignored, and had few outlets for sharing their interests (Roberts 160).

Not only do furries get to connect and interact together in a way that would not readily be available for some (Roberts 161), but many conventions raise money to donate as well, typically to animal shelters or wildlife causes.

CONCLUSION

The history of anthropomorphic costuming is deeply rooted in spiritual identity and worship. The modern-day furry culture has combined this tradition with its roots in a fandom of sci-fi nerd culture. Furry nation eventually emerges as a modern subculture, perfect for experimenting with identity. Furries challenge the norms set by humanity through the experimentation with identity as a different species, gender, sexual orientation, and personalities that one would not be able to show in their day-to-day life. The furry fandom not only provides an incredibly welcoming community and counter-culture, but also is a huge creative outlet for online life, art, and fursuiting. However, the stigma created by false representations in the media has created a major problem where a place that welcomes identity must hide its own, keeping furs closeted and unable to share this element of their lives publicly. Despite the taboo of furries, there are innumerable positive outcomes to belonging to the fandom as well. Not only are people free to define their identity through their fursona, but are also encouraged to be their human selves as well. The

fandom’s positive effects on individuals create a community of artists who celebrate costuming, acting, artwork, and togetherness.

As I read through more and more sources, I found that much of the academic material was by the same people or, occasionally, PhD theses. The furry nation is continually growing, yet it is still a relatively new phenomenon. This, combined with the factor of misrepresentation as fetish, means that academics haven’t really discovered how fascinating this subculture is. There is a lot of potential for sociologists, anthropologists, media theorists, and art studies academics to discover in the furry culture. Casteneda suggested that, much like queer studies, furry scholarship should come from within the community, particularly because it is such a nonnormative subculture with a high percentage of LGBTQ+ members. While this would be ideal for further scholarship, it would also be a bigger challenge because of the stigma academics would encounter. Although my scope was limited to academic literature, there is a world of information within furry forums and experience at furcons.

My original reason to write my literature review on the topic of furries was personal. I was motivated by the thought of challenging the stigma as much as presenting a comprehensive guide for others to understand. What I learned during this process was not surprising, but I did get new language for discussing the issues.

I learned there was a lot more information out there than what I had originally thought. However, I was also disappointed at how repetitive the information was,

and it was sometimes very outdated and inaccurate. Meanwhile, I feel the furry nation is evolving and changing with a new generation that has to be studied.

Consequently, I will be making a project dedicated to documenting the narratives and experiences of a new, younger generation of furries. I hope to combine portraiture and oral history in a website that helps non-furries to understand the subculture and its exciting expression of identity experimentation.

The website will present teen furries’ lives and backstories as plainly as possible so as to humanize the experiences behind fur.

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