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[Karsticles]

No, I understand that. I just find it amusing.

I find it creeping in more and more into normal conversations, to the point where it's more okay. It's at the level where it's cool to know something about internet lingo, but knowing a lot still makes you weird. Kind of like how people walk around calling themselves "gamers" because they play Call of Duty, but if you start to talk about how you've gotten every boss in Dragon Quest IX to level 99 you're a weirdo.

I've had people come up to me and use terms like "salty", "sad panda", "it's a trap", and "lolcats", but that's as far as it has gone. By the time my generation dies, internet memes will be the English language.

Well some of them are generally putting their sexual fetish out in public which is what grosses some out. It's like if someone walked by you with their sex slave on a chain.

A very fair point.

What's amusing is from what little I've seen, the disdain exhibited by some people towards furries translates well to describing how some furries feel about "babyfurs"

You get this in any kind of isolated community. Racial minorities have large incidences of racism toward other racial minorities, bisexuals are often looked upon with disdain by gays, etc. Opiate is right that the general mindset is "I'm okay, but not-me is weird".

 

[Narag]

I know someone who is into infantilism and is a furry. It was a shock, and yet not a shock, to find out. How did I find out? His family gave me the old family computer for fixing...

What's amusing is from what little I've seen, the disdain exhibited by some people towards furries translates well to describing how some furries feel about "babyfurs"

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

Well some of them are generally putting their sexual fetish out in public which is what grosses some out. It's like if someone walked by you with their sex slave on a chain.

Pretty much. Something I find very disrespectful.

 

[Devolution]

What's amusing is from what little I've seen, the disdain exhibited by some people towards furries translates well to describing how some furries feel about "babyfurs"

I am going to learn something new and disturbing today?

 

[The Technomancer]

Eh, I really think a large part of it is the identity factor. The distinction between enjoying something fantastical and making something fantastical part of your identity is what seems to seperate a lot of the "creepy" subcultures like furries, or hardcore trekkies, or bronies.

 

[Zyrusticae]

Pretty much. Something I find very disrespectful.

It's a good thing, then, that the majority of them don't do this.

(The fringe crazies are really visible, it must be said...)

 

[braves01]

What's amusing is from what little I've seen, the disdain exhibited by some people towards furries translates well to describing how some furries feel about "babyfurs"

Is that when furries dress up little kids like animals even though it's not Halloween? no way is that term going into google

Much like how you can't swing a bat in a game development studio without hitting at least 5 furries, but nobody knows who they are because professionals know where it's appropriate to flaunt it (not at work, for starters)

Is this insider knowledge? Hints about the dev out of curiosity

Spoiler

so I can stop buying their games

?

 

[Ezalc]

What's amusing is from what little I've seen, the disdain exhibited by some people towards furries translates well to describing how some furries feel about "babyfurs"

I'm not sure if I should google this or not.

 

[FyreWulff]

Well some of them are generally putting their sexual fetish out in public which is what grosses some out. It's like if someone walked by you with their sex slave on a chain.

True dat. Just like other people, there's quite a few furries that don't know have boundaries and it's like. Nope. Keep that shit outta here, it's not important to bring up.

Much like how you can't swing a bat in a game development studio without hitting at least 5 furries, but nobody knows who they are because professionals know where it's appropriate to flaunt it (not at work, for starters)

 

[Hitokage]

Well some of them are generally putting their sexual fetish out in public which is what grosses some out. It's like if someone walked by you with their sex slave on a chain.

In general, fursuits are cosplay. You're much more likely to find well done anime or videogame cosplay, of course, but while people have cosplay sex just being in cosplay isn't the same as "putting your sexual fetish out in public".

I wish there was a way to hyper-italicize something.

 

[meltingparappa]

Well some of them are generally putting their sexual fetish out in public which is what grosses some out. It's like if someone walked by you with their sex slave on a chain.

I hate this comparison, but logically...

 

[The Technomancer]

I hate this comparison, but logically...

This kind of stuff exists in the nebulous grey zone for me. If we lived in a perfectly accepting, eglatarian society than I might find rallies like this somewhat tacky, but because they are actual protest/visibility things I have a pretty positive attitude towards them.

 

[FyreWulff]

I hate this comparison, but logically...

I think the comparison is someone wearing a collar, ballgag and carrying a cat o nine tails around at work. Wearing your fursuit to work would be the same thing. Or wearing fluffy cuffs to work.

 

[Uchip]

Well some of them are generally putting their sexual fetish out in public which is what grosses some out.

never in my life have I seen anything relating to that in public
you must live in an interesting area

 

[Karsticles]

never in my life have I seen anything relating to that in public
you must live in an interesting area

Have you not posted on GAF?

