The idea that you could be a man trapped in a woman’s body or vice-versa is pretty common-place nowadays, thanks to years of daytime tv breaking down cultural taboos in the name of selling advertising. But less widely known is the belief some people hold that they are perhaps a wolf or a rabbit, an elf, an alien or even a dragon trapped in a human body. Welcome to the other side.
From what I can tell, each of the subcultures we are about to explore grew out of either science-fiction fandom, or neopaganism, or in some cases it would seem a bit of both. All seem to have at their core a common root belief in the great importance and power of the imagination - perhaps excessively so.
Furries, from what I can tell, are a subset of people who are really into anthroporphized animals. Typically this takes the form of cartoons, comic books, etc which feature animal characters who may wear human clothes and live out a more or less human lifestyle. From there, the furry fascination seems to veer off into many sub-sets.
The media portrayal of furries tends to focus on the… fetish aspects of the whole thing. Yeah, it’s gonna get a little weird here, but stay with me, cause we’re going somewhere neat. To put it bluntly, there are furries who like to fuck stuffed animals. They are called “plushies” (although that also seems to be a more neutral term for somebody who is just really into stuffed animals - not necessarily sexually. Anyway, here’s a good article on that from Salon). There are also elements of the furry subculture who basically dress up in animal suits and, well, dryhump each other. Now, even though that’s the prevailing image of these people in the public eye, many furries go to great lengths to distance themselves from the stuffed animal fuckers and the costumed dry humpers - the so-called furverts (oh, and also there is another segment of the culture which is really into animal-on-animal anime style cartoon porn - them too).
There’s a good article about furries on MetroActive which has this to add to the discussion:
The furry love of companionship, physical affection and sexual openness has sometimes led outsiders to mistake furriness for a sexual fetish. But to claim that furriness is only about sex is a misunderstanding.
As Tom said, “I’m a furry because I want to be fearless about having feelings. I look to animals for ways of expressing myself about how I feel.”
I know it sounds weird, but I believe there may be something to it. That is, these people are highly conscious of their identities and how malleable they are, and how they can have power over it. It may come off as strange to those of us on the outside, but lets dig a little deeper. Here’s a nice quote from the LA Alternative Press:
TessaCat, a young, slender blonde who likes to wear ears, a leotard and cat makeup to conventions, explains that she’s been dressing like a cat at parties since age 17. A shy teenager, she says she found that “You can be another person when you’re in a cat suit, and then change back into your regular clothes and not take any responsibility for your actions.â€
Tessa says she would go to parties in her leotard, get lots of attention, flirt with every guy there, and not have to worry about taking on the high school label of “slut.†When she took the suit off, she could slip back into her shy persona.
Most people are gonna see that and think: “Cat suit? This bitch is crazy! She needs to come join the real world!” But how crazy is she? What she does by wearing a cat suit, many people do by drinking alcohol or taking drugs. They allow themselves to adopt a persona, a sort of “girls gone wild” version of themselves. Then, the next day get to shrug the whole thing off as a drunken escapade and return back to ordinary life. Is that any more or less socially maladjusted? You tell me. And that’s just one costume that we put on socially. What about when we go to work, when we’re an employee, a boss, a student, a lover, a sibling? Cat suits all the way across the board.
And then we have the otherkin, a diverse group of (usually) neopagans who tend to believe that they are typically more than human. Some believe they are vampires, some fairies, angels, demons, dragons - you name it. While it likely sounds preposterous to most people, these things are taken very seriously online and in the fantasy-based subcultures built around them. There are no objective rule sets for determining whether or not you are an otherkin. If you’re interested in hunting around though, you could start here. Typically, the signals seem to point to things like “enhanced” senses, empathy/mild telepathy (ie, intuition), high IQ, separation or feeling “out of touch.” (Not surprisingly, many of these traits also clearly describe geeks - a large constituent of all the subcultures described here.) Wikipedia adds:
Although the otherkin community is a diverse and loosely-defined one and lacks an explicit ideology, some beliefs are especially common. Otherkin tend to have a number of New Age sensibilities and to be very open to supernatural concepts, particularly belief in the soul or spirit. Other common beliefs in the otherkin community include animism, Neo-Paganism, totemism, possession, reincarnation, and other paranormal events. However, just as some otherkin believe that they are physically non-human and some don’t, not all otherkin believe in the literal existence of these concepts.
