# What is the difference between a fursona and just your main OC?



## kevintheradioguy (Jun 20, 2017)

I must say, I'm not a furry, and never have been one, nor planning to become one. That doesn't mean I'm one of those people who like to bully furries, going with calling them perverts or zoophiles, furry isn't just my thing. Although I enjoy drawing all sorts of things, including anthropomorphic animals.

But, getting back on track, I cannot really get it: what's the difference between a fursona, and your main OC? Such as, I have original characters, granted, as any other person who prefers to waste their time on the Internet, and I have anthropomorphic OCs as well. Some I'm more fond of then others, and  suppose one can be seen as a main one; and a pretty nice fellow from what I imagine, perhaps even the one I'd like to be personality-wise. Does it make him my fursona? Or is a fursona something else?


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## kevintheradioguy (Jun 20, 2017)

How do you know, though, whether you're a rabbit or a crow? (are crows even furries?)


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## ellaerna (Jun 20, 2017)

The way I've always internalized it was that the definition of a fursona can be played around with a lot and can mean slightly different things to different people.

Base definition, a fursona is just how you represent yourself in the fandom/online. It is your person as an anthropomorphic animal and stylized to your personal preferences, whether you keep true to who you are or get really creative with how you'd like to be seen. Most fursona's are based more on personality than looks, with people choosing animals that have similar habits (eg my fursona is a cat because, like cats, I can be super friendly or super not, sleep constantly, and enjoy sunny spots to lie down in). Like a persona, it's just a face that you wear, something to to showcase this side of yourself. Some people strongly tie their identities to their fursona- thinking of it as sort of their true self- while others just treat it like just another character, nothing special. And of course there is everything in between. 

A main OC can be your fursona, but it doesn't have to be. And your fursona if you have one doesn't have to be your main either. It's really up to you what you want to do and what you want to label your various characters. I find it inherently a little silly that you're on a furry forum while claiming not to be a furry, but you definitely don't have to identify as one to be here. If you'd like to be known through your main OC, awesome. If not, whatever.

I hoped this helped.


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## kevintheradioguy (Jun 20, 2017)

ellaerna said:


> I find it inherently a little silly that you're on a furry forum while claiming not to be a furry



I draw furries too much not to be on FA or its forums ;>

Not to mention I don't have to be a tomato to be on a cooking website.


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## ellaerna (Jun 20, 2017)

kevintheradioguy said:


> I draw furries too much not to be on FA or its forums ;>
> 
> Not to mention I don't have to be a tomato to be on a cooking website.


No, but you should probably have the intent to cook. Like, if you were on a site for preteen girls, one would hope that you were a preteen girl.
But like I said, doesn't really matter.
The best requirement I've heard for being a furry is just "do you like furry art? y/n". Like you don't have to identify as an animal or get off on furry porn or whatever to be a furry. Hell, if you liked the Redwall books growing up, that could be enough to call yourself a furry. It's up to you if you want to use that term, but you could if you wanted to. The shoe is in your size, it's just up to you if you want to put it on.

EDIT: also, I just looked into your dA. You're very good!


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## kevintheradioguy (Jun 20, 2017)

ellaerna said:


> No, but you should probably have the intent to cook. Like, if you were on a site for preteen girls, one would hope that you were a preteen girl.
> But like I said, doesn't really matter.
> The best requirement I've heard for being a furry is just "do you like furry art? y/n". Like you don't have to identify as an animal or get off on furry porn or whatever to be a furry. Hell, if you liked the Redwall books growing up, that could be enough to call yourself a furry. It's up to you if you want to use that term, but you could if you wanted to. The shoe is in your size, it's just up to you if you want to put it on.



See, it's like this. There are things people like, are interested in or otherwise; and they don't have to justify it by being a part of some community.

I like cosplay, because I like well-made complex costumes. I'm not a cosplayer. I don't wear those for any reason. I don't visit cons. But I'm on a few cosplay websites.
I adore jewelry. I don't wear it, but I like looking at hand-made crafts, thus, I'm on hand-made jewelry websites, even though I don't make my own, neither I'm interested in getting myself any.
I'm not a cook. I'm a linguist/lawyer by education, and a game developer by job. But I still visit cooking websites, because I like cooking.
I am not a religious person, but I like history, and thus, I'm subscribed to religious news tellers.
I'm not gay, but I like making fun of homophobes, and thus, I'm subscribed to LGBT+ publics.
Not to mention I can and will go on a pre-teen girl website, was I to need research, information, or just would like to get what's in my little sister's head (not applicable,a s she's 21 now, but still).
Good example: a friend of mine and his husband adopted a kid, and he joined and started moderating in time a website called "young moms", while he was obviously not a mom, neither young.

