Furries in Russia: a combination of the best qualities of man and beast

03.05.2019

There are many different subcultures in the world. They include people who differ in their behavior and appearance from the majority. In an effort to stand out from the crowd, they are looking for like-minded people. This is how subcultures are created.

Examples of subcultures

Musical - these movements are associated with certain areas of music. For example, hippies were fans of rock music and were distinguished long hair and pacifist views.
Internet communities are associated with the emergence of new technologies. Their number is constantly increasing.
Sports - attract fans of various sports, such as football, to their ranks.
Art subcultures come from a passion for some form of art other than music. A striking example serves as a role-playing movement that is closely related to science fiction and fantasy. Japanese animation has given rise to otaku, whose representatives are passionate about pop music, manga, anime, dramas and more.

In Russia, as throughout the world, in Lately The furry movement has spread. Who is this? Let's find out from the article.

Furry community

Translated from English, “furry” means “fluffy.” This name is due to the fact that representatives of this subculture are fond of anthropomorphic animals. Basically, human habits are attributed to predators and rodents, whose bodies are covered with fluffy fur. For example, foxes, rats, cheetahs, lions, wolves. Because of this, they began to be called “fluffy” in English-speaking countries.

A peculiarity of the community is that people strive to embody the image of an anthropomorphic animal in themselves or their work. Many people identify with the chosen character.

Anthropomorphic animals are representatives fairy tale characters, which combine the bright qualities of beast and man. They behave like people.

Who is considered a furry?

The subculture unites those who identify themselves with anthropomorphic creatures and those who create images of their favorite characters. Controversies may arise among them regarding belonging to the same subculture. Sometimes they don't recognize each other at all. However, it is worth considering in more detail who the community in question unites.

Furries (subculture) include:

Admirers of fiction and animation works that feature anthropomorphic animals. For example, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “The Lion King”, “Gummi Bears”, the novel “Redwall” by B. Jakes.
Artists who love to draw fictional characters. They also produce furry art.
People who perceive themselves as characters in animation and fiction.

A member of a subculture may have one or all of the qualities listed above. In any case, it can be classified as “fluffy”.

History of origin

It is believed that the community originated in the USA in the 80s of the twentieth century. Today furry (subculture) exists in many countries of the world, including England, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia, and Russia. IN different countries the number of “furry” representatives is different. For example, in the USA there are more than 100 thousand of them.

The emergence of a subculture is associated with a hobby animated films, in which the heroes are presented as anthropomorphic animals. For example, Disney's Robin Hood is created in the image of a sly fox.

The community has become widespread thanks to the World Wide Web. Fans and like-minded people can communicate, share creativity, make appointments, and create thematic websites.

Furry creativity

Fans of this trend are keen various types creativity, with the help of which they embody the idea of unity with nature and their favorite character. Among them are many artists, scriptwriters, illustrators, sculptors, musicians, and writers.

Not everyone has the same level of skill, so beginners strive to purchase as many of these products as possible. Furry comics, dolls, and pictures are very popular.

Among the works of this direction there are also works of a military orientation. Furry militarism is very popular among them, who live in a world of wars and the apocalypse.

Representatives of this subculture distribute their works on special websites. Very often they are not inferior to professional publications.

Furry costumes

To achieve perfection, you need to completely transform into your favorite anthropomorphic animal. For this purpose, special suits are sewn, which are called fursuits.

In many countries, furries use their costumes in ordinary life. They wear them for walks, ride motorcycles, and play basketball. Many of them perform at children's events, entertaining everyone present.

Meetings of representatives of the same community are held in different cities, they are called furrencia. Everyone has fun there, gets to know each other, and takes part in costume and drawing competitions.

How furries maintain their look without a costume

Most furry people do not strive to stand out from the crowd in everyday life. They don't wear a suit to work or school. However, even without it, many maintain their image. To do this, just use one of the following methods:

change your hairstyle - when the ends of your hair are bleached, the image will resemble a fox;
makeup - will highlight necessary details in the form of large eyes, an animal nose, a cat’s whiskers;
clothing details in the form of a tail, ears, paws will add realism to the image.

