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Writer's pictureNo Gold Here

The Acceptance Paradox of the Furry Fandom

DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that many of the accusations, screenshots, and other proof for certain actions have since been purged from the internet. Much of the information was on tumblr (curse that 2018 ban) and Livejournal. The latter we have limited access to, so if you are not already savvy in these matters like some ten+ (10+) year furry veterans are, we deeply apologize. That said, we have no intention of reporting on anything that could feasibly be proven false, and will provide all links, references, and information at the end of our article.

If you have any of the screenshots or any further information on anything discussed below, please contact us so that we might better source our references!


CONTACT: nogoldhere@protonmail.com


Content Warning: Racism, Anti-Kink & Anti-Queer Rhetoric, NeoNazis/Alt-Right Furs, Burned Furs, ABDL, CGL, DDlg, Other BDSM-Based Lifestyles, "Feral" NSFW, Zoophilia & Zoosadism, Acts of Bestiality, Cub (Lolicon/Shotacon), Soliciting Minors, Actress posing as a Minor to Catch a Predator, Child Swimsuit Models, Rape/Coercion

 

Tolerant-Furs is a "group" on FurAffinity.net that advocates for tolerance of kinks a person might find unsavory, disturbing, or even outright triggering. The general feel of the "group" is "live and let live," as long as no one is being hurt. Draw your favorite "feral" porn, roleplay having sex with an inflatable pool toy, pretend to be a dragon behind the screen 100% of the time without break! On their page, they have this to say:

"If you don't like it...Don't look at it." Simple rule to follow, and one that many of us should. This group is for people who firmly believe in "To each his own." That if someone makes a submission that we don't like, to just ignore it, and pay attention to the billions of other pics or stories that are out there. So this is for us furs that show that when someone posts something we don't like, we don't throw a big hissyfit about it and alert the National Guard. We just simply continue with our lives.

It's a relatively simple premise, one that has followed the furry community ever since the invention of the Burned Furs, a dividing of the community into "normal people" and "disgusting perverts."

Other groups such as the Freezing Furs and Furry Peace appeared around this time, in direct opposition to the Burned Furs (very similar to the "Antis VS Pro-Fiction" of today), making bold claims the likes of which mimic the "Maybe censorship is bad, actually" statements of today. Maybe censorship is bad.

But with every up there is a down, and for every cute rainbow sparkledog there is a black and red edgelord ready to strike. Which means, to the Tolerant-Furs of today, we also have the Less-Tolerant-Furs.

If you bother to click the link leading to their page, you might notice one particular thing first: the aggressive language.

No one has to tolerate your diaper shitting fetish, spirit animal soul or dog fucking lifestyle.

Yikes.

To break that down: the diaper fetish is equally bad as the desire to commit bestiality, and both of those things are "as bad as" being Therian, Otherkin, or having a spirit animal.

Deeply racist sentiment aside, they also make this point:

No one has to tolerate your nazi-uniform fetish, racist memes or bigoted page shouts, either.

Considering how racist the previous statement was, this feels a little out of left field. But to the uneducated, this seems perfectly reasonable. After all, you're not "racist" for not liking people who "pretend to be a dog" or "pretend to have a spirit tiger following them around."

...Until you realize those beliefs are centered in Eastern and Native American beliefs and folklore. Which means, by definition, comparing them to "a diaper shitting fetish" is extremely racist.

The comments on the userpage of Less-Tolerant-Furs are also a mess. The comment threads in the journals are worse: a combination of alt-right and neonazi furs complaining that they're being censored, anti-kink and anti-queer "Christians" talking about how damaging fetishes like rape and piss are, and vehement claims against various other subcultures, such as the Care Giver/Little (CGL), Daddy Dom/Little Girl (DDlg), and Adult Baby/Diaper Lover (ABDL).

If we were trying to read this in the best faith possible, Less-Tolerant-Furs would be against people like Hypnotist Sappho, Kero the Wolf, and Nazi Furs (not to be mistaken for the Livejournal group Nazi Furs, a group for discussing sex in the SS uniform). In practice, however, those residing under the moniker of "Less-Tolerant-Furs" often devolve into the same wank as Antis. "Well, I'm a good (furry/anime fan/shipper), not like those degenerate (furries/anime fans/shippers)!" (Never you mind the history of the term "degenerate.")

But let's pretend, for a moment, that Less-Tolerant-Furs actually were against racism, sexism, and bestiality, and not just lifestyles and cultures they don't approve of. What would that look like, and would it be beneficial to the furry fandom?

The short answer to that is, no, censorship is never a benefit to anyone. The long answer, however, is much more complicated, and has been debated by academics for many years.

