Inside The World Of ‘Fur’: ‘Cat’ Students Wear Whiskers And Tails To School

Most kids love to play “dress up,” and Katie Harris (not her real name) is no exception. On her school grounds in Bedfordshire, she was often seen wearing a cat mask and a furry tail, meowing and purring as she patted the heads of her friends, who stroked her head and tickled her chin.

Such imaginative play would be adorable if this were a kindergarten or infant school. But Katie – who now goes by the non-binary nickname ‘Kit’ – is actually just 16 and has just taken her GCSEs at her big secondary school.

‘Thật là nực cười khi nhà trường chiều chuộng cô ấy và bọn trẻ đều phải tôn trọng “danh tính” của cô ấy là một con mèo đực, nhưng khi bạn yêu cầu giáo viên giúp đỡ về một vấn đề như chứng khó đọc của một đứa trẻ, phải mất hàng tháng để giải quyết mọi chuyện, ‘, Marie (không phải tên thật), một bà mẹ có con học cùng trường, cho biết.

‘Khi con gái tôi lần đầu kể cho tôi nghe về “cô gái mèo” này, tôi đã nghĩ con bé đang bịa chuyện. Nhưng sau đó cô ấy cho tôi xem tài khoản Instagram và TikTok của mình và cô ấy đây rồi, nói rằng cô ấy xác định là một con mèo đực và sử dụng đại từ “nó”.

‘Con gái tôi học lớp dưới nên chúng không học chung lớp và cháu không biết liệu mình có cư xử như vậy trong giờ học hay không, nhưng cháu nhận thấy hành vi của mình rất kỳ lạ, khó hiểu và tránh mặt cháu quanh trường vì cháu lo lắng khi nói ra những điều đó. điều sai trái và gặp rắc rối.

‘Cô gái này liên tục buộc tội mọi người là “người chuyển giới”, nên nhiều học sinh đã tránh xa. Tất cả chúng tôi đều lo lắng trong trường hợp con mình tiếp xúc với cô ấy và gây ra hậu quả.

“Điều khiến chúng tôi khó chịu nhất là bọn trẻ sẽ phải làm theo, chứng kiến ​​cô gái này cư xử như một con mèo ở trường. Nó đang phân cực các chàng trai và các cô gái.

‘Nhiều cô gái đồng tình và yêu thích nó, trong khi nhiều chàng trai cho rằng điều đó hoàn toàn điên rồ và coi thường các cô gái vì đam mê nó. Nếu cha mẹ nói với con cái điều đó là vô nghĩa, chúng ta có nguy cơ khiến chúng gặp rắc rối – nhưng điều đó là vô nghĩa. Cô gái đó chắc chắn không phải là một con mèo, cũng không hẳn là “nó” – cô ấy là một cô gái! Toàn bộ sự việc hoàn toàn điên rồ.”

Sẽ là tự nhiên khi cho rằng trải nghiệm của Marie về một học sinh lập dị, luôn tìm kiếm sự chú ý là chỉ xảy ra một lần. Tuy nhiên, trong khi không có số liệu chính thức, những câu chuyện khác đang nổi lên về trẻ em – một số ở độ tuổi thanh thiếu niên – không chỉ hóa trang thành những sinh vật như mèo và chó ở trường mà còn yêu cầu giáo viên và học sinh gọi mình là động vật.

Có báo cáo cho thấy một số học sinh sủa hoặc hú trong lớp, trong khi những học sinh khác bị chó dẫn đi quanh hành lang.

Tuy nhiên, thay vì kiểm soát những hành vi kỳ quái như vậy, một số giáo viên dường như đang tích cực ủng hộ những ‘danh tính’ mới này và sẽ khiển trách những đứa trẻ khác là ‘kẻ bắt nạt’ nếu chúng không làm như vậy.

Tuần này, một giáo viên tại Rye College, một trường trung học tiểu bang ở East Sussex, đã được ghi lại trên điện thoại di động nói với một học sinh không chịu chấp nhận rằng bạn cùng lớp của cô ấy không phải là con gái rằng cô ấy thật ‘đáng khinh’. Ngôi trường hiện là đối tượng điều tra của chính phủ, khi Phố Downing nói với các hiệu trưởng rằng họ không nên dạy những đứa trẻ mà chúng có thể xác định là mèo hoặc các động vật khác.

Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer even waded into the issue yesterday, with a spokesman saying: ‘It’s clearly ridiculous if you’re in a situation where children are not being recognised as children. I think it’s fairly obvious what the right approach should be in this case.’

Sceptics on social media have cast doubt on the story. Journalist Otto English and comedian Dom Joly labelled it ‘fake’, saying that despite the recording, it was made up to ‘fuel hate’ towards a ‘marginalised minority’.

Some stories about schools providing litter trays to cater for children identifying as cats have indeed turned out to be hoaxes, leading many to assume that the whole phenomenon is simply too strange to be believable.

Yet the Mail has spoken to several parents, including Marie, who say that ‘furries’ — a community who dress as animals — are in classrooms right now. Many parents are terrified of complaining or revealing what is really happening, fearful that their child will be identified and labelled a ‘bigot’.

So what on earth is this extraordinary subculture and where are the children learning about it?

‘Furries are people with an interest in anthropomorphism, which specifically refers to giving human characteristics to animals,’ says Sharon E. Roberts, co-founder of the International Anthropomorphic Research Projects, also known as ‘Fur-science’, who has studied this phenomenon for 15 years. ‘Around 95 per cent of furries develop their own unique avatar-like character called a fursona — a safe, functional way to explore who they are as people, including their gender identity and sexual orientation.

‘Depending on the study, we find that more than 70 per cent of furries identify as LGBTQ+ and more than 25 per cent are gender-identity diverse. They are bullied at almost twice the rates of non-furries and our forthcoming research indicates that four to 15 per cent are on the autistic spectrum.’

While many people think furries always dress up as animals — think of mascots at football matches — according to Roberts, that is not quite true.

‘Furries don’t identify as animals, they identify with animals,’ she says. ‘Only around 15 to 25 per cent of furries have ‘fursuits’, which can be prohibitively expensive. These are usually worn on special occasions, such as a parade or a convention. Another 50 per cent of furries own furry paraphernalia — a furry T-shirt, ears, collar or tail — that communicates their furry interests to others.’

It may sound like a huge practical joke, and undoubtedly there will be children taking advantage of this new ‘social trend’ to push boundaries with the school authorities.

But there is a more troubling element. Because while some experts say the furry phenomenon is simply an extension of innocent imaginative play, others are concerned that it could signify a mental health issue or something else much darker.

‘We first started hearing reports of furries last year and we weren’t sure if they were just rumours,’ says Lucy Marsh of the Family Education Trust. ‘But as we began to talk to parents and children, we realised it was actually happening in schools around the UK.

‘We recently heard of one school in the North where at least four girls are ‘identifying’ as furries and have asked children and teachers to communicate with them by miaowing and barking. At first many parents think it’s harmless because it’s just kids in cute costumes or cat ears. It’s like the kid who wanted to stand out and be a Goth in the 1990s.

‘But you start to dig deeper and you realise something more manipulative is going on. Saying you are actually an animal — and teachers and pupils playing along with it — is teaching children to deny reality, the reality of what they can see in front of their faces. It can be very confusing for them. While it may be harmless in school, take that behaviour onto social media, where not everyone is who they say they are, and you run into problems.

‘We don’t understand why on the one hand schools are teaching pupils to be safe online and not trust people who might say they are one thing when they are something else, yet on the other are encouraging children to change identities in real life. It’s a huge safeguarding issue.’

Tracy Shaw, of the Safe Schools Alliance, agrees. More worryingly, many of those in the adult furry community — thought to be mainly white males in their late teens or 20s — introduce explicitly sexual themes to their online and offline ‘play’.

‘The drive to be “inclusive and kind” had led to schools having a complete blind spot when it comes to safeguarding,’ says Shaw. ‘If a teenager comes to school wanting to be identified as a cat, the first question should be: “What’s going on in this child’s life and what have they been exposed to at home or online?”

‘Whatever adults want to do in their spare time is up to them. But I know of one child who became involved with the furry community online and her parents found some very disturbing images that had been sent to her. It’s not as innocent as it seems.’

