• @[email protected]
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    49 months ago

    Being a furry is not common. What’s not common is treated as strange and potentionally harmful.

    • @[email protected]
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      29 months ago

      Being a furry is not common

      The number of children who identify as a furry in your local grade school would shock you.

      • @[email protected]
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        19 months ago

        Yes, you’re right, preschool and grade school children do identify as animals a lot and they’re often not ashamed to express it, because it’s much more tolerated at that age. It’s viewed as wierd in adults though and it’s much more rare among adult people. Probably partially because it’s a juvenile trait and most people just grow out of that phase , partially because it’s viewed as juvenile (and wierd), so many of those who do not grow out of it are afraid to express it. I find it harmless, so I wish for more tolerance.

  • @[email protected]
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    349 months ago

    I mean, the point of a mermaid isn’t that it’s a sexy looking fish, it’s that other than its tail, it looks like beautiful human women. In some stories, sailors don’t even realize they’re taking to mermaids because their tails are underwater. Also, mermaids were generally considered bad omens or malicious entities, and when they did seduce humans, it was usually to kill them, so it’s not like the folklore was very pro-mermaid sex.

  • @[email protected]
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    19 months ago

    It’s like one of those irregular verbs. I’ve got a cool fantasy, you’re a pervert, he’s in jail, etc.

  • The Menemen
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    9 months ago

    I personally don’t really care that much, but I guess this is mostly about “living stuff out openly” vs. “keeping your fetish in non-public spaces”.

    Yes, there are public mermaid events, but I don’t think those are perceived as less weird.

    • @[email protected]
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      179 months ago

      50% of mythology is just fetish, just check out Greek mythology. People most definitely masturbated to mythology in the past based on the amount of fetish oozing out of the stories.

      You can’t tell me the ancient Greek equivalent to furries didn’t think Zeus transforming into animals and fucking was hot.

  • @[email protected]
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    9 months ago

    To be fair, I think people looked at the folks who were into mermaids as outlandish too. “Been around for a long time” doesn’t mean the same thing as “totally accepted socially”.

    • @[email protected]
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      119 months ago

      But weren’t mermaids seen as dangerous, irresistible sirens also. So the blame was on the evil mermaid, not the person.

    • HubertManne
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      69 months ago

      I came to say this. When has being with a mermaid been an acceptable thing. Furries are much more accepted I think than that just in numbers alone.

    • Drusas
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      39 months ago

      I don’t think the broader populace has any link between the two of them in their minds.

    • @[email protected]
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      9 months ago

      …TIL furries have any relation to gay people (except I don’t actually believe they do)

      • @[email protected]
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        39 months ago

        You do know that being gay and being furry ain’t mutually exclusive right, but I guess whatever justification you can find for letting your true feelings out.

        • @[email protected]
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          39 months ago

          Might wanna practice reading more carefully. I just said they are two separate and unrelated things. And here you are acting like I said they are one and the same and in a homophobic way or something. Bizarre.

          • @[email protected]
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            39 months ago

            I don’t think it’s forbidden knowledge that a large portion of furries are LGBT. Don’t know why you’re calling them unrelated.

            • @[email protected]
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              19 months ago

              At no point did I say anything insulting. Claiming that two groups aren’t one and the same isn’t hateful, and it’s frankly weird you’re trying to twist my words into that. Whoever hurt you is not me.

              • @[email protected]
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                29 months ago

                Claiming that two groups aren’t one and the same isn’t hateful,

                Kinda is though. Trying to remove the LGBT aspect from a group largely consisting of LGBT.

            • @[email protected]
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              19 months ago

              So because I am white and a male, I guess you can’t say anything about what it means to be male without that applying to white women too? Do you actually speak English or what?

              • @[email protected]
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                29 months ago

                I have no clue what you’re trying to say. How many women are men?

                Exactly zero, because (excluding certain trans identities for the purpose of simplification) there is no intersection between the two groups. Talking about what it means to be a men doesn’t involve a single woman, therefore it doesn’t apply to them.

                Hating a primarily queer subgroup has very much homophobic implications, the same way the war on drugs is obviously racist:

                We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities

                • A certain honest man
                • @[email protected]
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                  19 months ago

                  The analogy was straightforward. My whiteness apparently makes me the same as every other white person. You’re trying to find something that isn’t here, at all

      • @[email protected]
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        39 months ago

        There is a significantly higher proportion of LGBTQ+ representation within the furry community than the general populace, and it makes sense why. Fursonas are another way to explore sexual and gender identities in a safe way, and furry communities tend to be pretty accepting places.

        This is just my opinion, but I see kink in the furry community criticized the same way I see kink at Pride events criticized.

        • @[email protected]
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          39 months ago

          I don’t know what you mean using “kink” this way, but the general population is not aware of this connection and thus it would only be a coincidence if what you’re saying is true. I mean, furries are kinda weird but I don’t get why they’re even a topic. I’ve never met one and I doubt I will. Being gay is probably ten times more common.

          • @[email protected]
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            29 months ago

            You are right, but a lot of the roots of furry criticism do tend to be queerphobic in origin. It’s just something to recognize.

            I’m using kink in a pretty generic way because a lot of the criticisms of furries relate to sex (e.g. beastiality or pedophilia), and thus any depiction of kink (like bondage gear) is used to demonize them that it’s a fetish (and one that is coming for your children.)

            • @[email protected]
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              39 months ago

              That might be fair in some contexts but I think most people would only make any connection to beastiality, which is probably fair, no? The whole thing is dressing up like an animal and it’s confusing for most people who don’t do it.

              • @[email protected]
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                29 months ago

                A furry is someone that identifies with anthropomorphic animal characters (or sometimes just animal characteristics). No dressing up required. Now, a lot of the people that go to cons tend to have more money, so you will see more fursuits and such, but most furries do not dress up.

                • @[email protected]
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                  39 months ago

                  TIL. I first heard of furries like 10 years ago and hadn’t ever known this. I thought the entire thing was dressing up.

  • @[email protected]
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    49 months ago

    I would say that if anyone is upset about an older furry, then that person is living proof that furry is a sexualised fetish. Why else would it upset them?