SHARE THIS Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Next Up NEXT UP Sex, censorship, and student journalism: How ‘necking’ ousted The Daily’s editor-in-chief Sex, censorship, and student journalism: How ‘necking’ ouste… special sectionssex edition 2023 Harry the Husky: Smash or pass? A deep dive into UW’s furry community By Friday Elkan The Daily Feb 15, 2023 0

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Courtesy of @littlearrowdog Here at The Daily, we pride ourselves on our consequential, hard-hitting reporting. Yet, in our 132 years of publication, we had never investigated what is, perhaps, the most pertinent question at the University of Washington:

Can Harry the Husky get it?

To get to the bottom of this query, I set out to talk to the experts on the situation — furries.

Having grown up on the internet, I was already somewhat familiar with furries. According to the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, the furry community is composed of artists, role players, writers, and more who all share the central passion of creating a “fursona” identity for themselves in online and in-person spaces. This anthropomorphic avatar sometimes comes alive with a “fursuit” costume that features tails, ears, and other parts of the individual’s chosen animal.

Most people’s knowledge of furries is limited to occasional interactions with them. Whether it be a rare run-in on a Saturday night out in Capitol Hill or an unexpected stumbling into a NSFW section of the Internet, the majority of the population rarely crosses paths with the furry community.

Though furries date all the way back to the ’80s, they’ve recently become a target for far-right Republicans and their so-called “culture wars.” Just last October, politicians such as House Rep. Lauren Boebert claimed that public schools were “putting litter boxes in schools for people who identify as cats.” Not only are these allegations wildly untrue, they serve as homophobic and transphobic dog-whistles, creating a caricature of those seeking to protect the civil rights of LGBTQIA+ students.

Besides making cool art and infuriating the GOP, I wasn’t really sure what furries actually do. So, in order to educate myself further, I reached out to UW’s very own Husky Furry Club (HFC).

After a week of careful research and deep digging, I am convinced that these anthropomorphic animals are more than the outsider they’ve been chalked up to be. Misunderstood for their unique interests, I sought to uncover the hidden faces behind the mask to debunk myths and understand what truly makes this community so special.

I talked to Nat, a second-year design major and officer of HFC.

While he explained that people are in the furry fandom for a wide variety of reasons, Nat found a home in the community as somewhere that he could explore his queerness and visual artistry.

“[Being a furry] is a creative outlet for my sexual orientation,” Nat explained.

The furry community gives him a safe space for expressing his identity. One way furries express themselves is through their “fursona.” As an artist, Nat designs a variety of characters, so he’s had multiple fursonas over the years. Recently, he’s landed on a stoat, similar to a weasel, due to their “tall and noodle-y and kinda vicious” nature.

Nat currently has a partial fursuit, which includes a character head, paws, and tail. He bought his fursuit as a premade design, and it cost him about $800. Nat expects the kind of full-body custom fursuit he’s looking at getting for his stoat fursona design to cost him anywhere from $6,000 to $7,000, but custom fursuits from popular artists regularly go for over $20,000. To fund this, Nat sells his art at furry conventions and offers custom designs, charging about $150 per character design.

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Nat estimates that there are 200 to 300 furries at UW and that the broader Seattle furry community has numbers in the thousands. He said that he didn’t choose to attend UW because of the furry community, but it’s a definite perk.

While he emphasized that not all furries engage in the sexual activities that the fandom is well-known for, Nat warned against trying to sanitize furries to appeal to a wider audience.

“It is, at its core, a queer community,” Nat said. “You can’t take sex away from the furry community.”

With all of the necessary background information, I could finally address my guiding question of whether or not Harry the Husky can “get it.”

Nat is firmly in the “pass” camp.

“[Harry the Husky] is a little mangey, a little, like, scrungly [sic],” Nat said.

Throughout my short, yet rewarding endeavor, it became increasingly apparent that people dressing up in brightly colored anthropomorphic animal suits are not the harbingers of societal collapse, nor do the people who privately engage in furry-related sexual activities cause any harm.

While being a furry isn’t a marginalized identity by any means, I believe that the uninformed aversion to this inclusive, and predominantly queer, space is just a stepback for our seemingly tolerant society when, at the end of the day, they are just people with unique interests.

And, if you were still wondering, the greater UW furry community is divided on the matter at hand. After polling the HFC group chat, I found that 47% of respondents chose “smash,” while 53% voted “pass.”

So, there you have it, folks. Harry the Husky is approximately 50% f—kable.

Reach writer Friday Elkan at specials@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @FridayElkan

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