Furry

A very nice and interesting video essay :3

I really like the comparison of traditional and furry porn because that’s one of the reasons I prefer the latter, at least “intellectually.” What I mean is that traditional porn, as in, human porn, has some ethical issues, some of which this video highlights. There’s usually no emotional bond or even a visible lack of attraction that can lead to the objectification of the actors, the porn industry can be very shady, and while home-made porn reduces the risk of actors being defrauded, you can rarely guarantee that it’s not abuse or revenge porn (even if most of it isn’t, I can never stop thinking “but what if this clip is?”). That doesn’t mean that watching human porn doesn’t turn me on, so there’s still that primal or whatever urge that competes with the “intellectual” part that sees the ethical complications of a lot of human porn.

Of course, not all human porn is bad, though I don’t have any statistics. I know one production company that I’m, like, 95% sure is legit and treats their actors well, but you need to put in so much effort to find that out (and you need to go beyond the banner on their website saying it’s all fine and dandy). For me, finding porn I like and trying to figure out how the actors are treated is just so much work that I’d rather not watch human porn at all.

And on top of that, there are all the other reasons mentioned in this video: emotions are depicted more clearly (or at all), there are additional ways to convey how characters feel (like a wagging tail when a character is tied up), and (this brings me back to the above paragraphs) it’s obviously not real. There’s nobody who could get hurt or abused, even in the wildest, riskiest scenarios. Sure, some clients might try to avoid paying artists, maybe that’s an avenue for abuse, but afaik there are “industry standards” to prevent that from happening nowadays.