Dogpatch Press
The Complexities of Problematic Kinks – guest post by Maybelle Redmond
This extra long article is published whole instead of by parts to preserve context. Quoted people were anonymized to protect sensitive personal info. Their ID was provided privately so I could verify it. Thanks to Maybelle for submitting this. – Patch
Maybelle Redmond’s content warning and disclaimer about The Complexities of Problematic Kinks
Before we even begin to touch on these things, we must first and foremost consider the victims, and ardent defenders of the victims, who have been susceptible to abuse that problematic kinks tend to surround or be on the border of. If you are a victim of, are close to a victim of, or feel passionately for victims of abuse, you are the people being considered up front. While we will discuss some details of some problematic kinks, you are being warned in advance with the opportunity to skip or avoid the provided details, and you are perfectly justified to close this article and not consume what you may feel is a potential excuse for abuse. It’s valid to ignore details of why others consume and perform problematic kinks, for the sake of your psychological safety or if you feel that it could legitimize them. Don’t engage in something you feel uncomfortable with. It’s not fair that it can be difficult to avoid abusive triggers within a community you enjoy. Your needs need to come first in this discussion. One of these needs may be to shield yourself. If you wish to do that, please close the article now.
IntroductionWhile attempting to Google exactly what is considered a problematic kink, a lot of its definition appears to be based in open-ended discourse.[1] Nonetheless, a very common theme arises: a “problematic kink” can be defined as “a kink derived from some kind of abuse or potential abuse situation.” While feminist-detractors may tell you that the concept of problematic kinks simply means “every kink is problematic,”[2] that’s absolutely not how it’s being used in common discourse. Multiple discussions regarding problematic kinks revolve around abuse and potential abuse situations, particularly these specific themes:
- Bestiality
- Incest
- Pedophilia
- Rape
There are many more potentially abusive and problematic kink scenarios, such as authoritarian coercion and human trafficking, but this brief list tends to be the hot button issues when it comes to problematic kinks. For good reason– these tend to be the abuse issues that enter people’s lives most frequently.
Furries can have a tendency to come from some kind of coercive environment. Some were bullied at school. Some had paternal abuse, neglect, or zero paternal support in our lives. Some were just so socially awkward they had no choice but to evolve online due to rejection felt by society. Nonetheless, regardless of why we came here, we have the freedom to explore our fantasies and minds in amazingly constructive ways that most other humans never get to experience. But of course, because these problematic fantasies aren’t always just fantasies, and ambiguity can only be clearly seen in hindsight as crossing a line — we do need a means of protecting the victims of said abusive scenarios, for the sake of maintaining a sense of protection often sought as part of this fandom.
That’s because abusers exist here too. And abusers consume problematic kinks as well. We’ve seen high profile abusers over and over again, from the graymuzzle memory of William Shaw (aka “DiveFox”) being publicly condemned for his child chasing and grooming patterns on Judge Mathis[3], to Frank Gembeck‘s arrest and conviction over extreme child pornography[4] and as recent as the revelations that Adam Wan (aka “Zaush”) is willing to accept the razor-thin legality of using legally-evasive photography of sexualized children as reference material.[5] This is nowhere near an exhaustive list of abusers in this community. In fact, these are merely the abusers that have been proven to demonstrate some sort of abusive behavior. More lurk in the community because they are extremely effective at silencing their victims– one of which we’ll be naming later on. To reassure the reader, their abuse will neither be excused nor glorified in this article.
Thus, we will first discuss the positives of problematic kinks; from how they relate to healing abuse victims, to how they relate to sexuality with abuse aspects abstracted, outright removed or controlled. To separate the positive aspects from potentially abusive or murky situations which could also be positive, there will also be a discussion of gray areas in problematic kinks; discussing how they can sometimes both be a therapeutic tool, a justification of one’s abusive tendencies, or a means of reinforcing one’s victimization.
Then finally, we will also discuss the negatives of problematic kinks, from how they enable abusers to justify their behavior, to how they use the content produced for their kink as a means of potentially grooming new victims. We will also discuss what can be done to protect victims, safe play of these problematic kinks and consumption of the content, while simultaneously attempting to discourage the real-world abuse situations these problematic kinks revolve around.
First, though, we need some primer before we begin: a clarification of terminology.
Terminology
When I say “kink,” and you hear me say “kink,” there might be some cross-talk occurring. Particularly in how this kink is assumed to be expressed.
Even when I abstractly say “kink,” you may or may not be interpreting the word “kink” to actually mean some form of pornography, namely animated or video content; artistic or photographic content; or written content. So, from here on out in this article, when I say “kink,” I want to make it clear that I’m referring specifically to the mental arousal which occurs, and not the expression of said arousal, such as performing intimate acts with a partner related to said kink, or even creating erotic content that induces arousal with this kink to share with others. When I wish to abstractly refer to the kink’s expression, such as in sexual acts and erotic content, I will use the word “expression” or refer to the type of expression explicitly, such as “literature” or “video content.”
Let’s now begin to explain why problematic kinks are actually much more complex than their abuse-triggering surface makes them appear, starting with the positives.
Positive Aspects of Problematic Kinks Exploring as Therapy for Abuse and TraumaThe following section will discuss rape and potentially traumatizing revelations of what rape victims may experience in the aftermath. We will also be interviewing a rape survivor, who will be detailing potentially upsetting revelations as to how they cope with their trauma.
I mentioned earlier in this article that some victims will use the exploration of a problematic kink as a means of erasing or controlling said aspects of their victimization. An ex-partner of mine was raped by fellow furries. (Thankfully the abusers wound up serving jail-time for what they did– which can’t be said for most rape situations, sadly. It was relatively high profile in the community, to the point that one of the abusers is, for the most part, still ostracized from social interaction nowadays, with the occasional defender who props him up as having learned, despite him being observed to continue performing abusive behaviors.) Yet in the time I’ve known this ex-partner, I’ve observed something interesting: they have a kink for non-consensual fantasies.
