![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
If a kid sees someone walking around in a fursuit, they probably won't think "that's a sex thing" unless someone has already told them to think of it as a sex thing. More likely, they'll think "that's a cool costume, I wonder if my parents will let me be a wolf like that for Halloween".
If a kid sees someone wearing a collar... well, a lot of them won't even notice, honestly. But the ones that do probably won't assume that's a sex thing either, any more than they assume that bangle bracelets or those ridiculously large earrings are a sex thing. Probably they'll think it's just another cool accessory (and I mean, punks and goths wear collars as accessories all the time, so they're more likely to be right than not).
"Think of the kids" you say - but I have to wonder, how much have you actually listened to kids talk? Really, trully tried to hear them out, without projecting your own biases? If your only experience with kids is your own kids whom you've taught since birth to hate nonnormative self expression... well, that's on you, not on kinksters and furries.
If a kid sees someone wearing a collar... well, a lot of them won't even notice, honestly. But the ones that do probably won't assume that's a sex thing either, any more than they assume that bangle bracelets or those ridiculously large earrings are a sex thing. Probably they'll think it's just another cool accessory (and I mean, punks and goths wear collars as accessories all the time, so they're more likely to be right than not).
"Think of the kids" you say - but I have to wonder, how much have you actually listened to kids talk? Really, trully tried to hear them out, without projecting your own biases? If your only experience with kids is your own kids whom you've taught since birth to hate nonnormative self expression... well, that's on you, not on kinksters and furries.