For greater realism, the tail can be not just pinned to clothing, but threaded through a small hole in your pants or skirt. Although most often it is hung on a belt. What to use in order to match their anthropomorphic hero is decided separately by each furry.

Subculture in Russia

In our country this direction is not very popular yet. The furry trend (subculture) is just beginning to gain momentum in Russia. There are only a few thousand of those who consider themselves part of the community. Well, there are only a few of them who wear special suits.

Unlike the United States, the furry movement in Russia originated from an internal attitude. Its adherents believe that the path to perfection lies through unification best qualities animal and human. The connection must take place both in the soul and in the body.

They express their aspirations in creativity (furry art). Many of them write poems, sing songs, and draw ideal characters.

Meetings of Russian-speaking furries began to be held in Russia in 2001. You can often hear them called “Rusfurrence”.

What do furries think about themselves?

All furries have different attitudes towards their hobby. For some it is a way of life, for others it is a game.

Here are some basic tenets:

Furry is the meaning of life, in which one feels an inextricable connection with nature. In the image of an animal (real or mythical) there is a feeling of harmony with nature.
This is a normal game. Same as paintball. For war games, people dress in camouflage, take weapons and hide with them in bushes and buildings. However, they are not soldiers, and furries are not animals. They play something unusual to get to know themselves from an unknown side.
Furry is a state of mind in which the shackles of everyday life are broken. A person has the opportunity to show all his positive traits, complementing them with the characteristics of the beast. All this is embodied in works of art and in art.
Many people are attracted to nature and the feeling of peace it gives. It is better to sit alone in the form of your favorite cat than to crowd among a mass of people at a disco.

Furry(from the English Furry - covered with fur) is both a subculture of people united by life in the furry style, as well as a fandom, which includes fans creative works featuring anthropomorphic animals.

The entire everyday life of furries is built around furry art, literature (fan fiction) and crafting their own costumes. You can also find the term therianthrope- this is a person who identifies himself with some animal, bringing into his daily life elements of his character and appearance(attributes).

How did furries appear?

Let's not dig deep into history, let's just note that the emergence of humanoid animals in animated series was to blame. Researchers usually date the emergence of the movement itself to the early 1980s, when the term “furry fandom” appeared in various fantasy communities and small-circulation comic book publications. With the development of the Internet in the 1990s, sites were formed that united representatives of this subculture (for example, Furnation, FurryMUCK). From the same moment, the furry conventions Anthrocon and Further Confusion (since 1996), Midwest Fur Fest (2000), Further Confusion (2002) began.

In Russia, the furry subculture began to actively spread in the 2000s; the basis of the association is also Internet communities (for example, FurNation.ru, www.yiff.ru, Wikifur, groups on social networks, etc.). The main theme of these sites is furry art.

Furry appearance

Most furries don't stand out from the crowd. But there are representatives who try to look like animals in appearance; to do this, they use four main ways to look different:

hairstyle (if you bleach the ends of the hair, something fox-like appears in the image);
makeup: highlight the main details (for example, draw a nose) or do a full coloring;
additional clothing details: tail, ears and paws. The tail is usually hung on a belt. For those who especially want realism - any adhesive fastening (adhesive tape) and a hole in the pants.
fursuit (full suit).

Worldview

Some furries are convinced that man and animal are the essence of an indivisible natural spirit. We should learn a lot from animals, and never break that sacred chain connecting us into a single rational living state On the Earth. As researcher O. S. Lisitsyna notes, the path to perfection, from the point of view of furries, lies in combining the best qualities of man and beast at the level of body and soul. Fandom members build their entire worldview on this basis and strive to embody this perfection in themselves. Creativity is a way for furries to satisfy their spiritual search, expressed in drawings, stories, songs, poems, etc.

In furry folklore, there is a widespread tradition of dreams, where they completely feel like animals, live in an animal environment, run low, hugging the grass, swim under the thickness of turquoise ocean water, dig the earth, fly with their wings spread wide over the unknown expanses of the planet... Such dreams are a clear sign for them the presence of the animal spirit in us. Every person is like their Twin Beast, and furries have a lot to say about that.

