Furs and 'Animals'

So my friend Jenny Hood over on her Wunderkammer Blog, got me thinking--

Furries 'like' animals--but it's for an entirely different reason than animal rights enthusiasts like animals--except for when those two reasons cross over.

Yeah... I mean, I've heard complaints from activists who've managed to noticed some of us, through conventions and whatnot. And I've heard the complaint that we apparently need to care more about the 'actual' animals we show enthusiasm in: Because every member of the human species 'clearly' needs to be a bleeding heart altruist, for the sake of the hopes and dreams of our children, which will be whitewashed all the same for the moral priority of 'saving' (read: 'further interfering with') something that isn't asking for 'salvation'.

But I digress, that's probably made some people out to 'change the world' for their own 'selfish self-fulfillment' upset. And to you, I say, join my boat and fume with me. I'd like a world where humans choose to 'become' animals, myself.

What I think is being missed by a lot of people who look at Furry at a passing glance is that Furry really doesn't exist to pander to the supposed well-being of animals in the way it's made to explore the human species.

Yes... because you know what the consistent thing is between all the ferrets and foxes and lemurs and tigers and raccoons and whatnot? In furrydom?

All the time I hear things about how it's about the idea of uplifted animals, or equal rights for humans and animals, or animal appreciation. And then I hear the perturbed souls who purvey its apparent lack of those things. Then I hear complaints that Furry is some kind of power trip for unremarkable humans who could be spending time doing 'real' things to further those obviously more important moral agendas that all the 'good boys and girls' believe in.

But I don't think it's about 'animals'. I think it's about humans rediscovering clear lack of distinction, where humanity once took a marker and drew in a line. And that's what the consistency is--all of those animal characters are part human. Humans are rediscovering themselves, by exploring the line we've drawn, up close and personal... and we're using wild animals for our contrast.

Furry is about humans who've grown tired of wearing uncomfortable work uniforms, and working nine to five jobs, and having nuclear families with a monogamous wives and exactly three beautiful blonde children. Furry is about diversity, and sexuality, and questioning traditional moral values, especially in regard to sex.

The reason people go on a soap box, or spew their most personal and sensuous interests in Furrydom, is because they resent the idea of whitewashing of personal identity, and simultaneously--the thing that draws it close to our door, which is ironically, sexual expression.

And there is something that always bothers me: This knee-jerk reaction humans have--to throw a bucket of white paint on sex. As a diversity-loving person, it kind of pisses me off. Because we humans, Furry or otherwise--are clearly not even allowed to 'have' sex or think sexual thoughts anymore, except when the Party deigns it appropriate for reproduction. And associating 'anything' with sex is clearly a 'bad' thing nowadays, to the point that people will take efforts to seem asexual.

It's quite irksome, to see that mentality, from people who have penises and vulvae and nerve-filled walls of tissue they will never separate from, and who treat them as forbidden objects. I never quite understood--is there something inherently wrong with pleasure? What's so righteous about suffering, instead?

I'd ultimately say Furry has more to do with fetishism and kinks, and self-exploration, and sexuality, and finding soul mates with common interests, then it has anything to do with actual animals. I'm not going to dance around proclaiming the inherent worth of any of those things, either.

That's done enough as it is by people who think that religion, or altruism, or working your life away takes some mysterious moral priority.

The one thing I can say for myself, is that I may be a Furry, but I'm no Sheep.