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Goldenwolf — My Definitions
Published: 2011-01-04 05:24:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 183397; Favourites: 4642; Downloads: 2581
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Description
Everyone has their own definitions of what a Were, an Anthro, and a Furry is, and in fact these definitions are debated -a lot- on the internet. WHEN IT COMES TO MY OWN ARTWORK these are only what I personally think of when I think of "Werewolf", "Anthro", and "Furry". So when I say "I am drawing a werewolf", this is what I mean. Or if I say "I am drawing a Furry", this is what I mean, etc. Most of my art subjects I consider this definition of "Anthro". Of course these are my own definitions of these and can, and do, change. Your own definitions will likely differ and vary.So here is my -personal- definition of a Werewolf, an Anthro Wolf, and a Wolf Furry (let me clarify that all of these are "Anthropomorphic", just to different degrees)
Were - To me, this is what werewolves are. Not pig-monkeys or dudes with too much body hair, or even someone changing into a natural wolf (even though all of those are other people's ideas of what a werewolf is), but shapeshifting humanoid beast wolves who are fully capable of dealing some damage and messing your world up, complete with supernatural powers baby. Werewolves are bloodthirsty ass-kickers. Very much NOT anywhere near the same as an Anthro Wolf or a Wolf Furry
Anthro Wolf - These guys aren't shapeshifters; they simply are what they are. They are only human to a certain degree, but otherwise they have all the instincts and natural tendencies of an animal. They just get to have opposable thumbs, a reasoning mind, and an ability to make and use tools and fire. Think of them as animalistic cavemen, or other primitive tribes of humans. They function on instinct first, intellect second. Anthros are what I draw most of the time.
Furry - To me, when and if I draw a Furry it is a human with fur, ears, and tail. Not much in the way of animal instinct or behavior other than a few cute vocalizations or actions. They are (in my mind) somewhat smaller than humans, but otherwise they are averagely human in every way. You can dress them up any way you want, give them superpowers, a big sword, a nice car, etc.. Absolutely fun! But drawing these guys isn't really my cup of tea.
I do not consider that what I draw is "Furry", rather it is "Anthro" or "Were".
Again, this is just how I view things for myself and where I personally draw the lines between the three (major) types of anthropomorphics (there are of course many variations of anthropomorphic animals, from animals that talk, to Furries, to humans with a few animal traits. I'll probably draw my definitions of these in the future as well).
As a side note I do know that "Furry" is also a definition of a fandom and/or lifestyle and that the true definition of what is and is not "Furry" is -HEAVILY- debated. That's cool, but for me I just don't consider -my own artwork- or myself to be "Furry". I consider myself an "Anthro Artist". ^.^
You may color this artwork, but please keep my copyrights intact and provide a link back to my DA or website!
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Comments: 771
You're technically not a furry unless you consider yourself to be. You might illustrate anthropomorphism and such, but to be one of the furry community, you have think of yourself that way. If you say you're not, you're not.
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Hm why not using the term zooantrope instead of furry which is quite confusing?^^ Just a little suggestion for the mind peace^^
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You got cofused
Furry is rather about the person, not the character.
But Goldenwolf underlined those are HER definitions while you get there saying she's wrong about her own definitions which she claimed to be not anyhow associated with the worldwide terminology but with her own. So why bothering?
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Thanks a lot, this made things a lot clearer to me. A lot of people talk about furries on deviantart and I didn't really understand what it was
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This is incorrect. I have some academic knowledge to clarify things here...
Werewolf: this is the English term based upon a German term that inherently falls from the idea of the Loup Garou and similar legendary wolf-like creatures. In the various cultures, the wolf-like creatures are often depicted as ape or man-like beasts, but were often more akin to gorilla-like wolves than human-like wolves but werewolf was adopted anyway (were from German means a human, and a wolf is a wolf). This idea might have descended from a rare surviving wolf descendant such as a direwolf, or it could have just been that someone saw something similar, the rest of this belief had descending as scare stories (especially towards children) that were passed on through the centuries. The most popular/modern idea of a werewolf, from what I've gathered is a human that can turn into this seemingly "wolf-like" beast or the "hairy human" pseudo-wolfman (which is somewhat akin to the concept of cynocephaly). The concept has been twisted and has changde through time and may well even have earlier roots, but the principle still applies.
