UPDATE: can’t help but to notice not ONE of you have answered the question you just keep telling me about furries. I want an answer to why so many people are role playing as aninals
People who have a fetish for domestication or infantilization usually have a desire to relinquish control in a controlled environment.
I mean, most role playing will be as other humans, and we are animals. So that explains most.
After that I feel it’s mostly other mammals. I guess it’s easier the more similar the body is to ours?
Imma guess, like most things it seems, they always have been, we just see it more thanks to the internet.
No. When i was growing up, never saw this ever and the internet was still around. This is something else
Fredryk phox disagrees
Dunno how old you are, but we got internet when I was about ten years old and lemme tell you it’s always been there.
There are photos of my grandparents dressing up as animals for carnival back when they were living under communist rule so before the Internet. I found them when I was clearing out their house bc they moved to a retirement home. And I think if my ancestors had the ability to make photos of everything they were doing I bet someone already did the same thing before them. And since festivities like carnival also come with an easy atmosphere and quite some alcohol consumption I would not be suprised if they also did some roleplaying if they were already wearing the costumes why not.
The Internet now just brings these communities together and makes them more visible I’d say
This is an interesting point and makes me wonder: are there historical accounts of furries in history? I guess you could count things like werewolf stories, maybe, but that seems like a stretch…? I get the feeling I’m describing an existing field of study and hope there’s something to read about it?
Egyptians and native Americans dressed up as animals… Or maybe I’m very uneducated and this racist.
Lots, this kind of thing goes back deep into pre-history. I mentioned in another comment in this thread that the oldest known sculpture is of a furry and the oldest known cave painted art is furry art. Lots of gods and creatures of myth are human/animal hybrids of various sorts, or straight up animal spirits.
Linking anthropomorphized animals to furry culture is quite a stretch. Even old tribal cultures where they might wear animal skins/skulls for rituals doesn’t even really have much in common with what people are doing in fur suits today.
Furries are a modern example of anthropomorphic animals in culture. It’s a convenient shorthand.
Someone in ancient times carving a piece of art that’s a bear-man has virtually nothing to do with this:

Trying to link the two is disingenuous.
OP has been singularly unclear about what exactly he means by “role playing as animals” in the first place, so I don’t see the problem here.
True. I feel like there must be a book out there. Because I’m secretly hoping for like…Socrates admitting he dressed as a hung fox or whatever (JUST AN EXAMPLE).
I’m a squirrel… no further questions
fair
Being savvy enough to be on the Internet must mean you have a helluva nut collection!
You buy special nuts from around the globe?
Sure, I “buy” them
Hmmm, so, you can Pirate the nuts? 😉
No further questions
Where is this happening?
Probably because humanity has become so pathetic. /S
I don’t think humanity is pathetic. What makes you say that?
[gestures broadly at everything]
…? you mean us furries? why are there so many furries? lol
if so, the human fascination with animals is ancient. over time we began attributing human traits to their behaviors and started connecting to them on personal and spiritual levels. then when we started making art depicting those anthropomorphic animals on cave walls.
furries simply inhabit a persona (fursona) to express themselves behind the security of the confidence being that character gives them. a lot of us feel like our fursona is an ideal representation of ourselves. it helps us connect to our own personhood, strangely.
it’s also fun and can be sexy if ya want.
I think it is interesting that relatively recently it became possible for furries to wear suits that allow them to express themselves in this matter. How many people throughout human history wished to be able to do this, but couldn’t because the “technology” simply wasn’t there?
i agree heh. i’m glad i’m a furry during a good time to be one. also, with more tech we get more advanced suits and species like protogens can exist IRL. there’s a lot of suit makers too, so there’s tons of unique styles. it’s neat.
I’m going to guess that it’s because most animals spend their days eating, sleeping, and fucking. Some of them don’t even “raise” their kids. They don’t have the same responsibilities that humans do. Animals are assumed to be innocent. It’s an idealized life.
Are they? Im partial to elven or half elven druids.
licks you
nuzzle
whine
I guess frogs are protesting against ICE. Hope this helps
first you see anthropomorphic cartoon animals and find them appealing, then the internet shits in your brain and makes you want to fuck them. after that you start pretending to be one. if somebody intervenes at this point or your remaining sense of shame kicks in you may be able to recover, otherwise your condition will deteriorate until you are found dead under a bodily fluid sodden pile of threadbare animal toys with holes cut in the crotches
Are you spending lots of time in VR chat roleplay servers?
If you’re not talking about furries, then you’re gonna need to use more words to ask your question. Who is role playing animals, under what circumstances. Are you talking about a game? Are you making political commentary? Street Theater? Help us help you.
OH, are they maybe talking about all of the inflatable animal costumes worn by protesters in the US? There’ve been a lot of pictures of that recently due to the No Kings protest over the weekend.
Possible. I’d hardly call that role playing, but I could see it.
OP should take the chance to clear that up for us.
UPDATE: can’t help but to notice not ONE of you have answered the question you just keep telling me about furries. I want an answer to why so many people are role playing as aninals
I think you’ll need to be a little clearer about what you think the distinction is here. What is “animal roleplay” to you? Where are you seeing it being done?

