The obsession with changing identities can even tear some families apart. Michelle Gregg (not real name), a divorced 45-year-old mother of one from the East Midlands, says her 15-year-old daughter Bella (not real name) hasn’t spoken to her for two years. Her behaviour started changing when she became friends with a girl at school who identifies as a ‘wolf’. She now lives with her father, refusing to communicate with her mother.

‘Bella and I used to be so close and we’d do everything together,’ says Michelle, a scientist. ‘She is on the autistic spectrum and just before lockdown she told me she was gay, which I was absolutely fine with — I love my daughter whatever her sexuality.

‘But within months of returning to school she became friendly with a girl who identifies as a furry. Her pronouns are ‘he/they/it and she claims to be a “wolf”. I’m told that in lessons she barks and howls and the teachers turn a blind eye.

‘I was worried about my daughter’s changing behaviour and when she said she wanted to be a ‘he/him’ too, I spoke to the school and asked them not to affirm her because her psychiatric report for her autism said this could be harmful.

‘But the teacher responded by saying that if a pupil is happy, they perform better at school. They even told me that if my daughter wanted to be called a banana or a table, they would honour it. I was completely shocked. Some teachers are actively promoting this agenda and calling parents like me troublemakers or bigots if we don’t go along with it.

‘I wanted to take her out of school but Bella went to live with her father and now won’t speak to me, even threatening me with the police if I send her a text. It has been incredibly stressful and upsetting, but I won’t give up until legislation is changed and schools are not allowed to do this to anyone else.’

Such heartbreaking tales are becoming more common. One support group for families in this sort of situation has more than 600 people in its community. And while to older generations it simply sounds absurd, to some children — and naive teachers, it seems — it is merely the logical extension of an ideology that prizes individual agency over biological reality.

‘We used to tell children they could be whatever they wanted to be. But now, society has taken this to the nth degree and young and particularly vulnerable children are buying into the idea that you can literally be something you’re not, whether that is the opposite sex or indeed an animal,’ says Stella O’Malley, a psychotherapist and director of Genspect, an international alliance of professionals, trans people and parent groups who seek high-quality care for gender-related distress.

‘We know that around 48 per cent of children with gender distress have autism — these are children who have a very literal understanding of language and the world around them. It’s never the socially sophisticated children becoming furries — although of course there will be one or two who are just doing it ‘for a laugh’ — but it will be the socially awkward ones who want to fit in.

‘I believe lockdown had a huge impact on this issue. We all had to yield to the online world for a while and we haven’t really retrieved control of that yet. The online world plays a massive part with gender ideology and changing identities.

‘Social contagion is also another factor. We saw a glimpse of that with pro-ana sites (websites that encouraged anorexia) a few years ago. But that’s happening again on chat forums like Discord, Reddit and Tumblr.’

Eleanor Morris (not real name), 51, lives with her 13-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter in Hampshire and says she is shocked by how sexualised schools have become, particularly in her daughter’s sixth-form college.

‘It all started when my daughter came back from college saying how much she hated the “furries”,’ she says. ‘They literally dress up as fetishised animals while they are in college and wear a certain amount of bondage gear.

‘One girl is led around by her boyfriend with a lead around her neck, while wearing furry animal ears.

‘The teachers don’t say anything because it has been normalised. When I wanted to write in to complain, my daughter begged me not to, so I kept quiet. But I find the whole thing shocking in its inappropriateness.

‘Schools and colleges should be places where you have the space and resources available to concentrate, and it can’t be helpful to anyone to have that going on while you’re trying to learn.’

Stephanie Davies-Arai, of Transgender Trend, an organisation that looks at evidence-based research into helping children with gender dysphoria, agrees there is no place for this ideology in education.

‘Adolescents may believe the furry phenomenon to be an innocent passion for animals, but schools should stop being so naive,’ she says.

‘Once we disrupt reality for children, anything goes. As with ‘gender identity’, identifying as an animal could be a cover-up for underlying anxieties for an adolescent, including not wanting to grow up. But teachers have been led to believe they must ‘affirm’ all identities as if they represent reality.

‘It’s time for the Department for Education to wake up and get this ideology out of schools.’

A Department for Education spokesperson said: ‘It is completely inappropriate for schools to treat a pupil as an animal or inanimate object and it is important that parents are able to raise concerns with schools and that schools engage seriously and constructively.’