Touchy subject- (undesired) Association with "Furry" fetish

I know I have already commented here before but I think the biggest issue here seems also to be a misunderstanding for many as to what it means to be a Furry. Not every furry is essentially into Yiff / Fur Piling etc but immediately for many when they hear the term "Furry" they jump to the sexual deviation side of things. This can be horrible for those furries who are really just more into the anthro-art & fur-suiting side of things and don't take it any further than that.
Even my 8 year old daughter talks about wanting she had a German Shepherd fur suit but this is the innocent talk of a child who idolises and loves her family pet / canine family member. Similarly, when she was younger she used to talk about wanting to be a cat...not just wanting to be one but expecting that one day she would be...ie. "Mummy, one day when we are cats...".She also loves the more innocent Furry anthro art (especially if it has to do with Sonic / Sega characters) and consequently adores my anthro dolls.
I love anthro art too (I'm a big fan of Australian Artist Norman Lindsay's anthro characters...especially his cats ..and similarly the whole anthropology of anthro art that originated in everything from Egyptian and Classical art to children's book illustrations, comics & graphic novels, animation, etc). Plus I love making soft sculpture & working with fur fabrics too. And, it just so happens I love animals, always have, and I have anthro dolls. Does that make me and my 8 year old daughter furries, even though we have nothing to do with the sexual side of the hobby? I know there are some furries out there that would say yes! The problem then is more to do with the stigma of the term "Furry" and less what it actually means to be a Furry!

 

For the most part, I can't see how people would fetishize anthro dolls. A lot of them do tend to be small and cute, so they resemble either children or cubs/puppies/kittens/etc.

However, larger, more mature looking dolls do run the risk of going into yiff territory. Molding nipples or genitalia on these dolls isn't necessary, and I think it's downright weird. I'm not saying that more mature anthro dolls are related to the furry fetish. There is an artistic side to them. An anthro doll having some amount of sexuality (female dolls having appropriately sized breasts, male dolls having abs) doesn't necessarily have anything to do with yiff. The artist and owner of the doll could simply be conveying its gender.

I do think, though, that if you do own an anthro doll/ have anything to do with anthro art, you should learn to deal with accusations of being a furry fetishist. There ARE many, many people into anthro who are also into the furry fetish, and to somebody who doesn't know much about the furry fandom, non-fetishists look pretty much the same as yiffers. While you have a right to be offended, you should not respond to accusations with anger. It's an honest mistake. Explain yourself calmly. If this fails, just let it slide, as it's probably just trolling.

 

Yes, wow-- I just read the last couple pages-- and all that free-floating hate is really on the uncool side. Especially for a scene that otherwise claims to pride itself on its diversity & tolerance. We don't all have to like furrydom, but we do have to operate with a little basic decency. Sheesh.

The assumptions are also uncool, of course. Nobody likes to have sexual peccadilloes assigned to them erroneously! What if the shoe were on the other foot, for some of these people (mad hate posts on the last page)-- like, say, what if people looked at all those MSD girl dolls in frilly dreses & automatically associated their owners with lolicon? Gotta admit it's creepy, all those grownups obsessed with little girls and white panties, right? What's the old saying, about how it's wrong to Ass-U-Me...

I don't like anthros or own them, I confess I don't really know anything about the furry fandom, and I had to Google just about every term that's been used on the last few pages.... and no, I haven't had any furry 'accusations' leveled at me because of my humanoid doll collection. But if I did I would have to simply laugh it off, it's so far out.

 

I don't think there would be much of an association, because anthro bjd's look a lot different than "western" furries, who have this sort of cartoony stylised sort of look to them, anthro bjd's on the other hand look more sleek and elegant and a touch more realistic.

If someone did call me a furry for having an anthro doll, I'd side eye them. I don't really see the connection, other than animals with human-ish features that are (sometimes) on two legs.

 

I don't have any anthro dolls yet, but I do plan to get a Dearmine Priscilla and Dune when I get the chance- they're both designed to look like young adults, and I would like to have them as a couple (and make them cosplay outfits of human Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon because I think that would just be too cute!) but in no way do I associate them with "furries." I'll be honest, I don't know anything about the furry lifestyle and I'm just fine with that- it's not for me. As for anthros of all shapes and sizes, I think they're beautifully sculpted dolls, period. And honestly, if someone accused me of being a furry because I have those dolls, I would just shake my head and shoot them a look that said "seriously, do you know how stupid you're being right now?"

That being said, the closest anyone has come to associating my doll interests with anything like what's mentioned and suggested here is when a guy I used to work with heard that I was getting a high-quality posable Asian doll and automatically asked if it was a sex doll. Of course it wasn't, it was a flippin' BJD! But I still found it interesting/disturbing that for someone who has no idea of what a BJD is, a doll coming from Asia is instantly associated with sex. I think it's fair to say that, as others have said, there is more to the furry lifestyle/fandom/whatever you want to call it than the sexual aspects, just as there is more to Asian culture than that as well.

 

Well, you have to consider the 'lens' that HE was seeing the world through... it could be one of those Straight Male Things. Quite possibly, the only dealings that person has with anything Asian are related to food, pornography, and clicking on whatever "look what weird shit they're doing in Asia now" links that his friends send him. If he automatically associates Asia with sex, because that's all he's ever known it for, he won't have a frame of reference for any other kind of doll that comes from there. Next time that happens, ask him why "sex doll" (or "furry", as the case may be) was the first thing he thought of. See if he blushes.

