memes

Funny how one event where the actions of a few people fucked everything up must imply something for the whole group, especially since there's bigger, long-running conventions like Anthrocon that have become part of the city's event culture like any other festival. But you don't hear about that because it's not scandalous.

And I know you know that Rainfurrest happened in 2015 and nothing even remotely like it has been seen at the hundreds of much larger furry conventions that have happened since.

Since anecdotal evidence can only go so far here's what a group of researchers say on the topic:

Some seek psychological explanations, suggesting that furries may be people with developmental problems or psychological conditions. Others assume situational explanations such as a broken childhood or a tumultuous, friendless, socially awkward childhood. After all, most furries have experienced significant bullying, and abundant psychological evidence shows that bullying, stigma, and concealed stigmatized identities can be particularly damaging to a person’s well-being. One would therefore expect furries to show evidence of significantly compromised well-being.

Data collected on the well-being of furries suggests otherwise, however. Across several samples, furries and non-furries did not significantly differ from one another on measures of life satisfaction and self-esteem.

Furries did not differ with regard to their physical health, psychological health, or the quality of their relationships, and were actually more likely to have a stable and coherent sense of identity than non-furries.

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The well-being of furries was also compared across fandoms (see figures above and below.)

Furries did not differ significantly from convention-going anime fans or fantasy sport fans, and were actually higher in life satisfaction and self-esteem than online anime fans, all groups which experience less stigma than furries do.

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Taken together, these data, in conjunction with the rest of the data in Section 117, demonstrate that furries, contrary to popular misconceptions, are surprisingly well-adjusted. It’s worth noting that this lack of difference in well-being occurs despite the fact that most furries have a history of significant bullying. One possible explanation for this is the ameliorating role of the fandom: given that belongingness and acceptance are both important values in the furry fandom, as is compassion, helping, and global citizenship, for many furries, the fandom is a source of social support. Social psychologists have long recognized the important role that social support plays in building resilience and fostering well-being, and future studies are planned to test whether this mechanism explains furries’ tendency to thrive despite often enduring significant hardship.

https://furscience.com/research-findings/wellness-dysfunction/11-1-wellness/

As someone with adjacent experience with the fandom also, I concur with your assertions here and can safely say that the only way to win is to not play.