Regarding furry: Are you open or closed off?

[Aerak]

Hey all,

I’ve seen some on the forums lately mention how they keep their furry side a secret. I was hoping for a discussion on why you either are:

Open with your interest in furry.
or
Keeping your furry side a secret.

To me, furry has always been an extension of other geek fandoms, so I’m more in the “open” camp, but I’d love to hear people from both sides in why they choose what they choose. With all the different perspectives and circumstances, I think it could be really fascinating.

[Sauce]

I think its harder for the older generations to be open about the furdom, people tend to think of it more as a fetish rather than a lifestyle and its just easier to not have to explain it. Just my two cents……

Electronic Music - EDM, Industrial, Synth
Nocturnal - You will rarely see me during the day, I work nights
Demi-Sexual - Fun first, flirt later
Foodie - Food Adventures constantly, not a fan of fish though

[Devin, The Sauce.]

Well, for me it’s dependent on who it is, and what the context is, usually it pops out randomly or a friend of mine will do a jerky thing (This only happened once thankfully) and say infront someone, that has frightened me for years, “At least I don’t jerk off to cats.” (Sorry for saying that I was just quoting him.) But if it’s an employer I wouldn’t really unless they asking hobbies or intrests and it hasn’t happened yet wierdly so, yeah, it’s just if they hear it, I won’t deny it.

[Tyrell]

I try to be as open as I can. I don’t like hiding who I am or what makes me happy. Anyone who is in my life and is a real friend would support the real me. I shouldn’t have to hide to avoid people making fun of me because anyone who does that isn’t a real friend.

Engineer by day, artist by night.

[SpidyTheWolfy]

I myself usually don’t say anything unless someone ask. But I do say that I am a furry to people who would understand what that is. Like con-friends. Or weebs.

My friend that I hang out with ask the time know I am one. They mostly encourage me to suit up. But do make many bad jokes. I usually giggle with them tho.

But sometimes it’s hard to explain what a furry is to some people so I don’t say it half the time. I tested explaining that I dress up as an animal running around making people happy and they are still completely lost…. I have hard time explaining things at times..

SpidyTheWolfy

[Dashie69]

I dont really tell anyone I am close to lol it was hard to tell them i liked my little pony before i even though about a fur suit:)
soo yea i do agree its a generation thing for sure

[Mouring]

I’m in the “open state.”

I have no problems talking about. I don’t shout it from the roof tops, but if I state I’m going to a fandom convention to do photography, and they ask which convention I don’t hesitate to state.  Mind you, I’m willing to joke about with perceived “biases” for all fandoms. And I do that with furry as well when people bring up CSI and other silly examples.

I’m happy to show them photography I’ve taken.  And give the standard bare-bones sales pitch.  And if they reject it I move to talking about zoo or wildlife photography.  Which is easier for some to grasp and talk about.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Mouring.

[Kamon The Skunk]

For me it’s a bit of yes and no mostly because a lot of the people I know happen to be furries. But I have told a few of my fellow coworkers about being a furry and they’re all fine with it. But I’m not someone that will tell completely random strangers I’m helping out that I’m a furry because a). I don’t know them and b.) I’m more of an introvert so I don’t usually make big conversations with people I don’t know well/at all.

[Renton Whitetail]

I’m a bit more closed off from publicly telling other non-furries in real life that I’ve been involved with the furry community for a long time, not only because of the negative criticism that has been raised in the media about it (such as the idea that it’s weird and perverted), but also because of the fear people might not look at me the same way again if they did know. So far, I have only told a couple people in my family about it, and they were okay with it. It’s just difficult to tell what kind of reactions I get if I did bring up the subject of furry to anyone, so unless someone else brings it up first, I usually keep quiet about it.

[Kenzo theGrayfur]

I’m currently a new furry but I’m starting to be pretty open. I’ve told a few friends and my family. They think it’s sorta odd but they don’t really care, so long as I’m having fun.

Music makes the world go around!