(He was probably just trying to get up your nose by asking you something he knew would make you uncomfortable, not because he really thought you would buy a sex doll. So many boys/men do love to try to sexually intimidate girls/women in this manner; from the schoolyard to the workplace to the nursing-home; it's an old old trick.)

 

That is a good point! I don't work with him anymore though, so I'm not too worried about it happening again.

 

Heheh, well, you may no longer work with him, but there are a bazillion more of him out there. ^~

 

JennyNemesis- I believe it! lol But thanks for the advice!

 

I have to say the hate for Furries is uncalled for. Some people feel they are female trapped in a male body. And even if you can't transition to cat, why can't they have a little imagination. Generalizing all Furries as perverts is no different than other people generalizing the doll hobbyists as crazy. In fact looking at the hobby from the outside the doll community has a lot of perverts and people calling their dolls their kids and acting like they're alive. But that's getting off the topic here.

The topic is being associated with Furries. I won't lie, I don't like the fact that I draw animal characters and hang out with Furry friends associates me with the loud crazy side of that community, but having my dolls associates me with the loud and crazy side here. Being a fan of anime has a lot of people assuming I like kid shows or porn. Its no win for me, but I don't let it get to me. I prove to them I'm not that kind of person and worry more about what I like no matter what strangers think of me.

 

I really don't care what anyone's fetish is, be it shoes, sneezing, furrydom, whatever. As long as it involves informed consent, I don't think it should matter to anyone what someone does to get their rocks off.

Much like my own personal theory that this particular doll collecting hobby attracts a higher than normal percentage of people with no social skills, I think the furry fandom does as well. It paints everyone involved with the same brush. There's not much you can do about it besides not act like a creeper who's never interacted with other people before and show that you are a rational, sane being.

 

Furries have a waaaay worse name set up for them than they deserve! I'm active around FurAffinity, and it's by far the friendliest internet community I've encountered. Everyone is really friendly and people are really easy to work with regarding commissions and the like.

Shunning things because they are something you are unfamiliar with or inserting stereotypes into anything is offensive and only shows your lack of acceptance and maturity.

Though of course receiving that assumption is a little bit inevitable, ha ha ha.

Furry art, regardless if it is pornographic or not, is an aesthetic. Some people like porn because it's cute rather than something they actually find attractive, and if they do, so what??? It's not something that really matters at all!! It's just taste and everyone is entitled to like what they do.

Also for the OP, I actually believe the more chubby-like structure is simply from how furries are usually stylized in countries like Japan and Korea. Western furry art is very generally more cartoony or furries with human proportion, meanwhile furry art in say Japan, which is called kemono, is more rarely in human proportion but rather smaller or animalesque shapes.

 

fiolkow, I agree 100% and want to thank you for one of most mature and well-worded posts in this thread!

I have known a few Furries myself too to know the biggest issues they face are the negative stereotypes that people view them with, much like those of us here who will similarly find the many types of negative stereotypes that colour the views of the majority of people in society towards what it means to be the owner of a ball jointed doll / doll owner or collector in general. You can't stop the stereotypes but you can choose to rise above them, it's as simple as that =^-^=

 

It's really all just liking anthro's in the end. If you don't absolutely hate -furries- are you necessarily one? No. Furry is a title people give themselves.. I find it hard to understand people who choose to call themselves a furry being too offended by anything related to internet bullying/association.. I'd think they'd be pretty calloused toward it by the time the decide to call themselves a furry. As for non-furies, I don't know what to say.. you're in the same boat as the more 'light' furries, (or however you'd put that)... You share the exact same sentiments with SOME people who call themselves furs. It's so diverse... not wanting to be associated with bestiality or something though I can understand.. then again owning BJD's has its own 'sexual stigma'.

 

Has anyone ever accused you of liking or participating in Furry fetishism for having Anthro type dolls?
No.

How do you respond to that kind of assumption if it comes up?
I don't care. It's none of their business.

Do you think that kind of assumption is more likely if anthro dolls were sculpted or dressed more maturely?
No.

People will think what they want to think. If their minds are in the gutter, don't go there with them (unless you want to!).

 

I wish I could upvote posts here, but then I remember I'm not on reddit XD .

Awesome post,
ali

 

I will quote this, for this is just the pure reality.

I would never know bjd and furry could ever be... related. I'm pretty sure a couple of cat ears and tails do not qualify as furry, and I believe the same applies for goats legs, horns, etc... Do people know nothing about mythology? Fauns, Chiron, the egypt gods, what the heck. Usually furry character have the whole body painted to resemble an animal or creature.

I have nothing against furry, but if someone caused me of being a a furry of the sexy kinky kind only because a couple of doll with horns and goat legs, they surely do not deserve my time and attention.

 

Oh... btw... I have been to some furry cons. I have friends who are furries. I agree that most people have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to that fandom and the hate makes me wonder more about THEM than about what furries may or may not be up to. I seriously wonder about people, what with everything going straight to sex and fetishes!

But there's not much I can do about that, hence my rather terse answers above.

 

since when have dolls had anything to do with the furry fetish? sex in relation to dolls has its own completely unique fetish(as do most things) ....to make the comparison is just weird.