Furry fandom

Cover of Albedo Anthropomorphics

Two 'Fursuiters'/Furries taking picture at Otakuthon (2014)

Furry fandom is a unique subculture that is interested in fictional anthropomorphic animal characters that have human personalities and characteristics.

Furry fandom is also used to refer to the community of people who gather on the internet and at furry conventions.

History

According to the fandom's historian Fred Patten, the concept of a "furry" originated at a science fiction convention in the early 1980s, when a drawing of a character from Steve Gallacci’s Albedo Anthropomorphics started a discussion about anthropomorphic animal characters in science fiction novels. This led to the formation of a discussion group that began to meet at science fiction conventions and comics conventions.

Furry lifestyle

The phrases "furry lifestyle" or "furry lifestyler" are now seen as a subcultural movement within a fandom/subculture that first appeared in July 1996 on the newsgroup alt.fan.furry during an ongoing dispute within that online community. The Usenet newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry was created to accommodate discussion beyond furry art and literature, and to resolve disputes concerning what should or should not be associated with the fandom. Its members quickly adopted the term "furry lifestylers", and still consider the fandom and the lifestyle to be separate social entities. They have defined and adopted an alternative meaning of the word "furry" that is specific to this group: "a person with an important emotional/spiritual connection with an animal or animals– real, fictional, or symbolic."

Connections between furry-lifestylers, 'biofurries', 'postfurries', and transhumanism or posthumanism

Some furries (mostly lifestylers, biofurries, and postfurries) currently desire to be actual human-animal hybrids, and thus "real-life furries", via various methods such as extreme body-modification, especially of their faces, to make themselves like their animal personas, called 'fursonas'. A few furries, most often postfurries (postmodern furries), believe that they will make themselves more animal-like via either a cybernetic body that has some robotic animal-like features, or an android (AKA 'anthroid') body that has a more humanoid animal-like appearance than their fursona.

External links

• Furry fandom on Wikipedia
• Human-animal hybrids on Wikipedia
• Wikifur - Wiki on Furry Fandom