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Why is the furry community so overwhelmingly male? “I think there are several reasons,” says Nemo. “One is that the fandom developed off of the sci-fi community, which has been very male dominated. And it’s probably in part because of social standards that say it’s more acceptable for a guy to be that kind of nerd.” Some speculate it’s attributable to the many years during which men outnumbered women on the Web—where the furry community has historically met, chatted, and arranged meetups. A 2005 Pew Internet study found that “Men are more likely than women to use the Internet as a destination for recreation,” and were more likely than women to go there to “gather material for their hobbies.” Our users are strongly encouraged to provide a source for artwork and intellectual property used in their submissions. The moderation team reserves the right to remove submissions and comments to content that is misappropriated or rehosted without the consent of the original artist. One female furry is doing her part to make the scene more lady-friendly. Quyet Pawz works for Guinn’s Custom Creatures, a manufacturer of fursuits. She’s been a furry since the early ’90s and is an out-and-proud member. (There’s a rather adorable video on YouTube of Quyet debuting her fursuit to her parents.) Quyet founded Lady Furs, a Facebook group that serves as sort of an online support group for female furries. She says she’s generally more comfortable with women and started Lady Furs as a way for them to network and socialize better outside of the conventions. And its members are most appreciative. “Considering we’ve got over 700 members, there definitely seems to be a need for it,” says Lady Fur member Kiryn Draconis. “It’s important to have that female-only space where we can get together and talk without fear of being hit on. We’ve had discussions about things you won’t see in a male-dominated space, such as rape, abusive situations, and even menstrual problems. There has been a lot of support between the members in various ways.” Some people just feel more extroverted wearing a costume, and it enables them to socialize.” -Kilcodo In truth, furries bear a stronger resemblance to Trekkies than any fetish scene you’d imagine. A self-proclaimed “nerd culture,” the fandom attracts those with a love for fantasy and sci-fi. And yet the furries are unique in that their fandom isn’t centered on a pre-existing show or book. Furries create their own characters, which can have as many feathers or fangs as they deem necessary. They are limited only by their own imaginations, making the scene enticing to artists of all stripes. Some estimate that 75 percent of furries create art for the community. Sari NeoChaos is a furry and artist based in Colorado Springs whose fursona is a “chaos demon,” a species she invented. “The fandom is extremely artistic,” she says, “and there are no boundaries as to what you can create. If you can think it, you can make it happen.”

For Kilcodo, the appeal of furriness is obvious, and she doesn’t see the desire to wander around dressed as a plush coyote as all that complex or unusual. “Fursuiting is really fun,” she says. “It’s about creating a character, dressing up, playing around. For some people, they just feel more extroverted wearing a costume, and it enables them to socialize or perform.” NeoChaos can certainly relate. “Fursuiting lets me be who I want to be,” she says. “I’m very shy, but being behind a mask gives me the freedom to just be someone else for a little while and not get the weird looks. The suit’s getting the weird looks and the laughs, not you.” A 30-year-old “purple snow leopard” from Ottawa named Quyet Pawz agrees. “I have fun in costume,” she says. “It allows me to express myself more openly and reduces my stress levels. I also enjoy how other people respond to the costume—adults and kids experience magic for a while.” Furries”—a community of folks famous for their full-body animal costumes—are overwhelmingly white and male. We talked to ladies in the scene to find out what life’s really like behind the mask.Lady Furs is also a means of combating the kinds of sexism some female furries have to confront. “I have witnessed women fursuiters being harassed,” says Pam. “People think that being in a fur suit puts you out there for everyone to say and do whatever they want around you, and it can get a little inappropriate.” Other ladies in the scene concur. “I know of women who have experienced harassment, assault, and worse at conventions at the hands of other furs,” says Quyet. But she says that, for the most part, the fandom has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for her. “I have met some fantastic gentlemen in the fandom—awesome people that I consider good friends. They’re some of the gems that keep me returning to conventions, and I’m always happy to see them.”