 

[meltingparappa]

I think the comparison is someone wearing a collar, ballgag and carrying a cat o nine tails around at work. Wearing your fursuit to work would be the same thing. Or wearing fluffy cuffs to work.

Wait, who is wearing a fursuit to work? I would think you'd rarely see them outside of cons and meetups or at most, the campus of an art school.

 

[Hitokage]

Have you not posted on GAF?

This is a videogame forum. Not exactly your public square.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

I hate this comparison, but logically...

Being homosexual isn't really a sexual fetish, though.

 

[Deleted member 81567]

Have you not posted on GAF?

The forum where these "furries" post in their own little thread? Yeah, I have, what about it?

 

[Rayis]

I don't know, people just have a tendency to hate things they don't understand, instead of directing their hatred to things worthy of hatred, I'm not a furry but I met a few, they're very nice people, also one of them is a super hot guy who I had a crush on, OMG, I'd so wear a fursuit for him hahahaha

 

[Uchip]

Have you not posted on GAF?

not sure if serious

 

[G-Fex]

The thing about furryism is that like opiate said it's considered gross or bizarre cause it's just a ways beyond any other sexual fetish which is considered the norm like he said bdsm or dominatrices.

Until someone go ahead and does a fifty shades of grey for furries or fursuiters then it'll become the next big thing I bet!

 

[Messofanego]

Gaming forums got hit with this when Dust An Elysian Tail came out. Some good debate about insecurity, hypocrisy, adult "rule 34" eyes to cartoons we love as a kid. Let not the art style deter you from one of the best Games of the Year.

 

[Devolution]

I hate this comparison, but logically...

This is honestly where you lose me and I actually get a little pissy that you'd compare homosexuality and furry fetishizing.

 

[meltingparappa]

Being homosexual isn't really a sexual fetish, though.

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a photo from a gay pride parade that literally has someone in a BDSM collar like the person I was quoting with that picture.

My point is that because you find something icky doesn't mean you have the right to dictate that they stop doing it.

 

[The Technomancer]

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a photo from a gay pride parade that literally has someone in a BDSM collar like the person I was quoting with that picture.

My point is that because you find something icky doesn't mean you have the right to dictate that they stop doing it.

Who in here is advocating that?

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

I don't mean to be offensive and I must admit I don't really know much about this group, but the way I see it, not everything can be ok; I know I'm being close minded, but still. I'm sure there are some great normal people within this group, but it's just something that's difficult for me to accept.

edit to avoid misinterpretation.

 

[blame space]

I wish there was a way to hyper-italicize something.

you have no idea

 

[Narag]

you have no idea

bust out the highlight for emphasis.

 

[Unicorn]

And now people are making the same mistake that happened in the Bronies thread: assuming that anyone within the fandom must be of the type that is completely anti/mal-social and utterly incapable of living a relatively normal life.

Man. Can we stop doing that someday?

I can dream...

Well, inherently if someone is a furry, it means they self identify as such and introduce themselves as such. So, yeah, it's fair to jump to that conclusion.

It is the one fetish that is flaunted like a badge of honor. I don't go around announcing I love feet or wear a shirt to gatherings announcing it.

/facetiousness.

 

[someday]

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a photo from a gay pride parade that literally has someone in a BDSM collar like the person I was quoting with that picture.

But that image would just be gay people into S&M. That wouldn't be a defining "gay"moment. I think that's one of the reasons the comparison doesn't work.

 

[Pachinko]

Nerds are a group if people that were bullied /ostricised by their peers in grade school so they are constantly on the lookout for anything they can put lower on the totem pole. Furries make easy targets of themselves because its an entire subculture based entirely on a sexual fetish. Most people keep their fantasies to themselves for good reason , furries do not and it generally comes across as creepy. The gay analogy doesn't really work because that's just how some people are wired.

 

[BrokenEchelon]

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a photo from a gay pride parade that literally has someone in a BDSM collar like the person I was quoting with that picture.

My point is that because you find something icky doesn't mean you have the right to dictate that they stop doing it.

False equivalence. You're using homosexuality as a buffer for your argument.

 

[Deleted member 81567]

But that image would just be gay people into S&M. That wouldn't be a defining "gay"moment. I think that's one of the reasons the comparison doesn't work.

So furries are all about the leashes?

 

[someday]

So furries are all about the leashes?

?

 

[Deleted member 81567]

?

I'm just trying to comprehend how it would be a defining furry moment instead.

 

[someday]

I'm just trying to comprehend how it would be a defining furry moment instead.

I wasn't the one trying to make a comparison between furries and gays so find someone else to pick a fight with.

 

[Karsticles]

This is a videogame forum. Not exactly your public square.

The forum where these "furries" post in their own little thread? Yeah, I have, what about it?

not sure if serious

I consider GAF to be "public". That's why the internet has the particular character it does. It's public but also anonymous. Thus many small online communities form, mass attention whoring, moralistic crusades, etc. These things cannot occur in private.

