‘How do furries use their online personas to explore identity both on the internet and in the real world?’

The internet is a vast and complex place. Currently, 3.2 billion people, over half of the world’s population, have access to it. This means that whatever your niche interest may be, you will find other people with the same interest, or even whole communities centred around it. The furry community is just one example of this. This essay will explore how furries use their fursona to explore identity and aim to discover the relationship between the human and animal identities of those who identify as furries.

Animals in human society: Man’s Best Friend

Humans have relied on, identified with and assigned meaning to animals from the beginning of human history. Some of the earliest marks of modern humans, cave paintings, feature animals that were hunted for food, such as bison, as well as predators like lions and wolves. Later in human history, Ancient Egyptian gods were depicted as having animal heads; for example, Sekhmet the goddess of war had the head of a lion to illustrate that she was ferocious. Not to mention the well-known worship of cats in ancient Egypt – they were viewed as protectors of the house and many mummified cats have been found, left as offerings at temples or just beloved pets preserved by their owners.

Today, most common animals have some kind of assigned meaning or cultural significance, whether socially, religiously or in popular culture. This relationship between animals and humans was unavoidable; we share our planet with many other animals that play a role in our everyday life. Dogs, the first companion to man; rats, that spread the plague that killed millions; cows whose milk and flesh many of us eat every day; mice, that we test new medicines on, and so on.

For some, their relationship with animals goes deeper than simply co-existing with them. There is a worldwide community of people knows as ‘furries’, and there are more of them than you may think.

The furry community

The term ‘furry’ has complex meaning that differs from individual to individual. Put simply, a furry is someone who has a vested interest in anthropomorphised animals. Most furries create a furry persona known as a ‘fursona’. Sometimes, this is similar in appearance and personality to the human individual, but often it is highly fantastical and intricate. Fursonas can be based on a range of real and mythical animals, for example dogs, cats, dragons, unicorns, deer, fox, mice, lizards and so on. Some fursonas are given backstories by their creators, and they aren’t always ideal; some have gone through traumas and struggles that their creator may have gone through and they may have flaws, complex personalities and relationships.

How does the furry fandom interact with media and communication?

How and why the furry community came about can be explored through the lenses of communication and social theories.

One of these is self-branding. In our neoliberal world, everything is commodified. This includes humans; our labour, our appearances and our skills. Self-branding is an unavoidable part of creating a career, especially in creative industries. It is also employed by many social media users, especially those who work as ‘influencers’, using their large followings to advertise products, brands and a certain way of life through an idealised image.

‘’Animating oneself as a coherent self is precisely the challenge of using new media’’ (Gershon 2014). For example, an Instagram influencer who has told their followers that they are vegan has to take special care to not be pictured with non-vegan food, or non-cruelty-free makeup products, or else face backlash that could see them ‘cancelled’. 

Furries also participate in self-branding. They create a coherent and consistent self across a number of social media platforms where they post as their fursona, either roleplaying the personality of their fursona or using their fursona as an avatar or image for their personal human beliefs and thoughts. The difference is, they are free of the pressures an Instagram influencer may face. A furry has completed control over their image as they personally produce (or commission) any expression of their physical self.

This doesn’t mean a person identifying as a furry online will not face backlash for saying or doing offensive things, but it is clear that the appeal of having a fursona lies in freedom from human standards and the ability to create an identity and enjoy self-expression.

The social theory of optimal distinctiveness has also been identified as a lens through which to view the furry community. The theory of optimal distinctiveness suggests that people have opposing needs; to feel included in a group – assimilation – and the need to feel like a unique individual – differentiation. (Reysen, Plante, Robets & Gerbasi 2016) Individuals satisfy their need to assimilate by belonging to a group (the furry community) while satisfying their need to differentiate by creating a unique identity (a fursona). Arguably, the furry community is a testament to post-modernism – which is a rejection of objective realities of things like morals, human nature, epistemologies and so on. Within post-modernism, post-humanism specifically suggests that what it means to be ‘human’ is fluid and extends beyond the physical human body, which is explored by furries as they conglomerate their animal and human identities.

Where do furries express their identities?

There are a variety of spaces in which furries express their identities. While some furries create fursuits – a full-body wearable suit version of an individual’s fursona – they can cost thousands of dollars to create or commission, meaning many furries do not own one. Furry-centred conventions are held worldwide every year where many furries will fursuit or attend to attend panels and socialise.

However, the furry community is largely based online. Extensive furry communities exist on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, DeviantArt, furry-centred forums and YouTube.

YouTube is one of the most public online platforms where some furries choose to express their identities. For example, YouTuber ‘Ace of Hearts Fox’ makes videos while wearing their fursuit, describing their channel as a mixture of ‘advice, fandom discussions, comedy, video games and music.’

Many of Ace’s videos, as shown, give advice to others in the furry community on how to enjoy conventions, how to find inspiration for your own fursona, how to wear a fursuit and so on, almost serving as a foil to the current ‘beauty guru’ trend that has become popular on YouTube.

Social media accounts of furries perform in much the same way as the accounts of non-furries; users post photos of themselves and interact with like-minded individuals. The difference is, furries are using their fursona as an avatar or vessel for this.

