Kent State freshman animation game design major Andrew Daves fell in love with the idea of anthropomorphic animal characters early. When he was around nine years old, he discovered a YouTube video of furries reacting to the Zootopia trailer and was immediately drawn to the furry community. From there, he knew he wanted to delve deeper into their world.
Furscience, a website detailing all things furries, describes them as “a diverse community of fans, artists, writers, gamers and role players.”
Most furries create their own characters with whom they identify and can serve as avatars within the community. Some furries can purchase pre-made characters/suits from artists, which is what Daves did.
Daves’ main character is named Iggy — a border collie-esque character with a brown, red, and black color palette that is inspired by igneous rocks and fire.
A few years ago, Daves attended FAN EXPO Cleveland, a three-day pop-culture convention where he met other furries and cosplayers, visited artist booths and even met some famous voice actors.
This year, Daves plans on attending Anthrocon. Held in Pittsburgh, it’s the world’s largest furry convention. Typically, it features workshops, a fursuit parade and charity auctions. Anthrocon allows furries from all over the world to come together to celebrate the furry fandom and all it has to offer.
According to Daves, the best part of the community is seeing how creative everyone is. Choosing a fursona is a very personal experience, but typically people choose their favorite animal or one they feel represents them, along with natural or bright colors.
“There’s no specific process,” Daves says. “It’s just up to the person and what they feel represents them. Everything is based on art and creation as a whole.”
So far in his time at Kent State, Daves describes the community as very open and accepting. He and the other furries of Kent State can sometimes be seen in their brightly colored costumes wandering campus or downtown Kent on fun adventures.
“A lot of people don’t even really seem to know about me and my hobby,” Daves says. “But the people who do know mind their business or they’re positive about it.”
Being part of the community has many positives, but there are always people on the outside who just don’t understand. Daves says that he and everyone in the community feel judged by others, but it’s important not to let it get to you.
“While it sucks, you have to remember that it doesn’t matter,” Daves says. “People need to realize that if something doesn’t negatively impact them, why do they care?”
He’s had run-ins with negative people, but he says the best thing to do is ignore them and focus on enjoying yourself.
“A lot of this experience is really just healing to your inner child,” Daves says. “Because it’s just funny cartoon animals. What’s so bad about that?”
In Daves’ experience, people often resort to making homophobic comments or calling the hobby “fatherless behavior.”
“People, for whatever reason, really like to be homophobic about it,” Daves says. “Even if you’re straight. Either that or people jump to ‘Yeah, your dad left you.’ It’s kind of hilarious because I’ll see grown men getting upset over some blue dog on the internet. Do you see how ridiculous you’re being?”
He believes much of the hate stems from misunderstanding.
“People take issue with things that they don’t understand, and then they don’t want to learn about it,” Daves says. “But if more people allowed themselves to understand and enjoy things, there wouldn’t be as much worry about being judged. Kindness goes a long way.”
Daves encourages anyone to join the Furry Club or attend meetings because it’s a great way to learn about the community. At their meetings, they often play games, have art and movie nights and give presentations about their special interests.
“You can learn so much from people just by being around them. We’re not scary, I promise.”
Natalie Holland is a writer.