There is a problem with the furry fandom, you see. A huge problem. The furry fandom is home to some of the most infamous online personas in recent decades, including men like Dragoneer, who owned and ran FurAffinity.net. Dragoneer has allowed child predators to remain on his site, (previously) giving a space for Nazis and alt-right furs to fester, and eventually banning all depictions of Nazism including depictions denouncing it.

Bad-Dragon.com (owner of herpy.nu, e621.net, and twentypercentcooler.net), a furry/monster sexy toy website, is not much better. This user makes a detailed claim about their time working there, along with providing a small collection of links with further details on BD's shady history (we do hazard that not every link be taken as objective fact, as one suggests certain terms all be grouped under the label "intersex," which may further muddy the label. This is a much more complicated matter than suggested, though e621's response may still be worth looking over).

"Herpy" was also originally a bestiality website focusing on reptiles. Much of the information regarding this has been purged by Bad Dragon and it's associates, and, due to the Livejournal and tumblr purges, what remained may also be gone. Please take this claim with a grain of salt: reference your local "greymuzzles" to see if they might know more.

Some might hazard that FurAffinity and Bad Dragon/e621 are monopolies over the furry community, and we would generally agree. If you want to be seen, to get commissions, or to be commissioned, you need a FurAffinity account. If you're looking for unique sex toys, Bad Dragon will be the first website to pop up. Decades have gone into these websites, and due to the mass banning of NSFW content, they remain some of the only bastions of unabashed sexual content on the net.

However, if Dragoneer was de-platformed (or even held accountable), furry artists would lose one of the last bastions of "degenerate" art. FurAffinity allows human, anthro, feral, monster, and all kinds of pornography featuring almost every fetish imaginable. It's limits are few and far between, and it remains the largest furry website (and one of the largest art websites overall) on the net. It lacks the volatile algorithm of Twitter or the censorship of DeviantArt, and has been the best (and only) place to buy and sell art and characters. It creates its own paradox in which Dragoneer and FurAffinity must continue as-is, or furries (and artists in general) will lose their platform. A platform that, for most artists, makes up their livelihood.

Herein lies the problem: the furry fandom is dominated not by members with poor intentions, but moderators and leaders who are racist, sexist, have committed acts of bestiality, preyed on children, and defended others who have committed these acts and crimes. Dragoneer has defended people like Zaush, Bad Dragon has run at least one bestiality-oriented website, and calls for dangerous members to be banned or jailed have been ignored.

Furries are fed up with this behavior, but refuse to, or cannot, de-platform the leaders who perpetuate it. Instead, Burned Furs and Antis fight with kinky, queer furries in an attempt to harass them out of their circles, rather than acknowledging the systemic problem (an unfortunately common action among these circles; it's far easier to harass a trans artist than de-platform a cis male leader of a community). They turn their frustrations on each other, creating groups like Less-Tolerant-Furs to vent said frustrations with no real direction.

The furry community has a problem: it's accepting of its leaders, who have shown time and time again that they are either not fit to lead, or outright dangerous. It ignores the major issues in favor of minor ones, takes out its anger on itself, and begins to eat its own tail. The furry community's infighting prevents real change from happening, instead choosing to sensationalize the issues (see: Sappho and Kero) for clout.

Yes, the acceptance paradox is this: Furries are accepting of a broken system, or outright in denial of it.

 

Sources, Links, & References


History of the term "Degenerate" in regards to art


Native American Information on Spirit Animals


CGL (and "Littlespace") Information & Lifestyle(s)


DDlg Information & Lifestyle(s)


ABDL Information & Lifestyle(s)


Fanlore.org on Anti-Shippers, Nazi Furs (Livejournal group), and the term "wank"


Wikifur.com on Kero the Wolf, Zaush, Nazi Furs, Freezing Furs, and Furry Peace, and Greymuzzles

Youtube.fandom.com on Hypnotist Sappho


Hypnotist Sappho's "Coming Out About Things" Video


FurAffinity.net Bans Depictions of Nazis/Nazism


User Zaush (friend of Dragoneer) Soliciting a person he believes to be a minor (adult actress: blurred, but images of child swimsuit models are not blurred, for some reason)


A Transcription of notes between one of Zaush's victims (Ferality) and Dragoneer (please take this with a grain of salt, as the above link is far more compelling evidence; however, we felt it disingenuous to not include some of what is left of the original accusation(s))


cannedcowboy's tumblr post on Bad Dragon


nobd.info on Alternatives and Issues with Bad Dragon


LagoVirt's Videos on Dragoneer


Bliss Fully Aware's podcast episode "A Case of Furry Domestic Violence"


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