Curious about furry fetish and the culture of furries? So was I. Here’s what I learned about this kink by attending a furry fetish meet up.
I used to have a hard time taking the whole furry sex thing seriously. I get the appeal of cosplay and have fun around people who really go all out with costumes or building an elaborate arsenal of other characters to play. This might sometimes include plush characters. I also totally get that cutesy animal characters would be fun to take on… the Playboy Bunny is a thing, after all.
As for furries being a serious fetish, I wasn’t so sure. I hadn’t run into many people with a furry fetish within my kink community. Furries tend to have their own parties—you don’t usually show up at a hardcore S&M sex party dressed as a giant giraffe.
My whole perception changed when I got invited to one of these furry fetish parties by someone I was dating, and here’s what I found out.
5 Things You Didn’t Know about the Furry Fetish
1. Furry fetish sounds like fun, but furries take this stuff seriously.
Now I’m all about love and laughter and always find that people who take their fetish too seriously don’t have the same fun and flexibility as those who don’t. It’s easier to experiment widely if you feel free to laugh and enjoy it. I actually find that kink can get a bit creepy if it’s too serious all the time, and you can’t ease the tension with a witty quip or something.
That said, it’s one thing to keep a straight face when you’re restrained from every limb and a stern woman in thigh-high, black rubber boots is giving the orders. It’s another thing altogether when it’s a big curly poodle.
Read: Clothing Fetish: Fabric, Clothing, and Costume Kinks
2. The fantasy-fun cosplay thing is not all about fetish.
There are a lot of furry conventions that are more like Star Trek, where people of a common interest get together. The fandom phenomenon here merges with the interest in anthropomorphism.
The fetish part is not universal to all furries. There are even two distinct kinds of politics in furry world: the first is a fandom-not-fetish reminder from people with a recreational interest who feel that they’ve been co-opted by a sex thing. The second is a quirky kink group who feels it’s all about sex, sometimes taking it seriously enough to consider that it’s an orientation.
Read: Cosplay Sex: Why We Love Sexual Cosplay
You want to be clear what kind of gathering you’re going to before you get there!
3. There’s a furry language to learn.
There is special terminology and slang used within the furry world. Sex between furry friends is called yiffing. Getting into character of your chosen anthropomorphic persuasion is called donning a fursona, and bronies are a subculture of guys interested in My Little Pony.
Read: Sexual Furries and the Language of Furry Sex
4. Furries and Plushies are similar but different.
Plushies and furry fetishists are not really the same. Furries are into the whole fursona thing, which may or may not be sexual. Plushies are obsessed with plush toys. It can be a collecting thing but usually the word means a sex thing.
Plushies get aroused by the texture, cutesy qualities, and softness of plush toys. They have their favorites, they fall in love with some toys, and they actually engage in sex with the toys. Plushies who are hardcore don’t have sex with each other at all—they’re interested in relationships with synthetic fur toys, or playing the field and just hooking up with a variety of stuffed animals.
5. Otherkin is a thing.
About one in three furries reports “not feeling one hundred percent human.” Over half of them report a desire to not be human. Some go so far as to enter into a belief that they aren’t, and trans-animal has become a thing.
Furry otherkin is rare though, as most of furry fandom is about acting out a desire, not acted out from a conviction. But some with a furry fetish do identify as “other” and really believe they are cats, wolves, unicorns, etc.
Read: Pet Play: All About Animal Roleplay
Do you have a furry fetish? How do you play with this kink?
Tell us what you think