Some hold these beliefs not as a search for the truth, but as a way to help understand and explore themselves. Indeed, as the community has expanded and become more self-analytical in recent years, a number of otherkin have begun explaining their association with non-human imagery as nothing but an exercise to help become in touch with their “true selves”.
The whole thing rather reminds me of the “Indigo Children” phenomena which has circulated in New Age and pop spirituality circles for some time now. Basically, the idea is that “magical” children are being incarnated right now on earth with a special purpose - sort of like emissaries sent from some kind of universal divine source to free our world. Wikipedia reports a set of common characteristics attributed to these kids:
- They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it).
- They have a feeling of “deserving to be here,” and are surprised when others don’t share that.
- Self-worth is not a big issue; they often tell the parents “who they are.”
- They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
- They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
- They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don’t require creative thought.
- They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like “system busters” (nonconforming to any system).
- They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
- They will not respond to “guilt” discipline (”Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did”).
- They are not shy in letting it be known what they need.
In other words, they are totally normal good kids. It’s important to remember that the Indigo Children phenomena seems to have been largely invented or at least spear-headed by a duo of authors to sell books. Does that mean it’s not true or not helpful to people? I don’t really think that matters. It is what it is.
But what is it? What is any of this? Why pretend like your child is from outer space? Why say you’re really a werewolf? Why have sex with stuffed animals….? Okay, so that last one doesn’t totally fit. Or maybe it does. I think the point is that people are looking for something and they’re going to get it whether they have to beg, borrow or steal it from real or imaginary sources. There’s a great quote from a Village Voice article on Otherkin that I think hits the nail right on the head:
Of course, once upon a time, another species was widely believed to have this kind of connectedness: human beings. Before industrialization and urbanization, people depended on their feelings and intuition rather than on shrinks and Oprah. The people lived in tune with nature thanks to a largely agricultural existence, until the Enlightenment and its attendants—calculus, petroleum and animal vivisection—turned the universe into clockwork, work into wage slavery, and the family into a demographic market segment. Elves are now what people once were, before we all got office jobs, health insurance, and credit card debt, before life became like running across a flaming rope bridge. Thanks to modern society, we’re all Frankenstein’s monster. None of us fit.
So does that mean that weirdos are actually heros? Well, I don’t know if I would say that really. But they’re out there, experimenting, trying to get hold of something missing in life. And yeah, some of it’s pretty disturbing, but life’s crazy. Maybe the best thing to do is love the one you’re with - even if that “one” happens to be a weird guy in a giant bunny costume.
- END -
ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
- Green Pigs & Ham
- Paganism & Otherkin-ism
- The Gnostic Equivalent of Otherkin?
- Otherkin & Falun Dafa
- Notes: A Hero Judas
33 Comments
Interesting! I’d never heard of “furverts,” although I think I remember seeing a Drew Carey episode where they have sex dressed up in bunny suits.
I also know a girl who wears cat ears all the time.
All I know is that I enjoy the company of my dog, and yes she does sleep on my bed. (But nothing more than “heavy petting” ever happens…)
Seriously, though, there is great power in invoking a different personality. Zac at Alchemical Braindamage currently has a post that sort of thing. Props and costumes help you merge with that alter-ego. That’s really all there is to magic. In Zac’s words:
I’ve always had an idea that perhaps the anthropomorphs were a result of generations of children growing up with Disney complexes, given that over the years Disney has focused more on animals with charming personalities rather than their typical Disney Princesses and human storylines. I mean, how many girls are still looking for Prince Charming? Why would it be so odd to want to look for love like Lady & the Tramp?
First - the blond in a cat suit is pretty enticing. Maybe I’m a furvert but I think I’m just a plain old pervert (in the best sense!)
On the furry toy fuckers - I seem to remember reading a while back when Star Wars Phantom Menace came out that a large stuffed Jarjar doll was a popular focus of some children’s enthusiasm….
