"I don't understand what Sonious is talking about with code words."
To cross the river of:
"Yiff wasn't meant as a code so you discuss sex in public."
And meet up with:
"It is just a way for furs to talk about furry sex amongst themselves. I'd say it does remove stigma with talking about sex because it's not charged with all sorts of connotations from the outside world."
Because you don't have to be Alan Turing to understand what a code is, and to see that this enigma has been shattered.
But let me build that bridge regardless. A code is a tool used to for two individuals or groups to communicate in an area where they wish for only themselves to understand while outsiders do not have any clue what the individuals or groups or are talking about (in other words "amongst themselves").
Now of course you could mean "amongst themselves" on the internet, I'm thinking of more as a word in a spoken public one instead of a written on on a page.
However, your belief that yiff has less connotation from the outside word than 'sex' shows that indeed there is this perception that using the word is less harmful than using any of the other similar words. That can be fine if it gives one a self-esteem boost on how to broach a subject. It doesn't help when they believe that it makes it appropriate to talk about when it still is not.
Going back to the MFF example, do you think the contestant would have said "I'm feeling horny!" in front of all those people? I think most in the fandom would feel it odd. However, somehow "I'm feeling yiffy!" was felt as fine by the speaker.
"But yiffy is more fun than horny and there isn't anything he could have said otherwise."
How about "I'm feeling frisky?"
"Oh... yeah that word."
There are many words that are synonymous with sex as with an word dealing around a base activity such as eating, sleeping, and the like. We didn't reinvent the wheel here. However, I will concede that when it comes to describing "furry porn" or "furry sex", yiff is fine in that regard, and it's not surprising it has stuck around for that use. The reason being is that the phrases it replace is multiple syllables. When something you talk about happens on a frequent basis it's going to get shorthanded to one or two syllables. That's why all names have shorthands:
"Hi, my name is Jonathan."
"Oh, hi Jon."
TL;DR: If one is using the term 'yiff' as a short hand to describe furry porn of furry sex that is fine as it serves a linguistically purpose of making it less exhaustive to talk about (because saying "furry porn" over and over can really wear you down). On the other hand if they're using it because they think it makes it safer to talk about in venues where talking about porn or sex itself would not be then that is a misconception. yiff is a subset of sexual expression and as such it has the same social rules and connotations that sexual expression has.
However in the end I suppose yiff is a bit better than if we made the neologism "furnication" or "furnicating" or to "furnicate". Which is about as creative as our other neologisms get.
I so want this sentence:
"I don't understand what Sonious is talking about with code words."
To cross the river of:
"Yiff wasn't meant as a code so you discuss sex in public."
And meet up with:
"It is just a way for furs to talk about furry sex amongst themselves. I'd say it does remove stigma with talking about sex because it's not charged with all sorts of connotations from the outside world."
Because you don't have to be Alan Turing to understand what a code is, and to see that this enigma has been shattered.
But let me build that bridge regardless. A code is a tool used to for two individuals or groups to communicate in an area where they wish for only themselves to understand while outsiders do not have any clue what the individuals or groups or are talking about (in other words "amongst themselves").
Now of course you could mean "amongst themselves" on the internet, I'm thinking of more as a word in a spoken public one instead of a written on on a page.
However, your belief that yiff has less connotation from the outside word than 'sex' shows that indeed there is this perception that using the word is less harmful than using any of the other similar words. That can be fine if it gives one a self-esteem boost on how to broach a subject. It doesn't help when they believe that it makes it appropriate to talk about when it still is not.
Going back to the MFF example, do you think the contestant would have said "I'm feeling horny!" in front of all those people? I think most in the fandom would feel it odd. However, somehow "I'm feeling yiffy!" was felt as fine by the speaker.
"But yiffy is more fun than horny and there isn't anything he could have said otherwise."
How about "I'm feeling frisky?"
"Oh... yeah that word."
There are many words that are synonymous with sex as with an word dealing around a base activity such as eating, sleeping, and the like. We didn't reinvent the wheel here. However, I will concede that when it comes to describing "furry porn" or "furry sex", yiff is fine in that regard, and it's not surprising it has stuck around for that use. The reason being is that the phrases it replace is multiple syllables. When something you talk about happens on a frequent basis it's going to get shorthanded to one or two syllables. That's why all names have shorthands:
"Hi, my name is Jonathan."
"Oh, hi Jon."
TL;DR: If one is using the term 'yiff' as a short hand to describe furry porn of furry sex that is fine as it serves a linguistically purpose of making it less exhaustive to talk about (because saying "furry porn" over and over can really wear you down). On the other hand if they're using it because they think it makes it safer to talk about in venues where talking about porn or sex itself would not be then that is a misconception. yiff is a subset of sexual expression and as such it has the same social rules and connotations that sexual expression has.
However in the end I suppose yiff is a bit better than if we made the neologism "furnication" or "furnicating" or to "furnicate". Which is about as creative as our other neologisms get.