Furry Fandom -- The Ultimate Guide

Sorry, this one's going to be a cop-out answer.

t's not that it's a "You know it when you see it" sort of thing or that you even have to be a furry to get it, but the Furry Fandom doesn't have a solid canonical foundation for it the same way that, say, Harry Potter fans can all agree on using J.K. Rowling's books. In other words, we're all really just fans of other furries and the cool stuff they make, as opposed to something a little more solid.

It means that furries are about as well-organized and representative of each other as a renfaire full of geeks-- Sure, they may all be fans of the Medieval Times and such, but some'll be in full corset and bustle, some'll be half-dressed, some'll only play D&D or some kind of LARP and be looking for props, and some just want some nifty dragon art. And almost no given one of 'em is "truly" representative of the rest, really, nor would we want 'em to be.

That doesn't mean we can't give you a good idea what the fandom's made up of, though:

• Furry Artists use anthropomorphic characters in their artwork, in several different media (illustrations, flash animations, sculpture, plushies, fursuits, etc.) Some of these arts may be more wholesome and appropriate for public consumption than others, but hey, that's art for you.
• Furry Fans are mostly bystanders who happen to like Disney films and other animal-heavy stories like Watership Down and The Secret of NIMH more than the rest of us.
• Fursuiters (Furry Cosplayers) wear elaborate mascot suits designed to resemble their chosen character (usually a fursona) so they can run around conventions and have a good time raising their special brand of hell.
• And almost everyone dedicated enough to consider themselves a furry has a Fursona, a furry representation of themselves (or at least what they'd like to be), that's an easier shorthand to remember online and elsewhere than a bunch of human faces would be.

The majority of the fandom centers around the creation and maintenance of these Fursonas. Here's how it works:

• People make their own fursonas.
• Eventually, people want some amount of artwork to be made so they can put these fursonas on display (which is how most Furry Artists make their money).
• The people who become Fursuiters usually have to commission someone to design a suit based on the art already made of their Fursona (thus, how the Fursuit Makers make money).
• Eventually, people get together to show off all their furry art and suits, which leads to Furry Conventions (thus, how hotels make money hosting these conventions), which also allows for further sales of art and suits at the convention, in addition to other furry and geeky merchandise that people like (games, music, etc.)
• New people find out about the conventions and discover the fandom, which leads to them making their own fursonas, which resets the cycle...

After a while, it all tends to sustain itself, as a odd hybrid of performance art mixed in with one of the most vibrant art scenes known.

So... yeah, that's why it's hard to define the fandom aside from the most vague of terms about cartoon art -- it really depends on the other furries you already happen to know, and what your association with the fandom already is. I can only explain it so far without insisting that you have to do the last leg of the work for yourself.

Children love furry conventions -- everyone is friendly and having a good time, and they love folks in fursuits! That said, because there are a few vendors at furry conventions who sell mature artwork (and because an unsupervised child can lead to BIG trouble if something goes wrong), some conventions have special restrictions on children attending the conventions.

Check with any conventions you want to attend before you go, to see if they have any special rules!

Most conventions will let minors attend as long as they're with their parents or otherwise have a notarized permission slip filled out, and wear a special badge that lets everyone know you're a fledgling furry!

(Art by Lapinbeau)

A lot of furries, like most humans, are fond of their pets. Of course, whereas most folks may wonder idly what Fluffy's day is like, they don't go around pretending to be Fluffy. Some furries choose to do just that, whether it's because they just love their pets that much, or maybe the pet's already passed on and this is just a nice way to keep them alive in their hearts. (All together now: Awwww...)

So, that handles dogs, cats, and maybe some farm animals. What about wolves, dragons, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my)?

Well, these sorts of animals have one major thing in common; they're big, they're powerful, and modern media (furry or otherwise) already loves the heck out of them for that. Add your childhood teddy bear to the mix and this category of furries is no surprise, either. Same reason you see plenty of girls as unicorns, pegasi, and other pony/horse critters.

That said, there's still plenty of other animals out there that would make a fine fursona -- dinosaurs, reptiles, birds, fish, snakes, various unpopular mammals (kangaroos? otters? hedgehogs? prairie dogs?), insects... there's no shortage of interesting animals on the planet, and if that STILL bores you, there are plenty of creatures that mix and match among the available creatures and mythical mixes!

The furry fandom is supposed to be a place for creativity.... so get creative!

lmost everything you see in Furry Fandom is a custom-made piece of artwork and costuming -- and every fursuit artist makes their suits a little differently from everyone else!

