Oh boy, where do I start?

Cringe is dotted absolutely *everywhere* in the furry fandom. Not one aspect of it is the cringey part that everyone else avoids; instead, everything has its cringey points alongside its fun points and its heart-touching points.

Here’s my personal list of what I find cringey in the furry fandom:

* Using furry language and behaviour around non-furs. Guys, I get it: you want to share your interest with others. But doing so by making animal noises and pretending to lick people isn’t the way to do it. (I’m not accusing anyone of doing this; I’m only warning people because I’m pretty sure that someone somewhere will do it)
* Letting bad art make its way to haters and sceptics. Even as a furry, I am still critical of when works of art (fursuits included) are cute or creepy. If people who hate or are sceptical of the fandom see the art that isn’t so well-made, I bet you that many of them will take the whole fandom to be this creepy! I’m not trying to hate on badly-made art, and I’m okay with people expressing themselves online, but I’m warning that it has to be confined to within the fandom. Share it with your family if you want, but not with non-furs you don’t know.
* The butthurt furries (or should I say ‘Butt**fur**ts’). Butthurt people in general make me cringe. Whining about how your feelings were hurt by a hater only makes the situation worse.
* Furcon and fursuit etiquette being ignored. This isn’t only cringeworthy, but harmful. You can end up getting a whole convention cancelled or even worse banned (Rainfurrest 2015 anyone?), and you can end up scarring people for life if you keep running up to them in a giant animal costume. Yes, fursuits and conventions are there for our enjoyment, but we must be respectful when using them.

And finally, the big three, which often come together:

* The dark side of the fandom. You know what I mean. That part of the fandom that no one wants to talk about unless it’s the sole reason you’re a furry. Furries are a very risky thing to sexualise, since it’s borderline bestiality and just too outlandish for most people, even long-term furries, to handle.
* And when you thought putting animals in vanilla sex art in place of humans was cringey enough, think about when they don’t make it so vanilla anymore! I have never seen more outlandish fetishes anywhere else in my life. You have the fetishes you’d usually see in human sexuality (e.g. uniforms, feet, BDSM, incest), and then furries take those fetishes and crank it up to eleven. There’s macro, micro, vore and BDSM with a sci-fi twist (“Thinking with portals” and “Go fuck yourself” will forever be tainted in my mind)!
* People being so open about said sexual interests. I’m okay with other people having such interests, so long as it doesn’t harm anyone; however, it *does* harm people when people are so open about it, and I just cringe in the background saying “Keep it to yourself; no one here wants to hear that.”

I would list more, but this list is long enough as it is.