Do Furries Deserve The Hate They Receive?

 

                          Do Furries Deserve Hate They Recieve?

                                                              By: Akeel Dixon



If you clicked on this blog post I don't know why most people would avoid this topic the millisecond they get. But, my post will be about whether this Fandom deserves the hate, so stick around and read a bit longer. A fandom is a safe space or community for people who respect certain things like comics, movies, video games, etc. For the basics, the definition of furries is a group of people who appreciate anthropomorphic or cartoon animal characters. In this blog, I'm gonna be talking about why furries exist, why people hate them and compare them to other fandoms.


For example Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, or Winnie the Pooh. Wait did you notice something most of those characters were made around the 1950's or 60's. There is actually a really good reason for this that might surprise you. I'm going to describe a movie character and you will try to guess who they are. A middle-aged white man who usually ends up saving some sort of damsel in distress is an orphan.

That could be anyone Luke Skywalker, Iron Man, Batman, etc. But If I was to ask you "Hey ever seen this black mouse with white pupils and red pants?" You would instantly say "Mickey Mouse". This anthropomorphic animal trope was started by Warner Bros. and Disney so that their characters would be different and recognizable. Lots of people grew up with this and men like Fred Patten and Mark Merlino decided to make a fandom for people who like these kinds of characters.

The next question is why do people hate furries. This question is probably obvious to those who heard of furries before this article as everything I stated about furries above probably doesn't correlate with what you first thought. People hate furries because they think it is a fetish or a sexual act. I don't know and I couldn't find how it started but I believe this is due to those kinds of people who do that in the fandom and make themselves known. I'm pretty sure most of you are part of a large group or fandom and you've seen some explicit content before related to your topic/hobby. This is a guess though so don't scrutinize this statement too much.

Finally, why did I do this? How does this blog relate to me? The reason I got into furries and wanted to study and learn more about the culture was because of my school. A rumor was going around that a Subbie in our school was a furry. I just playfully joked about it with my friends for a bit but I was confused on why they were so disrespected by society. I then did a quick Google search for the definition which was they are people who are interested in anthropomorphic animals. I then decided to go further and read a CNN Article from 2018 called "Inside the Misunderstood Culture of Furries. This article contains explanations for what furries do to embrace their hobby and statistics about how many furries have been hurt and bullied for who they are. 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/us/furries-culture/index.html 


Comments

  1. LindenApril 2, 2024 at 1:37 PM

    Hi Akeel, this was a really interesting explanation and explained all the misconceptions related to furries really well. I wouldn't consider myself a die-hard furry but I do think there is something very memorable about animal cartoon characters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Henry GApril 3, 2024 at 7:28 AM

    Hi Akeel, I think that the main reason furries are getting so much hate isn't because they like animal cartoon characters. I think many people do not understand why people dress up as these animal cartoon characters and thats how they recieve hate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ian MApril 19, 2024 at 5:48 PM

    Hey Akeel, this is certainly a very interesting topic for discussion as pretty much anywhere you go on the internet, you will see someone making fun of furries. And, I too, have found myself wondering why they get the hate they do. From what I've found, your point on people believing it is a sexual act largly contributes to this hate, but also from avocal minority of furries who are intentionally annoying or cause problems for attention. Personally, I have been forced to interact with some of these less kind furries, and not had a fun time. Overall, great post looking into an intriguing topic!

    ReplyDelete

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