This post is a bit irritating to me. Whether on purpose or not, this is a bit insulting and pretty blatantly untrue. I’m literally a year away from my BA in Biology and Animal Science, and I know several other furries that are studying veterinary and wildlife medicine, or are into taxidermy, or at the very least, love to go camping. Not to mention, it would probably be more of an anomaly if I knew a furry that didn’t have a pet than one that did.
Tumblr has this weird thing where they like to speculate on the furry subculture but never dare to actually contact a single one. Like, if you want to know why a furry is a furry so bad, just ask. It’s not an enigma.
Some reasons people are furries, just off the top of my head, include:
dyscalculia and difficulty recognizing faces, but fursonas are colorful and unique and a lot easier to recognize;
intense bullying and unstable homes and furry was a support network;
was just a bookish kid that loved redwall/other fantasies;
mental/physical disability and furry was, again, a support network;
or a VERY big and VERY OFTEN overlooked factor: LGBT looking for other LGBT. Literally almost 75 percent of furries are some flavor of LGBT.
The furry subculture, like any subculture, cannot be pinned down to one definitive reason why it exists, but it follows a pattern of attracting people that are in any way marginalized: LGBT, mental or physical disorders (i know of several Deaf, autistic/asperger’s, and crippled furries, and I personally have anxiety), or just generally meek, shy, nerdy, artsy, or ‘weird’ kids.
I loved dragons for as long as I can remember. I was also intensely bullied, and the idea of covetous, protective dragons keeping me safe from people pulling my hair or kicking my desk was just reinforced from that. Then I found that ‘furry’ thing and I found my partner and we both had the same mental escapes and bullying problems when we were in grade school. Now we’ve known each other for almost a decade. Whoops.
People with no experience to the subculture tend to be really, really repulsed by it and I still don’t know why. I guess it’s because it looks intensely childish and naive and cringey, and that can be true with some furries, especially. I’m not denying that. But the weird outright hostility and patronization is something I can’t tolerate, especially when such a large percentage of furries are marginalized in some way or another. Like, a lack of exposure to the outdoors? Come on, dude.