I think part of it is just a symptom of consuming way too much porn. I was reading a No Fap website, which admittedly is not the most unbiased source and is filled with tons of crazies itself (which is why I was reading) but they were talking about how porn addiction made them jaded with regular sex and how they had to resort to more and more depraved things to get their rocks off. Tons of dudes admitting that they could only jack off to cuckold porn or small dick fetish because after years of jerking it day and night, everything else had lost its taboo.
Furries, so far as I can see, are a porn-soaked subculture. I don't even say that out of what I've learned from the F Plus, I mean like even the non-horrific furries I run across on Tumblr or whatever either draw porn, or talk way too openly about their kinks, or generally just seem to treat their taste in cartoon animal porn the way normal people talk about their favorite actors or sports. So I guess it just all escalates from there until the only thing that seems deviant enough in an already deviant community is inflatable tube guys with five dicks shoving barbed wire up their asses.Garbage Dacey, May 04, 2014, 02:59:14 am
Yes, and…
I'm of the belief that the perviness and pervasivness of Furry fandom/fetish subculture is both a product of the Internet and also a product of the time we live in, in specific ways that other fetishes are not.
I'm not a great fan of Dan Savage, but
he tackled Furries early on and reasoned that it is a post-AIDS phenomenon unto a specific generation, and I happen to agree with it:
"Furries emerged in the late 1990s, right when the first generation of children whose entire lives were dominated by Disney products and imagery came of age. After being exposed to images of cuddly, safe, saucer-eyed, anthropomorphized animals throughout their childhoods, during puberty these same kids had sex presented to them as something deadly and dangerous. The abstinence "educators" and AIDS "awareness" campaigns they were subjected to exaggerated the actual risks of HIV transmission, pregnancy, and death. Is it any wonder that a tiny percentage of this Disney/abstinence generation came to fetishize the safe and cuddly stuffed animals of their childhoods?"
Meanwhile, the internet has only grown and spread the influence of Furry artwork. Since Furries don't exist in real life, and it is not exactly easy to sell to a mainstream audience, it is basically up to the fandom to drive the interest of it as an artform. And even while Furry is soaked in squicky fetish aspects, it's all strictly make-believe. There aren't too many ways of physically expressing an attraction to them outside of fursuiting or "dragon dildos" (or else bestiality)—the prospects of which are all too uncomfortable for most people (even most furries!) to engage in. Thus, the safety of the Internet has been the primary retreat for Furries, and this dates back to the era of BBSs and Usenet, long before other perverts had brought their own specific fetishes online.
This is all aside from the issue of sexual deviants using Furry fandom as a cover for their more grotesque interests (hyper/inflato/babyfur/vore/unbirth/etc.), but as Montrith has proved here time and again, no subculture is safe from corruption by creepy pervos.
Another point: The gross-out stuff I suspect is an urge by artists/creators to push the limits of what others are willing to tolerate, which is something that can be seen in underground comics and in the more icky Manga that exists out there. It's not exactly
trolling, but a sincere disregard for the boundries of morality and good taste. Most of the artists realize it is low-brow art, it will never be truly respected, so they mean to keep it there.