So, yes, nothing "inherently silly" on being here, in my opinion.


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## ellaerna (Jun 20, 2017)

kevintheradioguy said:


> See, it's like this. There are things people like, are interested in or otherwise; and they don't have to justify it by being a part of some community.
> 
> I like cosplay, because I like well-made complex costumes. I'm not a cosplayer. I don't wear those for any reason. But I'm on a few cosplay websites.
> I adore jewelry. I don't wear it, but I like looking at hand-made crafts, thus, I'm on hand-made jewelry websites, even though I don't make my own, neither I'm interested in getting myself any.
> ...


That's all fair. I hope I didn't upset you in any way. It was not my intent.


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## kevintheradioguy (Jun 20, 2017)

ellaerna said:


> That's all fair. I hope I didn't upset you in any way. It was not my intent.



You didn't. The post was helpful (hence the like). Just the conclusion of "it's silly for you to be in furry website while not being a furry" seemed very far-fetched to me.
B'sudes, it's a forum. People talk here about stuff, right? So we did :>


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## ellaerna (Jun 20, 2017)

kevintheradioguy said:


> You didn't. The post was helpful (hence the like). Just the conclusion of "it's silly for you to be in furry website while not being a furry" seemed very far-fetched to me.
> B'sudes, it's a forum. People talk here about stuff, right? So we did :>


I get a lot of my social cues from tone of voice and body language, so it's hard for me to tell on an online text format if one is replying normally or is getting a little more... vehement. 
And to be fair, I said it was a _little_ silly in my opinion but that it does not matter in the slightest. So less far-fetched, I hope.


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## kevintheradioguy (Jun 20, 2017)

ellaerna said:


> I get a lot of my social cues from tone of voice and body language, so it's hard for me to tell on an online text format if one is replying normally or is getting a little more... vehement.
> And to be fair, I said it was a _little_ silly in my opinion but that it does not matter in the slightest. So less far-fetched, I hope.


It *is* a problem to get intonations and intents on the Internet, unless specifically stated.
Still, I'm too old to get offended online, thus I'm mainly nice/curious here (which you probably didn't know when the thread started).

...okay, "a little very far-fetched" then.


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## ellaerna (Jun 20, 2017)

kevintheradioguy said:


> It *is* a problem to get intonations and intents on the Internet, unless specifically stated.
> Still, I'm too old to get offended online, thus I'm mainly nice/curious here (which you probably didn't know when the thread started).
> 
> ...okay, "a little very far-fetched" then.


 So be it.


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## BasilClover (Jun 20, 2017)

I don't consider myself a furry even though I'm making a fursuit head, I just consider it art. I'm not a big fan of the fandom, as I have bad memories from about ~13 of the online furry fandom. Sure, Not everyone is bad but it has to be viewed as a whole. I still like the media and am friends with other fandom people and that's good enough for me. I'm on a koi breeder forum while only having them as pets and not being involved in the sport and that's similar.


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## Yvvki (Jun 20, 2017)

I'm just here for the artistic side of it and the kind people. I don't wear a fursuit in rl.
I do have an animal that I feel relate-able with but I'm sure most people can relate to an animal. ( Look at all those grumpy cat videos that people say represents their mood at that time. ) Haha.
I choose a red panda because I like to sleep a lot during the day and I don't like super hot weather....and I'm very comfy to hug....

See being a 'furry' is the interest of anthropomorphic animals. So it could be that you like the art, or the idea of these fantasy creatures living in another world.

People seem to think that Furrys are real animals made to look sexual for humans when that's not it at all.

Furrys are an alien race with human intelligence. Like you should not relate them to real animals at all. They are not our ideas of real animals. No average furry wants to hurt animals in any way either.


