Defining “Furry:” Identity Construction and Articulation in the Furry Fandom

Abstract

Furries, in the most inclusive of terms, are people who are fans of anthropomorphic creatures and characters. But this is also the simplest definition, and the full definition for furries, furriness, and the Furry Fandom is much more complicated. This dissertation investigates the Furry Fandom from a rhetorical perspective that aims to explore: how furries define furriness as an identity and the Furry Fandom as a group; what factors may influence those definitions; and how those definitions interact with the definitions for furriness and the Furry Fandom held by other furries, platformed by furry spokespeople, held by non-furries, and portrayed in popular non-furry media. This is a mixed-methods study, guided by queer methodologies and with data collected via the combination of a survey and follow-up interviews. Through a quantitative survey digitally distributed to members of the Furry Fandom, participants were asked how they engaged with their furriness, how they viewed the Furry Fandom, and how they perceived non-furries to view furriness and Furry Fandom. Fifty-four (54) responses were collected. Then, five (5) volunteers were chosen from among those survey participants to engage in one-on-one interviews where they could provide more detailed qualitative responses. And although the findings of this research focus on furriness and the Furry Fandom, the insights provided could be applicable to numerous other queer communities. These insights include: how the various aspects of our identities interact with one another; how we determine who does and does not belong in our communities; the power of labels to contextualize our communities; the value of academic labels in real-world scenarios; the conflict between perception and data; how we stigmatize and/or embrace sex in our communities; and the tension between how we are viewed by community outsiders, how we perceive those views, how those views influence our own, and how we respond to them, especially in the case of stigmatization. And these findings should also serve as a foundation for future rhetorical research on the Furry Fandom, including a yet-untested hypothesis for a queer rhetorical practice of identity maintenance, which the author has named “strategic exclusion.”