Anthro: Anthropomorphism in visual art means to represent a concept or object as a human, such as a god (although many religions would argue man is made to appear like such gods and not the other way around) or an alien that looks seemingly identical to a human (think like Doctor Who), that appears to look just like a human. Anthropomorphism in literature is when an apparently non-human / animal character/object is personified which gives off the sense that the animal is doing human things and must thus have human attributes, describing a car with headlights for eyes or giving an animal voice are all examples of this form of anthropomorphism - this form of anthropomorphism (in the case of animal characters) may be expressed in illustration in many various ways and this is popular in fables (for example, Aesop's Fables), cartoons (for example, Looney Tunes) and animations (for example, The Lion King, Disney's Robin Hood, which are often aimed at the PG audience), etc.
Furry / Furry fandom: Furry is a sci-fi and high fantasy subculture that has its earliest roots seen in the sci-fi and funny animals fandoms, but more specifically became a founded term when Unix hackers started to make their own groups online in the late 1970s, "furry" very easily referred to animals and is nerdishly easy to type on the QWERTY keyboard (keys F, U, R and Y are closely spaced). The usergroup was aimed at the BBS users to discuss primarily cartoon animals (such as those found in the Critters comics, media such as that from the Vootie/Rowrbrazzle APAs and funny animals films) but secondarily anything related. In 1982. The fans of such cartoon/anthropomorphic animals were nicknamed furries, only colloquially were the characters in the media the furries enjoyed also called "furries" but that was only because it related to the furry appeal and was often times easier to say. Furries were some of the first to invest time in digitally assisted animation, quite a few furries were hired to help make animations such as Oliver & Co, although many were just passively hired, but the fact the likes of furries experimented with digital animation is what largely lead to the switch for the larger corporations such as Disney.
I think the first time I heard of the sexual aspect becoming a stereotype in the furry fandom (which is nowadays often preached by LGBT escapists to the furry fandom who confuse the whole furry thing for "ponyplay" towards the mainstream media) was when people took the animator 'Shawn Keller's "FurryFans" animations a little too seriously. Although like in any form of art, there's always an erotic appeal to something (and since furry fandom in the appeal of nerds, nerdish things occurred) google "rule 34" to see that this is the case for many things when taken to nerdish extremes and not just furries.
Furry / Furry community: Nowadays, the furry fandom is still around, of course, but it has left behind an internet subculture very much akin to the anime/manga fandom. Sites such as FurAffinity and even more so on DeviantArt, there are many of these types of "furries". What type of furry I'm describing here is anyone who makes furry characters and most likely uses one (this is called a "fursona" to represent themselves on the internet, and yes, DA is full of them, although some reject being called furries for fear of nerdish stereotypes that evolved in the furry fandom. The furry community and furry fandom are now pretty much relative to each other, they are the same thing but the difference is how you treat it. This type of furry is generally not very "nerdy" and orients around the aesthetic of anthropomorphic/cartoon animal characters like it's simply one of their (usually core) interests, this type of furry is fluid, if you have a fursona it doesn't need to be so strongly anthropomorphic as shown in the picture above, it may (usually) walk on the natural count of legs and can be drawn as human or animal as you like. So this form of furry isn't about the anthropomorphism so much as having an animal persona/character, although the characters are usually human-like in some respect because such characters can express the best of human and animal attributes and as a hence a somewhat cartoon or chibi art style is often applied and far more artistically fluid in terms of this (cartoonism often uses anthropomorphism as it allows extraordinary emphasis of human traits in non-humans). This attitude towards the furry appeal was largely among the furry lifestylers (who are still around now) who enjoyed oftentimes dressing up as animal in public using animal stereotype apparel (such as ears and tails) and fursuits, now I'm sure most persons on DA have some form of animal persona. Furry has thus, of sorts, lost somewhat of its original meaning, but the word was pretty much stolen from the English dictionary, so this form of furry could be described as a different subculture to older furry fandom, if you so wish. Another note to add is that feral is moreover a pejorative term, a stereotype describes ferals as non-anthropomorphic animals, although those artists often stereotyped as ferals do in fact usually make their characters human-like, for example, their characters may have human eyebrows or just facial expressions, the ability to interact with human things and a stereotypical human-like intellect or character. If a furry character walks on all fours, it doesn't make them necessarily feral, for them to be entirely, non-anthropomorphic they'd need to have no noticeable human specific traits or personality. Moreover to those persons who say "if it has four legs, then it's feral" that is illogical, as not all non-human animals have four legs, for example kangaroos have two legs are they thus non-feral? Any artist (or even a zoologist) experienced in examining animal anatomy, rhythm and behavior can very easily distinguish what is anthropomorphic and what is not.
