Furry Nation
AT CONVENTIONS ACROSS America, thousands of people from all walks of life converge to celebrate a broad but oddly specific interest. They wear custom-made badges and fursuits that project a chosen animal identity: foxes and deers and every manner of mythical hybrid. It makes for a parade of colour that spills in all sorts of directions. There are panels to attend and workshops to take part in; some come for the art, others just want to rave.
To outsiders, this world can seem sordid. Mainstream media has consistently portrayed the fur community as fetishistic – a weird, kinky world where people watch cartoon porn and have sex in large, elaborate animal costumes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, ‘furs’ tend to be secretive and wary of attention. There are so many facets to the subculture that any one strand could easily be distorted or sensationalised.
Joe Strike, a writer from New York, is on a mission to clear up the misconceptions. Having spent nearly 30 years in “America’s most misunderstood subculture”, his new book Furry Nation documents the history, growth and everyday reality of an unconventional community.
“There is enough [sex] in
