If you're looking for anything shockingly graphic you'll be disappointed but this series of emails may be the weirdest of my career; so let me set the stage:

Last month I was at FurSquared, I was wearing my usual duds and doing my usual thing when someone who looks a little too, well, normal approaches. Middle aged, dressed in an understated but fashionable manner, and sporting nice hair this was not the usual con-goer (sorry y'all, ya dress terribly). After some customers clear out this clearly out-of-place woman approaches me and introduces herself (I'm keeping her name private) and informs me that she's a professor at a nearby university, teaches a number of subjects and one of them is, holy hell, a course on depictions and attitudes about bestiality/zoophilia throughout history. My initial thought about "wow you can spend money on some whacky courses in college" was immediately replaced with curiosity; it's a ferret thing I'm told. The professor has been teaching the course for a while and sees some parallels in our little community that she'd like to explore/know more about and, after perusing the room, decided I was the least frightening person in the room that drew pornography (once again: you don't have to dress like someone who makes porn just because you happen to). My thoughts on fashion aside the professor and I got to talking about what each of us does for a living and it was a bizarre but fascinating talk, wish ya could've been there, really! I had a business to run and, the Prof. recognizing this, said she would email me to ask more questions. I was game, but not expecting to hear from her, most of these things never pan out.

But this one did.

What follows are those emails. The Prof. wanted to hear from the community so I'm positing our exchange so you all can respond. Your responses may help form a strange syllabus, lecture, or simply inform some academics about our community. I've removed some personal information (I don't want anyone bothering this woman), otherwise these emails are completely unaltered. Please share this around to anyone you think it's relevant to and also leave your thoughts!

The Exchange:


Email from Professor #1:

Hi, Kit. We met today at Fur Squared -- here's my picture to jog your memory, in case more than one professor approached your booth:

(Picture removed)

I'm a medievalist (that is, I am a professional student and teacher of the Middle Ages). My specialty is medieval literature, and I'm interested in the human/animal interface. I think I mentioned that I'm engaged on a research project on medieval bestiality right now and that I came to the convention to get a new perspective on my own research. I'm less interested in bestiality as a sexual practice and more interested in it as a kind of metaphor. Humans have always wanted to cross the species boundary. They have often done so spiritually (e. g. shamanistic practices) or intellectually (e. g. fables, animal stories). They've also crossed over sexually -- particularly via stories of animal brides and bridegrooms (such as Beauty and the Beast), hypersexed satyrs and centaurs, etc. There are also medieval traditions of masking and costuming, with a few instances of people wearing animal costume (though it's very rare).

I am teaching a course on all of this right now, in fact.

I see the furry fandom as just a modern extension to all of these very ancient desires and practices. I'm most interested in the erotic aspect, not because it's the most "sensational" but because it's in line with my research interests. I imagine that some furries are zoophiles, most aren't. I also imagine that many engage in some kind of erotic animal role-playing. I'm interested in the practices of "puppy"/"kitty"/"pony" play, the costumes that people wear (which are not revealing at all, interestingly), the "adult" nature of much of the proceedings, the clear interest in erotic furry art and fiction, but also the rather demure and childlike vibe that I get from many people. I didn't find the convention to be overtly sexual at all, which rather surprised me.

If you're still willing to shed light on what you know about the furry fandom, I'd be grateful to be allowed to ask you some questions. And if you could send me to other folks, or to websites with vital information, I'd also be grateful!


My Response #1:

Ask away! As for information based on what you've written here I think I can point you in the right direction:

-The Furry Survey: conducted every year at Anthrocon (the largest furry convention in the world) for the past five years "The Furry Survey" is probably the most accurate demographic breakdown you're going to find of the community: http://vis.adjectivespecies.com/fur.....rvey/overview/ I take it and use it every year to hone my marketing and resource management, if you found that useful here are some further analyses: http://vis.adjectivespecies.com/furrysurvey/

- Adjective Species: a furry-centric blog run by academic types: http://www.adjectivespecies.com/ They tend to lean progressive in their politics but also have a lot of very useful info and analyses of the community in general, the sidebar can take you to a host of articles on all sorts of topics, bestiality and zoophilia included.

