Furries can be a kinky bunch, so I decided to introduce them to you today, if you don’t know about them already.
For the uninitiated, a furry is a person who imagines themselves or others as anthropomorphic animals – that’s half animal, half human to you and me. Most furries started on this path by watching cartoons such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Jam (Lola Bunny was a firm favourite), and Disney’s version of Robin Hood, not to mention a generous handful of others.
Furrydom is not a kink for everybody. For some it is a way of feeling a closer sense of communion with the natural world, their pets, or their sense of personal identity. For others, it’s a kink, and that’s why we’re showing this to you today.
For many furries, the kink side of this scene doesn’t stop at fursuits, furry artwork, and stories. It’s a vessel for a wide variety of other fetishes.
Furries often prefer to depict their characters wearing at least one item of clothing. Completely naked characters are rare. As a result, clothing and accessories often becomes fetishized by the furry community.
Perhaps surprisingly, many furries imagine their characters wearing lingerie. The delicate details of lace, or the sometimes very numerous straps that lingerie can have, can look fabulous against an anthro character’s striped, spotted, dappled, or piebald fur.
Leather is another popular choice for fetish clothing. It has very traditional links with cattle, but it’s not only anthro cattle that can be seen wearing it – it’s a favourite throughout the many species that you can see depicted in furry communities.
As far as accessories go, piercings and tattoos also come high on many furries’ must-have list. One of the more convenient side-effects of having to commission artwork of their fursonas is that furries can take artistic license – in reality a tattoo on furry skin might be impossible to see under fur, but in artwork or on fursuits, tattoos can be seen on top of the fur. Piercings rarely present this problem, and can set off a fursona beautifully!
Shibari ropes aren’t hard to find in the scene either, and like lingerie, ropes of different colours – from the rainbow hues of red through to purple, and including special effects such as UV-active ropes – often look beautiful against an anthro’s fur or skin.
All of which leaves one obvious exclusion: footwear. Many furries love feet (or “paw” if you will), and depending on the design of the specific character, feet can either resemble human feet (feet in this style are called ‘plantigrade’) or animal feet (this is called ‘digitigrade’). However, shoes and boots are not unused in the furry community. Boots – including leather, of course – are fairly common, as are Converse, where the primary appeal is that they are thin-walled and leave the foot feeling tactile despite being covered.
*I mean Converses here. They’re pretty common in the furry community. Are you happy for the Converse brand to be mentioned here? If so, feel free to put it in!
Moving away from clothing and accessories for a moment, many furries also enjoy dildos in specialist shapes, which can deviate from the shape of the erect human penis in all sorts of ways.
Scents that tie into concepts of musk are also popular, although so far the furry-specific musky perfume market is still in its infancy. Given how under-served this portion of the market is, it’s perfectly possible to find bespoke story commissions written by writers talented with evoking specific sights and scents.
Finally, a list of furry-specific kinks wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the concept of mating seasons, oestrus or heat. As humans do not have a specific mating season this kink too is better served in literature, however there are aphrodisiacs and sensitising products available on the market that can produce similar effects, which furry fans can use.
It’s easy to find a furry who also identifies as something other than heterosexual. The furry scene bustles with people who identify as LGBTQ, and perhaps that’s not surprising. It takes an adventurous mind to explore either of these paths, both of which differ from our human-orientated, heteronormative culture, so a person who has questioned their interest in the furry scene probably feels mentally prepared to question their orientation too.
Furries don’t have the luxury of the subject of their kink being naturally available. There are no sexy foxes strutting around on two legs in real life, and definitely no dragons. Because of that, they are enthusiastic in supporting their art community. On average you can rely on furries to gush over stories, buy art by the bucketload, and order bespoke work from costumiers. It’s glorious and a wonderful scene to be in if you are an artist, writer, or crafter of any type!
They even have their own dedicated events: Confuzzled, London Furs Summer Weekender, and Fur the ‘More, to name just three.
So what are you waiting for? Check the furry community out and have the time of your life!
Hayley from The Character Consultancy is a character development consultant and world-building facilitator active within the furry community. She lives in the UK, has been a keen writer for 25 years, and is currently working on her first Choose Your Own Adventure story. Why not check her out at www.thecharacterconsultancy.co.uk ?
