If you know anyone in the furry fandom, chances are that you know about the wave of people being outed for zoophilia and sexual impropriety. Where is this coming from? Join me for another mini-Twitter Down the Rabbit Hole. [1/17]

When the fandom was in its infancy, in the 80s and 90s, it acted as a way for people with similar interests to gather. Anthropomorphic animals were generally targeted towards children, but these people wanted media for their own demographic. [2/17]

If no company was going to make it for them, then they’d simply do it and fund it themselves. This meant that those in the fandom during this time had a strong sense of camaraderie. But in some ways, this made it vulnerable. [3/17]

Among this group of socially awkward misfits were zoophiles, who felt that they’d found a place that might accept expressions of their paraphilia, or at least be more accepting of it. These people wormed their way into positions of influence. [4/17]

While it’s difficult to say for certain, it’s likely that people at the time who learned about the zoophiles were hesitant to address it out of fear of fracturing the fragile fandom. Furries have always loved drama, but they didn’t want to destroy the community. [5/17]

For these people, the fandom was one of the few places where they could socialize into the 2000s; the internet was a fantasy at the time and many of them had limited social groups outside of other furries. [6/17]

The zoophiles, feeling that they finally found a place they were (however begrudgingly) accepted, took on leadership roles in the fandom. This ranged from respected artists to actual event organizers who would protect their fellow zoophiles. [7/17]

But this relative safety wouldn’t last. In the 2000s and the 2010s, the growth of the internet saw a new surge of people discovering and engaging with the furry fandom, specifically the media that it produced. [8/17]

These people were independent of the close-knit community, and they formed what can be thought of as a “second wave” with a different paradigm towards their media. But the conventions and the websites were being run by the old guard. [9/17]

The zoophiles in the old guard, who had become accustomed to expressing their paraphilia, could exist by not explicitly stating their interests, and even when they came close to overstepping, they would be disregarded. [10/17]

But in the mid-2010s, this second wave became the dominant group in the furry fandom, and now that new artists had gained positions of influence and respect, they had the ability to rally their followers against the zoophiles. [11/17]

And so began a gradual purge that is still ongoing. If you were to interact with a group of furries nowadays and raise the topic, chances are they would react with a mixture of disgust and embarrassment. [12/17]

Callout posts with reams of evidence crop up frequently, and the reaction is almost universally against the zoophiles, who are driven out, though sometimes event organizers and website owners with their old loyalties are hesitant to disown them. [13/17]

While there are still zoophiles in the fandom, their visibility and influence are measurably decreasing. Their greatest shield now appears to be ignorance of their existence. [14/17]

The ironic thing is that while the zoophiles are being driven out, the callouts are making them even more visible to those outside the fandom, making this purge a painful one. To the furries, this seems to be a price that they’re willing to pay. [15/17]

But there’s a complication: right now, the furry fandom is undergoing a decentralization; more and more furries are making smaller, personalized groups, and zoophiles aren’t typically welcome there. [16/17]

This means that it’s difficult to say what effect the purge will have on the fandom as a whole. “Furry” nowadays means something different to each member of the community, and this seems to be the trend. [End]