-Wikifur: the fandom's very own wiki, http://wikifur.com/ , is a great place to dig up stats about con attendance, prevalent websites, and publications. Here's the page for FurSquared, the sidebar includes stats for each year of the con: http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/FurSquared The site's owner, "Green Reaper", is very intelligent and would probably be more than willing to talk to you about literally anything.

-Fur Affinity: this is the main hub of furry activity on the internet and is where I do most of my business, here's my page: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/boneitis/ (you'll have to create an account to see adult artwork though)

I can answer any questions you may have or point you towards those that have better answers, thanks so much for emailing me!



Professor Response #2:

Hi, Kit. Sorry for the delay. I've been reading furry stats, thinking, and talking to people about what it is I think I want to know. Also, and not coincidentally, this is a really hairy time of the semester.

Thank you for these resources: they're fascinating. I wish I had some way of directly connecting with some of the contributors to the blogs, but identities are pretty well guarded, and I respect that. I found GreenReaper's contact information, though, so thanks for that.

Here's what I've been mulling over for the past week or so: my suspicion is that furries are not a single type of person but a sort of haphazard collective of people whose interests happen to overlap in certain ways. I came to the convention expecting more zoophiles and plushophiles, and I may very well have met some of those people without realizing it. For the most part, though, I feel that the people I've met don't have a single, unified reason for doing what they do, unless it is a desire to inhabit a fantasy world that is a "better" version of our own world: thus the LARPing, fan fiction, fantasy art, and so on. But it doesn't seem to me that everyone likes all of these things, simply that furrydom lies at a nexus of several sorts of interests. People also clearly enjoy making their own costumes, learning how to draw, playing games, and so on.
It also seemed clear to me (as I think you and a few other people verified) that the sexual energy of the convention was not focused toward the costumes, ears, tails, etc. but toward other people who just happen to be wearing costumes. Your own art demonstrates that: people want to see human erotica, with a twist. People are attracted to other people, not to anthropomorphic or real animals. I personally found the convention ... not asexual, but certainly not any more overtly sexual than an academic conference. Very likely I had no idea what I was looking at, and certainly I was out of the loop, but that was my sense of things. (Of course, no one was looking at me, anyway! So what would I know.) All of that is no more than mildly surprising. It's people just being people -- easy to understand. I got the sense, and the stats seem to verify it, that most of the conference goers are young, in their 20s. Perhaps the costumes make it easier for them to interact with each other, lower the bar a bit?
I struggle a bit with two main things:

1. First, why are people choosing to identify themselves with cartoony, anthropomorphic animals? I saw a few more realistic costumes and found them very beautiful, but I'm not attracted to the usual sorts of fursuits; they are not how I would choose to refashion myself, were I to do so. People don't seem to want to commune with animals but with cartoon animals. This is hard for me to grasp. Some people I talked to mentioned their deep spiritual connection to animals, but I now have to question whether they meant real animals, or their own ideas (filtered through media) of what certain species of animals are "really like." Many people seemed to feel connections with foxes and wolves, but do they have experiences with those animals?
My research explores the way that humans have tried to connect on many different levels with real animals, mythical or not; the connection with an obviously unreal animal is new to me.
2. Second, why would the fandom be mostly made up of gay males? You've already indicated that you don't know why, and it sounds like no one does, so this is more of a rhetorical question than anything. A few people mentioned to me that it was a way for "weird" people to "be weird together," but honestly, that doesn't sound credible to me. Gay men could be getting together to share their love for golf, or opera, or slash Tolkien fan fiction. But they're not: they're getting together to celebrate their connections with cartoony animals. Something's going on here that I don't understand.

If you have any thoughts on my own rambling thoughts, or if I've misunderstood anything or left anything out, I'd love to hear anything you have to say. I also must say that I had a great time at the conference, that everyone was generous, self-aware, and intelligent. Not everyone wanted to chat, but everyone was polite. I wish I could have stayed for the late-night "adult" segment, but I'm old and my stamina is poor.


My Response #2:

Ooooh you got into the heavy stuff, this should be great! I'll answer the numbered questions as best I can.

