Anthropomorphic animals have been a staple since Disney and freaking Aesop! 600BCE. People labeling it all the same as people who have a fursona are really weird.
It seems like this is what the bigots and outrage enthusiasts have latched into since they've been thoroughly shunned for hating other demographics (trans people most recently). It seems like it's getting more posts recently.
That's exactly how it is. Bullying LGBTQ+ is shunned upon these days, so bigots are redirecting their hatred to the next thing on the list they don't understand, furries
Eh, I guess, but it is a bit harder to understand. You mention LGBTQ+, so considering the sexual aspect of furries... sexualizing animals... yeah. As long as they're not going to actual bestiality, I don't really care. But no, I don't understand.
Hey, I want to clarify, I'm not looking to bully or harass the furry community or any of its members, I'm a furry myself, and I made this meme simply because I thought it was intresting how common anthropomorphic animals are in animation
Sure there've been talking animals since humans have been telling stories, but what seems to be new is the rando who's always there in the comments to say "Yo, I'd totally tap Tigger's ass", "That Coyote character is a snack."
I'm a furry ally, but not a furry myself. I don't engage in the community, but I appreciate their work. Furries get a bad reputation and too much hate, and we shouldn't bully them into submission.
Why are people acting like any animal based character is a furry? Did everyone forget about Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Cats Don't Dance, Aristocats, Mickey Mouse, American Tale, The Secret of NIMH, Adventures from the Book of Virtues, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Oliver and Company, Lion King, Bambi, Chester Cheetah, The Great Mouse Detective, the Trix Rabbit, basically anything made for kids, old fables and folktales, etc feel free to add to the list
None of this is new and it reminds me when people were losing their minds over actors playing different characters like it was a new thing
That stuff is literally what the furry fandom is about though.
The specific term furry fandom was being used in fanzines as early as 1983, and had become the standard name for the genre by the mid-1990s, when it was defined as "the organized appreciation and dissemination of art and prose regarding 'Furries', or fictional mammalian anthropomorphic characters". However, fans consider the origins of furry fandom to be much earlier, with fictional works such as Kimba, the White Lion, released in 1965, Richard Adams' novel Watership Down, published in 1972 (and its 1978 film adaptation), as well as Disney's Robin Hood as oft-cited examples.
Furries are a community off-shoot of the broader sci-fi fandom that started in the 1970's, characterized by a fondness for anthropomorphic reprisentation in media. It expanded from it's sci fi roots into fantasy, alt-historical fiction, slice of life, and yes, porn, because nerds are horny.
Furries is also the term for the characters that are created by the members of the community, and also has been used to describe other characters in other media, but it's worth noting that not all of these come from furries (the people), though by now nearly all do. The lead character artists for Zootopia and Sing are out furries, for example. And Vivziepop and the Lackadaisy team certainly are furries.
There are 2 types of furries. Those in tech who are suspiciously wealthy, and poor artists who get commissioned by the former. Furries run IT btw. 10+% of my MSP team are furries.