fbmf at [unixtime wrote:1163364449[/unixtime]]Maybe I'm just naive and/or behind the times, but...I thought being a furry meant you liked dressing up as an animal and liked to think of yourself as an animal, but not necessarily that you desired to commit acts of bestiality and/or found animals sexually appealing.
This is not to say that there are not furries out there who do "bestialize" (is that a word?) and/or find animals sexually appealing, but not all (or even most) furries are like that.
Well, you're attributing many facets as being core tenets.
The only core tenet to the Furry fandom is liking anthropomorphism.There are 'fursuiters' who costume; there are lifestylers who act like animals; there are mysticals who see spirit animals; there are cartoonists; there are animators; there are writers; there are even singers and songwriters... And people who think they're reincarnated dragons. It's all, in a way, art, and fandom.
And yes, there are those who fall in love, literally, sexually, with animals - but we don't talk about them because, well, it's illegal and anyhow, literally everyone knows someone who has or has had a life companion with an animal, sexual or not. From the crazy cat-lady to the horse lover to Big Ben and Dances with Wolves, it's a part of human culture. Half our slang is devoted to comparing people with animals or parts of animals in positive or negative ways - it's inescapable.
Anthropomorphism has been a part of human culture since the Neanderthal walked the Earth - maybe even longer, but that's as far back as we have physical evidence. It can be used - like colored hair in Japanese pop culture - to identify stereotypes, characters, and feelings which are otherwise more difficult to emote in graphical or literal manners.
And some people just think animals are cute.
-Crissa
PS - I live in America, too, and what makes your sexualized fetish for breasts more important than my local mores? It is literally illegal here for someone to force a woman to cover her breasts - much like it's illegal for someone to force women into a buhrka to walk the country's streets.