Guides to Safety in Fandoms and Other Communities
Content warning: PG-13. Some of the below links go into a level of detail about sexual abuse necessary to appropriately warn about it. This may be troubling. Assume none are ideal to open at work. Individual links have additional warnings as needed.
Summary: This post collects some guides to safety in specific fandoms, subcultures, Internet groups, and other communities. Among other thing, they offer advice about how to recognize and respond to abuse and sexual predators, which can be problems in any kind of community. Plus, any community has its own particular other problems to be aware of. Thatâs important to find out about first thing whenever somebody is new to any community.
The furry fandom is a subculture based around interest in fictional human-like animal characters in art, story, role-play, and costume. Itâs an LGBT-friendly fandom that has been around since the 1980s. Itâs huge enough to have some all-ages spaces, and some spaces only for consenting adults to explore their sexualities in imaginative ways. A wide variety of safety issues need to get addressed.
FurScienceâs Resources for Parents helps parents make sure their children donât encounter harmful sexual situations if theyâre in the furry fandom.
The Furry, Explained audio podcast episode What is Furry Internet Safety and How to Be Safe Online tells how to stay safe from predatory people and Internet addiction. No transcript.
The Furry Fandom Compendium collects guides to safety in the furry fandom, including a couple of the below.
How to Stay Safe in the Furry Fandom, about abusive relationships.
How to Spot Propaganda in Fandom Spaces, on how to defend against alt-righters intruding into the furry fandom.
The blog [adjective][species] posted âFurries & HIV,â offering suggestions for how attitudes about safe sex could improve in the fandom.Â
Minor Safety Guide in the Furry Fandom, a short video by Cain the Sergal. Advice for children, though kids watching the video should have parental guidance. Inadequate subtitles.
Letâs Bark! Furry Meets and Safety, a short video by Tiki Song. For fursuiters and other furries who want to go to a small meet up in person. Inadequate subtitles.
Plural means everyone who self-identifies as being or having more than one individual within a single body, whether or not they have a diagnosis like Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). These kinds of human variations have existed since before modern psychology. The community is important for beginning to understand what it is in all its forms, and how to live with it.
The Corvidae Collective wrote this thread on safety online in the plural community.
The Crissesâs presentation Safer Support Groups.
Access & Inclusion in the Plural Community: safe & inclusive spaces for minorities, a presentation by Dr. Serenity SerseciĂłn. Closed captions.
Cultiples: The Complete Series, e-books by L.B. Lee. A history about leaders of abusive groups who happen to be plural systems, some of whom used concepts from fiction, fictionkin, or soulbonds as tools of abuse.
Relationships between Plural Systems, a presentation by Epsi and Kara, who have been in a healthy relationship together for years, with advice from what they have learned. Dialog in French, with closed captions in French and English.
Vampire subculture safety
Vampires are real people who feel a need to feed on blood or spiritual energies from donors. Their community necessarily talks about consent, abuse, and other safety issues.
Merticus and Zero wrote Real Vampire Community Personal Safety & Privacy Awareness, about how those in the vampire community can beware of predatory relationships and abuse.
The Atlanta Vampire Allianceâs Vampiric Ethos, about abusive groups, consent, and transmissible infections.
Sarah Dâs Rules of Thumb, about consent and predatory relationships.
Therian, otherkin, and alterhuman community safety
Therianthropes and otherkin identify as other than human. Most often, they describe themselves as nonhuman animals, mythological beings, or characters from fiction, by means that they consider spiritual beliefs or psychological experiences. Their communities came together in the 1990s, though some groups trace back to the 1970s, and many individuals have written about feeling that way before finding the communities. âAlterhumanâ was coined in 2014 to include therians, otherkin, plurals, and some furries and vampires, and more, if they choose to be included. Alterhuman means many subjective identities that are beyond the scope of what is traditionally considered being human.
The Dragonheart Collective wrote Safety in Alterhuman Spaces, about how to recognize and respond to abusive groups and sex predators, plus other kinds of risks that can happen in specifically therian, otherkin, and plural communities.
Jarandhel Dreamsingerâs A Revised Otherkin FAQ has some sections on general safety tips in the community.
A Therian Bill of Rights (which asks no specific author should be credited) offers general advice for the therian community about boundaries, consent, and abusive groups.
The Sol System runs a Community Beware page, warning about some specific sites and individuals in the therian community, with a collection of primary sources showing why and how those ones are abusive.
The Ang333l Systemâs presentation Stay Safe From Predators 101, which is in particular about how to guard against abusers who would prey on younger members of an internet-based community. Auto-generated subtitles.
These are all good resources, and this collection is just a beginning. What other safety guides or advice can you share about for these or other fandoms and communities?
Originally posted March 26, 2022. Updated September 16, 2024.
