maybe its that more girls are opening up to the idea of furries and hence more female characters in ych's and comissions? :3

How so?

(points to the journal text body) XP

Sorry...

I think that it's because there are more female furries now than there was ever was before.

More women = more female characters.

I'm a girl and have many male characters. It's probably just whatever you wanna make.

funny you should say that. I was kind of wondering the same thing. Like how many of these female characters are actually played by men.

Lol cause some gay men prefer to be portrayed as female characters.

I would say more like some men like to play female character .

just like some women like to play as men.

It's easier for me to play as a male so I won't be surprised if others just play whatever they find easier or fun.

I think furry is becoming straighter as more women join the fandom.
A lot of the straight art now comes from women.

The fandom used to be very much straight and outright homophobic at times. But then some time around 2008 or so, the fandom became popular with gay men and the fandom became a haven for gay men. Now more women, as well as more people who are bi/pan/ace and transgender are joining the fandom, so we're seeing another demographic shift in the fandom.

There's still going to be lots of gay male art, but now there's also going to be lots of art of all the other genders.

This is possible. I noticed that a large percentage of artists are female, and I wonder if they are more comfortable drawing the female form because they are more familiar with it (such as seeing themselves in mirrors and stuff).

I've actually been in the fandom for a long LONG time (got started young). There was a time back in late 1990s where it was almost exclusively gay men. (probably 90%+) Its definitely gone the other way, but I wonder where it will end up?

I think the fandom will remain generally queer, but including the entirety of the queer umbrella and not just cis gay men.
I also don't know how many of the women on this site are totally heterosexual, and I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few of them were queer in some way.

taste the rainbow :D

The fandom had a lot of homoerotic art long before 2008. I didn't catch the alt.fan.furry days, but remember VCL, Yiffstar, Furnation, and a few other sites that proliferated art in the late 90's and early 2000's; I don't specifically recall any homophobia or overabundance of straight art. There was plenty of male-oriented artists. Those were the days of Kaa Starhunter, Wookie, Doug Winger, and others. The biggest straight artist that comes to mind in that era was Cullen (before he changed his handle to JBernal and launched his paysite).

What about DrComet and James Hardiman and Jay Naylor and Eric Schwartz and Max Blackrabbit and all those?

Yep, there are those. We could spend all day going back and forth naming various artists catering to various flavors of audience in the fandom pre-2008 or even pre-2000. More gay-oriented artists going back to the 90's or early 2000's: Chris Sawyer, Ken Sample, Rog Minotaur, Frank Gembeck, Karabiner, Jax, Falstaff/J.Willard, Nduli, Grrrwolf, Ayame, Foxxfire, etc.

There's no shortage of art that covers straight-to-homosexual content going back decades. There are polls on sexual orientation of surveyed self-identifying furries going back at least a decade. No overwhelmingly heterosexual figures that resemble anything like the general population.

There isn't any compelling argument or evidence that showed the fandom being overwhelmingly straight and homophobic at all and that some keystone event happened in 2008 to change that. There was never a shortage of LGBT art on all the big art sites that existed pre-FA. There were a ton of LGBT-oriented channels on furry-oriented IRC servers when IRC was still a thing. Was probably the same during BBS days with people like Mark Merlino and Rod O'Riley.

As Stripetail relates, the early furry fandom, around the late 1980's and into the '90's was mostly gay. The straight artist was the rarity back then. A change occurred when a group of furs (and I use that term loosely based on the furs the fandom formed around) started a movement to ban all fetishes from the fandom including gay and lesbian arts, mostly due to a very biased article in Vanity Fair magazine. It was a very polarizing time...and as usually happens those who started the movement were seen as nothing more than troublemakers by those who were in furry before it even had that name. That group fell apart under its own in-fighting.

As for any reason the fandom is going straighter, I feel it's more due to it's growth than anything else. The average population is 10% gay or lesbian. But an analysis of furs in those early fandom days placed that level around 25 to 30% in the fandom. As the fandom grew (and that includes the influx of true female furs), it would stand to reason the percentage would drop closer to that of the general population.

