Furries. Educate me please.

[Titasaducksarse]

Whilst on holiday recently I saw a young person whom, as they were wearing a tail I assumed was a furry.
Firstly was this a wrong assumption or is this something children just do nowadays?

Secondly is there a prevalence between ND particularly ASD and furries? Again I only say this as this young person's behaviour clearly seemed to be ND (I've worked with adults with ND).

Finally, how as a parent do you feel about your child being a furry. Honestly? If they are ND is it part of their coping mechanism?

I looked at this young person holistically and just thought 'wow...the world is such a hard place for you to survive'.

Thank you.

I think it’s fine to wear a tail or ears if you want to but the issue is when people think they are an actual animal not human, and the concerning online groups that they can be drawn to where furries are a fetish.

however my kids aren’t furries so I can’t speak from experience. None of them have any friends who are either

there’s a link between autism and identifying as an animal. The approach is to keep loving the child, help them develop more appropriate coping strategies for life, keep them off bits of the internet, and wait for it to pass. Also clear boundaries on behaviour eg “at school we walk on 2 feet, not feet and hands”

My son is a furry (in theory as he doesn’t do anything or dress in any unusual way). He’s autistic, as are pretty much all furries. They basically cosplay as cute foxes etc because the normal adult neurotypical world frightens them. My son is 20, never had a girlfriend etc because he’s emotionally immature. He talks to furries online about computer games, aeroplanes etc
He’s also clever, very ethical and compassionate. If it makes him happy and harms no one then I don’t have a problem with it.

I think furries get a bad rep as there's a side of it that's a fetish.. and it's true there is that minority for whom it's a sex thing.. but most young furries are just what we used to call nerds really. They like fantasy and anime and scfi. They like the escapism of being a cartoonised animal. There's a sense of community there. It's a way to show personality traits. And for a lot of autistic people it's a way to socialise using a character.

I mean i was a goth as a kid and I don't think it's all that much different to that. Just a community with it's own aesthetic for people who feel a bit out if step with mainstream society

Thank you all for your replies and being accepting of me maybe not getting terminology correct etc.

hey, uh, not all furries are autistic? not sure where you got that from.

Will they need to specify Furry toilets now in new building projects ? Male, Female, Transgender and Furry ?.......Serious question.

Furry is not a gender, so no. Furries use regular toilets like everyone else

Furries do not identify as animals. That's therianthropy
Furries are people interested in anthropomorphic animals (animals that do human things, such as walking on 2 legs and speaking human language)
sure, some furries are also therians, but therianthropy isnt a coping mechanism, it is an identity

My son (autistic) says that pretty much all furries he has interacted with (lots) are clearly neurodivergent. He is secure in his gender identity (male and born male) so I can’t see where toilets come in to it?