But onto my main point, that is the first I have heard of the Indigo Kids (and it reminds me somewhat of the 3 yr old “saviour” kid in Valis)
I find it interesting that via new age beleif channels, there are the seeds being planted that
a - there are “superior humans” coming up in the next generation
b - the more recent twist is that they are more “warrior-like”
c - the traits assigned to them are selfishness and a sense of entitlement and superiority (and don’t get me wrong, I kind of get the positive side of this as well in the context of kids not wanting to be spoonfed the beliefs and norms of the previous generation, and not being affected by self worth issues, but the more insidious side is laying beside the innocuous or even positive side)
d - they will be in positions of power to change the world
(mutliple messiah like leaders…)
IF you can convince enough people of this, and they are given this sort of rope to play with, hey - who will want to admit they are not a superior super kid and just a plain old human being???
i have to admit a certain prejudice against ‘furries.’ although i have no real problem with whatever free individuals choose to practice, i find the furry philosophies and whatnot almost embarassing to the rest of humanity. it’s like fake beastiality– ick.
it’s a free country, so people are free to fuck stuffed animals, but i’m free to consider that completely repulsive, right?
and i must say i’ve come across plenty of furries with huge persecution complexes, like finding this stuff utterly repulsive is somehow stepping on their rights to dress up like goofy and dry hump a pantomime giraffe. i’m not persecuting you if i personally find getting a stiffie over a modified image of a half-human, half-horse eating (literally) a fox with wings an affront to all that is good in the world.
and for those of you who think i’m overreacting or exagerrating, check out the rather popular furry subset called “vore”:
http://www.voraphile.com/whatis/
or, perhaps the balloon-fuck subset, in which participants are sexually aroused by balloon animals:
http://www.balloonpup.com/
i guess i’m prejudiced against furries, but i find this shit utterly terrifying.
actually, it makes me think of cultural taboos, what’s considered acceptable to a particular culture. like, where does one draw the line at cultural tolerance? it’s part of certain cultures to eat dogs and cats, which i find utterly horrifying. does hating this practice make me somehow insensitve to this particular culture’s social norms? what if said culture ate humans? do we condemn the british empire for attempting to end the practice of sati, where brides would immolate themselves on their husbands’ funeral pyres? do we write off female circumcision as a cultural tradition that we should respect even though it’s a monstrous practice?
jp - yes I agree with u, they are allowed to like it and we are allowed to feel it is fucked. I guess we just can’t hurt their feelings over it. They might need to take some time out together with their favorite teddy bear, hit the Carribean together.
WTF about the balloon animals? What kind of deranged birthday parties did these kids attend? Wait, wait, don’t get hurtful… Maybe better to say, I find it really odd and unique that you enjoy rubbing your dick against a balloon.
I’m with JP. Or maybe not. I don’t find it terrifying. I find it hilarious. Yeah, dressing up in a fuzzy chipmunk costume gets me hot - c’mon! I think this is for people who are uncomfortable with the idea of adult sexuality.
Disney > dental dams
I dress up in a top hat and skeleton suit and get fall-down drunk a couple of times a year when i start taking life to seriously or even just for the hell of it, so on second thought, please give catwoman my phone number.
Oh, yeah, indigo kids, reminds me of the Little Emperors.
SPANKING!!!!!!!!!!
heh, yeah it’s funny, definitely. i guess what i mean by ‘terrifying’ is a sort of deep, existential terror that the universe is so cruel that it makes some people get sexually aroused by a gay half-seal half-kitten being eaten by an anthropomorphic dolphin. but yeah, it’s fucking hilarious to watch this stuff. i mean, if you can read this article without laughing your ass off, you’re a cold-hearted individual:
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2142
re indigo kids, i think it’s sad that these kids are being exploited by greedmongers and delusional parents. hell, i read ‘the hobbit’ at the ripe old age of four. does that mean i was an ‘indigo kid’? no, it means my dad is a linguist and had me reading at one and a half.
I used to love the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. I’ll keep this post in mind when I reread the old comic strip. Hobbes was a psychological projection of Calvin as an animal. The strip influenced me so heavily as a kid, I used to fantasize about being a dinosaur to the point my mom had to punish me for taking it to far.
