I want to start this post off saying that the furry fandom is an incredible community.
No other fandom is so self-sufficient with the content creation be it music, writing, character creation, and art. We have communities within communities! With a very large percentage being LGBT+, the community is a great platform to find yourself when you’re lost and to meet others who share the common interests even outside of being a furry.
I think what makes the fandom so great besides the endless content and blooming art is that we are very accepting. We understand how it feels to be ridiculed for liking something so harmless such as cartoon animal people. However, I think the fact so many are so accepting is a double-edged sword.
It has always been there. All sorts of online communities share its own bad apples. The furry fandom is one of the largest online fandoms so unfortunately it has many. I’m making this post to address a very serious issue.
Cub art is prevalent in the fandom. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s basically porn of under-aged furry children. It ranges from notorious artists such as Zaush to very popular artists like Tacklebawks (CW: cub art) I’ve talked endlessly about why cub art is dangerous.
1) Read this thread to understand how CP art is harmful (CW: pedophilia grooming, manipulation, personal accounts)
2) Read this thread on why art has influence (CW: CP art)
3) Here are screenshots of real child predators in a group chat talking about how they want “real cubs” and how they want to “ make porn off of real experiences” (CW: child predators, pedophilia)
TL;DR
It is an effective grooming tool predators use.
It normalizes predatory behaviors and make both adults and minors think such behavior is alright because it is so prevalent in a community.
It gives safe spaces to real actual child predators to gather.
Cub art gives a shield for real predators to slip under the guise of “fiction is fiction”.
This is such a problem in the fandom that it pains me that it even exists for it to be addressed, but this has been a growing issue. A big problem is artist worship because so many people excuse dangerous behaviors just because artists draw porn well. When an artist has thousands of followers they have an influential platform. When they decide to use that platform to express the normalization of CP art because “fiction is fiction”, think about the type of people they are welcoming. Please support artists who don’t condone such behaviors.
The normalization has made it very difficult discern from those who have been affected by CP art normalization and real child predators. Not everyone who indulges in such porn is a predator seeking to harm children (again, because they believe this type of content is normal and do not know better), but they are helping child predators blend in. They are helping them feel welcome in the fandom. They are under earnest beliefs that CP art is harmless.
I’m not saying to confront every CP art supporter, but to be critical of the type of content you consume. And to be vocal about how the fandom does not want to be reflected by such content.
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