#furphobia

Really starting to realize that being anti-furry is often (not always) an indicator of extremely problematic/toxic thinking patterns, since the furry fandom's members are primarily (but not entirely) criticized for behaving in one of these two ways:

Zoophilia

Cringe/weird

"Furries are often zoophiles!"

Issue #1 may be a legitimate concern when dialed back, but it is often an overgeneralization that indicates that the individual may not be willing to a) check their assumptions about minority groups and b) may host a whole lot of other discriminatory beliefs that they have failed to question as a result. In my poking around online, I found that there are heightened rates of zoophilia in the furry fandom, but nowhere near enough to say that furries are often zoophiles or that it's even a major component of the fandom.

To allow this concern to affect how one treats and perceives furries is to allow one's presuppositions -- derived from what random internet ragebaiters say, not even aligned with one's own personal sense of identity -- to usurp one's ability to see the group as it truly is, which is a fancy way of saying 'they believe in and apply stereotypes, and they don't seem to care.' This is so obviously a problematic thinking pattern that I don't need to explain why.

"Furries are cringe/weird, and they should just stop being furries!"

Issue #2 tends to be the more difficult of the two to address (when I see other people thinking in this way). Why? Because it's much harder to demonstrate why it's problematic. (As an aside, I don't think it's a legitimate criticism at all -- calling something cringe is never legitimate criticism, and that's part of the problem.)

i) Defining cringe.

Cringe is essentially the feeling that one gets for empathizing with the behavior of someone acting in a way that society generally thinks is 'uncool.' You both see yourself in that individual (some repression of your own tendencies/wants) AND how society views that individual. So you empathize with their self-expression and then feel strong negative feedback thinking of losing face/value in the eyes of the tribe. On top of this, you start to think 'well, that person is only doing that because they're not socially aware enough to know they shouldn't.' Cringe is born.

ii) Implications of cringe.

The issue here is obviously that 'cringe' is oftentimes used as shorthand to say 'well, other people would think that that's weird and negatively judge you for it,' which indicates that the individual struggles with internalized phobias -- even if they're LGBTQ+ or part of another minority. A prominent (and easily accepted as problematic) example of this is when gay men say 'Well, I don't like flamers. They shouldn't act that way because they just ruin it for all of us.'

iii) Cringe and its relationship to neurodivergency.

Furthermore, a lot of the behaviors labeled 'cringe' and 'weird' are behaviors that autistic and neurodivergent individuals have. Obsessions with things (childish, like plushies, or otherwise). Rigid logic. Difficulty communicating. Alexithymia. Etc. So, in essence, the behaviors being criticized here are frequently just neurodivergent behaviors that society frowns upon, again indicating that the individual in question is struggling with internalized phobias (specifically ableism in this example, but where there's one phobia, there are likely more).

I'm not claiming anything about the prevalence of neurodivergency in the furry fandom (though common perception is that it's much more common), but I am claiming that the furry fandom is often criticized not for being the furry fandom but rather because of neurodivergent behavior from its members. This gets generalized to the entire fandom, but it's wrong to criticize people for a lot of these traits to begin with! They only get criticized because they're 'abnormal,' whatever that word even means! (I suspect its meaning boils down to 'well, I just don't like it.)

iv) What right do we have to discriminate against others based on 'cringe' behaviors?

Finally, the fact that these behaviors should be labeled weird/cringe/bad at all is an indicator that the individual who dislikes furries objectifies societal standards. You know what? It's okay if you personally think that something is cringe, but it's not okay to pretend that that means anything in objective reality. Not unless you have objective evidence that demonstrates what that connection is. You disliking something does not make it inherently good or bad.

Far too often, I see fur-phobes (or whatever you want to call them) say things like 'they shouldn't behave that way' (usually in more words and with, somehow, less tact). In this way, they are objectifying the standards of society, even though those standards are frequently entirely arbitrary and, again, ableist/discriminatory against neurodivergent people -- or even just people of different cultural backgrounds!

Why, in objective reality, consequentially speaking, should people NOT behave in a way that you and other people think is 'weird' or 'abnormal?' What's the actual negative impact of this behavior on you?

Oh, they're not fitting into your mold of what an ideal person looks like? And what exactly is that ideal person? A 'proper' gay? A 'proper' white, cisgender male? What standards are you projecting into the world, and why have you chosen to believe in those standards so strongly that you're willing to criticize and bully those who don't fit those standards? Who defines these things? Why are they valued? Do you really believe that you have a moral/logical high ground?

These people have limited ability to introspect and remove themselves from problematic and toxic views.

In short, I am very distrustful of people who claim to dislike furries. It indicates to me that they have internalized phobias, no sense of true identity (identity dictated by society/their perception of what society wants them to believe), and difficulty developing themselves/introspecting to achieve growth.