They agreed to talk with me about why. Because they’re a relatively high-visibility member of the furry community, they chose to speak on condition of anonymity. This is also why I have not named their abusers in particular, regardless of the prison convictions they faced for doing this. Here’s the conversation:
Q: So you survived a pretty upsetting rape scenario a few years ago. And I know in my personal interactions with you, and seeing the way you describe your fantasies on social media, you likely still have non-consensual fantasies. Do these fantasies help you deal with your trauma in any way, and if so, how?
I’ve had an internal conversation about that with myself for several years, considering the irony of someone who had gone through all that suddenly turning around and finding sexual excitement in the concept. Ultimately, I can say it’s a contributing factor; I get to make the scenario mine, and I have control over it. It ends if I want it to, it goes as far as I want, and it even trivializes what happened to me in my mind. It makes the scenario hurt less in the present.
This is an important distinction: In the present. I’ll never forget the pain I went through, I’ll never forget the breakdowns I’d have for years to come remembering it. But it no longer hurts me now like it did back then, and that’s to my benefit.
Q: It sounds like this means of sexual exploration has been useful to you in moving on from the trauma of what you experienced. Am I reading that right?
I believe so. While it was never my intention, it was obvious to me upon reflection that it helps with a couple of different issues. Non-consensual sexual fantasies arise from the need for control, or sometimes, a surrender of it. To have one’s urgency taken away, their control suspended, allows a person to escape their anxieties. It’s a big part of why submission is a huge kink for people who are consistently busy or stressed, especially those who are involved in a lot of management and decision making. With role playing a rape victim, there’s even this underlying feeling of being so desired that consent is no longer a factor. On the opposite end, domination and role-playing the rapist is about having control and losing one’s self to urges, and working out the stress of one’s lack of control.
Q: You mentioned roleplay right there specifically. Does this also extend into consuming other kinds of erotic content of the variety, such as visual or written pornography of these kinds? And do these mediums additionally have the same sort of therapeutic effect, or do they tend to trigger your past experiences?
There’s no trigger. I dealt with that trauma rather effectively, to where simulated versions of it (specifically in fictional media with the intent of drama) don’t quite affect me on that level. My enjoyment and use of it as a coping mechanism, as well as sexual fulfillment, most certainly extends to Pornography of that nature in all it’s different means of consumption. It’s not just fantasy, it’s not just role-playing, but it’s also videos and stories. But the fact that they are simulated is the most important part, because I know that, deep inside, nobody is being legitimately hurt. That when I close the story, those “people” cease to exist; that when a video is done playing, the people within will be okay, even if there’s a power dynamic that is almost violently one-sided… because there’s a mutual consent, and a need that’s being met by both people involved. One that I’ve tried to meet several times with real life partners, regularly on the submissive end.
I want to put focus on one thing in particular with this interview: the rape survivor, here, is attempting to take back control. And in the end, enacting these scenarios, for various reasons, empowers them to move on from their intensely traumatic event. This is not the way all rape victims heal, nor should it be a process forced upon them, for not everyone can process their trauma in this fashion. And yet, for some people, roleplaying or even consuming “consensual non-consent”[6] productions of this kind of media is a therapeutic tool.
This is just one experience, however. I wanted to make sure that this was shared among many victims. And it turns out, it is. My psychologist chose to anonymously comment on this article in the interest of protecting my personal identity. Here’s what they had to say:
I have worked with a number of individuals who participated in kink role-play that others may have considered problematic, such as acting out rape fantasies or race play. In the cases I encountered, each patient had played the role of victim in these scenarios. These individuals also reported a history of trauma directly related to their particular kink, and expressed a belief that these role-plays could act as healthy re-enactments, almost like do-overs of the original traumatic experiences – the main difference being that in these role-plays, they ultimately had control (i.e. safeword) and were consenting, rather than experiencing yet another trauma. In this way, the acting out of these so-called problematic kinks may work in a similar manner to exposure treatment for PTSD such as EMDR, where the patient is asked to repeatedly describe the traumatic event while watching a rhythmic movement, the idea being that the formerly traumatizing data is being re-associated on a physiological and neurological level with a neutral stimulus and state. Perhaps with these type of kinks, the trauma can be re-aligned with a pleasurable stimulus and positive state of interpersonal connection and energy exchange. Of course, this type of play, like most any intimate activity, comes with its risks as one navigates the sometimes treacherous waters of the psyche. Vulnerability, shame, arousal and intense emotionality can all arise during these encounters. After care, as always, can be an important step to help contain and resolves feelings of chaos or liability. And the dynamic between those involved most certainly needs to be underpinned by honest communication and genuine regard.
At the very core of many of these personal abuse scenarios– particularly rape, incest, and pedophilia– is a feeling of a loss of control. When an incest victim is sexually abused by a sibling, parent or relative, they have lost control, because the abuser in the scenario has taken it away from them by coercing them into a sexual situation they did not want. The same goes for rape and child molestation. While the article cited in the introduction seems to get the concept of problematic kinks incorrect, it is correct regarding power dynamics: coercive sex is a power dynamic, of which the abuser takes away power from the victim or abuses their power over the victim for their own sexual gratification.
What kink does in this scenario is provide that sense of control that was taken away. And naturally, because you have control over the scenario, you can do things to the scenario which will help heal or erase your memories by rewriting the traumatic memory with controlled fantasy and a partner you strongly trust. If replaying a rape scenario triggers a fierce memory in your mind, you can stop the scenario at any time and request after-care. If you experienced intense shame from the feeling that, for some reason, your body enjoyed the rape– and this is a significant, unspoken sense of shame in some rape victims[7]— you can rewrite that feeling of shame in a much more controlled, structured environment, exploring what made it pleasing to you and erasing what made it unsatisfying at best and horrifically traumatizing at worst.
This ultimately rewrites the experience in your mind, little by little, scene by scene. While the survivor will never forget what happened to them, consistently replaying the scenario in a controlled environment in such a way that the negatives of their victimization are erased, while the extremely rare positives remain, is an incredibly therapeutic exercise. The result is a relative emotional rewrite of an overwhelming feeling of being a victim, taking back control from the abuser and placing it in the survivor’s hands as a tool of healing.
