I suppose part of the issue is the definition of furry. To me, a furry is someone who dresses up like an animal for personal enjoyment/fetish reasons and not because it's a cool costume or a character they like. If someone self-identifies to me as a furry, I'm going to assume there's a sexual aspect to it, because that's the impression I've gotten about the subculture and about the way the term is normally used. If you just like anthro art, you're not a furry.
It's the difference between crossdressing and transvestitism. Crossdressers dress like the opposite sex because they enjoy it. Transvestites do it because they get a sexual thrill from it. I don't care if someone enjoys transvestitism--that's cool with me. However, I prefer not to be around people who are getting their rocks off in whatever way they get them. If I wanted to be around a bunch of people pursuing sexual thrills, there are parties I can go to for that. It's not what I go to con for, though.
To me, "furry" carries the sexual fetish aspect with it. If someone is a furry but it's not a fetish for them, maybe there needs to be a different word for the non-fetish furries. I don't care about other people's fetishes, but I prefer not to be surrounded by them at con.* Enjoy (general) your fetishes, by all means! Just don't involve me in them/expose me to them without my prior knowledge or consent.
*Unless it's like, Fetish-Con or something. Which would probably be a scary, scary place.
I think Fizz has hit the nail on the head, as far as what Joe Middleclass thinks out there. It is unfortunate that that is the vision of "Furry" that is prevalent I am with Acton when it comes to the actual definition
First I tired quickly of sweeping generalizations of furry fandom. It obvious
There is very little knowledge what a furry is except for logical fallacies and hearsay of others. A furry is a fan of anthropomorphism, no more no less. To associate all fursuts as sexual fetish is thing more that blatant sweeping generalization. I been to two furry cons and Kumoricon is my first Anime con. I have to say I seen more tail and ears at Kumoricon than any furry con. As for costuming, I say the ratio of costumed attendees (Cosplay/ Fursuiting) is much higher at Kumoricon than any furcon. I did my own count while bored; I say the ratio approached 3:1 (cosplayer : attendee) to a fury con where the ratio is never goes above 3:10 (fursuiters and including accessories: attendee). Furthermore, I could add the number of attendees carrying plushies of once sort or another. For the level of sexual fetish publicly displayed, I say zero at both or I would been running out of con hotel. As well being an Anime fan, a Furry I am Christian that has very little tolerance of immorality displayed. Finally seems racy cosplay, and Henti is not a problem but a fusuit that can worn at a children’s party is major problem and speaks of ones ignorance and hypocrisy.
For a fairly acurate portrayal of Furry Fandom and the definition of "Yiff" look at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandomLike Acton I come into the anime fandom from the furry fandom. My wife is, for lack of a better definition, a furry artist. In fact, she is a well known one. We even had a table at a couple of the ConiFur NW cons.
Plug for my wifes sitehttp://spleger.home.comcast.net/~spleger/I started getting interested in anime when my daughter did. I wasn't a real fan of Japanese animation until 1999 or so. I think that is when a saw a sub of Princess Mononoke playing at a fur con and got hooked. Think I also saw Animalimpics that year, and maybe Rock & Rule. I do remember I spent a lot of time watching shows like ThunderCats and Samurai Pizza Cats. Anyways, Back in the early to mid 90's "Furry" meant quite a different thing. There was a strong participation of what you all call Yaoi, at these conventions. I don't remember any obvious "Yiffing" At least not any worse than say going into a "Gay" bar. The majority of the artists were asked to portray the client as some animal. Often a avatar type character, that they used as an on-line personna, or character in an RPG they were active in "Draw me as a big white tiger wearing chain mail and carrying a claymore", "Draw me as a fox with yellow curly hair and a big red ribbon", "I want a drawing of a purple skunk, really sexy pose, with blue eyes." You get the idea. My wife made a fair amount at these cons drawing this sort of thing. She still does commision work from home. Anyway, I didn't see anything terribly offensive about these cons. They did have a X-Rated section. No young adults allowed, Not really any worse than Hentai films in my opinion. Just add bunny ears or cat ears to all the girls. and have them being tormented buy the same kind of demon monsters you see in some of the extreme hentai, with tentacles and stuff. I think the best known artist for this was Steve Martin. He is over PG-13 so no links here. The stuff that my wife didn't want to handle often got sent his way. His booth was just him and a computer showing a slideshow of his stuff. About three or four notebooks of his work with prices of each piece on the plastic sleeve, and 15 plastic bins of printed material that matched each image. The man himself looks very normal. I have never seen him in any form of cosplay gear. Same is true for most of the people in the dealer areas. He could have just walked in off the street. I won't say that I didn't see some individuals that wierded me out. I did see one guy who had painted stripes all over his body, so he looked like some sort of tigerman. Of course I have also seen Man-Faye and Man-Winry, as well as the Man-Chi (reppy), who posted earlier in this thread. I don't think I was any less weirded out by them. All I can say is that, you would have to pay me a lot of money to do the same thing in a public place.
I have stated that I have worked at a fur con and that my wife sells furry art. Are we furry? Probably just as much as Walt Disney and the Bros Warner. I, like most of my generation, grew up watching "furry" cartoons, or as Wikipedia calls them "funny animals". I am sure that most of you out there reading this can say the same if you think about it. Does Talespin, Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Animaniacs, Duck Tales, Tiny Toons, TMNT, ring any bells? All of these shows are anthropomorphic and thus "Furry", so if you enjoyed watching them you are a furry by default. Back in the 80's that was what being a furry meant. The same as all the people who watch DBZ, Naruto, InuYasha, and Sailor Moon are anime fans. No real difference.
Furry Lifestylers - This is the title given to your "Yiffer" croud that so many find objectionable, including other furries by the way. I would say that the percentage of lifestylers that show at a fur con is far below that of the percentage of Yaoi/Yuri individuals that show up at an anime con. They are also much less obvious about it.
Fursuiters - Fursuiters are the master cosplayers of a fur con. These are the people who go all out to recreate their on-line persona as a real one. Many of these individuals have on-line comics or websites that they portray their character in. Often it is their own creation. They may spend 100's of dollars to create a fursuit or mascot to represent themselves. Sometimes this is a form of advertising. Some of the best professional fursuiters are the people who make mascot costumes for football games or theme parks. Here are a couple that should be familiar to you:
Hmm.. A female Beaver named Bernice with her new husband Benny. Bernice often appeared in her wedding dress and Benny in a tux. No sexual innuendo implied here. This is of course at a football game in front of thousands of fans.
To be fair I will throw in this guy as well:
Are you wierded out by Mickey Mouse, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy when you are at Disneyland? How about the Beast, from beauty and the Beast, or Sully from Monsters Inc.?
As the father of the Silver the Hedgehog at the last K-con I can tell you that making one of these suits is no easy task. My daughter is by no means a furry lifestyler either. She is a major Sonic the Hedgehog nut though. Very well known in those circles as Rally-the-cheetah. This is a cheetah girl who lives in Sonics world, and who my daughter created for her Mary Jane style fansubs and doujinshi . Not sure if you can call them furry or anime. Actually I will let Rem worry about that sort of thing. She is the one who has to read them.
Here are some interesting links. Here is an article about furries and furverts. Shows a fair cross section:
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2001/041201/cover.htmlI also think it would be nice to put up a furry webcomic, Here is the award winning Kevin & Kell:
http://www.kevinandkell.com/Thought I would also put in Vicki Fox, since my wife did a lot of the art for this web comic:
http://www.vickifox.com/Comics/index.phpI thought I would close with the following image. What is it they say. A picture is worth a thousand words:
