Don't you think its terrible that we have to keep being a furry a secret?

[Xleena]

I was thinking today how difficult it is for the furry community.

Not only do furries get it bad in the media, but also about 90% of the internet, who don't bother in getting to understand the interest, but condemn it, and call us perverts.
Not only do we have to keep our interests secret from society, but our own family, friends and partners, because we don't want them to reject us, or think we're really weird.

Being a furry is just the same, for example playing on an online game, or being an artist or a novelist, because it gives us an ability to escape reality and be ourselves- what we can't in normal society. So I just wonder why they are accepted and furs are not.

Sorry, i know this is a bit like a rant, but id like to discuss your opinions on it, do you agree or disagree? Or do you have a lot of people who accept your 'fur side' (If you do you're lucky ?

[Tyla]

To be honest the only people I hide it from is my relatives, and I'm completely open about it everywhere else. My friends accept me, and most people don't care.

[Xleena]

Really? Thats pretty cool, why don't you tell your relatives? (if you don't mind me asking)

[Tyla]

Just fear of what they might think because of the major controversy that's been around.

[Xleena]

Hmm, I know what you mean, I think out of everyone, they'd be the hardest to tell.

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

I've only just accepted myself as a furry recently, so nobody knows anything about me. I mean my friend kinda notices how many furries I tend to draw (I made the excuse that I wanted to see if I could do it, since they're harder to draw than humans). I think he takes the majority view of furries being freaks, but then he would say anything if everyone else was saying it too. Frankly I don't know if I'm ever going to tell my family, but I will tell the friends who don't live near me and have never been to my house or met my family. I'll definitely tell my girlfriend, eventually. She's a freak so she'll probably understand.

As for why it's so hard for people to admit such a thing, I think it's because it's really very different. There's a leap between being an animal lover and actually being an animal. I mean people still think that anime is all extreme sex and violence or just for kids, and they think the same about games, and yet these things are so huge. They're far bigger than the furry fandom. I guess mostly it's the fear of the new. Furries only really became big recently.

That said, there's no guarantee that it'll all die down soon, since people still have the "Comic Book Geek" image embedded in their brains, despite comic books being around for so long, and spreading so far.

[Chrono Blackwyng]

I realized about 2 years ago, but I never got into a situation where it might be exposed, but I realized this year that I had about 2-4 people who really don't care if I'm a furry or not...

I found this out by actually asking them, not waiting for them to find out themselves...

[Something]

Well i'm not a fur myself anymore. But i indeed think that most of the world is heavily closeminded.

[jason]

you shouldn't hide it from any one lest they see only the negative steriotype. when i told my mother she just shruged thinking that bieng a furry ment simply that you like animals, naive yes but at least im not keeping a possibly dangerouse secret. just sit down with them,explain the fandom and remind them that your still you no matter what.

[Wolfgang]

It's really hard to let someone know you're a furry, it was hard for alot of people, including me. for the first 3 year that I was a fur(I'm a 6 year veteran) I kept it to myself until I told my best friend, then I told my parents and they accepted me for who I am. And in january a troll pretended to be a fur to get info out of me.

[WingedZephyr]

We don't really *have to* keep it a secret. Yeah, it's kind of sad that some people make it a bigger deal than it is, but it's not that different from any other kind of interest or hobby.

It'll never be possible to make everyone happy. That's just the way things are.

Personally, I usually keep my furry interest to myself and I'm fine keeping it to myself. It's my own thing that I like to do; it doesn't really have anything to do with anyone else. I still act the way I always act, they still know me for who I am.

[White Wolf Guardian]

Of course it's a bad thing to hide your true self as a furry, however when presented in a controlled environment where you aren't allowed to be individual because cultures limit the way the people who are naturally different because the majority people have a way of alienating those minorities. The only way in my opinion is if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. If you want support for your cause you have to work for it by supporting the fandom in anyway possible to make society recognize its importance, I am definitely not gonna let people walk all over me for being different.  Everyone else who is a furry should do the same.

Power to the furry people :sparkle:

[Kindran Ornitier]

At my school and in my town there are maybe five furries and all of us know each other. Our town doesn't know what a furry is but we also live in a bible thumping town that loves csi. I haven't told anyone outside of my closest friends and would love to tell everyone about us but then again there is the troll population to think about. In the end I agree with WZ though that we don't have to hide who we are and that it's just another subculture like vamps and ravers.

[Vosur Aekira]

I watched CSI (All three sets) and NCIS, and I hope to never see that episode... Yes I know that they pretty much made fun of us, but I enjoyed the show for the most part.

As for us hiding ourselves is because we can't reveal ourselves without some sort of ridicule for the most part. I can't really reveal myself to anyone around me due to what I do for a living, but I enjoy both "parts" of myself.

[Yumé]

I'm not afraid to hide it it's just that no one's ever asked about it