And… unfortunately, that’s the only thing that’s really explicitly positive. The rest of the reasons one might be interested in these kinks pretty much fall into two categories: gray-areas (meaning they have the potential to enable abuse or rewrite abuse, depending on how they’re used) and negatives (meaning they merely enable or perpetuate abuse, no matter how they’re used). Nonetheless it was important we put the victims first in this discussion, and additionally, that we put their tool of healing out on the table for everyone to see. But as you’ll soon understand in these following paragraphs, even though these tools can be used for the victim to heal, they can also be taken advantage of to either put an abuse victim deeper into their victimized state of mind or justify one’s abusive behavior.
Let’s explore the gray areas.
Because problematic kinks primarily touch on abusive scenarios, it can be incredibly difficult to decouple the abusive nature from the kink, if not impossible. Even with creating a “perfect world,” as it were, there is still a strong connection of abuse to the kink, even if it’s turned up on its head by turning it positive and non-abusive because of its nature in the real world.
Walk with caution when playing out problematic kinks in the following manners. Make absolutely sure that there aren’t any abuse triggers that occur. And if there are unknown abuse triggers– and this does happen– make sure you’re aware and have negotiated some kind of safeword beforehand.
What we will be discussing in this section involves arousal toward abusive situations. If as a victim this thought disturbs you– and there are many reasons for it to do so– I would strongly suggest you skip this section in its entirety. You may ultimately find solace in having your negative experiences justified as negative, but if you don’t even wish to read the details of what makes them negative due to potential triggering, I would recommend you close the article now and perhaps let a close friend summarize the article for you.
Indulgence in Fantasies of a Non-Abusive WorldThis section will be discussing problematic kinks as they relate to fantasies of what a non-abusive world might look like. To the victim, this may appear as a tacit justification of their abuse, creating and potentially perpetuating a fantasy world which does not align with the reality of their victimization as well as the victimization of others.
As a word of warning: some hypothetical scenarios will be thrown out which, in a non-fantasy world, are absurd at best or supportive of abusive dynamics at worst. This dysphoria between fantasy and reality, interestingly, is what tends to fuel the kink for some, typically because a horrific characteristic of humanity has been instead twisted and contained to mutate it into a positive environment. Experiencing this knee-jerk feeling of disgust is absolutely okay– you should feel as though these questions are morally bankrupt as they apply to reality. But nonetheless, in this context, this kink can be seen as a corruption kink: instead of turning something from good to evil, you’re corrupting something from evil to good. In a sense, some practitioners of problematic kinks are actually erasing the abusive nature of these coercive power dynamics through the way they choose to express them.
So let’s break down some potential scenarios of this kind of kink exploration:
- What if consent wasn’t necessary and everyone enjoyed the casualness of sex with strangers?
- What if incest wasn’t an explicitly abusive dynamic by parents, siblings or relatives, but rather a consensual, careful application of love for the family?
- What if instead of taking advantage of animals for their inability to communicate consent, not only could they talk, but also explicitly agree to having sex with you?
- Perhaps most triggering of these kinds of abuse-erasure fantasies, what if children– sexually developed or otherwise– were allowed to not only engage other children and adults in sexual fantasies, but were empowered by strong consent education and a social expectation of their individual personhood to do so?
Every single one of these scenarios, when applied to the real world, is intensely dangerous. If we forewent consent, rape would be rampant. If we allowed incest without any repercussions whatsoever, the dark side of society would go so far as to start treating their children as sex slaves. If we allowed bestiality to flourish, animals of all sorts would be treated like unwitting sex workers, rounded up like some sort of sexual cattle for consumers to peruse. And finally, giving children the power of consent does not take into account their sense of naivete as they grow, which leads them to potential abuse situations. If children are already being preyed upon because of their sexual naivete, why on earth should they be given the power of sexual consent?
But as much disgust as these kinky questions rightfully inspire in us when applied to reality, some performers of these problematic kinks fantasize about the world in a way where its abuses frankly just don’t exist. They fantasize about an ideal utopia where the horrors of these problematic kinks are entirely erased, leaving nothing but a fascinating and pleasurable contradiction: the fantasy– loving and consensual and non-abusive– simply just does not match the reality, which is rife for abusive situations.
Indulging in kinks this way is shared by victims and kinksters alike. Many people indulge in these problematic fantasies simply for the fact of trying to craft a world in their mind where these horrors don’t exist, erasing the existential anxiety the utterly frightening reality presents. Whether or not they are a victim of the subject, it creates a kind of escape from the oppressive horrors of the world, a satisfying situation where a taboo scenario is removed of its highly toxic actions, creating a safe environment of exploration in an otherwise impossible world.
And yet this isn’t entirely positive– in the other direction, what this erasure can do is fundamentally different from the way victims erase their trauma. Erasing the reality of the situation in a kink may very well also be because either the top or bottom may be wishing to find a means of justifying this fantasy as a kind of reality for their future abuses, either as an active or passive participant in said abuses.
Now, this in particular simply relates to fantasy in general– there are vast reasons for us to indulge in any kind of fantasy. And for the most part, this erasure of the victim’s reality can be ultimately positive, turning something wicked into something consensual. But what this has the potential to do is to continue to trivialize the victim’s trauma, reinforcing to them that their trauma is worth trivializing. Trivializing their own trauma is a serious problem in abuse victims.[8] “But he didn’t hit me.” “I was scared to say no, so it wasn’t rape.” “Even though I was underage, I still agreed to do it.” Take caution if you wish to indulge in this fashion– not everyone trivializes things in the same way as the rape victim we interviewed earlier.
Indulgence in Unique Power DynamicsWe will use this section to discuss the power dynamics these problematic kinks present, which involves indulging in parts of the realities which lead to abusive situations in the real world. We will also be explaining the trivialization of abuse as it relates to these dynamics.
As sex is inherently a power dynamic of sorts, sexual scenarios evolve out into this kind of arena. Boss and subordinate. Cop and citizen. Predator and prey. To touch on our problematic kinks: rapist and victim. Father and daughter. Unthinking beast and human. Adult and child.