OTOH…
Max, are you trying to suggest that we get drunk, rip furries limb from limb and sacrifice them to our dark pagan gods?
LOL, no but that’s a GREAT IDEA!
Actually I was just thinking that this whole furry thing goes way back - another example:
. Soetonius’ 12 Ceasars informs us that Nero enjoyed dressing up in the skins of wild animals and attacking the private parts of men and women who stood bound to stakes. Then he would “allow” himself to be ravished by his freedman doryphorus (sp? from memory, sorry) and would imitate the screams and moans of a woman being deflowered on her wedding night.
Flexible concept of self species and gender at least for the purpose of fantasy. A bit more hardcore, but how different really?
yeah, but even nero didn’t get sexually aroused by the idea of taking furries into his womb, entering another womb and being rebirthed:
http://i.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/spokkerjones~10-12-03_46.gif
he prolly also wasn’t sexually aroused by the idea of BEING KILLED AND EATEN:
http://i.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/spokkerjones~10-12-03_46.gif
if you can stomach it, this selection of posts from furry bbs’s is an absolute riot, like some kind of sideshow . . . .
oop, link:
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1727
something awful is a fantastic comedy site, btw.
Tim, I’m sure this has already occurred to you, but Hans Jonas has argued that Gnosticism could have only emerged in the context of the late Roman Empire during a period of severe cultural pessimism, coupled with multiculturalism and the spread of foreign ideas via Asian trade routes. Kinda like now, in the US.
Reminds me of yer previosu post about the popular acceptance of homosexuality in imperial societies - plushies, furries etc could by a symptoim of the same thing.
HAW, maybe I should rename myself Victor David Manson and write a pompous essay about Furries as an indicator of the decline of the west or something…
Fuck furries, these guys are the BOMB!
http://www.dispatchesfromthevanishingworld.com/dispatch3/dispatch3c.html
The more I think about it this is all very primal, primordial, unconscious mytheopic sorta stuff… I mean, being rebirthed, eaten, returning from the womb, ripped apart, transformed into an animal… these “Furries” are maybe just trapped in a culture that no longer has a time or place for this kinda stuff. Remove the disnified “cuteness” factor and this starts to look completely different.
yeah, but the disnified ‘cuteness’ factor can’t be removed– it’s part and parcel of the whole thing. if the furries were a secret society of naguals who conducted mind-bending rituals or committed terrible crimes, that might convince me that there’s something more to it. but instead they dress up like sonic the hedgehog and do congo lines through convention centers. i just. can’t. take. that. seriously.
Hmmm… also, maybe “Indigo Children” are just a goofy newager way of expressing the same ideas discussed by ALice Miller in Drama of the Gifted Child or Wilhelm Reich in Children of the Future.
To quote Mickey Rourke from Barfly, maybe what they really need is “a little hint of death”!
Hell, I’m 35, I was an angry punk rocker with a shaved head and combat boots, a few years later i caught the tail end of rave and did massive amounts of drugs, maybe this furries crap is the next big thing for alienated teens, it definitely seems silly as shit to me but who am i to judge?
OK now, THIS I can get behind!
ah, newmar’s hot, but give me eartha kitt any day . . . .
practicing your best carnivorous praedator act is a much better way to start your day than `fraidy-cat. unless your thing is submissive.
and ertha kitt is just wrong……just ask eddie murphy.
“Indigo Children†parents, whether they use the name or just the “My child is the most amazing child in the world!!!!” attitude, is one of the reasons I dislike public education so much. My old elementary school actually had classes removed because only the best in certain subjects got in, and many parents just couldn’t grasp that their little Johnny might not in fact be perfect at everything.
I’ve never heard of Indigo Children Syndrome, but it sounds to me like good old-fashioned Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
LOL.
such a beautiful flower.
The idea that a “new generation” is emerging, made up of people who are somehow more spiritually sensitive and advanced than the rest of us and who will usher in a new era of peace and enlightenment, seems to have been kicking around for about a century. “Indigo Children” is the latest incarnation in a lineage that includes Brad Steiger’s “Starseed” books. The Starseed books also included checklists which one could supposedly use to determine whether they had alien ancestry; characteristics included creativity, dislike for authority, and the like, as well as (I am not making this up) blonde or red hair and graceful and slender hands.
