Why are people always pointing the finger at furries?

[RoyalCorgi]

I really can't imagine.

Article in Observer:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jul/28/why-are-people-always-pointing-the-finger-at-furries-inside-the-wild-world-of-the-furry-fandom www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jul/28/why-are-people-always-pointing-the-finger-at-furries-inside-the-wild-world-of-the-furry-fandom]]

Has anyone interviewed one in the wild?

Mumsnet always assumes everything is about paraphillias.

Apparently most of Silicon Valley are furries. There it's more of an autistic special interest deep dive.

Posters resurrecting threads to perform a drive-by scolding is not appreciated.
This is a discussion board and if you have a better demeanour, when you're addressing people on this thread, posters might take the points you made more seriously.

Apparently, here is your chance!

A 13yo chatting about plugs and saying kiddos. Right then.

Yep…. Apparently.

I was traveling by train a few weeks back and a pleasant young woman in a Scooby Doo suit spent some time saying hello to my dog. Does that count?

Tut. Was she trying to groom your dog?

Sticks young beetle who should have been in bed but was up playing on the laptop in a timeout.

<Goes off to change Wi-Fi password>

I did wonder if you had decided to razz the board, but it seems not.

I thought it best to prove it wasn't me having a late night "moment"!

That’s v v useful. I’d never thought of it like that.

Before there were memes my Mum was always good for a Shakespeare quote. Here's one for the Sunk Cost Fallacy

"I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er"

Macbeth Act II Scene 4. Or the Guardian.

It didn't end well for Macbeth.

Every community has a sexual nature

@Beetlewithboots I think you are using a very specialised definition of 'community' there. I don't think the craft group I go to, or the intersecting scone scoffers and village hall supporters, or the church attenders, of the local historians, have a sexual nature though they are all quite undoubtedly communities.

Not quite so confident about the bird watchers.

The very young, who are just finding out about sex, often go in for overheated imaginings that all adults are doing it all the time. And exploitative adults put the thin end of their wedge into that gap in understanding of how the world really functions.

The very young need (really NEED) to learn how to detect exploitative adults. Anyone who tells them that Every community has a sexual nature should go on the list.

A 13 year old on MN. We should feel honoured and relevant. It is interesting, though, to be reminded that readership is so much wider than authorship.

Quite. Plus being familiar with only fans, porn hub, having a fairly good idea that tails can't support a butt plug and thinking that all communities have a sexual element.

If 13 year year-old furries are acting like this, I'd say we were woefully underestimating the fetish aspect and a call to social services wouldn't be out of place.

Aren't they a 'slug'? Or have I got it wrong....

Ihink there's a logic to this that has permeated the sexual revolution, and it was probably inevitable it would lead to this sort of thing.

Basically, if it's sexual, and consensual, it doesn't matter how "weird" it is, it's just a healthy sexual variation that people find satisfying and fulfilling.

Anyone who wants to question that is just a sexual oppressor who only likes vanilla sex and is pretty boring.

Also - nothing that you fantasize about, think about, or consume media about is harmful to your mind or sexual development, because what's not real can't hurt you, it's only fantasy.

This is clearly all deeply naive to anyone who has any psychological insight. But it's been the main narrative for decades. And to some extent I think we've also lost the language and even thought traditions that might have made it easier to conceptualize and describe whey these kinds of things would be problematic, as much of that kind of language came out of religious traditions. So even those who have a sense that there is a problem often can't describe it all that easily.

The tragic thing is that convicted child rapist David Challenor often dressed as Baloo to make children think he was friendly and approachable.

And there's evidence to suggest that when he was as young as 14, Challenor junior was posting on fetish sites about enjoying being a furry, enjoying 'messy play' (don't ask) and enjoying 'group activities'. His profile name on Fetlife was 'Mucky Pup'.

The Guardian emailed me today to tell me it's eschewing X from now on. Maybe because they don't want hear uncomfortable truths. They also don't open articles for comment and, if necessary, pretend certain newsworthy things haven't happened at all. It's like it's run by teenagers.

(Before you ask, I subscribe for delivery to a housebound friend who isnt online.)

Not quite so confident about the bird watchers.

Oy!

if you say so

If you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
Also, if you’re 13, then I’m a shoo-in for the new Archbishop of Canterbury 🙄