The common BDSM fantasy power dynamic of “master and slave” comes to mind here. In reality, it is very unlikely you would enjoy being someone’s slave. As humans, for the most part, we want a sense of independence. We want to be able to choose whether or not we do something: whether or not we wish to have this partner or that partner, whether we want to have this job or that job, whether we want to do this or that. In a master and slave relationship, looking to the past, more often than not it was outright human abuse. Yes, stories arose of “positive” slave owners, but nonetheless, they still ultimately controlled the lives of the people they owned. They were just nice. Dogs have the same amount of freedom that slaves did to nice slave owners– which is to say not much at all.
Similar to indulging in abuse-erasure fantasies, what occurs here is an abstraction of the abusive dynamics into a power structure. Instead of living the horror that would be an only daughter living with her abusive, incestuous single father, partners indulging in this sort of power dynamic can use the metaphors of what that abusive power dynamic truly means. For the scenario just mentioned: the daughter is unable to escape her father, for he is her father, making her a kind of “slave” in the end.
The ability to fantasize about a given scenario allows you to cherry-pick the individual pieces of what you wish to play out. And, ultimately, what these power dynamics reduce to– no matter if they’re problematic or just plain kinky– are varying levels of lost control.
Your boss is coercing you into sex or you’re fired. You lost control. The cop will frame you for a horrible crime if you don’t strip down for them. You lost control. You’re being blackmailed into sex. You lost control.
As our anonymous survivor commented, they enjoy getting the control back from their trauma in the form of having the ability to stop the roleplay at any time. Here, there is a desire for a loss of control on the part of the submissive, and a desire for the dominant to take that control from the submissive. As much it would pain the victim of an abuse scenario being fantasized about, all the concepts of abuse and threats of violence from someone you have no control over? Frankly, they’re just window dressing in these kinds of sexual scenarios. While most folks just enjoy calling someone “daddy” and don’t go further than that, some folks like the aspects of realism as it relates to these dynamics, and sort of flirt with the idea of sprinkling in a little abuse here and there– an alcoholic father here, a groping palm there, and pretty soon you have yourself a rather lewd and kinky fantasy.
But the central theme here, just as above, is a trivialization of victimization. Our anonymous survivor even said themselves, one reason they like to indulge in the scenarios which are similar to their trauma is to trivialize what the trauma was. And this trivialization, as we touched on earlier, is a double-edged sword. It is extremely important that this double edge is taken into account when playing out kinks or consuming media for this reason.
Indulgence in the Taboo
As this section discusses taboos, it will evaluate both positive and negative uses of such indulgences. Naturally, this will touch on abusive topics which may trigger the victim frequently.
Another way of looking at the kinks detailed earlier is the sense of these ideas being taboo. It’s never really socially explained why you shouldn’t have sex with your family members (despite the problems we’ve presented numerous times already), you’re just not supposed to. It’s forbidden. Don’t do it. No explanation necessary. It’s “gross,” as it were. Taboo kinks specifically touch on the social boundaries of which we’re not allowed to cross. The dictionary defines a “taboo” as the following:
A social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.
Of course, taboo kinks are taboo for some reason or another. Nonetheless, for many folks, indulgence in this mere idea of doing something you’re not supposed to is surprisingly satisfying to some people. That carnal sensation of breaking the rules, of getting away with something you’re not allowed to, despite what sort of consequences may occur.
The problem here isn’t necessarily that the social expectations are being breached to indulge in the kink. Rather, what makes this a gray area is that indulgence in the taboo could mean multiple things. So if one wishes to indulge in the taboo, it’s entirely contextual to ask why one wishes to do so:
- From the submissive perspective, do you wish to indulge in an incestuous fantasy for the feeling of lost power, or is there an unaddressed sense of having been taken advantage of you may be reliving? From the dominant perspective, do you wish to indulge in an incestuous fantasy for the power dynamics it presents, or do you wish to indulge in taking advantage of a family member?
- From the submissive perspective, do you wish to indulge in a bestiality fantasy for the loss of control being taken advantage of by an animal represents, or are you wishing to indulge in the fantasy due to a sense of wanting to take advantage of an aroused animal? From the dominant perspective (typically either someone controlling the animal or the animal itself), do you wish to play out the degradation fantasy this entails, or do you too also potentially wish to abuse an animal’s instincts merely for masturbatory purposes?
Of course, the trivialization of abuse in this scenario is rather clear at this point– most of these reasons for indulgence come down to some means of trivialization. But notice how there’s a potential for both abuse victims as well as potential abusers to have pitfalls here. Because these taboos still fall into abusive power dynamics, which is ultimately what makes them problematic, there’s not really any way to decouple their taboo nature from society, not to mention why they’re taboo in the first place. Typically these kinks are illegal to factually perform in the real world because they’re so abusive.
This concludes the gray areas. Be warned. In the next section, there be dragons. I would advise you that if you haven’t come to terms with your trauma and abuse, turn back now.
If you’ve gotten this far without getting horrified, I’m delighted. If you’ve simply scrolled down here to provide yourself “more ammo” as it were, I would like to kindly ask you to close this article and rethink what you’re doing. More likely than not, if you came to this section without the intent of understanding the positives or gray areas, you’re likely perpetuating a kind of verbal abuse that can harm victims: kink shaming.[9] This has been happening frequently, and was the entire point of me writing up this article. So if you sincerely don’t wish to do this, you need to scroll right back up to the beginning right this instant to understand why this is harmful.
But regardless of why you’re here, we’re now going to discuss some of the disgusting, downright horrifying aspects of these kinks that more often than not perpetuate abusive dynamics. Buckle up and bring a torch, we’re about to venture into the darkness– starting with the hot-button topic that brought out all this discussion to begin with: cub porn.
Perpetuating and Normalizing Child Sexual Abuse via MediaI’m going to be curt here: this section in particular discusses, sometimes in detail, child sexual abuse. Prepare yourself.
