The problem with the word "Furry"

[tokar]

anthro sounds much like 2 drs talking short form words where furry et al sounds more like fun and everyone can say it.
anthro, anthropomorphic, furry, furries, etc.  do they all not mean the same thing?  one word is technical and the other isn't.  some people are technically challenged, and some aren't.  put on your suit and go have some fun.

[Temrin]

Actually, Furry and anthro do not mean the same.

Furry is a term used to describe people in the fandom. Members of the fandom.

Anthro is the term used for non human objects or creatures given human characteristics.

There are people who are not part of the "furry" fandom that draw fantasty or anthro creatures. Many do not wish to be called a furry or their characters to be either. They are not part of the fandom for their own reasons.

Furry is not a term that should be used when referring to things that are interests to the fandom and causes a butt load of confusion and misinterpretation when used for -everything else-. Its another reason why a lot of people do not understand who we are, what we do and think we are nothing but perverted deviants. Thanks to people referring to everything as furry it not only causes that confusion but causes a lot of grief for people both in and out of the fandom.

You all can do what you want, just dont feel butt hurt when someone gets upset for you referring to things in a way that it shouldn't be referred too -shrugs-

[Pat The Fox]

Silvermink, when I say mature, I mean become a more well defined fanbase. The Furry fanbase has certainly been around a good while, but it has always struggled with identity. I believe part of that problem is due to the ambiguity.

Also, while I do agree that causing this change will be walking in to the wind, for there to be a change it has to start somewhere. Why not here in our own community?

[Silvermink]

Silvermink, when I say mature, I mean become a more well defined fanbase. The Furry fanbase has certainly been around a good while, but it has always struggled with identity. I believe part of that problem is due to the ambiguity.

Hmm. I guess we don't agree on whether it's a problem that there are people on the fringes of furry, if that's what you mean.

[Pat The Fox]

It's less of who is considered a furry, but more how do you explain it to another. Right now, when someone is aked what is a Furry, there is no one singular answer. Some people will go off on tangents about the art, about conventions, about suits, etc. Since everything is called furry x, it can create a lot of confusion when trying to be concise.

[Drake Wingfire]

It's less of who is considered a furry, but more how do you explain it to another. Right now, when someone is aked what is a Furry, there is no one singular answer. Some people will go off on tangents about the art, about conventions, about suits, etc. Since everything is called furry x, it can create a lot of confusion when trying to be concise.

So what is the problem with simply saying "I am a Furry, but I am more here for the art/ suiting/ community"? you know, just be more descriptive with yourself and where you stand in the fandom. I would think that would be easier than trying to make the entire fandom change due to comfort issues. The point of the blanket definition of Furry is so that one can go "I am a furry, but man I really love just being one of the writers out there" or "yeah im a furry, but I really just more so enjoy getting out there and meeting other animal lovers" if you just say "im furry" then of course you are gonna get a lot of people making wild assumptions, just like if you use any other label out there.

If someone goes "hey I like computers" but doesn't define that they like say.. just building them or customizing them, then people are gonna go "hey you must be one of them hackers who downloads torrents and sends off e-mails about Nigerian princes who have billions of dollars!" The key point of what I am saying is being a lill descriptive about yourself goes MILES when you are trying to explain who you are, simple phrases and terms will always be subjected to wild fantasies and assumptions cause you leave the door open to them.

[Pat The Fox]

But there is more to it than that, Drake. It is far less the problem of comfort, but far more the abuse of a term. The term is for the group of people who enjoy anthros. Using it any other way makes one sound juvenile, like one cannot properly associate definitions to their proper use.

As Temrin and I touched on, calling everything under the sun furry also brings a lot of contextual cues that should not be. When all the action a furry takes is also called Furry then the definition must now bear the weight of everything called furry, even if the individual person does not partake of it.

Calling items and creatures furry also many times incorrectly suggests that the intention of the object creation was in some way to a product of the furry fandom or belongs to it as well. Again, to use Bugs Bunny, calling Bugs Bunny a furry is just plain wrong. Bugs bunny is an anthro. It was not created with the appreciation of anthros in mind (probably), nor does it in any way belong to the people in the fan base. People in the fan base can enjoy it, but they don't enjoy it because it is furry (Bugs Bunny is not appreciating anthros, it is a character on paper), they enjoy it because it is an anthro and they appreciate anthros.

It's also wrong in any way to try and muscle Furry in as a genre or theme, because it just isn't that (wth the exception of a theme if someone is writing about the experience of appreciating anthros). Not only is that a bit brazen and makes furry seem like it is trying to be more important than it is, but also doing this with art or stories muddies the water terribly. Everything becomes indistinguishable since furry is used for all things, from G to X rated, from normal and cute to explicit and vulgar, from a piece of well thought out literature, to the trolling post on a board. It's all lumped under one tag, so it has to carry the definitions of the unintended and be considered with all that.

The way everything even remotely having to do with the fandom is called furry makes it sounds like we are trying to bring it in to our realm and some how take possesion of it. It makes us sound undefined or having an identity crisis. It can be offensive to those who do not wish their work or items associated with the appreciation of anthros.

Your computers point is a bit disjoint of an example. You don't call a group of people who like computers computery or such. The usage of the word is not parallel to the usage of the term 'furry'. You can like a computer because it is a single concrete object and most people are more specific about their interests with them. On the flipside, Furry is not a concrete object, it is a tag for a group of people with like interests.

