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Europe; research on the furry fandom
2 years ago
A (hopefully) quick update.
I’m going to Europe! My dad paid for the flights over (he’s really clever with (ab)using airline rewards programs and generally finding things for cheap), but he wanted each of us to practice planning for trips, so he encouraged us to add our own plans on before/after the week we’ll be together in Croatia. I decided to take a (window) shopping trip in Milan and Paris. I didn’t plan out the trip as much as I wanted to, so I’m mostly winging it! Haha, I’m a little nervous ._.
I had a cold earlier in the week; it sped through me fast. I got a bad ear infection two days ago, and yesterday, my eardrum ruptured. Today, I fly out :x It’s not as bad as it sounds — I should heal relatively fine, and I managed to get packed despite everything — but it wasn’t a fun way to spend my last few days with my boyfriend before my trip.
*****
I did some research on the furry for a final project in one of my classes (gender and social change). I learned a few interesting things, including:
Two social science studies, one conducted by Kevin J Hsu and J Michael Bailey (2019) and another by Thomas Brooks et. al. (2022), examined what motivated people to be furries. Below shows where they got their respondents from:
Their studies showed a number of things:
- About 80-85% of furry respondents identified as male.
- It was very common for these male furries to be bi (34.7%) or gay (29.4%). This was more common than heterosexuality (16.7%). [Hsu & Bailey's article attempts to explain this; the Grey, 2020 article mentioned in my annotated bibliography responds to this point]
- While many participants have sexual motivations for being a furry, the social motivations tend to be stronger.
I don't know how to emphasize that last point strongly enough. It's okay to be a sexual furry! It's okay that furries are, by and large, sexually motivated in some way! Without getting too ranty, I guess I'm just trying to say you don't need to be apologetic about being a furry. The Brooks, 2022 article does an especially wonderful job explaining how sensationalist media approaches have skewed everyone's perceptions about furries:
Brooks wrote:A football fan attracted to their team’s cheerleaders is not described as having a “football fetish,” nor is a video game enthusiast’s identity as a “gamer” contingent upon how frequently they masturbate to fantasies of their favorite video game character. As demonstrated in Reysen and Shaw (2016), unflattering and uncharitable stereotypes are typically reserved for non-mainstream, non-prototypical fan interests.
We're just people trying to fulfill our needs, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Something I remember from another article I read while researching:
- Examining other communities that blur the line between human and animal can help us better understand the furry community. Examples of such communities include the body modification community [think Lizard man, that guy from Guinness World Records with the spit tongue and other elective surgeries] and those that use animals in therapeutic treatment for ASD (Autism).
I loved this assignment. It made being a furry feel valid, valid and seen. Having an external (or at least objective) body of research to explain the phenomena furries experience was deeply rewarding for me, while having an accurate idea of the composition of the furry fandom (i.e., its gender, sexuality, and sexual motivation makeups) is useful.
I have posted a copy of my annotated bibliography here.
I’m going to Europe! My dad paid for the flights over (he’s really clever with (ab)using airline rewards programs and generally finding things for cheap), but he wanted each of us to practice planning for trips, so he encouraged us to add our own plans on before/after the week we’ll be together in Croatia. I decided to take a (window) shopping trip in Milan and Paris. I didn’t plan out the trip as much as I wanted to, so I’m mostly winging it! Haha, I’m a little nervous ._.
I had a cold earlier in the week; it sped through me fast. I got a bad ear infection two days ago, and yesterday, my eardrum ruptured. Today, I fly out :x It’s not as bad as it sounds — I should heal relatively fine, and I managed to get packed despite everything — but it wasn’t a fun way to spend my last few days with my boyfriend before my trip.
*****
I did some research on the furry for a final project in one of my classes (gender and social change). I learned a few interesting things, including:
Two social science studies, one conducted by Kevin J Hsu and J Michael Bailey (2019) and another by Thomas Brooks et. al. (2022), examined what motivated people to be furries. Below shows where they got their respondents from:
Category | Hsu & Bailey | Brooks
Sample Size | N = 334 | N = 1,113
Mean Age (SD) | 22.47 (4.72) | 27.25 (8.49)
Recruitment Location | 64.7% Furry Forum, 8.4% Word of Mouth, 8.1% Dogpatch, 6.3% FurAffinity, 12.6% Other |
43% Telegram, 16% Twitter, 13% Facebook, 11% Word of Mouth, 8% Discord, 5% Convention, 4% FurAffinity Their studies showed a number of things:
- About 80-85% of furry respondents identified as male.
- It was very common for these male furries to be bi (34.7%) or gay (29.4%). This was more common than heterosexuality (16.7%). [Hsu & Bailey's article attempts to explain this; the Grey, 2020 article mentioned in my annotated bibliography responds to this point]
- While many participants have sexual motivations for being a furry, the social motivations tend to be stronger.
I don't know how to emphasize that last point strongly enough. It's okay to be a sexual furry! It's okay that furries are, by and large, sexually motivated in some way! Without getting too ranty, I guess I'm just trying to say you don't need to be apologetic about being a furry. The Brooks, 2022 article does an especially wonderful job explaining how sensationalist media approaches have skewed everyone's perceptions about furries:
Brooks wrote:A football fan attracted to their team’s cheerleaders is not described as having a “football fetish,” nor is a video game enthusiast’s identity as a “gamer” contingent upon how frequently they masturbate to fantasies of their favorite video game character. As demonstrated in Reysen and Shaw (2016), unflattering and uncharitable stereotypes are typically reserved for non-mainstream, non-prototypical fan interests.
We're just people trying to fulfill our needs, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Something I remember from another article I read while researching:
- Examining other communities that blur the line between human and animal can help us better understand the furry community. Examples of such communities include the body modification community [think Lizard man, that guy from Guinness World Records with the spit tongue and other elective surgeries] and those that use animals in therapeutic treatment for ASD (Autism).
I loved this assignment. It made being a furry feel valid, valid and seen. Having an external (or at least objective) body of research to explain the phenomena furries experience was deeply rewarding for me, while having an accurate idea of the composition of the furry fandom (i.e., its gender, sexuality, and sexual motivation makeups) is useful.
I have posted a copy of my annotated bibliography here.
Somethingorwhatever
~somethingorwhatever
Awesome! :D
