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Furry World Logic
7 years ago
So here's something that's been on my mind lately and I figured you guys might find it interesting.
One of the problems with an implied furry 'world' is that there's a lot of logistical problems, especially the closer you make it to our real world (probably a reason that sci-fi and fantasy are so popular in the furry fandom). It's even more confusing because everyone sort of makes up their own rules for it. This isn't a problem in visual art as much as it is in writing, where you have to have unwritten rules to establish.
In writing furry stuff, I keep a running list in my own head of specific rules that make sense to me in a world of anthro animal people, so I think it might be interesting to go through my own 'headcanon' of what makes sense.
1. Feral Animals Still Exist: This is probably the biggest logical question that needs to be addressed. In the furry writing I do, I assume that the feral versions of animals still exist, which leads to a lot of other considerations
Pets: I feel like furries would still have pets, but very very sparingly, a lot less than we do in real life. Having a pet of the same species as you would come off as very creepy, almost like a fetish thing, but pets like fish and lizards are more common. Basically, think about how many people you know that have a pet monkey. That's about how many people have ANY pet in furry world
Carnivores: Furry people still eat meat from feral animals, but I imagine that vegetarianism and veganism is WAY more common, maybe something like 70 percent of the population. Some species have to mostly eat meat and it works pretty much the same how it does in real life, just with the balance shifted.
Comparisons: Comparing an anthro with their feral counterpart in some way is usually seen as really offensive, even more so in rural parts of the world where feral animals are still used as tools and for farming. Sometimes its not an issue between friends, but it's not a common thing to do.
2. Real World People: In an effort to keep the furry-world relatable to the real one, in my writing, it's assumed that real-world people, famous people, still exist, just as anthros. They do the same things they do IRL, but they're just furries. Movies, tv shows, books, all of these things are the same because the people that make them exist. It also makes a fun game to think of what animal you wanna represent a famous person with.
3. Humans: There are none. No humans. Nowhere. They aren't a thing.
4. Gender and Race: I imagine that gender roles aren't quite as rigid in the real world for a few reasons. First, sexual dimorphism in a lot of animals mean the females are big and beefy and badass, so it stands to reason that the myth of 'Men=Strong, Women=Weak' doesn't really fit. In that same way, with trans people, I imagine it's a lot easier for transgender furries to 'pass' without surgery or HRT, though the discrimination is still there. Now, in regards to racism, it would probably be with better regards to speciesism. i haven't given too much thought on this, but I'm sure it still exists, but with different dynamics than we're used to IRL
I'm sure there are more that I don't have fully formed yet, but these are sort of the 'rules' i follow in my head when I write stories in a furry/anthro universe. Of course, there are exceptions and I'll make sure they're clear in whatever writing I do, but assume that most of these are true for a given story you read from me.
I'd love to hear your thoughts!
One of the problems with an implied furry 'world' is that there's a lot of logistical problems, especially the closer you make it to our real world (probably a reason that sci-fi and fantasy are so popular in the furry fandom). It's even more confusing because everyone sort of makes up their own rules for it. This isn't a problem in visual art as much as it is in writing, where you have to have unwritten rules to establish.
In writing furry stuff, I keep a running list in my own head of specific rules that make sense to me in a world of anthro animal people, so I think it might be interesting to go through my own 'headcanon' of what makes sense.
1. Feral Animals Still Exist: This is probably the biggest logical question that needs to be addressed. In the furry writing I do, I assume that the feral versions of animals still exist, which leads to a lot of other considerations
Pets: I feel like furries would still have pets, but very very sparingly, a lot less than we do in real life. Having a pet of the same species as you would come off as very creepy, almost like a fetish thing, but pets like fish and lizards are more common. Basically, think about how many people you know that have a pet monkey. That's about how many people have ANY pet in furry world
Carnivores: Furry people still eat meat from feral animals, but I imagine that vegetarianism and veganism is WAY more common, maybe something like 70 percent of the population. Some species have to mostly eat meat and it works pretty much the same how it does in real life, just with the balance shifted.
