Like many who have posted here, I'm not sure I properly identify as furry, but I fully support those who do (assuming generally decent standards of civility and kindness).
But I say properly because I definitely have some sort of nonhuman bent to my physical preferences, both for myself and for what I like.
A lot of people like anime artwork, and I suspect a lot of people like it more than fully realistic people. Particularly a certain exaggerated style with the large eyes, simplified/tiny facial features, often the large hair, and so on. I definitely feel that way, but I take it super literally. I don't like real human teeth, nails, or even noses (though noses are easier to accept). Every rare once in a while, you might see pictures floating around the internet of people in anime girl-styled masks. Something about that concept appeals to me, and if it were possible and safe to do so, I would literally be interested in having a cybernetic body based on that kind of concept, rather than looking like an ordinary human.
I know that's not really 'furry', but I think there are some related underlying things about dissociation from human traits or fondness for the idea of some major variant on humanity that doesn't quite exist.
But besides for that, I do actually like some furry artwork I've seen and have saved some of it now and then. Furthermore, I really like the idea of having a tail (personally, I would go for a thick-at-the-base, tapering kind of tail, more like a lizard or a tyrannosaur, but smooth and human flesh-y). I'd also like to have pointy ears, though I'd be going more for the stick-way-out-to-the-sides anime elf ears. Again, not very animal anthropomorphising, but I lean very strongly towards something that isn't quite a natural human.
(I also wish glasses stores sold giant circular glasses. For serious, that's what I want to wear. Why do all glasses need to be little ovals or little rectangles? I'm so badly nearsighted that it gives me tunnel vision, even aside from my aeshtetic preferences.)
Additionally, I consider turtles something of a totem animal for me, as I relate to lying around quietly in a shell, meandering around slowly, and hiding when threatened. And carrying around my home on my back, these days, too. Hence the avatar (I drew it myself years ago).
As far as NSFW stuff... I feel like NSFW stuff is very legitimate and fine and I support and encourage it (and, though not furry-oriented, I have made some myself). But that's not the end-all of how people relate to physical forms or identity, not by a longshot. There are plenty of people who think sex is gross, or don't want it applied to certain things, or even for people who are comfortable with it, they simply think of identity and anatomy (furry or otherwise) in a way that isn't inherently sexual. So furriness need not be a sex thing, but there's also nothing wrong with sex things in my opinion... you just can't generalize the whole thing like that.
And on a related note, CSI is dumb and awful about trying to comprehend internet/modern culture. They had this awful episode about the sorta 3D builder/chat program hybrid social thingy called Second Life, too, and that one was just ridiculous. And I remember some bit I saw where they were speaking about IRC as this alien thing used by Hackers (capital H), comparing it to "ships passing in the night" and characterizing it as something people do solely to cover their tracks for shady activity. Fooey on CSI's hamfisted misrepresentations.
Also, just a minor random thing that took me years to notice: did you ever realize that Sonic shares pretty much the exact same anatomical style as 1920s/1930s-era Mickey Mouse, with the 'rubber hose' noodle-thin limbs and the spherical torso, and the same kind of mouth/nose/facial structure? (40s-00s Mickey not so much, they redesigned him to have thicker limbs and be a little more humanoid and stuff.) I always thought that kind of design (the older/Sonic-esque style) was cute.
Edited by Mitsukara, 20 September 2017 - 08:58 AM.