But by the by, a furry fan / furry may like all three of these, all examples relate to similar approaches, although some may not like the appeal that the werewolf shown in the picture follows the idea that the character is human at the base and thus less fantastical, whereas anthropomorphic/cartoon animals are more fantastical and somewhat more pure with their own background. I've known furries with werewolf and anthropomorphic animal fursonas.
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I think you need to repost it here: [link] ^^
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She clearly stated in caps, "IN TERMS OF MY OWN ARTWORK...", that was unnecessary, but i must say this will come in handy when explaining the meaning of "anthro" VS "werewolf". Not too much annoys me on short notice when people tell me "Why is that werewolf wearing clothes?" , or, "why are those werewolves kissing/hugging?" ,i understand not knowing what anthro is, but what i dont understand is deafaulting to werewolf.
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An interesting definition of the terms :3 Thanks for providing!
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I hate to break it to you, but they have announced that it was their own personal view... O . o
I don't think such and explanation was so nessesary...
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That's the longest comment I've ever seen on deviantART.
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OMG YOU MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD!!!!!!!!!
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"So here is my -personal- definition of a Werewolf, an Anthro Wolf, and a Wolf Furry..."
:} Reading your descriptions were highly interesting, however, James :} I applaud you for taking the time to write out such a long comment.
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It's a personal view she can't be wrong
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That puts it into a very nice prospective for me lolol!
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I agree with your definition of were and furry, but your definition of anthro is not how I would define it.
Technically the word anthro and were even mean the same (human or human-like). Werewolf is literally man-wolf. Anthro suggests that the base is indeed the animal that has human-like traits.
But how do you call the form shapeshifters can take between the human and animal shape, which would be somewhere between your description of anthro and furry?
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Anthrowolf and Werewolf are my favs
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A very useful reference for character design. Thank you for the clarification.
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Okay, this is a nice picture but i think after reading through all these comments i have to say im disappointed in the were community.
Stereotyping is wrong, and lame... it is not fair, nor nice to do to anyone. Just because some furries are sexually obsessed freaks, that have sex with animals, doesn't mean we all are. You can't let a few bad apples ruin the the orchard.
Secondly, there isn't anything wrong with being a furry... unless you never bother to actually get to know any of them.. i mean its not that hard to do research and find out the truth.
I don't agree with the opinion on this picture but i do respect it.
But when i think of furry, i think of the human fan of anthropomorphic fantasy art. I do not label my anthros as furries. Ever. I don't believe that there should be a distinction made here, its all the same.. except for the werewolf, thats different..
Basically none of these are furries, they're all anthro in some form, but a furry is a fan of anthropomorphic fantasy art.
YES a lot of people use "furry." as a word for anthro and it bothers me, because its slang and i dislike slang. I think theres an un-needed line being drawn here just to make the artists have this bubble of personal comfort so they can say they don't draw "furries."
I would not get bent out of shape about someone calling me a furry, because all a furry is, is someone who likes anthropomorphic fantasy art and typically thats as far as it goes.. If people honestly believe we're all freaks and are sexually obsessed fruit cakes well then, thats not my problem you can't be bothered to raise your maturity and intelligence level to research and find out the real truth, instead of stereotyping it all.
You people need your line of distinction because none of you have what it takes to be a furry, none of you are brave enough. You're all afraid that you'll negatively associated with a stereotype ... and thats just sad... Ill be keeping the werien community at arms length.
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I think you're right that most people don't want to be associated with the furry fandom because there are a lot of negative stereotypes surrounding it, so they choose to label their work as anthro rather than furry. I must admit that after making a furaffinity account and turning off the mature filter (I thought the system was similar to dA's and din't realize how much pornographic material there was)I backpedaled and wanted nothing to do with the term. That probably wasn't the best place to get a first impression of the furry community, but at the same time I can't blame people for being afraid of the stereotype. I don't really make a distinction between the two terms anymore. If someone considers themselves a member of the furry fandom, then they draw furries. If they aren't in the fandom,then they draw antros. It doesn't matter to me what they're called
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Its always Anthro to me, But i usually just.. say "furry" style anthro art (which would be like.. i guess sort of toony? i unno lol..) I don't blame people for being afraid of the stereotype either but that doesn't give people the right to be hateful and judgemental, especially when its just as easy to go and research and find out the real truth.
