TY - JOUR TI - What does the fur Hide? The Process of Identity Creation inside the Furry Fandom: The Role of Fandoms and the Internet AU - KrzemiƄski, Witold TI - What does the fur Hide? The Process of Identity Creation inside the Furry Fandom: The Role of Fandoms and the Internet AB - This paper attempts to describe the process of identity creation for participants in the furry fandom, within the framework of Anselm Strauss's theory of social worlds. The discussion is based on the results of a netnographic four-month field study conducted by the author in 2021 in an online community that describes itself as "furry". These are individuals who, as part of their roleplaying practices, play as anthropomorphic animals with whose supposed traits they not only identify but also expand their list of traits in order to negotiate individual identity. As the results of this study show the Polish furry fandom gathers teenagers for whom the virtual relationship is an end in itself (the "furry world"), and at the same time, a space and a tool for the search for one's own sexual self-identification (which was delineated using the concepts of Emic Evaluation Approach). VL - 2022 IS - 13/2022 PY - 2022 SN - 2082-7806 C1 - 2543-408X SP - 93 EP - 129 DO - 10.4467/2543408XZOP.22.004.16150 UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/zoon-politikon/article/co-skrywa-futro-proces-kreowania-tozsamosci-wewnatrz-fandomu-furry-rola-fandomu-i-internetu KW - fandoms KW - furry fandom KW - Internet KW - identification process KW - social worlds framework