Normally, yes, but in this particular case, no. "Lifestyle" is not a word created and owned by furry fandom, it is a widely-used term that connotes behaviour and choice. This is why homophobes have historically tried to deny the gay identity by calling it a lifestyle, because that term shifts the conversation from "what a person is" to "how a person chooses to behave". As such, you don't need to be a long-established member of furry fandom to see why referring to a person's core identity as a lifestyle is inherently problematic.
And that's why I'm surprised that furry lifestylers have allowed core identity and lifestyle to be conflated. Again, if you have a good reason for it, I'd love to hear it. But it strikes me as something that gives hobbyist furries and non-furries ammunition to deny the existence of a core furry identity. It allows people like brian to accuse us of "taking the hobby too far".
Normally, yes, but in this particular case, no. "Lifestyle" is not a word created and owned by furry fandom, it is a widely-used term that connotes behaviour and choice. This is why homophobes have historically tried to deny the gay identity by calling it a lifestyle, because that term shifts the conversation from "what a person is" to "how a person chooses to behave". As such, you don't need to be a long-established member of furry fandom to see why referring to a person's core identity as a lifestyle is inherently problematic.
And that's why I'm surprised that furry lifestylers have allowed core identity and lifestyle to be conflated. Again, if you have a good reason for it, I'd love to hear it. But it strikes me as something that gives hobbyist furries and non-furries ammunition to deny the existence of a core furry identity. It allows people like brian to accuse us of "taking the hobby too far".