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I think the hate stems from a combination of people being too lazy to look farther into it, and the fact that the more extreme members of a group also happen to be the most outspoken (like the Westboro Baptist church). The media also likes to focus on the more sexual side of the fandom, if you've ever seen TV shows that featured furries. I agree though; those things are no excuse for hate.
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yeah. this is true.
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I like this, but i dont agree with this. I think the anthro and the "furry." are the same thing honestly. I don't draw a line like that. ugh.. i hate using that word for the character.
When I think of furry I always only think of the human fan of anthropomorphic fantasy art.
But at the same time your opinion makes sense it makes it easier to draw a line of difference but then i always called anthro characters that look like the "furry." toony and more anatomically correct in terms of human anatomy.
While werewolf definitely is different then both of those, but the furry and the anthro are the same to me, and the furry can have digitigrade legs or w/e. But like i said, i consider the furry and the anthro the same thing, Anthro. I never use the word furry... I unno why i just hate the slang, it might be the aspergers or it could just be all the negative experience ive have.. but ill never call my character a furry.
At least thats the way i feel personally. And ill never call a cat-girl a furry either.. those neko-girls To me those are humans with little animal ears and a tail.
I respect your opinions however, but i just dont agree.
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I love your definitions a lot. I mostly do prefer anthro over your description of furries when it comes to art. It's what I like to picture what a werewolf would look like.
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I actually like this, though my only problem is weres eating humans. Not all eat humans, even if they dress in shiny things and are made of fleshy stuffs. Then again that is personal opinion. Bonus points for all the descriptions, and the designs are just beautiful. Based on this though, i actually think this should be used as the biggest reference in the debate. Also, would it be okay if i used this as a reference for my story, seeing as it has pretty much all three versions. Not asking to use your art, just the general ideal-logical species differentials. Also, from one artist to another 10/10 ^~^
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I love when people show the actual truth behind things...it only makes it funnier.
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Very cool definitions. While there is some definite crossing and grey area between "furry" and "anthro", you really hit it on the head with the common terminologies.
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Out of these four I would paws down be in the werewolf form as much as I could.
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Furries scare me, Id hug an anthro or werewolf (And probably die in the process) But keep furries away from me!
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Furries are just humans irl who like anthro fantasy art ugh... stereotyping.
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Oh, I was unaware of that. Sorry 
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I guess.. I dont see whats creepy about liking anthropomorphic fantasy art.. unless you mean the suits.. which i guess is understandable, although not all furries wear suits, and not all furries fantasize about sex with animals or, are sexually obsessed freaks..
Sorry, i guess ive just recieved a lot of abuse, between being compared to a pedophile and being called a dog-fucker, and also getting death threats (none of those things are true obviously.) i just have to point things out..
but yeah, no hard feelings.
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^ your comment rocks. I totally agree with you. Thanks for stating your opinion intelligently and calmly ^^
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Yeah, they suits 
Wow...Death threats? Thats a bit extreme!!
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yeah lol.. seriously. Some crazies.. id only wear a partial, not a full on suit.. that is if i ever could afford one xD. Sooo expensive. A partial is the mask, paws, feet, and tail pretty much..
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Definitley!! And I feel your pain on the suits. I was gunna get a werewolf done for Halloween, but they are sooo expensive!
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yeah, really expensive lol.
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ha. i like the description you put for each of them.
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this is really cool! it's nice to see the real differences between these ganra of wolf/people. really great job! XD
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wow, people are really worked up about this, furry, anthro, and were thing. I really don't care... I'm open to any type of art. Sometimes I wish people could be more open towards others. Thanks for your opinion on this. Your are a really good artist, and i'm glad there is some one that can understand that they are all different art versions of a were with a different meaning behind each one, whether it come from a fairytale or myth.
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Ok, i'm still a bit confused with the "anthro eats other animals"... so wolf anthro eats deer anthro, yes? If furries eat 'human' food, wouldn't they be eating, like, cheeseburgers made of their best friend's brethren? and when it comes to furry vs. anthro couples, how they hell do they reproduce?
I've sort of come to the conclusion that Anthros are a general species of human-animals and the different animal types are the races. furries are a more modern version of anthros and so inter-racial couples - something, i assume, would be considered taboo in tribal anthro culture (why befriend the creatures you hunt?) - are more accepted amongst Furries. And i've seen some pictures of furries with feral pets, so i'm wondering if this anthro-furry dimension has feral creatures of different species without human intelligence too.
Does that make any sense?
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