<Warning, may contain cursing, wheat product, dairy, and traces of peanut.>
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Dear Journal,

This is possibly offensive, so be aware.

The topic at hand is furries. But before I get into this, I want to explain what I mean by furries.

By furries I mean people who draw sexualized anthromorphic animals, proudly proclaim that they're furry, and have one fetish or another that they incorporate into their drawings.

Now, I realize that there are other types of furries, but they really don't bother me so very much. Walk around decked out entirely in a giant bunny suit? That's okay, just don't touch me. Have a thing for stuffed animals? Keep it in your bedroom and don't look at my keepsakes that way and we're on decent terms. Think you possess a mighty lion soul? That's okay, some people believe they're being watched 24/7 by a man in the clouds and others believe they evolved from clams (I'm looking at you scientology!)

Now, why do these furries bother me?

Because I recently heard some news that animation studios (in America) are refusing to hire people who they suspect are furries. This means anyone who has funny animals* in their profolio is going to have a red flag in the eyes of the animation studios. And this is because of furries. Now, if you can't see the reasoning behind them not wanting to hire furries, consider this: they draw pornography of cartoon animals. If someone who gets their kicks out of femme animal toons (or male ones, even) draws for a cartoon (or other project) think of all the things that can go wrong- for one maybe (MAYBE) the furry would have a tendency to draw the characters too sexualized and not appropriate for the age group (and lets face it, cartoon animals are mainly kids fare), but what if parents find out the cartoon their children were watching was drawn by someone who revels in drawing fuzzy animal twats and cocks? I'll tell you what will happen: the studio will have to fire the furry's ass before their reputation drops any further and/or they get their asses sued.

Now. Why does this make me angry?

This makes me angry because I like to occasionally draw animal characters and I hope for a professional job as an animator or something of the like, and I now know that if I include any of my cartoon animal pictures in my profile that I'll endanger my chances of being hired.

Which is a crying shame, as I got some pretty nice pictures. But because the subject matter happens to be a anthromorphic animal it's got strikes against it. And I like to draw anthromorphic animals on occasion, drawing humans gets boring after awhile and animals allow for some fun character designs. But no. Can't draw too much of that or people might think I'm *GASP* a FURRY!

Thanks a fucking lot.

And oh yeah, for those of you that think I'm a furry?

I'M NOT.**

In fact, this whole 'draw anthromorphic animals and you're a furry' stigma has ALREADY worked against me, THAT'S what really chews my buttons. Here, let me tell you about it-

My art class had a visitor from the Art Institute, and my art teacher happily egged me into showing some of my free time work to the visitor. The pictures I showed her were the fish tank cartoons (the betta, corydoras, and white clouds) and the Big Bad Wolf picture. Notice something? All those pictures have anthromorphic animals. I also showed her a conceptual magazine header.

She told me they were very nice.

But as she looked at them, she was frowning.

Now tell me. What do -you- think was going on in her head?

Yeah. That’s what I've realized after I heard about the no furry hire thing.

There are other reasons, too, that I don't like furries. All has to do with art too. But I won't get into it.

*Funny animal: cartoon animals such as Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, etc. They’re not furries, contrary to popular belief, but funny animals. There are different types of anthromorphics, and here’s some distinctions:
· Funny animals- cartoon animals like Garfeild, or any various video game character like, oh, say, Sonic the Hedgehog.
· Anthromorph- Basically a term for ANYTHING with HUMAN features. Talking toaster? It’s an anthromorph. So funny animals are anthromorphs, and so are furries… but anthromorph!=furry. Remember that.
· Furry= Oh boy. How to define a furry? I think (I think, so this is IMHO) the best way to define a furry would be a sexualized anthromorph. Got huge breasts and a twat? It’s a furry.

But wait, lets take a closer look at this… Does this make Sally Acorn of Sonic fame a furry? No. She doesn’t even have breasts. Or at least, the cartoon version didn’t. She had a curved chest to help emphasize that she’s female. But no ta-tas. So the old cartoon version isn’t furry, how about the Archie one? Furry furry furry. From the pert breasts, curvy hips, and shapely legs she screams furry. Did she need all this? I don’t think so. But they draw her like that anyway. Which leads me to another thing, Sonic the Hedgehog has disturbingly become synominous with furry. Another reason I’m not that much of a Sonic fan anymore. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Knuckles, etc. are all funny animals. Not furries. But then along came Rouge. Now, Sonic may have been considered furry before Rouge came along, but when she basically pasted the label onto Sonic. Now, I like Rouge. Decent characterization, the Design is alright but I think she could of done without the HUGE JUBBLIES (what does a cartoon bat in a video game that typically includes freeing small animals from robots need jubblies for anyway?? Nothing, that’s what.) I get the horribly aching feeling that Rouge was made to appeal to the kind of people who would be appealed by a cartoon animal with cans. But enough on that…

**I’ve heard it said before that anyone who is a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog is a furry. Someone please tell me the reasoning behind this shit. I can’t fathom how liking a video game that happens to star funny animals makes you a furry. In fact, if that makes you a furry… What does being a fan of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg make you (No, don’t say ‘stupid’)? Or The Sims? I don’t get it.

I’m done for now, too tired and too out of spite to rant anymore then this.

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