The "Furry" Generalization

[Drake Wingfire]

In many cases, you are right; but over the grand spectrum of the furry community, I think you will be disproved.  I've been around the fandom for a long-ass time, and I've observed so many people from different backgrounds and composure.  You might be referring to the typical teen furry: a kid going through his/her adolescent years, constantly fighting with their parents, full of angst, hormones, and wanting to be different from mainstream society, so they join the furry community.  What better engine to power drama?  No doubt that these people account for a good percentage of our ranks in the fandom, but I've seen an equal amount of folk who had the exact opposite childhood: folks who get along with their parents like best friends, loved going to school and love working, and otherwise have no clear predisposition that would have landed them here in the fandom.  For me, it was my artistic talents that led me to become a furry; for others, it was their desire to emulate an animal of their liking.  I've yet to find a fully composed a criteria for marking an individual who is destined to be a furry.

I speak with confidence because, over ten years of being fully immersed in the furry community, I've compiled my experiences and observations into what I believe to be a fairly accurate understanding of the community, and its plethora of sub-genres, cliques, and beliefs.  Call it a cumulative "survey," if you will.  I will never claim to have seen EVERYTHING; but I have seen a LOT.  I will say that probably a good 50% of my life is ado with my friends and experiences in the furry community.

And also: I think that, out of my hundreds of friends and acquaintances in the fandom, I'd estimate that at least half of them are Christian or similarly religious.  Some may not be so devout as others, but they still hold some faith in their beliefs.

Also ALSO: The use of the word "furiends" seriously makes me cringe.  Seriously. :|

As another individual who has been around the fandom ironically just as long (a notion I do cringe about due to elitist sounding context when brought up), I can see what you mean... But haven't you kinda "shot down" your own point? Yes furs can come from many different places and have a very wide differentiation of backgrounds, but if we are gonna contribute the whole "drama" and "teen angst" shebang to being a product of the high teen population... then really it almost makes it pointless to even bring up other backgrounds and variables, "teen angst" is teen angst no matter how you slice it, Otherkin, Christian, Gay, Straight, Black, White, Raised by truckers or raised by hippies. Once you introduce the teenage hormonal bit, really all that other stuff now becomes of little relevance in the grand scheme cause its now vastly outweighed by the notion of simply being a spasmodic hormonal individual. For example, a spiritual youth VS a non-spiritual one. Both can easily try and claim the high ground and maturity, one can claim because he is non spiritual he has a more grounded view of the world while at the same time the spiritual one can claim a more enlightened view, and you know, what ever works for the individual really. But in the end, those two parties when now tossed in with the concept of teenage hormones and "angst/ drama" sadly will now just boil down to a contest of who can talk down to the other the most and parade around like a peacock holding their head in the air while trying to brag how much more mature, open and logical they are. (I believe this one rings a bell for the both of us given where we have hung around at times *chuckles*) Because now the whole situation now has nothing to do with the original context but now is nothing more than a contest of who can be the biggest fake while being convincing enough to fool others. IE: your talks of some groups in the fandom and the few topics of dead beat furs, what furry is, and this topic.

But if I had to whip out my most noted type of individual in the fandom that really stinks up the place it would have to be the "popufur" I have seen it totally destroy more furs than I can honestly count and in only so few of years too, so much so I swear I do have a 6th sense about people now and will stay away from some because I just sense they are a ticking time bomb waiting to get the right fuel to just rocket off into that type of shallow, plastic person that sadly gets so highly praised. But if there is a silver lining to these people its that their popularity and attitude starts to run out of fuel after a few years and soon they just disband the fandom entirely and leave their "friends" behind going "where is he/she?"  "why are you not on ______ anymore?" its just sad that more people don't see those types for their true selves, someone who just wants to climb the furry social ladder and become some big-name regardless of how many people the back stab and how many cold shoulder their give to former friends who no longer fit their new attitude and reputation. In all my time around the fandom I can tell you one thing... The fastest to rise are the fastest to fall and true involvement in this fandom cannot be so easily based on such fleeting qualities like popularity, who you know or your species.

[Neox]

Not exactly sure what you're trying to disprove on my statement there, Drake.  That argument had nothing to do with my OP, and was strictly addressing Sevrin's comment about most furries being predisposed to wanting to become furry.  It's not an untrue fact that most kids DID get here through the channels of being able to delve into an exotic form of escapism, which usually stems from wanting to get away from reality at a young age. 