This sort of thinking, to my mind, represents one of the worst excesses that the New Age has in common with Christian premillenialism: the idea that ’someone else’ will come forward and save the world for us in due time, whether it be the Second Coming of Christ or a new generation of enlightened humans. The few self-proclaimed “Indigos” I’ve known weren’t doing much in the way of going out there and saving the world, however– they were all seeking something spiritually, but didn’t seem to have much in common beyond that. Perhaps I just didn’t bother getting to know them well enough to discover any kind of common ground.
Otherkin is an issue I feel a bit differently about. I can say that, initially, to see the concept explained in the abstract elicited responses from me along the lines of “That’s going too far. Just because you’re different doesn’t mean you aren’t human.” Personal communication with self-identified otherkin has given me a somewhat different view. There are some who find the idea of ‘checklists’ for kin-ness to be a dubious proposition, and feel that one’s identification as kin should be based on personal convictions and symbologies, rather than on fitting certain stock characteristics. In fact, I’ve seen some fairly strong hostility by some otherkin towards “cosmic power kiddies,” young people who are drawn primarily to the power trip of identifying with legendary creatures and the idea that it makes them ‘better than humans.’
I have no analogue to the feeling of “I’m not human” in my own experience, so any attempts of mine to explain the entire phenomenon of otherkin must be taken as an outsider analysis. I’ve certainly experienced my share of alienation and not fitting in for various reasons, but I never went from that point to feeling that I was a wholly different species, in some sense, from those who surrounded me. There was a certain point where, if the concept had been presented to me in the right way, I might have latched onto it as being a conceivable explanation for my differences; and indeed, there does seem to be a definite percentage of self-identified otherkin who jump on the idea for that reason. However, had I done so, I believe I would have discarded it eventually, as I considered and discarded several metaphysical ideas about why I felt alienated. I discarded them because they were not borne out of any deep personal convictions or symbols; I merely ‘fit the criteria’ which someone else had laid out for me. Moreover, I gained nothing from any of those explanations except to feel further alienated– I experienced no spiritual growth, no emotional resolution, no sense of peace with myself from trying to believe in them.
The particular otherkin I’ve met who impressed me as genuine and authentic, however, had very dissimilar experiences. Many of them described fascination and emotional identification with particular creatures from childhood, and, perhaps more importantly, a sense of resolution and contentment when they stopped trying to “fight” the image, and allowed themselves to identify with it on varying levels. Actually, I’ve known some older people who felt all their lives that they were ’something else,’ without having any common vocabulary to describe it. I can see how this works, in a way, because I’ve found the most spiritual growth and emotional resolution in focusing on my ‘original’ symbols, the images and concepts which intrigued me from childhood.
Of course there are plenty of otherkin who are probably just experimenting with what they see as a ‘cool’ idea; in my time spent in and around communities focused on various types of non-standard identity, I’ve concluded that you will always get a lot of those. It’s unavoidable. Some otherkin complain of outsiders who presume that “I’m different” equates to “I’m special and better than you”; the problem is that there *are* going to be quite a few who think it makes them special and better.
However, I’m always intensely curious about how and why people come to their beliefs. I’m intrigued by the issue of what draws the honest ones specifically to individual beings, to dragons or elves or wolves, as opposed to a mere general feeling of ‘differentness.’ There’s a kind of ‘mock the weirdos’ thinking which seems to be fostered in a lot of online communities, such that I occasionally find myself leaning in that direction, and have to stop and remind myself that my own beliefs and self-identity would be considered bizarre or overly extreme by many.
Well, I first have to say that the article itself was a good one; the writer was concise and unbiased, and I enjoyed reading it. He also provided links to further info, which allows the readers to look into the concepts deeper if they choose to do so.
Unfortunately, JP, revmax and substanceM all decided to make this into something that should, to anyone who reads what they posted, explain why people who call themselves furries feel persecuted. No, there isn’t anything wrong with you feeling a certain way, or speaking your mind about it… but then, do you need to spout the shit circling your brain in the way you did, making yourself look like a prejudiced, hateful, mocking ass, or could you have phrased and posted differently, trying not to sound like all you were doing is sniping at the people the article was talking about?
