Slater's Clubhouse: Living life as a non fur-suit furry

            b34f60347f6b74d972f69da5ac78762d.jpg            

Snow - one of Jonathan's Fursonas

  Furries, Furrys, Furs, etc. We’ve all heard these terms or a variant of them, in one way or another. Whether it is from friends, family, the news we watch, or the numerous amounts of television shows or movies that are being produced now. But what exactly is a furry, and what do they do?

            The term furry has a few meanings. The most basic defines a furry as an anthropomorphic character, sharing the qualities of both an animal and a human. Remember watching Loony Tunes when you were a kid? Characters like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny who were a duck and a bunny, able to talk, interact, and walk like a human being? That’s a furry. In society, those who have a love or an appreciation for this type of art style, either dress in full or partial fur-suits, embodying the character that they have created themselves (otherwise known as Fursona, a playful word of Persona). Furries aren’t demanded to attend Anthro-Con or Fur-Con in a costume at all. In fact, many people just show up like you and me, in our regular street clothes, shaking hands, meeting new friends and fellow furries alike; but did you know that being a furry has a dark side?

            What sort of a dark side? Many of the furries I know and I’ve met come from a background of a family or society that they grew up with, which frowns upon those who are gay, lesbian, trans-sexual, or even bi-sexual. Those who are against these types of people, often see Furries as closet homosexuals who are hiding behind an obvious costume. I for one don’t like anyone who puts down a person for their sexual orientation. Why should someone care if they like men over women or women over men, or have a fascination with little people? It boggles my mind sometimes, but I often ignore the hate and just press on, and in fact – so does a lot of the others in the furry society. “We aren’t all gay or lesbian or bi-sexual within this type of society of like minded people. I can’t understand the hate to be honest. I wish society would get to know us as genuine people first, before labeling us as something that they don’t know much about”, said Brian Hobbs a fellow furry from Seattle, Washington.

            Brian isn’t wrong, too much of society often labels groups of people without understanding how that group functions, what their goals and ideals are, and even the history behind the group. So what do Furries do? Well besides attending conventions of like minded individuals that compare costumes, artwork, they videogames, anime, manga, comics and things they like; they often have jobs that you and me perform. Jobs ranging from Military, Hospital/Medical, I.T., Audio, etc. “We’re a society of people that helps one another. You may see us on a daily basis, outside of our costumes, and never know that we’re a furry, but we are”, said Sarah Starling from Miami, Florida. “We aren’t people to be feared or hated, we care about you, and probably more than you care about us.”

            I myself am a furry, but I don’t own a set of fuzzy ears or a tail, or even a complete suit – which can range in price from 500 dollars to 10,000 dollars. I’m bi-curious, and you wouldn’t know that about me unless you either asked or I had trusted you enough to tell that to you. So why am I writing this article about furries then? I wanted to bring to light my Role-play hobby as a furry, and to educate you a little about furries themselves, and to tell you that furries are people just like you and me. Please don’t hate someone based on looks, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Treat people with respect and how you want to be treated in return. You’d be surprised how many of these furries are just looking for people they can call friends and folks they can hang out with. It’s not always about “Sex” with them.

I role-play with other furries on a chat service called Chatango.Com, and no I’m not sponsoring them or anything. They are a free chat service that can be used for anything, from creating meetings, hang-outs, chat-rooms, friends’ lists, etc. The only thing that sets them apart from Google Hangouts is they don’t have video-chat. It’s probably safer that they don’t have it, since you can’t always see the person’s age in their profile if they don’t list it. If you leave something out of your bio it’s essentially ghosted, or left out as invisible in the profile. I’ll often ask the person what their age is, where there from; asked to tell me a little about them. If they don’t feel comfortable with not telling me something about them I’m fine with it, but will RP with caution. Why with caution? Some states and countries have laws when it comes to interacting with others that are under the age of 18 and sometimes under 16. Chatango.Com doesn’t confirm your age, so the age you listed is what you’re sharing with others, it can be the truth or a bold lie. Nobody knows the real you.

Next time, I’ll go over some tips to help with your role-play experience.

~Jonathan Slater

Seattle, Washington

RP Name: Snow

Character type: half canine/half fox

Magic user of arcane arts. 

http://email.ifttt.com/wf/click?upn=1DZbVWW-2BhvyPBlxcHLOTieESD52-2Fv-2BHrH7nW4NrpohZ-2F3w7mU7w9qGbx833yRqv5PY5Vco1SoA32FM5cwK3mmooQ4fEWsMZCJz6pS0U-2FlWUqeF4-2FHxYMF6g7APrtezKk_SKI8g1c-2Fp6X4WuNxX4rW3EvDz8-2FwWzuhNmx5o1EUXw0L703oPA-2FhxSTlTky4GJDrPAUYYr7jyv9NT0Icy3J-2FLHnaf-2FktNDl6y2-2FgudD-2BcMludTqtfX04mvQuC-2FiTtMC9YfkSejbfEL8NYx-2FBtwMBxVgY5XufjGEUAK6V6TEukkUixY4CjZ5elDL-2FS-2FD4BS34OIWVjYvMHQGIT21hLFa5trc-2Bzx8MT3jcrCGYJWsgE4c-2BB8wh6wYTvYye5pwBqGrPWurrzfwVg1Nc0ZuXoScXk76V8WMHMo28k1VWiuFurDs-3D

via Slater's Clubhouse - The Geek I/O Network http://email.ifttt.com/wf/click?upn=1DZbVWW-2BhvyPBlxcHLOTieESD52-2Fv-2BHrH7nW4NrpohaglxTyCbeO6AaXOSJW1ktn_SKI8g1c-2Fp6X4WuNxX4rW3EvDz8-2FwWzuhNmx5o1EUXw0L703oPA-2FhxSTlTky4GJDrPAUYYr7jyv9NT0Icy3J-2FLLFJDCdHvZBmIogPm7-2F1yLCGQldpC7EhdCFSri645wYC6bdXlGHRaR1wMmLFXqki-2FO-2FIC5avg0AflismHbbPx6s9EV8dHjEOQ3XLDIkCLXiiRbIKN5gB8lZUCX-2FftypMNR6QEtUfOZZMpXAzuTodv5e2yr-2B7LiYrWiID9-2FC0OxHUqpT4oD4XxJLm5QgUs5XNzC-2Br-2BitgIPL-2B5-2FtjEbFtw9o-3D

IFTTT

via Personal Recipe 3404014: http://email.ifttt.com/wf/click?upn=jGHDfwvrKDxaofcg5GVulqZbq5Ob51WMw-2B5VP4So20kPCQVXVCmZfSWspld0avLMqK3l-2B5ccTK-2BrV0CpSUfl3Q-3D-3D_SKI8g1c-2Fp6X4WuNxX4rW3EvDz8-2FwWzuhNmx5o1EUXw0L703oPA-2FhxSTlTky4GJDrPAUYYr7jyv9NT0Icy3J-2FLDpdvUzl89glFXK5ssZihSYh-2BvhV0pupcM9OguEDfVxy3Fpf2YqsiQdcdj0ic1ZEE5i81JLgUkLVw2E8ChR71yKcO5L0u2Bwwf-2BSJfrWyFLgqsNRur-2B32mLm6WoutV-2B0-2FgWHJCuyLsoE92Cw1CAcCHdljLkFSH8Y5mxTezurKC6dRdoDSePkxaSWfivknMRqlGUpTSxm-2BW9qM5xruQFHQXo-3D