But how do you explain that the percentage of trans people in the fandom is four times higher than in the mainstream world? (2% and 0.5% respectively)
https://sites.google.com/site/anthr.....fandom-project
https://sites.google.com/site/anthr.....ransgender.jpg

The percentage of LGBT in general in the fandom is much, much MUCH higher than the general population, and it always has been (not just transfolk). Sexual orientation polls in the fandom typically show about 1/3 heterosexual, 1/3 bisexual, and the remaining 1/3 split between homosexual and unknown/other. That means only 1/3 of those in the fandom identify as straight. Depending on what statistics you use for the general population, it is something like 3-10% who consider themselves LGBT. That's a massive inversion.

Anyone that's a greymuzzle (I guess I qualify now *sigh*) from the fandom will point out it was never homophobic or mostly straight. It was the exact opposite. If anything, the overwhelming representation from LGBT seen in the fandom has been falling as the fandom picks up popularity and will likely trend more towards the normal LGBT distributions seen in the general population. It's inevitable, and the same thing you see with comicons. They used to be, in stereotypical brush strokes, for "male nerds", but it's gotten mainstream. With traditional frowned-upon "nerdy" activities no longer harshly stereotyped as it used to be, the demographics have taken a decidedly large shift in growing the female demographic.

This is possibly what Etheras is noticing with more heterosexual content.

Again, agreeing with Stripetail overall. For the most part, furry has been an accepting fandom. The majority don't criticize or ostracize those with different lifestyles than our own, but welcome them as fellow furs. This is particularly true of those who feel they were born of the wrong gender. The general population is only now starting to come to terms with that, but still has a long way to go. Look at the scorn and epithets thrown at Caitlyn Jenner when she came out. Level of acceptance is a big element of furry.

i only draw females or fembois so all my YCH fit that as i just prefer the female form but i have noticed a change too a when i started there was A LOT of gay porn on here and it seems to have been watered down perhaps like the above saying its more females becoming furries? or like you suggest more main stream its not a hugely dirty word "furry"

I'm straight... Always have been.

Hm. As an artist drawing ychs there is usually very little interest in male ychs which is why I tend to draw more females, plus it's easier for me. xD

But I think that's the more general idea in terms of selling ychs? I know a few other artists are the same way, people ask for male oriented stuff but then never show interest when we try to do more, so we don't do it.

I think it's just a numbers thing. Whether we like it or not, being gay isn't common, and being straight involves a lot of focus on the female form.

I wonder if YHC auctions have helped attact and create more straight art in fandom.

That could be argued just as easily that it's because the artists feel they have to make YCHs that will sell.

hmm, it might be becoming more mainstream as people are getting past the negative connotation of being a furry. perhaps more women and straight men are getting involved. i don't mind it all.

I've noticed the people behind the characters are becoming more confused.
Whether it is gender or sexual orientation, or maybe they just rather not make a deal of it?
I cannot confirm that earlier furries were predominantly homosexual, due to me migrating from 4chan/Fchan way back in 2005...
Sure there were homosexual threads but I recall seeing more heterosexual works.
Plus R34 of commercial furry characters often seemed to steadily remain heterosexual.
Then again I'm not one to pay much attention lol.

So I can say that when I created my first character on FurryMUCK back in the late 90's, the fandom was almost entirely gay. So there's definitely a shift. I suppose its a good thing, provided that the fandom doesn't start to become homophobic.

That makes sense considering how homophobic 4chan was. Don't know if it still is or is even still a thing. I doubt and hope there isn't homophobia in the current fandom. Though if it exists, at least on FA, i haven't seen it save for obvious trolls/flamers with accounts not lasting longer than 24 hours.

Might be a result of the fandom becoming more mainstream and less of a fringe, though I'd hope that Gays and Bisexuals continue to be as accepted in the community.

I've also noticed more furries who are married and have kids in real life too.

I think most straights who come here really have no issue with bi/gay/les furs. My mate, himself, is bi. And I'm bi-curious. But we are still a M-F couple.

I think it would be hard in furry. there just so much of every thing in the community. When I started I just avoided the stuff I didn't like. Of corse you still get exposed. some of it looks good. and well bobs your uncle.

Well my point was...not every M-F couple is technically straight. I'm sure some/many are. But not all of them. So to say "all these straight couples" is not entirely correct.