*shrugs* It doesn’t really matter, I guess, but think of it like this: You say you should have the right to feel the way you feel; that’s fine. But lets say you have a mustache, and I don’t like mustaches. Should I be able to harp on that fact in your hearing, pointing out all the bad things I think about them and basically talking about you without even including you in the conversation? And not only that, but to a crowd of people, some of whom have no opinion one way or another, thereby influencing them, just because I think a certain way? No. How do you expect someone to feel, if this is the best people who aren’t like them can do for intelligent conversation? (Not that you were able to hold to that for all that long; you kinda lost it half way though the first post, JP.)
On another note, I wanted to post a bit about the feelings that some people might have, because I myself have another aspect to myself. I don’t think of myself as otherkin, but I get that label from a lot of people. To me what I feel is just that; feelings, emotions, and beliefs, not something that was created by some online community; I felt this way a long time before I ever heard the words ‘furry’ or ‘otherkin’.
Basically, I believe in a certain spirit, specifically a dragon spirit. The closest thing I can associate it to that I’ve found is Taoism, and the way I believe and that are very similar. I’ve felt like that spirit is watching over me and guiding me in my life, this feeling has given me a sense of strength and purpose in my life that I didn’t always feel otherwise.
I came apon this by meditation and deep thought, a process that I would engage in for hours, trying to focus and clear my mind. When I first came apon this feeling I was more or less thinking I had let my mind wander, but the same feelings and perceptions returned each time, until I was sure there was a reason for it. I actually researched into it, to try to find out if there were other instances of the same thing happening, and there weren’t many I could find, so I had to kinda go on what I could feel.
The other aspect of what happened with me was more of an internal thing; in my looking inward, I began to see another looking back at me from deep in my mind and yes, I would say my soul as well. I looked deeper, and there I saw a black dragon, that eventually became my persona, and who I think of as my soultwin; the other half of myself. I explored what I had found, and the closer I got to him, the clearer my bond to him became; the two of us were odd, opposite sides of the same coin, together, yet separate.
I was able to get a good feeling from Dracos, and he from me, and we drew closer together, until I would say we are more or less the same now… At first, it felt as if he were someone new, but as time passed he and I became basically the same person, kept apart by the thinest of veils. I think at least some otherkin feel this way about themselves, but I also don’t think there’s any boundaries to what makes you decide to feel that way; some people take longer to reach the decision than others. amd look into it deeper.
As for all the freaky, weird, sick crap that those three were pointing to and laughing about? They all forgot to point out and notice one thing: that stuff is a prevailent in human society as it is in the furry community, and maybe more so… where do you think all these ideas came from? People crap and piss on each other, wear latex suits (remember the balloon thing?), screw helpless animals, torture each other, and submit to the most degrading treatment… and not a one of them are furry. Just ‘normal’ humans.
Saying that there’s something wrong with furries liking odd things without pointing to a few things ‘plain ol’ humans’ like is exactly what you say you’re NOT doing; persecuting them. If you feel something needs to be ragged on, go all out, don’t just pick one kind of person or thing and harp on it.
Dracos, I’m glad you’re here offering a first-hand perspective on these things. That was my original hope was to offer an opportunity for all sides to come together and talk about it.
I think though that maybe if you read some of the comments again, they weren’t all intended in such a negative light as you maybe read them the first time around.
In any case, you mentioned this:
Absolutely! You should 100% be allowed to do that and JP or anybody else should be prepared for the consequences, as should you.
Anyway I do like your point about the “perverse” side of the furry/etc community is nothing new, and merely a subset of human activity in general. I think that’s a very valuable thing to keep in mind. But at the same time, I don’t see the harm in people being fascinated by these aspects of the furry community. It’s interesting and different from what people are used to and introduces them to new ideas and lifestyles. Whether or not they approve, their perspectives are widened in the process.
I’m sorry if anything I wrote came across as hateful. I did try to indicate that I don’t feel qualified to judge this phenom except insofar as I see parallels to certain shamanic prqatcices but I did engage in some mockery too and for that I am must apologize.
yeah, me too. sorry.