I am always scared that one day I will show up to my local furry meet up group for the first time. Just you know in nice casual clothing, maybe a little fem thrown in, cause I like that. And I will be the only young, slightly attractive one there, and it will be just like this blog but before my very eyes like a living nightmare. Is this a bad idea to have about IRL furry activity. Because all of my interactions so far have been online.
Okay, so, here’s the thing.
This blog showcases a portion of what the furry fandom is like. It’s not indicative of the fandom as a whole. At least, not these days. 15-20 years ago, yeah, you might’ve shown up at a furry meet as the only person who’s bathed in a week and doesn’t have cheeto stains smeared across their cargo shorts.
(listen i say this as i shove cheetos into my maw, okay. cheetos are great. cheeto stains are not.)
But here, in the year of our Lord, 2017? You’re more likely to find a bunch of normal looking folks, some people who definitely are a little weird and socially awkward but still chill, and a few grease-stained maladjusted Furries™.
As someone who’s been going to cons off and on for, like, ten years now, the scenery has changed and, as a whole, furries tend to be either better looking these days and/or better well kept and more sociable and friendly.
(imo, at least. there’s still a plethora of your stereotypical looking furry, but tbh, also tend to look like your stereotypical nerd kid just with the addition of ears and a tail)
If you’re worried about your local fandom members, do some research! If you live in an area that has meets, there’s probably some kind of web presence like a Telegram or a Facebook group. See if you’d want to interact with them and, tbh, if you don’t, that’s okay! There’s a lot of local people where I live that I don’t want to interact with. But, chances are, you’ll find a few cool folks who are easy to talk to and aren’t full force furry.
Most furries also skew younger these days! I know, locally, most of the furries where I live are all in their early twenties and I met them at meets, like, right out of high school. There’s a few older folks (late twenties, early thirties), as well, that are significantly Not Creepy and pretty cool. They’ve just got jobs and lives and shit, is all.
And, personally, I’ve had pretty good experiences with meeting other furries iRL. Have there been people I’ve nope’d out on? Yeah, cause we’re all human and personalities and opinions clash hard sometimes. But I’ve really only met, like, maybe five people so far that fall firmly within the stereotypical furry form and I’ve been in the fandom for, well, a long fucking time.
So give it a shot and meet local people! If they’re cringe-worthy, you’ve got a story to tell later. If they’re cool, you might pick up an acquaintance or a even a good friend!
amandla