Comparisons: Comparing an anthro with their feral counterpart in some way is usually seen as really offensive, even more so in rural parts of the world where feral animals are still used as tools and for farming. Sometimes its not an issue between friends, but it's not a common thing to do.
2. Real World People: In an effort to keep the furry-world relatable to the real one, in my writing, it's assumed that real-world people, famous people, still exist, just as anthros. They do the same things they do IRL, but they're just furries. Movies, tv shows, books, all of these things are the same because the people that make them exist. It also makes a fun game to think of what animal you wanna represent a famous person with.
3. Humans: There are none. No humans. Nowhere. They aren't a thing.
4. Gender and Race: I imagine that gender roles aren't quite as rigid in the real world for a few reasons. First, sexual dimorphism in a lot of animals mean the females are big and beefy and badass, so it stands to reason that the myth of 'Men=Strong, Women=Weak' doesn't really fit. In that same way, with trans people, I imagine it's a lot easier for transgender furries to 'pass' without surgery or HRT, though the discrimination is still there. Now, in regards to racism, it would probably be with better regards to speciesism. i haven't given too much thought on this, but I'm sure it still exists, but with different dynamics than we're used to IRL
I'm sure there are more that I don't have fully formed yet, but these are sort of the 'rules' i follow in my head when I write stories in a furry/anthro universe. Of course, there are exceptions and I'll make sure they're clear in whatever writing I do, but assume that most of these are true for a given story you read from me.
I'd love to hear your thoughts!
The other was that what kind of story you're trying to tell determines exactly what you can and can't discuss. This is a weird example, but think of how Family Guy has the running joke that Meg gets blamed for everything and picked on for literally no reason. I feel like it worked at first because it's the kind of show where nothing has long-term consequences and she'd just shake it off. When she DID start being traumatized by it, the joke wasn't funny any more because then it just came off as laughing at someone getting bullied.
I also feel like it depends on exactly what you're self-aware of, sort of a "Checkov's topic of discussion," as it were: if you bring up something that's kind of heavy and complicated, you'd better damn well address it. Otherwise, it'll tell the audience that you don't actually care about what you're talking about or understand it. Most of your stories seem to take place in a mostly grounded reality, but they're also a lot more character based, so certain logical fallacies don't seem to be as concerning because they aren't important to what the story is actually about. At least that's how I see it.
I wouldn't mind talking to you more about this one-on-one, mainly cuz I wanna bounce some ideas off you for your opinions.
both of those are kind of third rails for me that ive not touched (one because politics and the other because statistics nightmare), but are gaping questions for larger worldbuilding
Also, if the gender dimorphism is switched around, would that mean that stereotypes are likewise switched around? On the topic of trans furries, that might also mean that they'd have to invest in perfumes in order to pass completely.
My biggest concern is breeding. When a city can only support a certain size, genetic compatibility could easily make it very hard to keep up a population. A city of one million with only a hundred species means that each furry can only breed with, on average, ten thousand other people. In smaller cities, it could require a population limit just to prevent genetic incompatibility from resulting in an inability to produce replacement rate breeding.
I also tend to imagine a "furry world" to be a universe where essentially furries replace humans, and it's understood that for most common, intelligent land species, there exists a highly intelligent anthropomorphic counterpart species. Then species like avian and reptile furries are uncommon, and aquatic and invertebrate furries are pretty rare, just like in the real furry fandom. Maybe the anthropomorphism was started by some deity in that world's lore or something. :P (lots of options to be explored there!) So in that case, there may be room to not worry about carnivores eating meat, even from the animal that their anthro selves seem to be based off (as long as it doesn't bother the individual personally) since it's pretty much a different, lesser species.
As for the meat problem: I think like in Zootopia meat products were made from fish and insects. Maybe birds if its strictly mammalian.