I want to make something extremely clear: I’m making a distinction between roleplay and media as it relates to ageplay and what’s colloquially known as “cub art.” Roleplay is typically between two adults playing out some kind of fantasy. And as we’ve discussed above, perhaps it could be indulging in abusive dynamics, or perhaps it could be simply attempts on the adults’ parts to heal. When it comes to child sexual abuse situations (typically shortened to CSA), media is the ultimate negative. Not the gray area that roleplay represents. But because of the concepts mentioned above, in tandem with its potential for perpetuating abuse, not only does its content need to be contained, but its consumers policed as well. And the problem is that, for the most part, it’s just not fully contained, nor are its potential abusers policed properly. Cub art, in the furry community, ultimately has too much freedom to spread with the potential to simultaneously enable the abusers that come with the content as well as the potential victims hiding in the shadows.
Though before we get into the nitty-gritty of why cub porn perpetuates and normalizes child sexual abuse, we need to address one very, very important aspect: what about the people who are into cub porn for the innocent reasons we discussed before this section? Namely, what about the people who simply appreciate it for its perceived cuteness, for its consensual and overall non-abusive visuals? It may surprise you to understand that, for the most part, people who are into cub porn aren’t always into it for its coercive and abusive dynamics. Some simply like loli and shota, for example, for how adorable the participants appear, regardless of whether or not they’re children in the end. As discussed above, for some consumers of this kind of media, the fact that they’re ultimately children is effectively erased in their mind, making this more of a gray area than anything.
And what about the victims of CSA? Shouldn’t they have some kind of outlet to heal themselves from their abuse in forms other than roleplay? If consuming erotic rape media is helpful to the rape victim we interviewed above, wouldn’t it then follow that a CSA victim would potentially enjoy placing themselves in the same sort of scenario through fictional (and I want to heavily stress here: fictional) media sometimes?
And finally, what of children who grew up healthy and sexual? We define “healthy” in this context as understanding consent issues in a thorough fashion. (This does not mean they can legally consent, which is an extremely important distinction to make in these discussions.) We typically refuse to acknowledge that these situations happen– such as children exploring safely with other children– and thus perhaps they wish to replay some kind of fantasy from those days, wanting to remember fondly on those early days of exploration. This is of course not to say that abuse can’t happen in child-to-child dynamics– they do. Young teenagers sometimes rape younger children.[10]
The unfortunate situation is that, for the most part(?) The consumers of cub porn are innocent. Without the context of the positives and gray-areas mentioned above, this seems absurd and down-right abusive to even state that people who enjoy this content are anything but innocent. But the truth of the matter is that a good majority of the cub community doesn’t want abusers. In fact, did you know that in the cub community there’s been significant push-back toward abusers who exist within their community for a rather long time? I interviewed a major player in the cub community who’s been around a while– you could essentially call them a graymuzzle. On condition of anonymity, they chose to speak to me. Here’s our interview:
Q: So you’ve been involved with major parts of the cub art community for a long time now. This kind of artwork in particular of course has the potential to draw in abusers of all kinds. But I know too that the cub community wants it to be some sort of safe-haven. Can you tell me some of the struggles that arise from trying to keep out abuse?
It tends to mostly come in the form of forum moderation; strong guidelines about content and conversation topics. One thing I’ve noticed dealing with the handful of genuinely abusive people is that sooner or later they tend to out themselves in the hopes of finding more like-minded individuals. When that happens, if it’s discovered, they get shown the door. Zero tolerance for felonious behavior or conversation is pretty typical.
Of course, it can sometimes get a little muddy because a lot of cub art forums and chat groups are also very roleplay heavy, so sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference. While the vast majority of people in the groups that I manage or participate in tend to place themselves in the cub position, there’s always those who want to be the ‘adult’ or ‘older cub’. But even that isn’t indicative of one’s predilections; usually they’re just there because they like looking at cute things.
Q: Right, because there could be a multitude of other reasons to take on that role that aren’t inherently abusive. Does this sort of “hunting” as I suppose you could characterize it come in the form of trying to find other abusive individuals, does it tend to come in the form of fishing for potential victims such as users on the forums who may be misrepresenting their age, or does it come in other forms entirely?
Yeah. They want to roleplay parent, babysitter, whatever, with the understanding that the person on the other side of that screen is also a real adult with adult judgement.
Every forum I’ve ever seen or been a part of, had very strict rules that members be over the age of 18. And not just ‘oh, well, we say it for the look of things’. Every time, if there was any sort of suggestion that a member might be actually underaged, they were k-lined with extreme prejudice. And this was something that was not only policed by moderators; large chunks of the community were also on the lookout, and would be VERY quick to flag them. But this is the risk of adult-oriented internet forums on the whole, really, and anybody who’s run an adult site of any size or form has had to deal with these, along with the users who zeroed in on them.
So I guess it’s a mix. But the handful of times I’ve seen any sort of predatory behavior in public, it’s been fishing for like-minded individuals.
Q: That’s really fascinating. So not only is there a policing aspect to the leadership of the community, but also a sort of self-policing aspect too, wherein members of the community are on the lookout for abusers to oust as well?
Absolutely. Certain people like to poo-poo the idea of a ‘safe space’, but that’s exactly what these are. Predators and minors are both basically threats to the safety of these communities and disrupt the vibe.
But this is the leadership perspective. On the ground, things might look different. So what about the consumers of this content that I was discussing, the innocent ones who simply wish to consume it for, as our interviewee put, “looking at cute content,” as much as the reader may find this kind of content the absolute opposite of cute? I eventually came across someone who rather publicly proclaimed on an After Dark account that they were into cub porn and ageplay.
But before I show you the interview, I need to mention: I went into this interview wary. The entire time I was writing this article, in my head, I could find nothing but negatives about cub porn in general. Ageplay as a kink was totally fine– that’s just a kink. But cub porn? I simply just couldn’t see positives. I just didn’t understand why.
I had been objective about all the other kink expressions prior to this, but for some reason, I simply couldn’t be objective about this in particular. I had an opinion that, no matter how I tried to shape it in my head? I could not be objective. I had nothing but negative things to say– this contrasts greatly from what I eventually wrote down for all this so far, of course. With that in mind, I actually wanted to seek out someone who was into it in some way or another, just to understand: why would someone enjoy something that’s particularly related to such an abusive dynamic?