1. There's a lot of theories as to why furries choose the "fursonas" they choose, and why they're so attached to them in the first place. If you look at the sort of base furry template you're going to have a 20-something, male, bisexual, introvert who probably works in tech; essentially a nerd but more likely to be gay (that's a whole other topic entirely). The theory I find most plausible is "Erotic Crystallization Inertia" or ECI. Basically, during puberty the subject ends up seeing a cartoon anthro creature, realizes that character has some sexual features (breasts, human musculature, a need for clothes, etc...) and fixates on it because it's odd/awkward/uncomfortable, whatever. A lot of furries can tell you the first anthro character they found attractive because it's fairly common among the populace; a common example being older furries often will cite Disney's "Robin Hood" as a film they obsessed over as a child. It's taking something loved as a child and making it acceptably adult. So a lot of furries choose Disney looking characters because that's the sort of thing that brought them into the fold. The characters that look like photo-realistic animal heads put onto fuzzy human bodies actually creep a lot of people out (myself included) because it's TOO close to the Danger Zone of bestiality. People generally want a human character with some exciting non-human traits mixed in and the amount people like varies a fair bit.
The second part of your question -" I now have to question whether they meant real animals, or their own ideas (filtered through media) of what certain species of animals are "really like." Many people seemed to feel connections with foxes and wolves, but do they have experiences with those animals?"- I can answer for you pretty succinctly: they like an idealized version of their "chosen" animal but have had little to no actual contact with them. I can speak from experience on this one: I used to raise kangaroos for a living (no joke!). It was a great job and I learned a lot about marsupials, how to raise them from birth, feed them, keep them healthy, etc... When furries who identify with kangaroos learn about this they're usually very excited but actually seem to know very little about their favorite animal. IE: people who love kangaroos will be baffled when I tell them that kangaroos aren't very intelligent because, in their mind, they are smart and therefore so should their chosen creature.
To kind of put a wrap on things: a lot of furries are the rejects of the rejects, they've generally been bullied and a lot of them don't take care of themselves and don't like the way they look. Creating an idealized animal character is an easy mental escape from a world they don't feel dealt them a very fair hand. You'll also find that autism rates amongst the furry population are pretty high and very expressive, cartoony characters (especially ones with large eyes), resonate well with people with autism because their facial expressions are easier to understand. At the end of the day the entire "furry thing" is a gigantic game of pretend where the only real "rule" is that anthropomorphic characters have to be involved.


2. There are two theories I can pontificate upon here, one is nice and one is not. The nice one is that furry became an easy outlet for the gay and kink communities of the nineties to congregate around since it was A) gaining traction and B) was an accepting place by default since it was a bunch of adults swooning over cartoon foxes. So the early sort of "seed" groups of the furry community were largely gay/bi and the culture just continued to be as such. You can see the community start to become more "deviant" around the late 90's (there was actually a bit of a culture war that happened at this point: http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Burned_Furs and it's still a dicey topic to this day).

The not-as-nice theory is the Jailhouse theory which maybe you can guess based one the name but I'll lay it out anyway: the community is made up of largely males, interested in porn, who have been social rejects. The women they were interested in wouldn't give them a second look so, in desperation, they "go gay". They're surrounded by other willing and lonely men so why not shack up and circumvent the whole issue? That's how the theory goes anyway, is it true or credible at all? I have no idea, though I can imagine there are some cases where these different factors can come together and affect an individuals sexual preferences in a drastic way. I've been involved with the community as a professional for nine years and I entered straight, five years later I was bi, nine years in I live with my boyfriend. Is it exposure, desperation, or something else? We're all trying to figure it out. In my case I think it was simply exposure, I was raised Catholic and was in Catholic schools for 14 years, I just simply didn't think I could be interested in men. But after a few years of catching little bits of gay furry stuff out of the corner of my eye I found my gaze lingering longer and longer until I went "oh dang I'm bi how about that?"

So there's my answers to your questions, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your take on the community up there and you really seem to be picking it all up pretty fast. Later this week I was planning to share your questions with my weekly livestream to see what the audience thinks, if anything interesting comes out of that I could email it to you as well. If you've got more questions I've, hopefully, got more answers!



Professor Response #3:

No, definitely, kangaroos are not intelligent! I doubt that any marsupials are, as they're more primitive than placental mammals. I am currently teaching a course called "The Symbolic Animal" at UW-Milwaukee and find that my students come into the class thinking that they know what animals are like, but quickly realize that they're just extrapolating (incorrectly) from what they know about cats and dogs.

