My only major problem with these slides is that the majority of the Furry Fandom does not ‘suit’ at all. I also wish they cited the International Anthropomorphic Research Project. The IARP is an actual set of sociological/anthropological studies of the Fandom performed a couple times a year online and at conventions and is the only such study to be published in scientific journals or to have proper IRB approval to perform such a study. The IARP reports (in the 2014 Furry Fiesta Longitudinal Study: Wave 2) that only 18.5% of Furries own a Partial Fursuit, and only 13% own full Fursuits (note: Many who own one also own the other, so you can’t just add these together to get a ‘total percent’).
If you expand ‘dress up as’ to include the broadest category, 48.1% own a tail. That is a far cry from being able to claim that ‘the vast majority of furries dress up as characters from their own imagination.’
According to the IARP Furry Fiesta 2013 report the fandom is 77.9% biologically male, and the 3-Fandom Survey of 2014 showed closer to 72% on it’s graphics, so the 80% figure presented here appears on the high side of the estimates but still fairly accurate.
Oh, and last note: Anthropomorphic/Anthropomorphize does not just mean giving ‘animals’ human characteristics, it means giving anything human characteristics. This can be as simple as when we talk to our computer, car, or power tool and blame it for doing things we didn’t want it to. We are anthropomorphizing our tools, mentally imbuing them with reason and desires like us that they do not have. Then we have the Cars movies where the people are talking, living, breathing automobiles. That is the same level of Anthropomorphizing as most of the Furry Fandom engages in, but with animals. There are some in the Fandom who do this with airplanes, tanks, boats, and even a roller coaster T-rex hybrid, some have plant ‘Fursonas,’ there are ‘avien’ fursonas, and dragons and all kinds of impossible hybrids, some are aliens, some are supernatural entities. Point is, the Furry Fandom is exceptionally diverse.