And again before I show you this interview, you’ll notice that pretty much everyone here is anonymous to protect them. This isn’t to shield people from illegal activity. Rather, this is to shield victims and potential victims. This sort of topic has resulted in so much hateful vitriol that I simply don’t want these people who’ve come forward and trusted me with their stories to receive harassment for coming forward.
So, with that, this interviewee likes cub porn. I asked them why:
Q: What draws you into cub art in general? Is it the taboo nature of it all? Is it the potential for inversion of an abusive dynamic into something affectionate and consensual? Or is it something else entirely?
I’d say it’s a combination of “the potential for inversion of an abusive dynamic into something affectionate and consensual,” and the generally child-like innocence of furry children.
Q: Yeah, understandable, there’s something wholesomely appealing about that sort of innocence. I’m assuming, too, that you probably roleplay these scenarios too, correct? And I know from experience, every ageplayer has their range— that is, there is an age range which they will play, in which going any lower than the lower limit is just not permitted period. This can frankly go all over the place, from refusing to go younger than a mid-teen to even permitting toddlers and infancy. Do you have any particular opinions about specific age ranges? And do you feel there is a certain age you would refuse to play as a child in the dynamic?
I do indeed roleplay some of these scenarios.
My general age range is from six to nine, but it can go higher or lower.
I personally prefer to not go higher than 22 or so, or lower than four, but I am open to most age ranges.
Q: So that comment actually brings up an interesting question. I have never heard ageplay being used in the context of playing of age individuals, even though it completely makes sense. May I ask how old you are?
I’m 25 in real life, soon to be 26, and I reserve my older self for playing certain scenarios where an adult is necessary.
Q: As do I! Sometimes I play the two side-by-side, as a parent/daughter combo. So would you say your childhood was positive, or negative? Age regression is an incredibly useful tool in psychology, and I was wondering if it was here for you too?
I’d say my childhood was fairly positive, with some splashes of negativity here and there, as is the case for many people.
I like to use age regression to relive the days of youthful innocence and occasional youthful naughtiness.
Q: Yeah, I assumed as much! I didn’t want to be too leading, though. So I want to talk about a darker aspect of cub art with you. Not necessarily the rare nonconsensual stuff that does come out, but rather its usage. I’m not being accusatory here, and I cast no judgment if you’re unaware of this, as you seem to prefer a much more positive perspective of the kink, but how do you feel about the potential of cub porn being used to groom potential child sexual abuse victims?
I’ll be honest about this one.
I honestly believe the potential is there, especially with certain pieces and images for pieces and images to be used in this manner.
I do find it abominably disgusting and offensive to the artists of the drawings, but I have not seen or heard of any examples of this happening.
The interview actually kept going, but… it fell apart. Not because I got angry. Not because of some flying emotions going back and forth between me and the interviewee, but… his last comment caused a light bulb to go off in my head: “I have not seen or heard of any examples of this happening.”
Where did I first hear about cub porn? It led me back to a site long before FurAffinity was even a twinkle in Jheryn’s eye. It led me back to my early days in the fandom, when I was young and fresh and had quite literally just attended my first furry conference– the final ConFurence, the ConFurence which the Jimmy Kimmel show decided to crash, since, well, I’m sure we were right down the street from their studios in Burbank.
This question and response made me realize: oh my god, I heard about cub porn years before I turned 18. This led me back to the sexual encounters I had when I was underage, when I was desperately trying to seek out some kind of confirmation that I wasn’t just some ugly kid, that I was deserving of intimacy, that the isolation I experienced from my peers was something I could grow out of, despite the fact that just two years prior I had finally gotten out of eight years of social abuse from my peers at school, but still just couldn’t connect with others for intimate purposes. For the sake of not allowing potential low-key predators to take advantage of these mindsets, I will not go into more details as to what led to my abuse.
That’s when I met someone. Someone who, in private messages after the conference, told me that the man who would eventually be an accomplice to a very vivid abuse event in my life was simply not interested in young girls like I was at the time.
“But that won’t stop me. ;)” he told me over chat. At the time, these words sounded inviting and freeing. Like someone finally saw me, and wanted to be intimate with me. Now these words are forever seared into my mind.
Remember when I said this earlier?
In fact, these are merely the abusers that have been proven to demonstrate some sort of abusive behavior.
I want you to understand something about this. If you don’t have evidence, you cannot, cannot just arbitrarily call someone out based on some sort of hearsay. However, the nature of these situations is that, every so often, an abuser knows how to hide their trail of evidence, and the result is victim-blaming from the community, for there’s no evidence to prove their case. This is how abusers win. This is why victims like myself rarely come out about their abuse.
In fact, this lack of evidence on my part? This lack of evidence on my part is what caused 16 years of questioning myself, 16 years of going absolutely insane trying to deal with my abuses, 16 years of on-and-off suicide attempts over the feeling that this man had turned me, too, into a perpetrator of abuse, particularly fueled by the intense and ignorant condemnation of ageplay and cub porn as kinks. All because I was convinced that what we were doing was not only consensual but also completely okay. This is why women tell you: believe rape victims. If someone comes out as a victim, they’re more often than not coming out about actual abuse. Rarely do false victims come out maliciously against someone– though it does happen.
But I want to reiterate: rarely. People perpetuating false rape accusations are just as abusive as the fantasy rapists they create in their heads to blame and shame some arbitrary victim. Like child abusers, they take advantage of a specific kind of darkness. Namely, the darkness of evidence presented from an abusive situation. Both child molesters and false rape accusers take advantage of the darkness presented by evidence being mostly concentrated in the victim, creating a he-said-she-said scenario. Both abusers take advantage of the scenario in different ways– the child abuser takes advantage of a culture who refuses to acknowledge victimization and educate its children in sexual conduct; the false rape accuser takes advantage of a culture who always believes the victim. When someone comes out as a rape victim, it’s extremely important that you default to believing them, but do proceed with reservation. How and why they come out about their victimization is contextual. Don’t attempt to disprove their accusations, but speak to them like a trauma victim. Because if they are a victim, that’s how they’ll act. I would encourage you to read up on how to speak to a trauma victim.[11]
With that in mind, the reason I’m coming out about my abuse and am going to name my abuser is because of that evidence situation. You may not believe that I have evidence. You may not believe that I can prove my case– and frankly I really can’t, due to all the time that’s passed. But I am now speaking up as a victim, and as someone who also knows other victims of my abuser, and also knows in full detail a series of abuses this man perpetuated in this community and others, under the primary cover of selective victimization.
