CNN runs a whole dang
in-depth story on furry culture:
"There's a magic moment when you put a costume on and see yourself in the mirror," says Mr Woods. "It's simultaneously disorienting and exhilarating. You actually do feel that you've changed for just a moment."
Anthrozoologist, Kathy Gerbasi, who studies human-animal interactions and furries, has witnessed furry interaction first-hand.
"People say that being in a fur suit allows you to do things you might not otherwise do, like dance in public, clown around, give people a hug," she says.
It just kinda hit me how utterly insane this entire thing is. Since there's been the internet there's been furries, but I'd always chalked it up to "obscure bizzare sexual fetish" and left it at that. "Whatever". These people are probably just our confused teens and bus drivers, right? I mean, this is just an occasional indulgence!
This "furry culture" the article goes on about - the full fursuits and hugely-popular fucking
international furcons - this is people donning entirely different bodies, taking on entirely different personalities, and trying like
hell to make it real. I never realized this before, but it is a complete rejection of who you are. You leave your unspectacular human suit hunched over your computer desk, transform into a gigantic bipedal talking fox person, and only then can you be uninhibited enough to indulge in some measure of actual, real-life fun.
I can't think of any other group that goes this far to try and make their real selves into an abstract fantasy personas. The sheer scale of this kind of rejection of reality is impressive.
edit:
A study by Ms Gerbasi at one furry convention found about a quarter of the participants did not consider themselves 100% human.