However, more recently, I've met a LOT of people who started in the furry community at ages 20, 30, 40 and even 50.  I've known a few of them to be surrounded in drama, too.  It's not like I'm trying to call the whole drama-aspect on JUST the younger population.

[Wildfire]

What is a deadbeat furry? Is that a furry that is a deadbeat? Or something else?

[Neox]

The original post that this one branched off from was about people in our community who show up to parties, eat other peoples' food, drink other peoples' alcohol, and leave nothing in return.

[Kyroo]

On spirituality and potentially under-represented groups in the fandom.

I hypothesize the following: With regard to religiousness and spirituality I believe that there would most certainly be a majority of people in the community who would classify themselves as at very least "less than devout" followers of Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, or <insert any well established religion here>. Why? because we are also one of the very few groups who have a majority of GLBT. How weird is that? Crazy, I know, but that's another thread in and of itself.

If you happen to be among the majority who are GLBT you will probably agree quite readily...GLBT people TEND (this is not a sweeping generalization, but intended to represent the commonality of the group only) to disassociate with formal religion. For any number of reasons which I won't get into for the purpose of avoiding a rant-fest or flame war. If you're otherwise not a GLBT person, then you may have other reasons as mentioned by above posts such as furry being in and of itself offensive to god (somehow, worshipping the wrong lamb, who the hell knows.) I'm quite sure many people are spiritual in the fandom, they're just spiritual on a more private level, or have found alternative faith is more fitting to their life and beliefs.

With regard to other groups, most obvious example being race: Having grown up in rural Ontario, I'm a bad one to speculate on cultural differences. However I do know for certain that there is a definite under-representation of a number of cultures in the fandom, I'd be curious to know if anyone had any reasons for this beyond the one that I propose. My only idea here is that it's mostly white because it's mostly white...its self perpetuating. It sucks, but I just don't meet many East Indian, Middle Eastern, or Hispanic members of the community (those are only a few examples) Hell, for all of our close ties to anime there is an alarmingly small population of Asian furry bro's and sisters. How about First Nations? With all of their spirituality so tied to animals and nature it ought to be a no-brainer. I'm not saying there aren't members of these cultures in the fandom. Just that I'm surprised we're not more diverse in larger numbers as accepting and loving a group as we can be  ;D

Because, here's where I'll try in vain to tie this all together, this one thing we have in common is kinda a big one for many of us. I, for one, have a decently large group of friends, all of whom are furs, not that everything we do is furry, in fact, usually its an afterthought or a side joke. But it definitely brought us all together. So in spite of the fact that we are all a mixed lot of various other groups (straight, gay, bi, black, white, age, introverted, extroverted, skinny, fat, man, woman, poor, less poor) we are brought together by this commonality. We have drama, its never because of the species we picked, or how we incessently pick on our foxes...its always about the differences of opinion that come from our various wide spread backgrounds.

Try to take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm a rural bumpkin, redneck, trailer park trash, honky-tonk cracker who grew up in the vaccum that is Northern Ontario for a long time. So it's just my two cents  :P

[Tef]

Hell, for all of our close ties to anime there is an alarmingly small population of Asian furry bro's and sisters. How about First Nations?

Because, here's where I'll try in vain to tie this all together, this one thing we have in common is kinda a big one for many of us. I, for one, have a decently large group of friends, all of whom are furs, not that everything we do is furry, in fact, usually its an afterthought or a side joke.

We have drama, its never because of the species we picked, or how we incessently pick on our foxes...its always about the differences of opinion that come from our various wide spread backgrounds.

I'm an Asian furry and I don't like anime. xD; In addition, I may know one or two FN furries on the site.

Not everything we do is furry - I have to agree, and I cannot put it better than myself. Likewise for drama, which is...heheh...a topic that may have already been beaten to a dead horse already, but I nevertheless understand the risk of potential bigotry.

[ravewoif]

I'm an Asian furry and I don't like anime

Is the such a thing as a weeboo furry?

[Silvermink]

What is a deadbeat furry? Is that a furry that is a deadbeat? Or something else?

They're furries who don't pay their membership dues.