[Silvermink]

Hm. I guess I see what you're getting at, but don't think of it as a big issue.

Your computers point is a bit disjoint of an example. You don't call a group of people who like computers computery or such.

...I might start.

[Drake Wingfire]

I think my example is rather apt to be honest, just not in the way you have interpreted it. It was never about one defined word or description, it was how ever about how someone who identifies with something on such a vague level is bound to have all sorts of bad things assumed about them because they used such a blunt and vague term to describe themselves by Instead of making an effort to define themselves.

The furry fandom has simply become too big and vast to go through some miracle image change in the worlds eyes, at least not without a unanimous effort to try and look professional and normal to a bunch of people we could care less about, all those of us who can't stand the current status quo can do is really work towards making ourselves stand out more and not use labels like a crutch. For example, I fit in with a good few groups of people, some that rather heavily parallel the furry fandom. I use to use some of their terminology and even the big labels. Naturally I got "looks" and questioned and yes I wasn't really ready for that so it made me feel awkward like I was with a group of weirdos. But I learned that you can be a part of just about anything, as long as you can be yourself and stand on your own, labels mean nothing and terminology becomes an after thought because you don't really require them to feel like you belong somewhere. Though another part of this is simply being tactful of when and how you use such words and terminology, saying "im a furry" at work, when you work around a bunch of uptight office worker types is never ever going to go over well, you just can't present the fandom in ANY light or any revised, clarified, reduced or conservative term that is going to go over well.

[Pat The Fox]

Silvermink, I guess I am a bit of a stickler for terminology just because I can see how proper teminology can bolster a certain interest group, give it structure and validity as well as help its concepts be conveyed to the broader audience.


Drake, but people don't use computer in that ways that furry is. When I say I like computers, most people assume I like the machine, computer, because if I specificly liked an aspect of computers I would be more precise and say that. Some small amount of people do use the term wrong, but it is not the general social norm. Yes, any term can be corrupted in this way, but that does not make it okay so I am not sure what the point is you're trying to make.

The furry fandom is hardly too vast or large to make a change. If we are, we are certainly doomed to evaporate as we'd never be able to keep up with the times. There are much larger fields of interest that go through radical teminology changes in their time, some with even more terms to change and properly enforce than a single term. The best example would be the field of Game Design. In the last few years alone there has been a huge push toward standardizing terminology and using those terms properly.

This standardizing and enforcing of proper terminology allows people to communicate ideas more clearly both to the group and to others outside it. When one is able to communicate better, they are able to spread and share ideas and ideals better and help people outside the circle of knowledge to come in to it and embrace it. If furry was more clearly defined, I think the fanbase would have an easier time growing and accommodating because we wouldn't have such a hard time explaining what it is. Currently it's more along the lines of The Doctor explaining what time is rather than a pointed declaration of what furry is.

[Silvermink]

Silvermink, I guess I am a bit of a stickler for terminology just because I can see how proper teminology can bolster a certain interest group, give it structure and validity as well as help its concepts be conveyed to the broader audience.

Furry seems pretty successful to me, I guess - I'm still not really convinced that it lacks validity or needs more structure than it already has. But we may just have to agree to disagree on that. I don't think there's any reason to worry about helping furry grow - it looks pretty big from where I'm standing, and there's still plenty of fresh blood coming in.

The furry fandom is hardly too vast or large to make a change. If we are, we are certainly doomed to evaporate as we'd never be able to keep up with the times. There are much larger fields of interest that go through radical teminology changes in their time, some with even more terms to change and properly enforce than a single term. The best example would be the field of Game Design. In the last few years alone there has been a huge push toward standardizing terminology and using those terms properly.

Game design seems like an odd comparison to me, mostly because that's a professional field and I would think people would correspondingly be much more motivated to standardize terminology and use terms properly. I think one of the biggest barriers you'd find to trying to do the same in furry would be people like me saying, "This is something I do for fun in my spare time. I'm not going to spend a lot of time stressing about exact terminologies and nomenclatures."

[Silvermink]

On the other hand, I would be super-cool with putting this "furries all wear costumes" myth to bed.

...it's really among the least of the stupidities in the linked article, mind you.

[Chloe]

To agree with what Temrin was saying before, it is true that a label can mislead people to believe that something else is just automatically associated with it.

Take the term "gamer" for example. Now from my understanding a gamer either plays a lot of games, or happens to be a fan of video games in some shape or form. What's interesting, is that a lot of people nowadays are getting in to playing social games or casual games on their phones or Ipads or Facebook or whatever. Now if you were to ask them "Are you a gamer" they are more then likely going to tell you know, regardless of the fact that they play games everyday. Why? Because they associate the term gamer with people who play console games, shooters, basically whatever they've seen or heard in the media. Most of it being negative. ((Like the nerd playing games in his mothers basement with nothing but the glow of his computer monitor lighting the room.))

The point I'm making is that furry is in the same bin. People just assume what the term is associated with and make judgements based on those assumptions accordingly. I also agree with Silvermink that it's far too late to try and change how the term is being used now. I don't know if the furry community is as big as the gamer community, but I know that it's certainly big. A universal change is out of the question. I think the best thing we can shoot for is to just do our best to prove people their perceptions are wrong by being decent and good willed, while also encouraging it within our own community.