Joe Strike - Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture

Copyright 2017 by Joe Strike.

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by Cleis Press, an imprint of Start Midnight, LLC, 101 Hudson Street, Thirty-Seventh Floor, Suite 3705, Jersey City, NJ 07302.

Printed in the United States.

Cover design: Scott Idleman/Blink

Cover photograph: Madelein the Lynx Breanna Smalser; constructed and photographed by Temperance

Text design: Frank Wiedemann

Back cover illustration: Just Desserts Kacey Miyagami

First Edition.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Trade paper ISBN: 978-1-62778-232-6

E-book ISBN: 978-1-62778-233-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

www.furrynation.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

THE BOOK YOURE HOLDING is quite different from the one I set out to write.

Furry Nations original title was ANTHROPOMORPHISM: Furries, Funny Animals and Dogs Playing Poker. While my original goal was to explain furry fandom to the world at large (and to my fellow furs curious about our history), I was planning to downplay Furry itself to focus on anthropomorphism as a primal form of self-expression, with Furry as its modern manifestation.

An editor at a publishing house was interested but said there were two things missing from my book proposal: [myself] and other furries.

I put the proposal down and didnt touch it again for years. I wasnt ready to share what Furry means to me or the (large) role it plays in my life.

But times change, Ive changed and Furry has grown from a fandom into a community. Its bigger than ever before, attracting more people every day andthanks to occasionally accurate media coveragebeginning to seep into the public consciousness. That consciousness has changed as well, as people (especially millennials) embrace ideas and lifestyles previously shunned or scorned.

Furry Nation isnt really about the costumes, the conventions or even the kinks. Furry Nation is about people: the people who birthed the community, wear the costumes, create the art, attend the conventionsand maybe enjoy a furry kink or two.

Furry Nation is their storyand its also mine.

Its a very human story.

Definition

furry [fur-ee]

CHAPTER ONE

In the Beginning...

Every animal knows more than you do.

NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB

IT WAS A TALKING ANIMAL that got us into all this trouble. If only that snake had kept its mouth shut, if only Eve hadnt listened, wed still be living in that peaceable kingdom known as Eden, our arms around our fellow creatures in a comradely hug: lions and tigers and bearsoh boy!

Were animals too, in case youve forgotten. Want proof? Check your pulse; if you dont have one youre either a vegetable or a mineral. But weve got it all compared to other animals, dont we? Where are their mega-malls, SUVs, Internet, all those material things that make our lives worth living?

On the other hand, theres a definite shortage of crooked politicians, greedy CEOs and financial swindlers in the animal world. Theyre living la vida loca, the primal, sensual life weve traded in for a big brain and a thumb. There they are, naked and unashamed, screwing and shitting (and when theyre predators, killing) without a second thought, free of the neurotic baggage, social inhibitions and technological trinkets that weigh us down.

Who wouldnt envy that?

Way back when, the hard-and-fast line between people and animals wasnt so hard or fast. It was natural to feel a kinship with your cattle if something out there in the dark would just as soon eat you as it would eat them. Shamans spoke with animals and even turned into them on occasion. It was easy to imbue animals with powers far beyond those of mortal men, or imagine them as strange visitors from another world: turtles who carry the Earth on their backs, jackals who ferry the dead to the afterlife. At the same time, people living eye-to-eye with animals saw them as behaving like people: sly foxes, stubborn mules, deceitful serpents, regal lions and loyal dogs. Were doing it to this day. We cant help itits hard-wired into our brains. Theres a word for it, giving animals human qualities: anthropomorphism.

If anthropomorphism is an elevator raising animals up to our level, then zoomorphism is the same elevator heading downwith us on board. Suddenly, as if touched by Circe, humans become those clever foxes, greedy pigs, total jackasses and treacherous snakes; and as every tyrant knows, people are sheep.

Our evolutionary need to reproduce turns men into predatory wolves and tomcats, women into vixens, birds, chicks and (if they stand up for themselves) bitches. Husky gay men are bears, older women with a taste for young males, cougars. Our sexual organs, the most animalistic part of ourselves, are beavers, pussies, lizards and trouser snakes, and its a lucky man whos hung like a horse.

There may not be cattle in the backyard, chickens in the living room or wolves howling in the night any more (at least not where I live), but were still surrounded by animals: Mustangs on the highway, Pumas on the sidewalk and Broncos butting heads with Rams on the gridiron, while donkeys and elephants take turns running the country. America itself is a bald eagle, Britain (once upon a time) an imperial lion and scrappy bulldog, France a rooster and Russia a bear. (Kangaroos still = Australia, and the koalas are getting mighty pissed about it.) Animals sell cereal to kids, entertain them in cartoons and picture books and their huggable plush forms keep them company at night.

But anthropomorphic animals arent just for kids. They can be found in serious novels, sporting ids and libidos for the occasion; on pedestals and canvases in art galleries; and on Broadway, where performers pretending to be all manner of beasts sing and dance for audiences eagerly shelling out $100 a pop.

Artists and entertainers arent the only ones embracing their inner animal. Plenty of average, walking-around people have been using anthropomorphic animals to express themselves on an emotional, intellectual and even physical level for yearsbut its the kind of thing you dont talk about in polite company, unless you enjoy having people give you funny looks. Then they started running into each other at animated film clubs and sci-fi and comic book conventions where they could talk all they wanted about Uncle Scrooge and the Kzinti and whos sexier, Pogos Miss Mamselle Hepzibah or Thumpers girlfriend in Bambi