Do you know what a furry is mummy?

[FridayForever]

Asked my ten year old.

She proceeded to tell me it's where adults pretend to be animals and they'd played it at school cos they thought it was funny.

How do you explain to a child without much concept of sexuality what a fetish is? And that it's not the same as kids pretending to be animals, which is of course perfectly normal play.

Absolutely. It is very much happening in two local girls' schools, as confirmed to me by several children and their parents. I can't believe the schools don't enforce the normal uniform rules. It does seem to be the magical power of 'identity' again. The school I teach in is super strict and no kid would dare come in with ears and a tail. Long may that last!

@ireallycantthinkofaname a therian has an animal gender identity. So the bird therian mentioned up-thread will be a bird trapped in a girl's body.

Apparently a friend asked her.

I suspect it's come via Roblox as someone upthread said.

I've told her it's a bit weird, and not the same as children playing as animals, and sometimes is a bit dodgy (or sus as she likes to say).

Not West London, but not that far away geographically.

No one at her school doing it so far as I know. I really hope whoever said its a moral panic is right - I'm just not sure I believe that.

This is interesting
https://theconversation.com/what-are-furries-debunking-myths-about-kids-identifying-as-animals-and-litter-boxes-in-schools-193908

Furries don’t identify as animals; they identify with animals. In the same way that cosplayers typically don’t believe they are actually Spiderman, furries don’t think they are their fursonas

Is furry an orientation?
It’s not. It’s a fandom. However, it’s worth noting there are many marginalized statuses within the furry community. Depending on the study, we find more than 70 per cent of furries identify as LGBTQ+ and more than 25 per cent are gender-identity diverse.
Furries are bullied at almost twice the rates of non-furries, and our forthcoming research indicates that four to 15 per cent are on the autism spectrum.

Meh.

What do you think schools should be doing, in the light of this, Adam?

Indeed. Most schools quite rightly won't entertain it and I'm sure that primary children picking this up are just attracted to the cuddly cute nature.
The danger as always is the appropriation of this by predators - usually but not solely - via online communities. There's far too much evidence of this which is why parents have to be alert and check where this is coming from - and not be shamed by anyone suggesting it's wrong to ask and check.

It's that safeguarding balance between vigilance and paranoia.

The adults in these communities are not innocently pretending to identify with animals, it's a hugely dysregulated community. See the article above about the national convention in the US. Trying to pull kids into it is not a "nothing to see here" thing.

You must live in west Kent :). I saw that too! Most comments in Facebook under the post I've ever seen in that group!

Apply their standard uniform rules?

But to be honest I can't get too het up by kids dressing up in ears and tails at school, any more than them dying their hair blue or wearing an anime T shirt or being a goth.

So no point in having uniform rules, if you're not going to enforce them? When I was at school, a long time ago, there used to be a phrase you don't hear much these days: in loco parentis. Schools have, first and foremost, a safeguarding responsibility for children.

There's been a significant increase around my way of teen girls wearing cat ear headbands constantly and claiming in serious tones that their spirit animal is a cat. I wonder if that is related.

If I were an organisation trying to gain access to children for nefarious purposes, I'd start lowering their inhibitions around a group of people with questionable behaviour by inviting them into that group and making it look playful and appealing.🤢

They did that in Rochdale. 😡

The DfE were very clear that schools should not be allowing this (other than the natural play that little children engage in in the primary school playground).

There's no place for furries in schools - they're places of learning. It's worth parents complaining to Ofsted if a school has completely abandoned their common sense about this. While I'm still sure it's a tiny minority of schools it's unacceptable.

You wonder what the heads of these schools are thinking.

What exactly is the risk from a trend for wearing cat ears?

I do agree that there is a risk from online groomers and parents should be talking to children about furries online, but I really can't get too get up about kids dressing up at school.

If you can't see it, I recommend Specsavers.

It's definitely happening in local schools near me. Some parents are worried while others seem to be in denial. It's causing disruption in lessons and the teachers don't seem to know how to handle it.

If adults validate the idea that a boy can become a girl then why not a cat or a wolf?

If adults validate the idea that a boy can become a girl then why not a cat or a wolf?

I think this is the point where FWR have jumped the shark 😂

This makes me rub my temples in silence.

Did you see what @Grimchmas posted upthread? It's about lowering boundaries around what's appropriate and what isn't.

Not really.

FWR were discussing if you can identify as the opposite sex, why not as a different race, age, or species, years ago.

If posts on this thread are accurate, there are kids identifying as birds and various mammals and some schools aren't sure how to deal with it.

If they aren't just immediately shutting it down with school uniform rules and behaviour code of conduct policies, then is it because they've got some confusion on how to handle it due to how to handle trans- identifying kids guidance? We don't know, but I wouldn't discount it.

I don't think there's evidence the posts are accurate. And there is evidence that similar stories have been created as a hoax in the US . EDITED and in the UK
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/viewpoint/23623894.children-identify-cats-litter-boxes-schools-myth-buster/

I'm of the "photos or it didn't happen" frame of mind about the idea that any schools are allowing children to identify as a wolf, dress up and howl in lessons.

Girls wearing cat ear headbands and saying their spirit animal is a cat is as much of a safeguarding concern as girls doing crystal healing and casting spells. That's also not "being a furry".

What next? Are you going to stop toddlers dressing up as Spiderman?

The furry fandom is a hotbed of predators and perverts, including paedophiles and zoophiles. I would not want my kids anywhere near it. Plus those mascot type costumes they were are gross and stinky.

I have friends whose DC go to a school where this is happening. Its also all over the local Facebook group.

If you don't think it's a big deal why are you refusing to accept that it's happening?