He has a reputation in Southern California for his propensity for youth– to the point that he apparently moved out of the state. He also had his own trophy page on a site called Perverted Justice. While my abuse was more psychologically coercive rather than physically coercive– a particular favorite of abusers like mine since it helps them not only reduce potential feelings of guilt for their abuse, but additionally creates a victim-guilt scenario that prevents repercussions– my abuser has, in fact, raped other girls like me. And may I mention? The rape victim I interviewed above? They have an entirely different set of abusers than I do, who were also furries. This problem is pervasive in our community, and I can say has been definitively for well over 15 years. We are, in effect, carrying the burden of our paternal society, who experience the same abusive tendencies for the same reasons.
His name is Damien Cole.[12] Southern California graymuzzles will fill in the blanks for you. He has a reputation. Allegedly, he’s still here in the furry community, according to folks I’ve been talking to in the wake of finally unveiling the intense guilt I felt about engaging him to begin with. I told myself it was my fault, over and over again, for 16 years after all this happened. And may I remind you, 16 years was longer than I was even old at the time. And it took me interviewing someone for this article to finally, finally come to terms with my abuse, 16 years later.
If you’ve never heard of cub porn being used to help groom a child into sexual abuse? You do now. I was publishing cub porn stories well before I was legally allowed to consent. It felt bizarrely normal to me, in hindsight. Way too normal, to the point that I just didn’t see how the content was considered abusive period, because hey, I was a sexually active child who had sex with adults, and it seemed fine at the time, surely it’s merely the prudish nature of society and not an abusive dynamic? That’s what I had been taught, after all, by the only person who feigned teaching me anything about sex: a pedophile.
I had absolutely zero context of how those dynamics could be abusive at the time, due to the clever deception by my abusers. It was not until I was well into my 20s before I realized how abusive those dynamics truly were. And it took even longer for me to realize that what I was doing was actually reinforcing my abuse in the way I was playing. This only came to light when I met my kinky mother, who over the span of a year since I met her at Biggest Little FurCon, has been helping me evict my abusive programming from my head. That problematic dynamic that we share is what healed me from my abuse, and gave me the confidence to come forward today, after all these years, about what happened.
While Damien was by no means Patient Zero of my abuses– the Internet helped groom me in ways I am absolutely not comfortable detailing here– he did help fully reinforce in me that all of this was okay, that it was normal, and that all those folks who don’t like us for what we do? Well… they’re just prudes who don’t understand our “special love.”
And like I mentioned, the Internet had primed me well before I ran into Damien. This isn’t just a cub porn issue. There is a sincere reason that child porn is relegated to absolute darkness with intense social and legal repercussions. There is a sincere reason going to prison for child abuse offenses is more often than not a social death sentence. It belongs there for its potential to perpetuate child abuse and normalize it as a kind of “love.”
I can tell you from experience, it is by no means “love,” as much as pedophiles use this argument to convince you to be on their side. They cite examples like myself about how these relationships are actually consensual. When Damien and his partner at the time– an individual distinct from the scout I mentioned earlier, who “wasn’t interested”– had their way with me, the way I was used had very clear masturbatory elements to it. My body was merely a fleshlight for their desires, my mind able to be manipulated and cajoled in such a way that they wouldn’t have to physically coerce me like they did their other victims.
This content is absolutely deserving of the scarlet letter it has received from society, due to its extremely high frequency for child abuse. Whereas cub porn can effectively downplay the abusive dynamics due to it being a fantasy, typically coercing an actual child into these kinds of scenarios for pornographic purposes explicitly takes advantage of the child. With cub porn, there’s technically no victim– until that picture is used to groom a victim like myself.
And that priming of a naive child just trying to explore an aspect of life that absolutely no one in this country wanted to teach me– not my mother, not my father, not my friends, not my peers, and certainly not my educators– eventually led me to one abusive situation after another from being banished by the culture. I was essentially abused by a variety of people in my life for six or seven years after this interaction with this infamous pedophile. I was a stray lamb who was shunned by the flock for years and years of my upbringing, only to eventually stumble across a wolf in the forest who, due to my naivete and isolation, seemed quite friendly. Then after the wolf was done playing with my mind (read: I turned 18), the damage was done, and the feeling of no one wanting me around once more took hold, it put me right back where I started: abused and alone.
This is how the interview wound up ending. I want to note: while I mentioned I was “kind of upset”? I was actually hysterically crying in my office, to the point that my head was throbbing and I had to take a full sedative that I use for anxiety attacks like this, where I normally only take half:
Q: So the reason I bring this up is because it actually does happen as it relates to actual child pornorgaphy.[13] If you read a few paragraphs in on page 108, it cites a study regarding this as early as 1990, and also demonstrates why actually artistic content could potentially be more potent for this sort of abuse than other such things. Having been groomed for this before, and recalling details of my abuse, you may be too young to remember this site, but one of my abusers introduced me to a site called [redacted]. I’m… actually kind of upset that I recall this fact now, but it’s not your fault. I knew I was groomed, but now I know why I was having such a difficult time reasoning with it, because I was additionally groomed with the artwork. Guh. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to ruin your kink or anything, I’m just being honest here.
Ah, I understand.
I admit, [redacted] might be before my time as a Furry, and I have never heard of that site until just now.
While I’m not surprised that it has happened, I believe it’s an unavoidable notion that an artist’s work can be misappropriated in this manner.
I’m sorry that this happened to you, and I’m also sorry if this is bringing up bad memories of your past.