If you saw a furry on TV, that would be "public", right? Why is seeing something on TV public, but GAF is not?

I define "public" as roughly meaning: where anyone could see if he or she wanted to.

Nerds are a group if people that were bullied /ostricised by their peers in grade school so they are constantly on the lookout for anything they can put lower on the totem pole. Furries make easy targets of themselves because its an entire subculture based entirely on a sexual fetish. Most people keep their fantasies to themselves for good reason , furries do not and it generally comes across as creepy. The gay analogy doesn't really work because that's just how some people are wired.

Ah yes, there's the nature vs. nurture aspect, too. Anti-gay folks tend to think homosexuality is a choice. It's much more difficult to be anti-gay when you believe homosexuality is ingrained in one's nature.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

It's creepy.

 

[Deleted member 81567]

I'm really not trying to pick a fight, but since everyone's gonna act hostile and suspicious with me I might as well drop out from this thread.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a photo from a gay pride parade that literally has someone in a BDSM collar like the person I was quoting with that picture.

My point is that because you find something icky doesn't mean you have the right to dictate that they stop doing it.

I think a more fitting comparison would be a crowd of foot fetishists parading around barefoot waving flags with giant feet on them while chanting "We like feet!!" or something.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

People like different things.As long as they dont hurt anyone they dont bother me.

 

[Uchip]

Well, inherently if someone is a furry, it means they self identify as such and introduce themselves as such.

thats not how it works here
you get the label whether you like it or not

 

[Snapshot King]

It's very simple, it's because it's fucking weird and relatively new. People haven't had decades to get more or less used to it, so when people go out in fursuits at cons, which are largely perceived to be a purely sexual costume, it freaks people out.

I should mention there's a really interesting parallel here with the wide acceptance of women wearing stuff like cat ears and bunny ears. There's a really specific line that can be crossed here where you jump into an uncanny valley style situation where its fine until it craters out into creepytown.

 

[Deleted member 81567]

I consider GAF to be "public". That's why the internet has the particular character it does. It's public but also anonymous. Thus many small online communities form, mass attention whoring, moralistic crusades, etc. These things cannot occur in private.

If you saw a furry on TV, that would be "public", right? Why is seeing something on TV public, but GAF is not?


Ah yes, there's the nature vs. nurture aspect, too. Anti-gay folks tend to think homosexuality is a choice. It's much more difficult to be anti-gay when you believe homosexuality is ingrained in one's nature.

But I've never seen a furry post obnoxious pictures of bulges and muscular dogs other than a few threads made by the same poster, and perhaps their own thread where they discuss such things.

So even GAF is public and anonymous, they still don't harm us.

 

[someday]

I'm really not trying to pick a fight, but since everyone's gonna act hostile and suspicious with me I might as well drop out from this thread.

Well, I don't see how I was trying to say that leashes were a furry thing. In fact, I wasn't saying anything about furries in the post you first quoted so you sort of came out of nowhere with that.

 

[meltingparappa]

Who in here is advocating that?

I don't want to quote 80% of this thread, but maybe I'm just reading too much into what people are implying with their vitriol.

False equivalence. You're using homosexuality as a buffer for your argument.

The exact quote I was replying to was:

Well some of them are generally putting their sexual fetish out in public which is what grosses some out. It's like if someone walked by you with their sex slave on a chain.

...and the line of logic of using your standards of sexual norms to say what is and what isn't acceptable has been absolutely oppressive to LGBT people for centuries, and that part of the point of having rallies.

OBVIOUSLY that queerness is different from someone with a fetish, but who has a right to tell someone how to sexually live their life?

 

[Vermillion]

It's creepy, and in a way sexual. I don't like it.

 

[robotzombie]

Gaming forums got hit with this when Dust An Elysian Tail came out. Some good debate about insecurity, hypocrisy, adult "rule 34" eyes to cartoons we love as a kid. Let not the art style deter you from one of the best Games of the Year.

I didn't know the only criteria for "best game of the year" was having pretty 2D graphics...

 

[nomis]

This seems to be the heart of it. Much like many (non religious) people still oppose homosexual marriage because they find homosexuality off putting and gross. The way people can be viscerally repulsed by fat people.

Next we'll be discussing whether furryism has genetic markers or develops in the womb. If socially withdrawn teenagers didn't have access to cartoons and mascots that were made for children, while their pubescent body and mind were susceptible to influence... there would be no furries.

Practically every other sexual deviance or fetish would exist in any culture of human beings. Furries pervert the intent of something that was never meant to be sexual, either cartoons or real animals. Where do you draw the line that says sexualizing something is no longer "just weird"? Inanimate objects?