many people like to wear the t-shirts as normal t-shirts at work (for instance) and don't necessarily want to start answering possibly awkward questions about what "ConFuzzled" is.
So why is it so awkward to answer, Confuzzled is just a social gathering of people with interests in anthropomorphism?
People wear T shirts with names of music bands, holiday resorts they have visited, sports teams they support, films they like so why not a T shirt featuring an interest in anthropomorphism?
Because, unfortunately, the furry fandom has a different meaning to us than it does to everyone else who either:
a) Doesn't understand it, doesn't take the time to, and only goes by what stereotypes there are out there (Those nasty evil ones that make us ALL look like perverted perverts with no other interest whatsoever)....
or
b) Doesn't understand it, tries to, and discovers that it's not for them for various reasons (weather it be the suits make them uncomfortable, to the crowds, to the fact that everyone relates to an animal in one way or another etc etc...too many variables to list).
Some of us, not all of us, are up for keeping this their own hobby, sharing it with only like minded people. And personally, I think that's okay. Having family members who wouldn't understand, or friends who might back away at the mere look of a shirt is something that does happen, and it's an unfortunate thing. The lack of understanding and proper education on the subject is part of the problem, but sometimes being able to educate others on it is not an option because the fandom tends to be a little....."in your face" if you will.
There will always be people out there who just don't get it, and some of us want to avoid the criticism and the guffawing remarks that can lead to broken friendships or even a broken family (yes, I've seen that happen before...it sucks). Some of us would like to just live our day to day life and escape from it all on our own with like minded people.
Despite how long furries have been around....it'll take a while before society as a whole just gives up and moves onto something else that they can try to make sound horrible at first sight.
-Auro