They Hate Us for Being Free

Hi Papabear,

I've been seeing a lot of furry hate recently on the internet, and to be honest, I am tired of people hating on us, thinking that we are all zoophiles or thermals [I think he means therians, or maybe ferals], and to see that even though we hate them (zoophiles/therians) as well, people still don't see that! I feel like the fandom is dying, and you know what? We should destroy the furry community to make a new community like it, except with thermals or zoophiles, and to not have inappropriate things like murrsuits. It should be child friendly! 

Do you think we should recreate the furry fandom and have a set of rules with it? To keep everyone more safe and to stop furry hate all together?

Anonymous (age 15)

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Dear Anonymous,

Wow, there's a lot of stuff in this letter to address. Let me see if I can do so in an organized and logical fashion.

1. You're 15, so you are likely not familiar with furry history. Truth is, furry hate has been around for decades and is nothing new. The good news is that, overall, furries are more accepted today than they once were. The media has slowly been warming to us, and capitalist society is starting to realize that there is money in furry (hence the success of Zootopia, which was produced by people who saw dollar signs in making a totally furry movie).
2. What you're proposing has already been tried in what was the Burned Furs vs. Freezing Furs debacle of the late 1990s, which was a conflict between furries who wanted to get rid of adult art (Burned Furs) and those who felt it was part of the fandom (Freezing Furs). As you can tell, the Burned Furs lost. There are a number of reasons for this ranging from the fact that those leading the Burned Furs charge were pretty much incoherent and rambling in their philosophy of why adult furry art is bad to the fact that an integral part of being a furry for many in the fandom is the freedom to explore sex and gender. An anti-porn movement has started again recently, blossoming on Twitter from a group called puriteens. Puriteens are not specific to the furry fandom, but they have been active in it and attack not only people who are okay with furporn but also zoophiles and feral furries and, I see, therians, as well. The think that feral furries are zoophiles, which of course is not at all the case.
3. I've only been noticing this movement recently in which young (especially) furries have come to associate feral furries and therians with zoophilia, so, like you, they attack these groups. This is misguided. Therians are not a group of people favoring zoophilia. It has nothing to do with this. The same for the specific group known as lycans (lycanthropes). Also, there is a long tradition of ferals being in the fandom, and many movies (animated and live action) have anthropomorphized feral animals in them, ranging from The Incredible Journey and Charlotte's Web to Bolt and Balto. So, you need to divest yourself of this belief that therians are zoophiles and need to be banished from the fandom. (Also, therians are really not furry per se, but often share interests with furries as a kind of related subculture.) As for zoophiles, they are a tiny tiny tiny minority. No, they should not be considered "okay," but the idea they are a huge problem in the fandom is exaggerated to say the least.
4. Lastly, any notions of destroying the fandom and rebuilding it are patently absurd. There are literally hundreds of thousands of furries out there indulging in their interests in anthros with absolutely no organization or structure to it. So, any attempt to control them would be like trying to herd thousands of cats from Houston to Chicago (a "cat"tle drive LOL). Cats have their own minds and don't take kindly to being penned, pushed, and pontificated at. Ain't gonna happen. They're free spirits, just like furries.

If you're looking for a subculture or fandom with rules and structure in it, the furry fandom is not where you want to be (try a Star Trek convention, maybe). It's chaotic, creative, explosive, turbulent, wild, manic, and totally counterculture. That's what makes it fun, frustrating, and amazing.

The people who hate furries hate us because we don't go by their rules. I love it. Don't let it bother you, because they only hate us because they can't control us. Kind of like Darth Vader hating the Old Republic because it didn't conform to his ideas of control.

There is a lot of pressure and hate against people who are trying to be free. Yes, it can be hard, and I understand you're upset about it, but that's a part of what being a furry is.

Bear Hugs,
Papabear