Or maybe those girls are guy's female characters. Or they're trans

Furry is trending stranger IMO. With the amount of hybrids and non-binary gendered characters I've seen lately (i'm looking at you shark-hybrids) it's nice to see some 'normal' stuff. Maybe it's just a backlash against a lot of this, stranger stuff that's prompting the stuff you're noticing? IDK, I honestly try not to figure out furry anymore. I don't feel like I'm part of the fandom, more like fandom-adjacent, so I just try to ignore a large portion of it.

I feel like this is a result of the fandom becoming more adamantly queer, which I imagine as being sort of a reaction to the mainstreaming of furry in order for the fandom to maintain its outsider status.

I'm definitely seeing more of a trend toward herms and cboys, though those terms are now controversial due to some people seeing them as transphobic toward real life women with penises and men with vaginas.

And I'm noticing more "monstrous" species such as taffy monsters, slime/goo monsters, and pool toy furries. (The pool toy fetish seems to have become really popular recently as well.)

I also remember back when the Get to Know the Artist meme was trending, quite a few artists I watched said they were genderfluid.

Furthermore, I know that Bad Dragon now has an entire section for packers, which are dildos made specifically for trans men.

And maybe the straight art that's allegedly more common now is a reaction to this queering of the furry fandom. Though quite a bit of this straight art isn't vanilla either, which is interesting.

Now that I think of it, a lot of this has coincided with a general real-life rise in the acceptance and awareness of feminism, gay rights, and now trans rights.

I think as more people discover it, the more are added to the fandom of all types of orientations.

I must warn, however, that many don't understand what we are truly about. Some see it as something strictly fetish, and thinking we were all straight to begin with, I feel males are making themselves appear female in order to get action from other males, and only do so FOR the purpose of getting action. I'm all for a good fetish myself, but I just think some people don't know what they are truly doing. I'm not against furry fetish, but I get peeved when people think that that's ALL it's about.

And as I think I see already stated, there are girls who really go for trannies and fembois...anything except straight men. there's women and men who go for ALL orientation and sexual types as well.

Seems like it. It's really hard for me to find YCHs for my male characters since all I seem to run across are female only ones and my inbox seems full of boobs and vagina more and more, even from artists that I watched for their more gay/male themed art ._.''

As a poll a read some time ago, in the fandom are 50% straight 50% gay/lesbian/bi

I'll do my bit to keep the fandom as fabulous as possible.

Yeah, there are a lot more women in the fandom than there were previously and with quite a few artists being women as well. I'm actually demisexual but with straight tendencies so I just prefer straight art to gay art tbh.

I don't get much interest in my own male characters, the focus is more on my main character who is female.

I don't think this shift is a bad thing at all especially as the fandom is becoming more mainstream and more straight people take an interest, provided things don't start becoming homophobic.

I was going to try and point some thing like this out. Art may be more a reflection of the intrest then the people. Like having allot of guy artist may actually create allot of art focusing on females.

That's a good point ^.^

I seem to remember a large amount of straight art in the 90s. Then again I remember it being allot of single character art. Like female pin up.

But I wasn't really looking for gay art. Though some of it i'd stumble over, and if it was really hot it would sneak in. Jace for instance was drawing super awesome stuff back then.

I don't remember the 90s being so commission oritened. The one con I went to. most of the artists were selling prints. So my perception at the time was that artists were drawing more of what they wanted. The Furry sites back then were barely more then FTP folders. But I could be tottaly wrong. But I don't think there was a large group of people just waiting to scoop up commissions.

ha ha I get like 95% male attention. at least their the ones who talk to me.

I'm vagina'ing the masses as hard as I can!

Hope that its because more women are entering the fandom----for obvious reasons.

my opinion is who cares. the furry fandom is not exclusive to LGBT. as a gay guy, im okay with this. straight furs shouldn't have to feel ostracized or awkward because they are surrounded by people who think furries should ne exclusive to LGBT [and i know some furs like that xmx ]

And not all M-F couples are straight, either. My mate and I are both bi/bi curious, but we are a M-F couple.