Unfortunately, as a result of all this wonderful variation and diversity, we can't just give you a good answer as to which fursuit makers are your best bet. Even quality costumers, like the good folks at Luskwood (who made the husky pictured above), sometimes close up their operations faster than we can recommend them to you.

The easiest way to find a good fursuit maker is to attend a furry convention and ask the person wearing the best-looking suit in the place who made theirs. This way, you can see for yourself what kind of quality suits are available!

Most suits will run anywhere from $300-$1000, depending on the materials, how much the suit covers ("Head + Paws" suits vs. a "Fullsuit"), and the reputation of the artist in question. Costumes don't come cheap, so if you're ready for a suit, make sure you're willing to pay for it, too!

The "canonical" answer to this question is that back in the 80's, a couple of furry conventions accidentally-on-purpose advertised in some fetish groups looking to fluff up attendance numbers, and the media lapped it up (because of course the media is going to run with the most shocking angle it can). The truth is, whether or not this was actually the case, the mainstream opinion would still have been the same.

Honestly, people like having a moral panic to rally around.

uch like D&D in the 80's and Anime in the 90's, Furry Fandom has been set aside as a something meant to be feared, fueled by claims of kinky fursuit sex, cartoon illustrations of every known fetish to man, and the odd freak who gets in the news every now and then who just "happens" to be a furry, much in the same way teen troublemakers just "happen" to be playing video games or listening to the wrong kind of music.

It doesn't help that furries are primarily internet-based, which of course means that all of furry fandom --- good and bad -- is only a few clicks away on Google.

Of course, Furries have been trying very hard for the past few years to fix this image, and doing a good job of it -- furry conventions are tame affairs; the biggest event of the weekend is a charity fundraiser auction, any questionable artwork is rated as such and censored for public consumption, the costumes are much more concealing than those you'd find at the average anime convention (they're even full-body costumes!), and very often, the worst you'll find at a furry convention is in an artist's portfolio.

It's still tough going, though, so if you're a furry who's sick of hearing all this other stuff about furries, there's some easy steps to fixing it:

1. Show folks plenty of clean work that still fits under the banner of furry fandom. I recommend:
   • Kevin & Kell
   • Ozy and Millie
   • Dan & Mab's Furry Adventures
   • Last Res0rt
2. Explain that furry artwork is mostly about a style of art and storytelling, similar to what most folks think about anime and manga -- in fact, there are several parallels you can make between the two if you need to hammer in your point. Most folks already like (or at least understand) anime, making it a good analogy for convincing folks furry work is equally safe.
3. If all else fails, get an account at Deviantart and favorite up a slew of clean furry work that you can show folks as hand-picked examples. Since DeviantArt is mostly clean work to begin with, even if folks wander from your galleries onto the rest of DeviantArt, they shouldn't find much.

Whether they still believe you about furry fandom in general is up for debate -- but at least they'll think you're all right. Keep in mind, the less you treat it like something that needs to be hidden, the better they'll think of it. If you treat it like a dirty porny secret, they'll think that's exactly what it is, and act accordingly.

eople ask some really stupid questions about furries sometimes, not all of which are very fair questions, because they're either irrelevant to convincing people about what furries really are, or they're questions that apply to all sorts of people, and there's no good reason furries shouldn't be just like everyone else.

This is one of those questions.

Seriously, there are some very cute people within the fandom. There are also some very ugly folks. You're probably not a great looker yourself, smart guy, but what does that have to do with anything? Lots of people like the way lots of other people look, and they're not all necessarily the same person that everyone else is after.

I've run across cute girls who like fursuits, cute guys who wear fursuits, not-so-cute guys wearing fursuits that make them look like girls... and likewise, there's cute guy artists, cute girl artists, ugly girl artists, ugly guy artists, fat girl artists, fat guy artists, people who try to use the internet as an excuse to pretend they're hot camwhore girls when they're not nearly so hot in real life...

... you get the idea. We got everybody.

You won't see so many pictures of hot girls who're furries on the internet becuase, well... most of the pictures you find of furries are either in their fursuits or otherwise using their fursonas. It's not that they're ugly, is that they're more interested in showing off their art and their characters than they are in making kissy faces to the camera.

You're not any more likely to find a hot date among furries than you are anywhere else -- but as more and more folks join the Furry Fandom and the fandom becomes more and more mainstream, the more girls you'll see in the fandoms -- and the odds are good some of them will be hot chicks, too!