All of this is clearly and convincingly stated -- I lucked out when I found you, Kit. Here are some thoughts, interspersed with questions, both rhetorical and non-rhetorical:

1. Interesting that people find the realistic head on the human body to be creepy because I actually find the "standard" fursuit to be a little creepy. Hard to say why that is: I think that the immobile face is probably part of it, but also the cartoon head makes a strange contrast to what is often a very obviously human (usually male) body. I do find that the fursuits make bodies strangely attractive, though. The heads probably add a foot of height and they end up elongating the body in an aesthetically pleasing way. Not true of all of the suits, though: there seem to be some roly-poly suits (or bodies?). But I can see what the frisson might be between a coyly childlike head and an attractive mature body. I get it; not my thing, but I get it.

2. The observation about autism and friendly cartoon faces with large eyes makes a lot of sense to me. Perhaps it also explains why people like full suits (I've heard that people with autism often enjoy full-body pressure and being enveloped) and giant heads (which make it difficult to talk to others and not necessary to hold eye contact or pay attention to facial cues). But why not friendly cartoon human faces? It may be a completely random phenomenon, or there might be a reason for it. Perhaps the animal suits bring a completely different conversational idiom to the table, making it possible and logical to communicate in gestures or little squeaky noises instead of words.
I would imagine that the "social rejects" tend to be autistic and/or come from environments that have stunted their social and emotional capabilities, and/or are very late bloomers. I'm trying to think back to my own high school days, which were a long time ago and before "autism" was a household word. Some of my friends, it turned out, were on the autism spectrum, but we'd never heard of the autism spectrum. We just knew that some people were kind of weird, and that was the way it was. It certainly didn't keep them from having friends, though they didn't tend to be captains of the football team, either. In some ways, I really dislike the trend toward labeling and medicalizing every little human quirk. I say, Let people be weird.
3. Also interesting that bestiality is a big no-no. Bestiality is of course what I study and it indeed is one of our strongest cultural taboos (but nevertheless a very common phenomenon in the U. S.). The taboo does not exist in all cultures, it should be noted, and species boundary-crossing often has a spiritual aspect in non-Western and pre-modern cultures. What's interesting to me is that one group that is totally marginalized by society (furries) themselves shun an even more marginalized group (zoophiles) and presumably hate the fact that they're linked to them in public discourse. I assume that furries have exactly the same feelings about zoophiles that "ordinary" people do? Yet furries do deliberately play with that species-crossing thing. Which brings me to:

4. What do you know about so-called "therians" or "weres"? Is this just a fringe subset of furrydom, and/or what do those terms really mean? When people say that they're "spiritually" connected to a particular animal, what does that really mean?
5. I'm no sexologist, but it seems clear to me that humans are amazingly adaptable when it comes to sexual attraction and response, and that our "preferences" are heavily dictated by culture. I don't believe in "going gay," but I do believe that most "straight" people have the capability to find homoeroticism stimulating. Look at not only prisons but the military, boys' schools, and so on. I have no trouble believing that a straight Catholic boy could easily discover other parts of his sexuality if the cultural thumbscrews were lifted. I know plenty of people who have taken the same route and are now happily with same-sex partners (or vice-versa). I would also argue that humans can cross the species boundary in this way, if the culture allows them to conceive of the possibility of doing so.
6. More surprising, perhaps, is the fact that you found, entered, and became gainfully employed in furry subculture. What's your story there -- if you're willing to share?

Send me anything interesting that you learn from your livestream. I am an eager student of all things, including all things furry.


My Response #3 (final email in thread):

I caught mono so it might be awhile till I stream (doctors orders: voice rest). I'm glad you bring up people's preferences being more flexible than we might initially believe. Gore Vidall once said that he believed everyone had a capacity to be some level of bisexual and, as I keep watching people from behind my con table, I'm seeing that as being more and more true. And the whole deal with labeling autism on people is kind of annoying. I think my boyfriend (diagnosed autism/aspergers) would agree as he's largely, well, grown out of it. His only tell would be that he can ramble a bit, big whoop. If you want an oddball watch that's tangentially furry the "Bronies" documentary on Netflix has a section that is completely about autism as it relates to cartoon characters. The film itself is a weird watch but it's effective as a study of the socially dysfunctional, you might even recognize some people from the con in it (there's a lot of crossover).

