I’m relatively new to the culture of the fandom but I’ll do my best to give an explainer.
The furry fandom consists of people who are into art and stories featuring anthropomorphic animals. Most people already have exposure to stuff like this through regular media. Think Zootopia/Zootropolis or even Bugs Bunny. Furries are people who like these sorts of characters more than the average person. For instance, if I’m playing a videogame and it gives me the option to play as a human or some kind of animal person I’m basically always going to pick the animal option.
Over time a culture with its own conferences, in jokes and references has built up around our love for these kinds of characters. People take their involvement to different levels. Some people just consume art and talk with other likeminded people on the internet. Other people make their own stuff (like the great stories in this thread) and may even go to conventions to meet others from the fandom, learn about topics like character design and story telling and buy furry oriented merch. A very small percentage of people (about 5%) like to dress up in full body fursuits at conventions. These suits are basically works of art and potentially cost a few thousand dollars because they are custom made. From what I’ve heard they’re very hot and uncomfortable even if they can look really cute.
Most people in the fandom have an animal character that represents themselves or an idealized version of themselves. Basically a personal mascot that they use to represent themselves online. Many times people with fursuits are wearing a costume of that character. We call this a fursona (fur persona). Not everyone has one and it’s not a requirement to call yourself a furry. Mine is a squirrel named Brambleberry. A lot of times you will see ref sheets like this that people use to commission art of their fursonas. Being an artist in this fandom is kind of a privileged position since we create all the media that fuels it.
In fact there are zero requirements or barriers to entry in the fandom. You just have to like animal people and want to call yourself a member. I’ve been into furry art for a few years, but didn’t have a fursona or consider myself a part of the fandom until pretty recently.
One of the things I like about it is that unlike other fandoms centered around a tv show or a certain genre (like the Star Trek or Anime fandoms) the furry fandom is all about celebrating each other and the great stuff we make. In general it’s a very open and accepting group of people. Due to this a high percentage of us identify as LGBTQ. When you’re a furry there’s no judgement about who you are, it’s about celebrating and honoring what makes each person unique. Of course there’s always bad apples, but I’d say this mindset applies to 90% of people.
There is a NSFW element. There are very talented artists in it, but you can avoid it easily if it’s not your thing. So now that you’ve read my dissertation on furries here are a couple SFW places you can check out if you want to learn more:
SFW furry art and culture subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/furry/
List of furry webcomics:
https://www.reddit.com/r/furry/wiki/webcomics
