The Furry Scale, aka the “Anthro Scale,” is a series of charts, graphics, and discussions that track the artistic progress between human furries and full animals. At the front end is the human with slightly animalistic style choices and at the back is a full animal version of the figure.
The furry community frequently uses the scale online to identify the ideal balance between character and their furry level. For instance, it is often used to decide where on the scale an artist should focus on for a drawing.
If you remember the covers of the Animorphs books, it’s kind of like that.
What is a furry?
To adequately explore the Furry Scale meme, one must first understand what a furry is. Generally, a furry is interested in or attracted to anthropomorphic (or humanoid) animal characters. A Disney theme park, for example, is a haven for furries.
However, the community holds conventions and meetings, and has a large contingency online, particularly in the DeviantArt arena. While a furry is not always given sexual connotations, the association is often implied.
What is a furry index scale?
The first known instance of a Furry Scale occurred on February 7th, 1996, when a post appeared in a document titled, “The Code of the Furries.” The post contained a rating system for where people fall “on the human-to-animal scale.” The outline of the scale was as follows:
“1 : Basically human, with minor furry features (perhaps eyes, nose, ears, claws, some fur, etc)
2 : Humanoid, with significant furry features (muzzle, tail, etc); this includes centaurs and mer-people
3 : Anthropomorphic animal (or taur)
4 : Equally comfortable on two or four legs (or, if you’re a taur, on four or six)
5 : Animal shape, with some unusual features (perhaps hands, speech, etc); this includes most dragons, gryphons, etc
6 : Normal animal shape”
Spread of the scale
The Furry Scale entered the 21st-century internet discourse on June 16th, 2010. That day, pixiv user かｂ posted a chart in which a girl transforms into a fox up a set of stairs.
A similar English version then appeared featuring the G.I. Joe slogan, “Knowing is half the battle,” along with the phrase “Oh shit n**** what are you doing?” implying that the Furry Scale had, indeed, gone too far.
The scale depicted subsequently inspired a tag on Pixiv, which contained similar images.
The Furry Scale hit DeviantArt on December 4th, 2012, when artist Timscorpion posted an illustration titled “Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism,” which depicted a human-moth hybrid transforming fully into a moth, using the same principles as the previous scales.
The phenomenon reached Reddit a couple of years later, as on March 3rd, 2014, Redditor Psykun posted a scale image featuring the character of Bastet from Smite, a third-person action multiplayer online battle arena game.
Po-ju Furry Scale
The Furry Scale can take on many forms, but among the most frequently used images to create the scale comes from Hentai artist known only as Po-ju. The chart shows five different levels of furry, which range from human-cat to full cat. The scale has been widely parodied across the internet, many of which are in English and do not use Po-Ju’s original art.
Various examples
Related memes:
- The bizarre origins of ‘me irl’
- Disney is marketing ‘Zootopia’ to furries because it would be crazy not to
- Here’s some amazing raw footage from the world’s first furry convention
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