The bestiality issue is a prickly one, though last I saw the stats were a bit odd with about 16% of furs polled admitting an interest in zoophilia, while the larger US population reported an 18% interest. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong but I thought that both numbers were surprisingly high and, of course, thought it strange that it was higher in the overall population. Admittedly I personally don't like having the genre I work in linked to bestiality simply because it's bad for business (zoophilia doesn't go over well with most focus groups) though I recognize WHY the mental link is there. The "slippery slope" argument comes up a lot and you can find countless forum posts discussing the issue. I personally stay away from anything that's classified as a sex crime because, as I stated, it's generally not good for business and I don't really want to draw that kind of thing, I've simply got different topics I want to explore through erotica. Maybe some cultural rules, constructs they may be, are important to maintain. I can't say for sure.

As for Therians and Weres: my brother attended a therian panel at Anthrocon and reported back saying that it was mostly kind of awkward and boring; I wish I had his footage! Anyhow, it's a lot of people who are spiritually elves, dragons, and unicorns (interestingly: no one's spirit animal is a Banana Slug or Botfly). Most of the fantastic creatures will come from Western/Tolkien lore but there are people who shoot for more exotic cultures; big crested Chinese Dragons or Japanese Tengu in some cases. A lot of these people co-opt a sort of cobbled together Native American spirituality crossed with the kinds of things you'll find in the "Metaphysics" aisle at Barnes and Noble. Every Therian is going to have a different take on their spirituality/religion: some will claim to be possessed by spirits from the past, others are reincarnated, and still others are communicating with beings from other dimensions. The nexus of the belief structure is that some kind of fantastic non-corporeal being inhabits them to some capacity. There are lots of talk of awakenings, meditations, communing with spirits, etc... One could call it the furry version of "New Age".

"Weres" come from a similar belief structure but like to A) form packs with like-spirited creatures and B) take an interest in "transformation" art (think the iconic scene from "American Werewolf in London"). A lot of them will even claim that film "awakened" them to their inner avatar; similar to how a lot of people "realize" they're furry because of a cartoon or comic. It's a community built on odd inner revelations.

As for how I ended up here? I took an interest in the genre in late high school but discovered it was a bit of a wasteland culturally. Fun as porn and erotica is it was kind of all people were covering within furry lit and comics so I decided to bite and do a bit of both. There's a large, and growing, sect of furrydom that won't touch the pornographic aspects and an even larger group where the porn is all they'll do. I find just doing one thing a little drab so, I decided to straddle the middle ground and draw whatever I like. I currently write and draw two comics, write and do layouts for a third, do a lot of freelance illustration work, and maintain a growing Patreon. I am by no means the most popular, or successful furry artist but my followers and readers really like that I treat them with as much intellectual respect as my intellect can dispense. My main comic that I work on, "False Start", is about a gay couple navigating a nightmare maze of corporate espionage, hyper-capitalism, and identity politics; it's not the typical furry romance plot, to say the least. I'm lucky in that people who get into it seem pretty invested. I've done this professionally for coming up on nine years and have lived off of it for four. I was forced to learn to live off of my work because I developed, unknowingly, chronic Lyme disease, lost my job, and became largely unemployable due to a plethora of ongoing health issues (they're under control at this point). The character I use/play at furry cons is named "Bone", a walking talking ferret version of myself (same body type and even clothes, keeps me accountable for my appearance). I chose a ferret because I work largely in black and white and wanted a character who was "inky" looking. Ferrets also have masks and I gave Bone a mask akin to the comic book character "Nightwing" since it was a comic my mentor, Tom Lyle, worked on for DC. My relationship to the character? Bone is fun, and it would be fun to *be* Bone, running amok with a tail and whiskers sounds like a blast (there's even a LadyBone, why not?), but I'm not exactly obsessed with the idea, being Kit is also nice. He's not JUST for marketing purposes but he's also not an essential part of my identity that I need to function and be happy.

Eeek, that went on a bit long. Hopefully it's interesting. If you ever want me to talk for one of your classes via Skype or something I'm down for it; I'm very used to public speaking and regularly do panels at furry cons. Thanks for the interesting discourse, I may share some of this exchange (with names, locations removed) on my blog since I think my followers would LOVE to read and respond to all this.



/end email chain.

So please share what you think about this! I think my views are fairly clear though if you need clarification on anything I said ask away. The Professor and I look forward to your responses.

-Bone