My friend JEREMY was shocked that I hadn’t heard of Furries when he started talking about them last night.
According to DAN SAVAGE’S ARTICLE FROM 2002:
Furries emerged in the late 1990s, right when the first generation of children whose entire lives were dominated by Disney products and imagery came of age. After being exposed to images of cuddly, safe, saucer-eyed, anthropomorphized animals throughout their childhoods, during puberty these same kids had sex presented to them as something deadly and dangerous. The abstinence “educators” and AIDS “awareness” campaigns they were subjected to exaggerated the actual risks of HIV transmission, pregnancy, and death. Is it any wonder that a tiny percentage of this Disney/abstinence generation came to fetishize the safe and cuddly stuffed animals of their childhoods?
There’s also THIS ARTICLE FROM VANITY FAIR about Furries. I always thought they were called “Plushies” but I guess Plushies are just the more cartoony subsection of Furries. Furry fetishists apparently come in all forms – from hyper-realistic to science fiction to cartoon-inspired costumes.
Check out a segment from the Jimmy Kimmel Show about Furries after the jump.
IMAGE SOURCE
Salon.com had an excellent article about Furry Culture (written by Dave Hill) on their site about 7 1/2 years ago.
http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/06/19/plushies/print.html
I must lead a sheltered life, too, because I thought it didn’t go beyond ‘plushies’ like Plushie Schwartz.
Wow. I missed that too. I guess that makes me more sheltered than you!
They used to be called Furbies, which was from a so-named product that stormed a certain Christmas or two.
Yeah it’s really gross.
Theres videos on xtube of people jerking off in stuffed animals an stuff, it’s really strange.