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## PixelVixen (Jun 20, 2017)

I'm similar to BasilCLover  in that, whilst I don't have a suit, I consider the idea of making/wearing them as an art-form ~ I'm actually really into theatre so the idea of people parading in suits struck me as being more of a performance art than anything else, though those people themselves may say otherwise. It's all down to the individual at the end of the day, and how they see themselves/ how they want to identify; it's such a broad thing. Personally I would consider a head and hand-paws at most, and if nothing else it would be for performance and fun rather than a means of identifying to my character in any meaningful way.

I'm an illustrator and I enjoy creating characters, so I came here to seek out like-minded creatives with the hope of making some friends since I lack real-life ones! Although I communicate here through my characters (which I do enjoy),  I don't really consider myself to be a "full-on fur". I've also noticed that since I've been here, I've actually been using the word "fursona" by default without really thinking of the implications. However, I'd rather just use the word "character", since the word "fursona" just doesn't sit well with me personally ~ Pixel is a part of me, and she represents some of my personality traits, that's really it ~ don't get me wrong, I love Pixel, I created her, but she could be any creature, or even a steaming pile of dung ~ the outward appearance is superficial after all and I'd like to think that people would still want to talk to me even if I were represented by such a thing XD

For me the community is made up of people at the end of the day ~ people who have lots of different interests and hobbies, and some of them just happen to like wearing animal suits ^^

Anyway, I hope that made some sense ~ I'm not the best at explaining things but it's just my opinion 

P.S. Yvvki aslo makes some good points ^^


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## BasilClover (Jun 20, 2017)

Also, even though I use a character to represent me on DA/other social media, I don't share any traits with them. They are just any other oc to me.


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## PixelVixen (Jun 20, 2017)

Yeah, I mean, I think the best way I can explain is whilst I enjoy the community as a creative hub, I don't feel comfortable with the idea of using some of the associated terminology of the fandom, i.e "fursona", "popufur" ~ it's the idea that some people literally furrify everything, and yet for me personally, it's just a part of who I am. I get that I communicate here though a "character", I'd just rather refer to her as a "character", rather than a "fursona" XD

Okay I'm done and DONE!


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## LoEM_1942 (Jun 21, 2017)

This is a really good question to me, because I am very attached to my long-time 'main' OCs (one in particular is nearing two decades old). Sometimes fervently so. At the same time, it's not very hard to differentiate or explain. Mind that these are my opinions and it varies per individual.

A Fursona is different to different people, but it boils down to a form of expression; a representation of yourself with some connection. Whether it's just funny and fun or maybe more mystical and serious. Could be a quick pinup or a fully fleshed out 'character' with a more idealistic/interesting/preferred lore over the creator's life. Depends on who you talk to and how they decided to go about creating and using it - which can be said of many things. 

Fursonas (or is it Fursonae?) are a pretty deep and broad subject for that reason. To me, I take it serious enough to consider Zayne an accurate representation of myself in a fantasy space. For all intents and purposes, he is a virtual me that I enjoy 'identifying' with. I also respect him as such.

What constitutes 'identifying'? Up to the user. No real requirements. Past Zayne being a more exotic looking me, he's just a tool. Much like the trinkets we wear or the marks we put on ourselves to add to our self expressions.

OCs, on the other hand, are just characters. Much like the characters actors portray, you can get pretty involved in them. They can seem to take on a life of their own, grow and evolve. Happens quite a bit with good ones. They are, however, simply fictional characters used in story, RP and lore writing that are their own creations. They aren't really tied to the individual in the same way/s.

Also, and it's been said time and time again, that the only thing that is any sort of requirement to be 'furry' is a simple interest in anthropomorphic animals. No need for anyone to push it or punish it like it's anything other than an interest. No worries for being curious. 

Hope that helps.


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## Zyren_EX (Jun 26, 2017)

The way I think of it is that an OC is a character that you create, whether you relate to them or not, and use for a certain purpose (e.g., RP or a Comic Book character).

A 'sona on the other hand is a representation of you as a character within a specific fandom. Therefor a FURsona would be you as a furry/animal.

I find that how someone picks an animal to be their fursona differs from person to person. Though a common theme is that the person feels they connect with that animal on a deeper level than with other animals, whether that be personality wise or any number of other reasons ^_^ 

Also a little side note, someone can actually have more than one 'sona. I actually have four. There is my main fursona Renly, my secondary fursona Casey, my digimon tamer Harley (who is my digi-sona not just an OC), and my deviantart persona which is nuperjo (a mystical elf like humanoid with blue hair).


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