I noticed this too. I think the LGBT community is more accepting of different fetishes because they know how it feels to be ashamed of their sexual preferences.I think this is gradually changing for straight people too, as they start to explore their sexuality more. Overall a good thing in my opinion.

Well, consider that in the general global population, straight (hetero) is the dominant sexual identity, with the highest number of practitioners. While gay (homo) sexual identifying people have always found a haven here with general acceptance of others sharing the same interests, I think it makes sense that, as more new people discover and enter the fandom, they will bring their sexual identities with them, and since most outside the fandom are straight, we may see more furs identifying as such.

But that is discounting those who identify as bisexual, something your own post up there seems to do, despite mentioning your character swings both ways! Practicing bisexuals could also appear to shift these trends by commissioning more "straight" oriented art as individuals in a group at any given time. This appearance would be purely artificial though, as they would be just as likely to commission "gay" art, and the seeming fandom trend toward hetero would be in appearance only instead of fact.

Personally, I don't know if I would be so bold as to say there is a "trend" at all. There has always been an abundance of straight oriented material here, just as there has always been an abundance of homosexual oriented material. The homosexual group in the fandom is traditionally larger than it is in the general population, so you might see more of their stuff on the front page, but scores of straight material has always been there for those who would seek it. I do believe though that over time, the populations will balance out so that you have more of an equal representation between gay/straight/bi practitioners, but I don't think this will happen in a way that is immediately noticeable.

Possibly more females and straight males joining the fandom recently? Even though I have had this fursonna connection almost my entire life, I didn't even know about furrys or the fandom until a few years ago. I'm a straight female, and so are most of my characters, though I do have a few straight males and bi characters of both genders. It's also possible that artists are doing more straight and female only work, to try and 'cast a wider net' for support/watchers/commissioners as more women and straight men enter the fandom.

Honestly, I don't understand why this is worth talking about...but let's say something anyways.

While it's nice that furry is becoming more mainstream, and so more and more people are actually understanding what it actually is and don't think us as animal-raping zoophiles I don't think that would have an impact on the fandom's average sexuality. It's nice to see that more straight art is being pumped out though, poor straight people gotta fap to something too xD I always thought the furry community had WAY too many gay stuff for its merit. Not that that's a bad thing, but I like to see some sort of balance in things.

Mm I myself is straight in real life though make exception for femboys and shemales but when I started out on furry fandom it was old yahoo user room days where found yahoo chat rooms. I found that 'females' who were guys trying get girl on girl action, weren't really accepting towards male furry characters and found that most male furry characters were more friendly and accepting than the females. Most females I met online just guys playing as females, I did the same thing. But recently I noticed that others and including myself want more straight couple pics whether sexual or tamed. ^^ Though I love a lot gay furry pics on FA, e621, sofurry I find myself more attractive to females art these days than males, maybe cause starting getting tired male art and perhaps want find that special girl or just starting to appreciate females a bit more art wise I don't know, probably went off topic as usual. It is nice to see that fa and art becoming more main stream here now than used to be. Anyways hope you having a good one etheras

I'm Gay, don't really care where the Fandom goes, it's an amorphous beast with a mind of its own.
Just go with it, there will always be Gay Artwork if there are Gay Furrs in the fandom.

I personally would say, it is as always: people being most active get the most attention. So while there might have been a slight rise in the female percentage, overall-done statistics indicate, that in the furry-fandom the percentage of bi- or homosexual individuals are just slighly higher than in the average population. So while a homosexual and a heterosexual couple are only different in the choice of their partner, you rarely see some imageries of straight couples sexing, doing marriage or dining.

And the reason for that might actually be, that for the gay people it actually IS a great deal to show these things open (at least in art), in a region where they are accepted in doing so, sharing precious memories or running wild wih their fantasy because they can not live them out in the "open world" (maybe).

So, while the fandom itself might be a safehaven and refuge for all kind of quirky people, convention-statuses just show that the percentage of females has risen over the past 10 years or so from 35 to 41%. On that i would close with: things are as always, jus more stright commissions now being done.

Also: look at dis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhDHx6Cisdg Look for the whole thing, numbers and stats are mostly mentioned in the beginning, but all in all it is quite a nice report.