So this is something I’ve been thinking about a bit recently, and I’d be interested in hearing people’s thoughts on the matter.
Lets suppose you meet someone, and chat socially with them. Maybe a work colleague, maybe a friend met through a friend. You aren’t that close with them, but you get the vibe that they aren’t a bigot or judgemental at the very least. If the conversation turned to furry stuff, would you tell them that you like furry art?
Do you keep a different set of non-furry socials for your irl friends and family? What about having a furry profile pic on your work slack? Or your Github? Do you try hard to make sure that nobody will be able to find your secret furry double life if they know you IRL?
I guess, in essence, I’m wondering if you draw a hard line between your “sfw furry life” and your “IRL life”.
Yeah. I mean, 9 times outta 10 for me IRL the only people who even know what a furry is at all are other furries. It’s not even like a passing knowledge thing, like “isn’t that a sex thing?” They straight up have never heard the term before, so I have nothing to really be ashamed of telling anyone, since I’ll just describe it as being really into Disney movies like Zootopia and Robin Hood.
If the conversation turns to it I’m perfectly fine with “outing” myself. Pretty much everyone except for my immediate family knows. I haven’t seen much downside to presenting the furry side of me to others. People either don’t really know what a furry is, or are a furry and I can potentially make a new connection. I haven’t had a person suddenly turn judgmental yet, which is neat.
I use my sona pic pretty much everywhere, although work requires I use a pic of myself so I don’t use it there. I’ve made little progress into the world of art, but I did my current icon on my own and I’m very proud of it, so I like to display it wherever I can even if looks a little rough.
I don’t put any effort into hiding my sfw furry side, but I do make sure my nsfw side stays separate. Nothing drastic, just a different name and whatnot.
I started using Discord during the pandemic to talk with co-workers in our off time. One of them is an anti-fur. The vast majority of people that I speak to on the platform are furries, but because I’ve got people I know IRL connected, I’ve kept the default blank profile pic.
Hmmm, to me this is something I don’t really care if others find out. I’ve shown a few sketches to friends in college and even coworkers when we talk about drawing or if they just look at my notebook for a moment. I actually have this same pfp at GitHub 😂
And I once talked about furry in college, it was a bit weird at the moment 'cause all they knew was about yiff. So… I’m who I am IRL and in the fandom 🤔
I have Bad Dragon stickers in my clear-backed phone case and a custom plate that has UWU on it hahaha
Bad Dragon stickers are interesting, in that to people that know, know, and people that don’t know (most) its just another random brand sticker.
I am not a furry, but now I found one of your secrets.
Although if I’ll see it, I’ll rather not mention that I know it. :-)
Now I also wonder how many people recognize the Linux and Vim stickers on my water bottle 🤔
You commenting in the furry chat might lead to some doubt of that first statement.
I imagine the overlap of people that recognize all 3 is high.
Valid point! A lady asked about my Bad Dragon hoodie before which took me off guard! Why would she ask about that, if she didn’t already know? I’ve never had someone ask about any of my other hoodies… she had to have known, but she was like 50+ and a mom-type lady!
I don’t know that I’m very furry to start with. To your first question. I’ve never really felt the need. Although I like looking, I don’t think its a big part of who I am. As far as friends and family knowing, I hope my brother who lives with me has figured it out, but I’ve never felt a need to bring it up. I’ve had others bring it up twice; I don’t remember the context but their thoughts were the standard “furries are gross”, so I did a little defense and changed the subject.
I’ve brought up the fact I’m making a website for digital artists that include buying and selling digital art, nobody has responded in any way that would indicate any interest. One person asked “like a booru site, don’t those have a lot of NSFW”. So, again, I’ve just never felt the need to bring it up, and I’ve have identifying pictures on work chat.
I’m not “out” in the sense that I go out of my way to actively tell people I’m a furry, and I don’t have blatantly furry stuff like bad dragon stickers, nor do I tell people to refer to me by my fursona name (long story, but a coworker at my job when I first started did this, to the point where it was even his username–IIRC, management went along with it because his birth name resulted in a username that was identical to another employee’s username).
That said… my immediate family all know I’m a furry and so is my husband. my avatar is either my fursona, or a generic furry character (this is the case at work where I do not want people associating me with the type of art I tend to commission). I occasionally post (SFW) furry memes like boykisser in work chat, and I wear furry-adjacent t-shirts at work. My car has Yoshi bumper stickers on it, and my desk has a picture of a grumpy-looking rabbit captioned “Don’t carrot all.” And if someone at work directly asks if I’m a furry, I don’t deny it. So… I’m out, but not in the way where I tell everybody about it proactively?
I don’t hide the fact at all. Heck, I openly share the artwork I create with non-furry peers. I’ve never had a bad reaction so I don’t have any reservations regarding it.