Fursona and role-playing games

A common social practice in this community is to create fursonas(English fursona from persona - mask) - an anthropomorphic image of an animal or avatar. More than 95% of representatives have an anthropomorphic avatar or their own image. For many furries, fursonas have personal significance, representing a meaningful representation of an ideal self. Furries can paint their fursona themselves, or order an image from a furry artist, such orders are sometimes called commissions(from the English commission - to give an order).

Furries use fursonas as characters to participate in online role-playing game sessions, multiplayer text-based computer games, web forums and correspondence. The oldest multi-player world is FurryMUCK (although it was preceded by a BBS called The Beastie Board, in which discussions often devolved into role-playing). Another popular furry group game is Furcadia.

Opinion of sociologists

The furry subculture is widespread mainly among young people; it can often act as a form of social adaptation, with a disrupted socialization process, which results in an attempt to socialize in closed communities, a feeling of one’s own exclusivity, and an escape from reality, replaced by new social practices.

According to researchers, participation in a subculture can also be a modification of totemism, personifying oneself with the image of an animal in order to borrow a certain set of psychological, social or physical qualities. For most young people, this is, rather, an opportunity to realize their creative potential in drawings, stories, costume and makeup modeling and music.

Researchers note that furry characters are represented mainly by predatory mammals (approximately 52% felines ( in Russian anime culture they are called neko), 39% canids and 9% other carnivores). There are also ungulates and other mammals and birds; Reptiles and amphibians appear relatively rarely. Feline characters are represented by lions, less commonly tigers, cheetahs, leopards, jaguars, panthers, cats and lynxes. Dog characters- These are mainly foxes and wolves.

Sociologist A. A. Chubur expresses the opinion that the predominance of predators in furry art is probably associated with the subconscious search for an imaginary patron among ancient peoples (totemism) up to self-identification with him - an attempt to become more powerful through the image created on paper or in thoughts. The mechanism for the birth of images of zooanthropomorphs in a modern representative of the subculture differs little from the mechanism for the birth of images in the brain of a Paleolithic artist (Chubur, 2007).

A. A. Chubur makes the assumption that the furry subculture is based on archetypal thinking. He views the surge of interest in zooanthropomorphs as a defensive reaction of turning to mythological thinking in order to overcome modern social problems(increasing alienation, crisis of morality, religion, ecology, etc.) (Chubur, 2009).

0 Today, Japanese animation has become quite popular in Russia. A lot of teenagers became interested in this overseas phenomenon. In connection with this, they have some questions about incomprehensible expressions and terms that they encounter in anime. On the website we will open your eyes to the meaning of many words, so do not forget to bookmark us. After all, we will have a lot more useful information. Today we will touch upon such a word as Furry, which means you can read a little lower.
However, before I continue, I would like to recommend you a couple more sensible publications on the topic of anime slang. For example, what does Itadakimas mean, Konbanwa translation, what is Oyasumi, what does Watashi mean, etc.
So let's continue What does Furry mean? translation?

Furry- this is a characteristic subculture, which includes people who are interested in anthropomorphic (human-like) animals in animation, fine arts, design and even fiction

There is no single definition of what it is Furry. Even within this fandom, people can't always agree on what makes a person a Furry.

Some argue that being a Furry means talking and even thinking in furry, kawaii, cute words and expressions. When you meet like-minded people, wear the appropriate outfit, draw cute animals, write about them amazing stories, but don’t use “fluffy” jargon in your speech - you don’t Furry.

Some argue that just liking anthropomorphic creatures makes you a Furry fan. You may have no idea that Furry fandom exists and have never heard of " furry convention", not to mention one of the many websites. Actually liking any anthropomorphic creatures makes you a Furry.

In my opinion, if you consider yourself Furry, then this is just your personal opinion.

