Fat things are probably the sexiest thing in the world to me, and I can see it as just damned adorable. :| Why do people assume fat means fetish? Are they actually turned on by fat things, and are hiding that underlying fat-fetish by consistently ragging on everything not skinny?

Honestly, I just think it's damned adorable. If someone doesn't find the banner cute, they lack a soul.

Too much fat (IE the banner) = blah

Pudgy = acceptable and sexy.

Uhha, did I miss something here? What banner?

The new FA banner.

It doesn't bother me. I don't understand why it would bother anyone else.

You can't mean the one with the bunnies?
I guess I'm clueless.

People are very very upset with the banner with the bunnies.

I have no earthly idea why.

The part you should take heed of is that: a lot of furries, lets call them 'normies' for the sake of this argument, quickly turn on and attack other furries for deviating too far from socially accepted ideas of what sexuality can BE.
E.G cub art, ABDL, hard vore, and fat furs. The normie justification is "Because it's 'weird/disgusting/abnormal' whatever adjective they throw at it. The big underlying (and sometimes straight out vocalized) thing is that they feel it "reflects poorly on the community" which really means "it makes ME look bad by association." The thing is is that chances are they've been marginalized or demeaned, but they've definitely feel guilty for being a furry. why?
Because furry is a sexually deviant subculture in the minds of much more mainstream people (you'll never be able to convince me otherwise and this website is living proof.) So the normie has guilt issues, but can't leave, because they honestly like it. it gets their jollies off. but rather than admit they're a pervert (and if you are sexually aroused by animal people, you are.), they do tons of mental gymnastics to justify how "I'm not like them. really really i'm not."

Part of that is raising a fuss and stomping on other people's works and insulting said works' creators whenever they're confronted with something they find objectionable. (bonus points if they clicked on it to get there themselves.)

I can think of a prime example of this when an artist did a really bizzarre transformation fetish that involved cock-appendages and i think some mild scat. The normie was just yelling and screaming on the artist's submission comments with his post like "you fucking disgust me, I can't ever enjoy good CLEAN transformation art because of you and your stuipid shit fetish, how dare you assault my eyes with this" etc. etc.
despite the fact that the normie walked into it.

Why would the normie do this?
Any rational person upon encountering an objectionably kinky galley (like mine) would go "damn wow, my eyes are bleeding, why the fuck did I click that? oh god wow." And would probably learn not to go back to that particular gallery. And probably have a laugh at the sheer insanity of some of the material in question.

But the normie goes on and rants and raves because they don't want to admit they're a part of the same subculture as the kinky shit.
They want to make this look good, they want to believe they're still capable of being unquestioningly accepted by mainstream society, that they can be one of the 'cool kids' instead of "that weirdo who spanks it to werewolves, and spent 700 dollars on a costume, and like a grand on a hotel and plane tickets to go frolic with other weirdos who spank it to werewolves."

They're ashamed at being weird, and are mad that there are people who aren't.

mind you thre's a line here. You can totally not share in someone's fetish. There's plenty I don't have. I'm not really a fan of hard vore, guro, extreme levels of BDSM, TPE, Cuckolding, age regression, or out-and-out babyfurs for example. seriously nothing makes my boner shrivel up and die faster than someone typing in 'baby talk'. But i accept that I am strange (firstly because I am a furry, and then all my various fetishes come rushing in after that) and allow others their own particular (very tiny) corner of the web to express their fetishes. That's their business, I don't have to make it mine.

So back to this banner image, From the image itself Dragoneer is not telling you boldfacedly "I MASTURBATE TO FAT BUNNIES OH MY GOD YESS FAP FODDER OH FUCK YEAH." It's supposed to be cute. And frankly probably the LEAST suggestive thing that FA has had for a banner image.
The fact that there are people who say things like "IT DOESN'T REPRESENT THE COMMUNITY!" are ignorant of the large (pun intended) number of fat furs on the website, and moreover, feel guilty for being remotely associated with something they find abhorrent.

If I wanted to put up with the worst, most cliquish parts of mainstream consumer society, I simply wouldn't have left high-school.
I wish more of the fandom had, honestly.

Oh no!

Reading!

On the internet!

I thought my initial post could use some clarification is all.

also in regards to your previous comment.

"I have a moustache which shaved itself to grow a turtleneck so that it could watch showgirls with the mars volta."

top one: A snarky oversimplification of the banner's detractors stance. (assuming they like furry porno.)

bottom one:
This place has porno. It has a LOT of porno about animal people. The assesment of "zoophilia-lite" is meant to represent an outsider's perspective. And frankly it's pretty valid in my opinion. If it kinda looks like a dog, and kinda acts like a dog, and has sexual characteristics kinda like a dog, then yeah, it's kinda-zoophilia. I'm not saying if you faved one adult pic on fa, you're going to run outside and rape the dog; But you would still be in a bit of a real awkward stance to explain it to a Preist/Rabbi/Imam/Nun.


I'm just calling it like I see it.

Those that are here for the porn are so many in number it still makes my generalization apt, if not 100 percent correct.

fair enough, I overstated myself for argumentative simplicity.