I remember telling friends so many times, at so many different points in life, “I wish I had a tail I could wag so you could know how happy I am about things!” and I meant it earnestly. When the concept of humanity felt limiting, I felt as if having some aspects of an entirely different species could free me of these limitations. For a long time, I’ve felt drawn to dogs.
It might seem strange, as someone who’s so clearly obsessed with goats, to say that I wish to have dog-like traits in my body. And it is strange; oftentimes animal identities are deeply related to each other, people who are furries are often also therians, petplayers, pet regressors, and maybe even animal-genders.
Those are really weird terms, aren’t they? Nowadays it seems like you can find a term for anything online. If you’re unfamiliar, I’ll explain a few of these, and the difference between them:
Now… over the years I found myself identifying with several of these, both when I was younger and now that I’m older. I know a lot of kids identify as animals, but it seems to be rare for people to continue to identify as such when they’re older, so when they do, I find that fascinating.
Humanity isn’t something all of us are given by default; whether you’re queer, POC, disabled, neurodivergent, or anything of the sort, some of us aren’t given the benefit of being seen as human. I think this is why we identify with animals. Reclaiming that lack of humanity can be a source of comfort for people.
Furries and therians are the best examples of this, right? Well I can’t speak for therians, but I can speak for furries, as I am one, and have been for a while.
It’s undeniable that furries are a cultural phenomenon. There’s a lot of speculation and different people’s interpretation as to why we find kinship and identity in humanized anthro animals. Personally, I feel like I can give my two cents as someone with several animal identities on top of being a furry.
First of all, “furriness” to me is not as much of an identity as it is a hobby. I like drawing anthro animals! I like drawing myself as a goat or a dog, and I like learning to draw different kinds of anthro animals. I know a lot of furry artists see their identity as furries as just that, a hobby.
But there’s more to it. Being a furry has links to the parts of my identity I feel like I can’t yet explore, and I know a lot of people feel the same way. As a trans man, there are aspects of my trans identity that I don’t have access to yet (hrt, surgeries, clothes I’m not confident enough to wear…) and my fursona… Well, he’s not real, he’s just a representation of me, and therefore can look however I want him to look. It’s freeing. It’s seeing a “me” that isn’t really me living the life I want; I get to live vicariously through my fursona, hoping to someday get to be just like him.
…And I can’t pretend like there’s no links to sexuality to it, either.
It’s more of a cultural thing; the furry fandom is built around queerness and sexuality. There’s a culture of being freer about your sexuality and what you’re attracted to, how you experience it and why. There’s a reason why “furry porn” is such a meme, it IS common, and it’s more cultural than anything. Furries and queerness and inherently linked, I find that reassuring.
I feel like I was never able to fully embrace my sexuality until I started getting into the furry fandom. I feel like I had to have a certain degree of separation from myself to be able to interact with it, and a fursona allows you that. Furthermore, furries being so open and accepting of different sexual identities makes for a really welcoming community to experience that through.
It’s a similar reason to why concepts like petplay and pet regression just made sense to me.
Both are different but not really; pet regression is, in a way, petplay without the sexual connotation. But whereas furriness to me is about exploring my identity, these two are more about comfort and, to put it lightly, disconnecting from the real world for a little bit.
Let’s see, my fursona is a goat, simply because I like goats. Not for any deeper reason, not for any reasons of identity or comfort. I just like goats.
But if I had to pick a fursona that spoke to me on a more personal level, it’d be for sure a dog. Maybe even a puppy. I’ve been told several times that I behave like a dog would; I like physical affection, I get excited easily, I like to play, to feel small and cute, and all things that feel connected to, as I’ve started calling the combination of petplay and pet regression for simplicity’s sake, “being ouppy.”
It is comforting. It’s comforting to be able to behave that way around someone I trust, it’s comforting to be able to engage with sexuality through a mental state that allows me to be “small and cute”, and even playing into the behaviors associated with that. “Being Ouppy” to me is less about the animal aspect of it and more about the comfort that behaving and being seen as something that’s cute and small brings.
Sometimes you don’t want to think about life, sometimes you just want headpats.
And finally… pupgenderism. What can I say that I haven’t said already? It’s part of what I call “being ouppy” for the same reasons, but I feel like there’s a bit more to say about why I started relating it to gender.
I’m a boy. 100%. I’m a transgender binary man and I don’t have even a hint of genderweirdness within my “main” gender, which is Boy. Yet, the term “pupgender” speaks to me. Why?
My girlfriend was able to put it in a really good way: “It’s an extra pin on your jacket!” It’s not “part boy, part pupgender,” it’s an addition to my main gender that I find really comforting.
Wearing a collar gives me gender euphoria. Drawing myself with dog ears and a tail gives me gender euphoria. It feels reaffirming. Reassuring. Because I noticed I describe my gender as “a dogboy” or “a puppyboy” more often than I realize.
I’m a boy, but I’m also kind of a puppy. Pupgender. You get it.
Well… I don’t really have a conclusion other than… yeah, it’s interesting how animal identities can mean so much to people. I don’t know if any of this made any sense, but hopefully I can help someone else understand these identities better, understand me better, and maybe even realize something about themselves.
Thank you for reading!