As with any hobby, most furries are... normal people, like everyone else you meet in large numbers at work, at school, in the park, or anywhere. Although there is a small percentage, the main core, who have taken this hobby into “armament” and completely distorted its meaning, sometimes literally.
This phenomenon arose as a merger science fiction, comics and animation fandoms in the 1980s. It flourished, grew, and developed into its own branch of fandom. After some time, this hobby found adherents all over the world. This number is quite enough for them to be considered as a separate formed subculture. Furry fandom has a very strong presence on the Internet. In addition, every year Furry fan meetings are held in North America and Europe, the largest of which is Anthrocon in Philadelphia in July, with an attendance of about 2,500 people. Another congress is held every January in San Jose, California, and is almost as large as the Philadelphia one. In 2004, 19 such conventions took place worldwide.

Some Furry fans create furry characters (imaginary characters based on their own personalities) that make them well known within the fandom. A common desire among these fans is to explore their self-identity. They can write stories themed around their characters, organize dates so they can bring their character to life, or engage in role-playing games at one of the many "furry-themed MUDs" on the Internet, the oldest of which are FurryMUCK. When these Furry fans meet each other in person, they may be more familiar with each other's online personas than with their real-life selves.
Today there are many artists who are exclusively engaged in drawing furry characters, since it brings in good money.

After reading this article, you learned What does Furry mean? photo, and you won’t get into trouble again if you find this word again.

Who are Furries? And what kind of subculture could there be with such a strange name?

Translated from English, Furry ["fɜːrɪ] means fur, fluffy. Of these simple words One can already imagine that furry members are somehow connected with animals and their appearance.

The basis of the furry subculture is the fusion of man and animal into a single whole. This anthropomorphization of the animal world is due to the sympathy of humans (furries) for bright representatives of comics, cartoons and even films with four-legged friends. But this is only one of the reasons for the existence of furries. There are also a lot of positive motives, along with psychological, social and forced-commercial ones. But about the worst side of it beautiful world we won't say because her share is so small and isolated that it's just Zilch.......

So, what do these furries look like, and how can we find them among us?

In the everyday hustle and bustle of life, in transport, in line to see the doctor, and in similar social fleas, it is not easy to meet a Furry. Outwardly, these are the same people as you and me, only in conversation one can understand their special love for animals, for individual representatives of this vast fauna. In their dialogues one can discern a desire to be endowed with special qualities from the animals that appeal to them. More often, these are reaction speed, fur cover, endurance, fangs and claws, keen vision, connection with nature, the ability to talk with animals... But this is not all that can be heard, a lot can be seen...

You can see furries at children's parties, festivals dedicated to thematic films, at rallies for the protection of nature, at public performances of the Foundation for the Protection of Wild Animals, at furry conventions, and at sports. events and at many other events that do not cancel their presence. This is exactly where you will be able to notice and even admire their art of transformation!

Dressed in the costume of an anthropomorphic creature, they play with the public, more often with children, sometimes with real animals, although sometimes they get a lot of punishment from the second and third ones. Furries love to play with each other, flirt like animals, attack, bark, tickle and hug. In general, these are very positive and pleasant people. Many of them spend a lot of time to sew/order/buy a costume for their favorite animal.

The costume (fursuit) can be made either in the form of a simple mascot mascot or in the form of complex designs with movement mechanisms jaws , ears , tails , volumetric eyes And . . Such animatronics are often also radio-controlled. For example, the second person - the furry's assistant - can control the movements of the ears, straighten the mane, raise the spikes and much more that the furry does not have enough hands for.

The average cost of a suit is around $1000 US, but it is widely spread across the pricing boundaries, it all depends on your imagination and the degree of resemblance to an animal multiplied by the mechanization of the suit. The cost of a “head” is often half the cost of the entire fursuit.

Spiritually

Some of the furries are convinced that man and animal are the essence of an indivisible natural spirit. We should learn a lot from animals, and never break that sacred chain connecting us into a single intelligent living state on planet Earth. Most convinced furries have dreams (by the way, maybe you have dreamed them too) where furries completely feel like animals, live in an animal environment, run low to the grass, swim under the thickness of turquoise ocean water, dig the earth, fly with their wings spread wide over unknown the vastness of the planet... Such dreams for them are a clear sign of the presence of an animal spirit in us. Each person is like their Twin Beast, and furries can tell you a lot about this.

