D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February
2009
Furry Friends
Living a fur-tive lifestyle that only sometimes involves wearing animal costumes, "furries" ask: Wouldn't it be a better world if people were more like critters?
By Jeff Berg
Henry Beston was a writer/naturalist who lived from 1888-1968. Most of his writing life was spent on the northeast coast of the United States, places such as Maine and Massachusetts. Sometimes compared to Thoreau, Beston is best known for The Outermost House, a book he penned about his home and retreat on the beach of Cape Cod. Beston generally wrote about nature and all things natural, but he also had affection for animals. In that book, he writes, "The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained."
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"Kenny Kosmos," a Texas
National Guardsman in his other life. |
And even though the two gentlemen I'm meeting at a Village Inn in El Paso may never have heard of Beston or his writings, Beston's observation might nonetheless begin to define Kenny and Brae, who share an unusual passion in life. They are part of a subculture commonly referred to as "furries."
"Kenny" and "Brae" are not their real names. They use these pseudonyms not to hide the fact that they actively participate in the "furries" subculture, but rather because assuming these identities is part of their parallel lifestyle. Outside and apart from their ordinary day-to-day existence, Kenny and Brae can use their fertile imaginations to adopt the "gifts," as Beston put it, of animals. What that New England author might have more trouble understanding is that Kenny, Brae and their furry friends take their inspiration not so much from animals in nature as from cartoon creatures such as the Lion King or Bugs Bunny, or the animals and animal hybrids that appear in Japanese anime.
There might be two degrees of those who are into furries. First there's furry fandom, those who appreciate all things furry. Second, one tall step higher, might be classified those who have a furry lifestyle — who, not satisfied with mere enthusiasm for furry animals, seek to become, well, furry. I would put Brae in the former category and Kenny edging toward the latter.
I met Kenny and Brae through a Web site called Meetup.com "Meetup" is a clearinghouse of sorts for people who are trying to meet others with similar interests. If you go to the Meetup site and slip in your ZIP code, any variety of interesting and/or unusual possibilities pop up. Locally in Las Cruces, you can find support groups for autism, a dining out group, one for moms, another called I Love Salsa (dance, not grub). Many of the links go to El Paso-based groups. Apparently, however, Silver City, Deming and Lordsburg residents are not interested in anything, or at least not in sharing their interests, since no listings come up when those ZIPs are punched in. More cosmopolitan places than Las Cruces or El Paso, such as Spokane, Wash., offer an enormous amount of groups, usual and unusual, ranging from Ron Paul supporters (already looking to the presidency in 2012) to the six members of the "Lolita Club," those interested in, ahem, "Lolita fashion" — either gender. (Never heard of it? Me neither. But according to the know-it-alls who populate Wikipedia, it's a fashion subculture from Japan — only tangentially related to the Nabokov novel — that is primarily influenced by Victorian children's clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period.)
And Meetup also has furries. A few months ago, I'd read a very disparaging short piece about furries. You've probably seen that episode of "CSI:" featuring a murder at a furries convention.
I wanted to try to find out myself what "furriedom" is all about.
Kenny founded the El Paso-based Meetup group for furries, funding it out of his own pocket. Our evening chat at the pancake palace is actually the first where any of the other seven local Meetup-registered furry enthusiasts shows up — namely Brae. Although Brae and Kenny had only met virtually and differ in age by a few years, they seem to be getting on quite well. I am probably older than both of them combined, which makes for a good balance.
By day, Kenny is employed with the Texas Military Force, which encompasses the three branches of the Texas National Guard. "We assist with National Guard missions such as homeland defense and disaster relief," he explains. Recently, as examples, he cites aiding with providing direction and stability in the shelters for people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He has been with the Guard for about 13 years.
Brae has just started a new job on base at Fort Bliss, where he works at the base liquor store. It has been a rather tumultuous time for him, by his own admission, and he is lying kind of low right now as he regroups and pays off some student loans.
"Eventually I want to be an author or work in communications," he offers. I caution him to not consider freelance work unless he has a great fondness for beans and rice.
Brae goes on, "I found this Meetup group online, when I was just looking for others (furries) that I could relate to. I wanted to see how big the furry community was around here, find out about conventions and find out more about the lifestyle.
"I've been looking for people like myself for 20 years," he continues, "and I picked up a book that had 'overtures' that I associated with. I printed some pictures off the Internet that showed the 'stylings' of furriness, and it tied into my interest with RPGs."
No, not rocket-propelled grenades, but role-playing games, another subculture of folks who adopt the roles of fictional characters. RPG people might be categorized as fictional re-enactors (as opposed to historical re-enactors, who dress up and play the roles of people from days of yore, especially Civil War soldiers). RPG allows for a much more fictionalized "lifestyle," with fewer rules than re-enacting history.
Brae goes on to tell of the harassment and threats of physical violence he has received over the years because of his interest in things that other students have found threatening in some manner. "I've been beaten up and spat upon," he laments, with a tone of genuine surprise and sadness. "Once my backpack was thrown out a window, and all of that really went a long way in destroying my (personal) confidence."
But now Brae has been able to discover and embrace a certain degree of safety and a large degree of acceptance thanks to the Internet and the fellow RPGs and furries whom he has meet and made friends with online. "RPGs really are helpful by tying furries together," he adds — because of the similarity between RPGs and furries.
Brae says that he first noticed his interest in all things animal when he was in the third grade, at age 9 or 10. "I kind of became obsessed with the little things that personified animals." He describes how the affection of animals toward humans became more real to him — as most of us note the unconditional love that is offered by our pets (although my dog equates that love with biscuits) — and how he also began to notice how many people took so little responsibility for the ecology of the planet.
"This became almost spiritual for me," he adds.
Kenny interjects the idea of furries utilizing a "fursona," not unlike a persona, which can be a spirit-guide animal, used for meditation.
He also mentions what might be the early history of furries — centaurs from Greek mythology: "Half man, half horse. Two arms and four legs!" Perhaps Kenny in a past life?
"Some people," Kenny continues, "have basically created their fursona based on and around the character they want to be. The name they use is usually much different than their real one, one that will suit them better."
Brae adds, "Things feel better by using alternative names."
The name "Fox McCloud" comes up. Fox is a fictional character from a series of video games called Star Fox — a red fox with human traits and abilities, and then some. McCloud apparently is one of the more popular characters in the world of furries. (Googling "Fox McCloud" pops up 229,000 hits.)
Kenny, who is also a Trekkie ("Star Trek" devotee), says that his interest in all things anthropomorphic also started when he was a child, mostly coming from cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny. He laughs again when he discusses the possibility of "combat" between Elmer Fudd and Captain Kirk.
"Other characters came along, and the made an impression on me, but mostly I ended up associating with the Walt Disney version of Robin Hood," Kenny says. In that adaptation of the timeless tail, er, tale, all of the characters are of the "anthro" variety. Robin Hood himself is a red fox. Foxes seem to especially popular among the furry community, as I discover when I poke around for more information on the subject.
Kenny says that the Disney "Robin Hood" has appeal to many people who populate furriedom. "I always wanted to be more than myself, and one way of doing that was to be an animal. I wish we could all adopt animal traits. I mean, after all of this evolution, and we still don't have tails!" he adds with a laugh.