How do furries identify?

It is important to note that the furry community is highly intersectional and includes many people who are part of the LGBT+ community, as well as being ethnically diverse. The primary question arising from current research on the furry community is; what connection exists between the human and the animal identities of those who identify as furries?

Researchers from Fur Science, ‘the public face of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP), a multidisciplinary team of scientists studying the furry fandom’, conducted a survey of both furries and non-furries. The questions posed to respondents included: ‘Do you consider yourself to be less than 100% human?’ and ‘If you could become 0% human, would you?’

Approximately 50% of respondents considered themselves to be less than 100% human while 50% did not. 40% of respondents would become ‘0% human’ if possible while 60% would not. (Gerbasi, Paolone, Higner, Scaletta, Bernstien, Conway & Pritivera 2008)

These results indicate that the identities of those within the furry community are highly varied; the survey questions mentioned above did not give an opportunity for elaboration, making it likely that some furries would fall at some other point between a definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

Qualitative research conducted by Soh and Cantor (2015) at furry conventions has found that many furries feel that in everyday life, we are ‘forced to adopt personas’ and that their fursonas allowed them to be their ‘true selves.’ Soh and Cantor also reported that many of the individuals they spoke to felt that they had something that made them ‘different and ill-fitting in mainstream society, such as Asperger’s syndrome or a facial tic.’

Being a furry is about more than simply creating a new persona for oneself; it can also serve as a therapeutic and empowering outlet for some.

Through their consumer research on zoomorphism, Healy and Beverland (2013) identified three aspects to the ’authenticating act’ undertaken by furries: escape, healing and power. They discovered that many furries utilise an anthropomorphised animal spirit to heal their sense of disconnection from the modern world and create an authentic self that extends to their human identity; ”Paradoxically, in adopting a non-human form, furries reinforce the idea that relations with animals are one means that consumers become more human.” (Healy and Beverland 2013)

Misconceptions about the furry community

A hindrance to research of the furry community are the misconceptions that exist, perpetuated by exaggerated and oftentimes untruthful media reports.

For example, a Vanity Fair article written by George Gurley in 2001, ‘Pleasures of the Fur’ claimed that furries were predominantly: male, homosexual, wore glasses and had beads, worked with computers and enjoyed science fiction. The picture that Gurley was attempting to paint of the average furry is clear, and it was not one that reflected the reality and intersectionality of the community. His claims were clearly refuted by the previously mentioned research undertaken by Fur Science.

There is also an unfortunate association of sexual deviancy with the furry community. This is related to the high LGBT+ representation within the furry community and the occasional intersection between the furry and kink community. Ultimately, it reflects the oversexualisation of alternative communities, especially those associated with the queer community, and the tendency within society to assume that something that cannot be easily understood is somehow sinful or perverted.

Conclusion

While an understanding of the appeal of being a furry may be out of reach for some, it is clear to see that adopting a fursona and using it as a vessel for self-expression is a unique but no less valid form of finding one’s place in society. In a world where the pressure to conform to a particular label has never been stronger, the freedom of self-expression offered by joining the furry community cannot be denied.

Being a part of a community can ‘reduce perceived uncertainty in the world, enhance self-esteem, provide a sense of meaning in life, provide feelings of positive distinctiveness, and provide a sense of belonging’ (Stephen, Plante, Roberts & Gerbasi 2016); maybe there is something we can all learn from furry culture in regards to self-acceptance and happiness.

 

References

Ace of Hearts Fox 2017, ’10 Tips For Getting Started In the Furry Fandom’, online video, August 18, viewed 6 June 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtMZmP5R_uA>

Carlson, M 2011, ‘Furry Cartography: Performing Species’, Theatre Journal, vol. (63), no. (2), pp. 191-208

ChipFox at Rainfurrest 2015, WikiMedia, viewed 6 June 2019, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ChipFox_Fox_Fursuit_2015.jpg

Furscience, the science behind Furries and their Fandom, 2018, Furscience, viewed 17 March 2019

Gerbasi, K, Paolone, N, Higner, J, Scaletta, K, Bernstein, P, Conway, S & Privitera, A 2008, ‘Furries from A to Z (Anthropomorphism to Zoomorphism), Society & Animals, vol. (16), no. (3), pp. 197-222

Gershon, I 2014, ‘Selling Your Self in the United States’, Political and Legal Anthropology Review, vol. (37), no. (2), pp. 281-295

Gurley, G 2001, ‘Pleasures of the Fur’, Vanity Fair

Healy, M & Beverland, M 2013, ‘Unleashing the animal within: Exploring consumers zoomorphic identity motives’, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. (29), no. (1), pp. 225-248

Reysen, S, Plante, C, Roberts, S & Gerbasi, K 2016, ‘Optimal Distinctiveness and Identification Within the Furry Fandom’, Current Psychology, vol. (35), no. (4), pp. 638-642

Soh, D & Cantor, J 2015, ‘A Peek Inside a Furry Convention’, Archives of Sexual Behaviour, vol. (44), no. (1), pp. 1-2