Furry identifies himself at the level of soul and body with an animal, and tries to live according to the new canons of his non-existence. Such people are generally peace-loving, do not tolerate violence, protect nature and financially support animal protection funds.

Nothing is alien to man

Abstract human thinking and the ability to combine seemingly contradictory things at first glance led part of the interested subculture to intimate question. Which, in principle, is inevitable in everything wherever a person’s sophisticated mind works. Furry cybersex has become one of the components creative activity this big furry. Within such an interesting society, disagreements often arise at the forefront of an intimate, slippery issue. Some believe that those who practice yiff art and furrkiber sex ohm are not worthy to be called furry, others demand that they be separated into a separate caste... Still others, who are not furry in spirit, but wear a suit because job responsibilities They don’t even want to think about it.

Habitat

What furry fans think (furry fandom) subculture arose back in 1965, when the animated series “Jungle Emperor” by Osama Tezuka was released, but Fred Patten, an anime historian, believes that the starting point of the subculture lies closer to us, or rather in the coordinates of the 1980 science fiction convention, when the image of one of The anthropomorphic characters in Steve Galacci's book caused a heated debate, and thereby formed a group of fans. Throughout the 80s, they published furry-themed fanzines, collected literature and film material with anthropomorphic characters, created fan clubs and much more.

Whatever the origins of the furry fandom, by the late 1980s there was enough interest in the community to organize its first furry convention in California. Now the conventions are held annually in North America and Europe. Auctions are often held at such events, and the funds raised go to the Animal Welfare Fund. In Russia, such events have been gaining popularity since 2001.

And of course, don’t forget about the Internet. He played a big role in the development of the furry subculture. Now, in its vastness you can find numerous fan sites, radio and television. Even online role-playing game"Second life" has a place for furries, not to mention numerous MMORPGs.

Representatives of the furry subculture can be found in almost every corner of the earth. Russia is no exception. Even your neighbor next door may turn out to be a secret furr fan.

Others

There is a subculture of therianthropes (werewolves) for whom the connection between furries and cartoon characters is offensive. They do not associate themselves in any way with furries and their origins. More seriously, one can say "on scientific approach"They look at the connection between man and animal. Therianthropes consider themselves animals living through a tragic mistake in the bodies of people. Highest point development, or more correctly, the harmony of an animal and a human being in unity, they consider shapeshifting, this is when a body can transform into an animal and back into a human body.

There is a concept Kigurumi, which for the Japanese means the same furry - a person dressed in a suit cartoon character... However, on the Internet, onesies have so far been assigned to characters with human persons and frank suits...

That's all

Furries will seem strange to some, frivolous people to others, others will see beauty in them, and others will become another member of this large and inconspicuous society. Be that as it may, it’s still good that furries are positive good people helping animals and nature.

[ ], as a lifestyle. Its followers are called furfags(from furry faggots(furry-faggots); they call themselves furies(units - fur, plural collected - Fourier).

Spread of the phenomenon

The number of furphages is constantly increasing. This is due to the fact that people who want to give up real world in favor of fantasies, they always find what they consider useful for themselves. Like all subcultures, furfaggotria is inclined to spread and search for new adherents, since it is more convenient for a furfag to communicate with the same furfag than with a normal person. Because total number furfags are constantly increasing, they are distributed on the Internet, where they always emphasize their belonging to furry, while always engaging in campaigning in order to attract new supporters.

Usually, new person is lured by relatively harmless pictures of humanoid animals to tendentious forums and chats, where more extreme ones are consistently imposed on him - yiff and plushophilia [ ] . Thus, a person is drawn into an environment of mentally inadequate people, and then he himself becomes one. Further stay of the adherent in the environment of the sect leads to inevitable intellectual, psychological and moral degradation, increasing deviation, and painful impressions turn the average furfag into a pederast, a plushophile, and sometimes even a zoo- or pedophile [ ] .