Her eyes are huge, and their bright green color pops against her scarlet hair. But the most striking things about her are her ears, mainly because they’re pointy and the size of pizza slices. As we talk, she gesticulates with giant fuzzy paws. No, I haven’t just swallowed a tab of LSD—I’m talking with a “furry,” one of the many men and women across the globe who identify with anthropomorphized animals. They draw pictures of their animal personas (“fursonas”), sometimes dress in full-body mascot-style costumes, have meetups with other members of the community, and occasionally even identify as part animal. The woman I’m chatting with is a part-time EMT who has attended 15 furry conventions since 2007. She’s dressed in a head-to-toe cat costume: her fursona is called K2. “I’m actually a cat who thinks she’s a dog,” she says, laughing through her mask. “My fursona is a little species-confused.” But in the furry community, the most surprising thing about K2 isn’t the species confusion— it’s the fact that she’s a woman. As a female in a heavily male-dominated scene, K2 is a rarity. Reaux, a 31-year-old IT consultant with a bright, sunny smile, helps organize the FurBowl, a monthly furries bowling event in Delaware. In her downtime, she likes to dress as a plush, green-eyed deer (a “pudu deer,” to be precise). “Deer are my favorite animals, but I don’t feel like I look like a deer,” she says, laughing. “So I chose that one because it’s short and fat.” Reaux first discovered the furry scene through the Internet, and now, eight years and three fursuits later, she’s the administrator and co-owner of Delaware’s regional furry forum, The Furst State. Here’s hoping that one day, furries of all species and genders can rid themselves of the misconceptions and sexism that—pardon the pun—dog the scene, and feel free to be creative, hard-partying, wolves, hyenas, and dragons, free of prejudice. After all, in a cold, harsh world, we’re entitled to some escapism and release, in whatever form (human or otherwise) that takes. As Reaux simply puts it, “Sometimes, after a long, hard week, it can just be nice to dress up like an animal for a couple of hours, you know?”Spending time among like-minded people is comforting for anyone, including those in the furdom. “I would say furry parties are probably the best parties I’ve ever been to, honestly,” says Fawnix. “Because everyone has an understanding about what everyone else is—it’s a camaraderie. When you go into a normal party, you see all these people and you’re like, ‘What are they like? I don’t know if I’ll get along with them.’ But when I go into a furry party, I’m like, ‘Oh, these are my people. I know they have similar interests to me, and I know we’re going to get along.’ It takes a huge amount of that stress away, and it takes a lot of barriers down.” Since that study, the number of men and women on the Internet has evened out, which means the number of female furries is likely to grow. But online furry communities can still be a harsh place for some women. “In some ways, the fandom tends to be very accepting,” says Nemo. “But there are a lot of gay males in the fandom, and there have been a lot of people commenting on erotic artwork saying, ‘This would be better if it was a guy’ or ‘Ew, girl parts.’ And that made a lot of those females feel really bad about being female. I know I did.” The gender imbalance was “definitely something I had to get used to,” says Pam. “Now when I hang out with my friends, I’m mostly hanging out with guys, which was an adjustment.” And she agrees that much of the dark side of the furdom expresses itself online. “You don’t see a lot of sexism in your face in the furry community, which is nice,” she says. “But there is quite a bit of it online, unfortunately. I feel like that’s where the worst people come out.”

Please abide by the Rules of Reddit, the self-promotion rules and spam guidelines. These rules will be enforced in r/furry_irl. But despite the romantic possibilities, life as a woman in the furdom isn’t always easy. The Anthropomorphic Research Project polled 820 furries at a recent convention, and 75.6 percent of them were male. So what’s it like to be a lady in such a fringe, male-dominated scene? The answer is complicated. Fawnix finds the gender imbalance a bit challenging at times. “I was a big tomboy growing up, but I do like the company of women,” she says, “and it’s kind of hard to find.” And while she cites the fandom’s generally accepting nature as its biggest draw, she admits that she has encountered outright sexism here and there. “I remember at one of my first party situations, I was flirting with this guy,” she says, “and this other guy came up and gave me a look, then turned to him and said, ‘Why are you talking to this vagina?’ So yeah. I was pretty off-put by that.” Fawnix would like for the scene to be more girl-friendly. “I feel like there are a lot of girls who would call themselves furries,” she says, “but they don’t go to conventions or meetups because of the whole male-dominated thing.”