[Bella]

I’m pretty new here but I tend to keep this under lock and key. I’m generally a super duper open person but with all the crap I see friends of mine go through for it… I don’t want to deal with it too. I figure as long as it make me happy, I’ll keep doing it, and only tell people if it’s necessary for some reason. I ended up fabricating an epic lie about where I was going the weekend of F2 just to avoid judgement…

[Anonymous]

I’m closed about being a Furry. I learned about the fandom from the NSFW approach, the hate, the stigma, and the lack of understanding. I get nauseous just hearing even small quips that are deregetory to furfandom or furs because it makes me see how misunderstood and hated it is. I don’t want people to know. Some of my friends know because I can trust them or I’ve known them since we went through being teens discovering our identity and sexual identity (some interesting conversations when it all comes out about their interests too). I fear my employer, present or future, learning I identify as a furry. I keep it heavily to myself. I don’t tell my family, not only because they don’t need to know, but because I don’t want to have my parents judge me of it. I came out to them as gay with plenty of support, I know I could trust them, but I’m my own adult and it isn’t something my family needs to be part of in my life to know.

I have less fear of an employer or person hating on me for being gay than I do if they had reason to think I’m a furry. I might fear ridicule or mistreatment when I open up to tell people I’m gay, but I really fear consiquences if people have any reason to think I’m a fur and the assumptions they’d make about yiff/beast/zoo because mainstream media always points to furfandom as a big sexual craze bent on damaging youth and our society. There’s rarely a good, polite, simple look at “hey, these people like anthromorphs the way people like cars turning out to be humanoid-robots!”. Apparently its way more acceptable to like objects depicted like people than animals depicted like people.

[Comet]

for me i can say that im open with some people and closed with others it really depends on the individual.  also as some others have said its alot harder to be open about it to any one thats a little older because there is alot of stigma towards furrys from them and it can be hard to explain sometimes and really just isnt worth the effort in most cases.

[kalan]

Im open about it i wear collars tails all that in public with the exception of at work cause obviously both my jobs fall under health codes, just very different health codes for each ones lol

 

I dont remember where i heard it but it was said once that you wouldnt hide model airplane building and this is just another hobby (i think it was uncle kage that said it)

[Erdrick]

Snowjay wrote:

I’m closed about being a Furry… I get nauseous just hearing even small quips that are derogatory to furfandom or furs because it makes me see how misunderstood and hated it is… I have less fear of an employer or person hating on me for being gay than I do if they had reason to think I’m a furry. I might fear ridicule or mistreatment when I open up to tell people I’m gay, but I really fear consequences if people have any reason to think I’m a fur and the assumptions they’d make about yiff/beast/zoo because mainstream media always points to furfandom as a big sexual craze bent on damaging youth and our society.

I’m ‘open’ about being furry, now, but I’ve been ‘open’ about being zoo exclusive for years, and very oddly feel the same way as you about letting people know that I’m furry–that people are more understanding of my only being attracted to non-human animals than they are of my being furry.

I guess a big part of it is that people don’t understand what a furry is – and they go by the mainstream media mentions which are always out to sensationalize what they consider the strange and the unusual, usually in the worst ways for the people they’re talking about – but they do know that you don’t choose your orientation (took them long enough). But because there’s no easy way to explain to someone what being furry is about, it all just sounds extremely weird to them in ways they don’t understand.

And when I say I’m ‘open’ about it, I mean on a pseudonymous Facebook page, in the online community, with all of my friends, and with my closest family members. I’ve worn Necomimi ears in public, before, but those things wiggle on their own which makes people think of them as being more cool than weird. And I wear MLP and Bad Dragon shirts in public. But I don’t go around openly telling anyone in public whom I don’t already know extremely well my orientation or that I’m a furry. I may well become more open about it, in the future, and if I run for office some day I’ll be extremely open about it–because I’m sick of politicians lying about anything and everything, and wouldn’t want to be that kind of candidate–but for now it just doesn’t seem worth the risks.

[Author]

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