Internet distribution

On furfag websites and forums, any statements that reflect furries in a negative light are immediately deleted, and their authors are blocked. Furries are extremely active and negative towards any criticism, demanding that material they dislike be removed; furfags have repeatedly staged wars of edits, contacted the hosters of sites with an anti-furfaggotric orientation and threatened their authors with violence. One of the administrators of Wikipedia is a furfag and is vigilantly ensuring that nothing appears in its Russian-language part that would contain criticism of furfaggotry. For example, on http://iichan.ru/fr/ any criticism of furry therianthropy results in an immediate ban, and the criticism itself is deleted.

Furry drawings

Paintings of furies are a common collectible item for furfags. The overwhelming majority of them are yiff and only a small part carries any other meaning. For this reason, furry drawings have no value for a mentally healthy person.

Furfaggotric comics are a separate genre, the most famous of them being “Associated student bodies”, which is a kind of analogue of the seditious homoerotic film “Brokeback Mountain”.

Sexual aspects of furry fandom

Different views on sexuality have caused many contradictions and conflicts within the furry fandom. For example, erotic creativity - a style known as yiff art - and furry cybersex. . The term "yiff" itself is most often used to refer to sexual activity or creativity. It refers to sexual activity within a subculture, whether it takes place in the real world or the virtual one. The term is also used to describe sexual arousal and the materials that cause it. In the subculture itself, there is an explanation of the etymology of this term, namely that it is an onomatopoeia of the sound that foxes make when mating

Fandom Poll

"The Sociology of Furry Fandom", a survey conducted by David J. Rust, the purpose of which was to clarify the nature of social and sexual relations, taking place in the fandom, included 360 respondents (325 in person, and 35 online). The survey showed that:

Furry fans exhibit a "tolerant" attitude towards some aspects of sexuality.
Fandom includes a large number of homosexuals, bisexuals, people who support polygamous relationships and other non-traditional forms of relationships.
48% of respondents reported being bisexual, 25% heterosexual, 19% homosexual, and 8% were unsure. Of these same respondents, 2% showed interest in bestiality, and less than 1% in “plushophilia.”
Furry fans have "more high level tolerance towards non-traditional sexual preferences and activities.”
Heterosexual furries often display bodily gestures characteristic of both sexes when communicating with furries of the same sex, without fear for their sexual orientation [ ] .

Rust explains the misperception of the furry subculture with these observations. However, the accuracy of these observations is questionable for two reasons: in the Rasta survey, respondents were required to indicate their real name, and 90% of respondents answered in person, which means they were not necessarily telling the truth, and this could have influenced the results of the survey, since some are homosexual , and almost all zoophiles, keep their sexual orientation secret. Also, due to the growing fandom, Rust's survey may be outdated (the survey was published in 2002 and was based on data collected in 1997-1998).

University of California survey (2007):

Thus, the victims, or rather the adherents of furfaggotry, are either mentally abnormal, or people prone to mental deviations, or persons who have not reached psychological maturity. That is, people who are unable to adequately perceive the world around them or find opportunities for healthy communication with other people.

Such a person is offered the universal opportunity to abandon the “bad” real world in favor of a more suitable, illusory and ideal one. He is also offered a social circle endowed with certain common interests. Projecting one’s own personality onto an animal that has neither moral nor physical limitations, as well as the desire to receive an external or internal protector from external influences in the form of a beautiful and strong animal. The overwhelming majority of furfags choose for themselves the image of the most physically strong, at the same time with a relatively complex behavioral factor, animals, such as felines (lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah), canines (wolf, fox) or even dragons. Also, the synthetic image of an animal is not subject to the rules and conditions of the real world, primarily moral norms, which plays a role in the desire of furfags to realize introversion.

Furries and religion

The ideology of furries and the way in which it manifests itself is a violation of the norms of the main religions of the world, which, to one degree or another, separate man from other animals, as a being endowed with a special mind (and soul) and the ability to know God. For this reason, classifying a person with other animals, this is the overthrow of the gift given by God to man to know God and is a sin. Homosexuality and bestiality are categorically rejected by Christianity.