I just never understood why there’s this distinct disneyesque aesthetic to people’s characters but I guess it’s rooted in old conventions, in-group standards and culture.
I’m assuming this “childish” convention coupled with pop culture perceptions of the subculture being full of very much child unfriendly things is what has many eyebrows raised.
I think Lintian summed the biggest reason already – especially when you consider that the furry community has a lot of overlap with queer demographics (I would say based on personal experience that I’ve met more queer furries than not).
have you ever also met a furry that wasnt suspiciously wealthy. didnt think so.
Pup play ain’t for me, but if it makes people happy, more power to em.
They’re not hurting anyone, though I sometimes wonder if they’ve actually seen a dog.
Once ran into a furry with big fur suit dreams and not money online
saw them again a couple years later
… they were in the process of buying their suit and were financially comfortable
Money gods love furries
i have, i think all of their money goes straight into their actual fursuit
Fur suits make me uncomfortable for one simple reason: the eyes.
I’m afraid of things like clowns and various mascots for things, and the big eyes give me those vibes.
Suits without the huge cartoon eye style are kinda cool though.
With furries it really does feel like a mixed bag though, at least to me. I do think that the majority of furries are fairly “normal” people as far as internet subcultures are concerned, though definitely still fringe and weird to those who don’t spend time online.
The problem, at least in my opinion, is that the whole fandom is very accepting, and while that is absolutely wonderful for IRL majority groups as they have a place to call their own, it also then does cascade somewhat from being sex-positive to sex-obsessed, expressions of sexuality become just as normalized as paraphilias, and when everything is accepted, nothing is cast out - and that’s how you get the truly infamous events that the fandom is wrongfully associated with.
So when you have a group of people creating friendly-looking aliases with cute names and endearing art - how do you seperate the normal, unassuming furry from those who would quite literally openly advocate for sex with animals? The short answer is you can’t, and you just kind of have to trust that the other person is as clean as they present themselves - and cast them out if they cross over into illegality or immorality.
Peeve: myself.
I dropped candle wax on a throw my mother in law gave us for Christmas and Christ is it a pissing pain to get out. Sat here with the blow dryer, considering just setting it on fire.
Peeve: Too tired for participating in life atm. Everything is a drag
The furry community also suffers from that all-too-common tendency for people to consider any identities or preferences that aren’t “standard” as deviant and/or immoral. It’s also frequently reduced to being considered just a sexual proclivity, rather than the much wider concept that it is.
I’ve also been considering the impact that humour has on the community. For example: juvenile as I frequently am, I used to make a lot of jokes about furries being into abusing animals (and so on). Even though I didn’t genuinely believe it, the fact that I was (and many others were) happy making those jokes was contributing to the negative, hostile stereotypes that they tend to face from the wider internet and social media.
Not to say that people can’t or shouldn’t make jokes at all, but it’s a matter of considering where, how, and what it might otherwise be fuelling.
The whole animal abuse thing is pretty nonsense anyway – there’s nothing immoral about being into vulpera, for example. They’re not foxes. They’re a species that resembles anthropomorphic foxes and, crucially, within the setting to which they belong, they have the ability to give informed consent. Someone into vulpera NSFW content isn’t going to be stalking their streets for their neighbourhood fox.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X9ktfzJOa4
I’ll be the leprechaun to your Ralph.
Always remember the Harkness test
Ehh, kind of is, kind of isn’t. Generally speaking a vast, vast, overwhelming majority of furries are staunchly against animal abuse for reasons that I don’t think even warrant an explanation - the sky is blue, abusing animals is wrong. I think you can even argue that no furries are into animal abuse, but what you do have is people who genuinely advocate for vile acts against animals and co-opt the furry culture to give themselves legitimacy in the same way that you had the whole “MAP” thing where legitimate PDF files were trying to allign themselves with queer communities, despite every sane person in said communities denouncing that for, again, obvious reasons.
To be clear, exploring sexuality through a vulpera is not and never has been equal to actual beastiality, no, - but to me at least, it is very weird and kinda sus when people constantly sexualize vulpera. They’re not children, but they’re often drawn with almost child-like proportions and to me I find that’s flying too close for the sun for me. I guess it’s not a red flag in itself but it should at least make you look for other flags that might be popping up alongside it. I feel similarly to people who do the same with gnomes - again, they’re not children, but to me it always strikes me as a little bit “oh, she looks like she’s 13 but she’s actually 1000” anime logic which rubs me the wrong way.
Adult? Sentient? You go Glen Coco.
It took me a moment to realize you were talking about jade witches.
Furries and other groups and things fall under the rule for me:
If it’s not hurting anybody and isn’t harmful, just let people be weird?
If it makes you uncomfortable, you can just avoid it.
Honestly, compared to some subcultures I’ve seen, furries aren’t even that weird.
Yeah, have you seen those roleplayers? Jeez 
Most furries I’ve talked to are very average normal people, because like with most things, people tend to keep weirder & or personal kinkier stuff generally to themselves or in specific circles where its safe.
Also something I think has been said before but is worth repeating:
Furries in general get the same treatment as alot of LGBTQ+ folks get, often for the same reasons.