Q: It’s not so bad? I’ve gotten enough therapy over it that it’s not a big deal. And yeah, ultimately, it is unavoidable. Even with as relegated to the darkness as child pornography is, dedicated abusers will hunt it down and weaponize it. So I’m very torn on what to do. Because on the one hand, it’s really useful as a kink device, providing a sense of reliving youth and whatnot, even through the projection of artwork. And yet on the other hand, it can be used as a grooming device. So I’m very torn on what to do about it.
I understand that it is a tough choice on how to handle this type of artwork.
However, I believe that if you are viewing and/or enjoying it on your own terms by yourself or with consenting friends or partners, then nothing bad should come of it.
Q: Sure, I agree.
And I believe this is implied, but these “friends” I mentioned are adults of age.
If that “friend” is underage, then there is a problem.
Note how even in the wake of my discovery, I’m frequently downplaying my victimization? “It’s not a big deal”? Losing 16 years of my life to depression and self-hatred isn’t a big deal? Re-reading this in hindsight of everything, with a clearer head… it’s really impressive how a victim mentality is pervasive in everything you do when you have it.
The conclusion that I ultimately came to in this research– culling from my own abusive experiences, having it come to light that this content was used to groom me in both artwork and writing (no, writing is not safer than artwork, do not believe that fallacy), and interviewing people from all parts of this kind of community– is that, as it exists right now, cub porn has too much freedom in our community. This is why I’ve ultimately declared this situation primarily negative. Walled gardens like InkBunny, with as much of a reputation they tend to receive for essentially being “the cub porn site,” are absolutely the means by which this kink can be created and consumed safely, because the people of the ageplay and cub art community are extremely aware of the kinds of abuse that can persist in their community. And as we demonstrated, there’s active policing in their community for evicting those abusers. Damien Cole was one of those abusers who’s been evicted numerous times from their communities.[14]
This can’t be said of sites like E621, which is simply moderated for their community aspects. They don’t take this abuse dynamic into account when allowing cub porn. I’m unsure if the furry image board lulz.net even outright bans cub art, but due to its propensity for perpetuating abuse in general– and a cub thread that’s currently on the front page– I really doubt it. F-Chan, however, does refuse to permit cub art on even its /ah (alt-hard) board.
The ultimate thing is that people really, really need to be educated on cub porn’s ability to perpetuate abuse in children. Even though the community was split at the time– and because of my grooming, I was not on the administration’s side regarding this issue– I would have to ultimately agree with FurAffinity banning cub porn outright to some degree. While we’ve layed out it’s not the best method, it is an important step in the right direction. As a general furry art community, they need the resources to patrol the whole community, and as a result, can’t dedicate resources to policing something that requires the extremely precise lighting of experienced individuals to patrol properly.
What we need to do for this particular expression of this problematic kink is reduce it to a darkness of people who are extremely experienced with these abusive dynamics. Thus, if we leave this situation up to the cub community at large, I have full confidence that they’ll continue to patrol their community for the abusers which intoxicate their environment. But as it exists right now? Cub porn is much too free in this community. And that freedom allows people like Damien to prey on young children, to feed them little bits and pieces of data that remind them that either their ongoing abuse or their future abuse is absolutely normal.
You may be asking yourself: if this content in particular has been weaponized to victimize me, why am I not arguing for its outright banishment? Because it has its utility to assist victims like myself, even if I realized what happened to me was wrong and stopped consuming it for those reasons. Not to mention, regardless of how not-innocent the reality of the kink is, a good majority of the artists and consumers of this content are innocent in one way or another. Rarely, cub artists get caught either referencing actual child porn or even outright tracing child porn, but it does happen, and as our cub community interviewee said, when this is discovered, they are immediately shown the door.
This is what makes Adam Wan’s situation so incredibly troublesome– were he a more active member of the cub art community, it’s very likely that he would have been shown the door for his behavior with using sexualized “safe-for-work” photos of children, because as we demonstrated, that kind of behavior is a major threat to the cub community. If you recall how my abuser has been skirting the law for a significant time, it may send chills down your spine to understand that Adam Wan was accused of coercive sex with a woman a long time ago, thanks to the whole “YiffyLeaks” hooplah. It is not cited here to protect Adam Wan’s victim. Needless to say, FurAffinity leadership was pretty dismissive, saying that naming her abuser would “start drama,” essentially.
If we leave the management of cub art up to the cub art community, rather than allowing it to flourish merely because “it’s just another kink,” we can protect our vulnerable budding cubs from these vicious predators that exist all throughout the community, all the way from leadership (the accomplice I mentioned helped start CaliFur, not to mention the prior abuse-accepting behavior of leadership mentioned in the citation above) to artists (Adam Wan and Frank Gembeck) to its general members (William Shaw).
The truth of the matter is cub art is not just another kink. Ageplay is, certainly, with regards to its roleplay, but cub art in particular is a very special case. It is fraught with abuse merely by its media’s existence in combination with the lack of sexual education our society provides its children. This is not a characteristic shared by other problematic kinks.
But another truth to the matter is that just merely hiding this content in the darkness won’t fully protect children, either. A much larger fight– namely, educating children about sex when they’re old enough to understand– needs to be performed. As furries, we’re a small enough community that we can do this with the children we’re raising here. Nonetheless, if a refusal to sexually educate me coupled with an intense desire to learn about sex is what led to my abuse, with as intelligent as I am, then certainly there are other children out there who are potential victims for this sort of behavior. Please educate your children regarding sexual conduct. Please don’t fear the “awkwardness” of the conversation. What you teach your children about sex today could very well save them pain, anguish and even suicide if they make a mistake in trusting someone who takes advantage of their ignorance later on in life.
Frankly, though? This content in particular, because of its ability to be used as an abuse tool– unlike rape and bestiality, which merely trivialize the abuse dynamics, making them more a gray area that potentially lead to abuse– is really the only thing explicitly negative about these expressions of these kinks, because the content has the capability of being used to tell children that it’s perfectly okay for them to engage in sexual relations with an adult who’s likely well aware of their ignorance toward sexual power dynamics.
Arguably one could make the same kind of argument for incestuous artwork, but really only if it involves children. While there’s certainly a potential abuse dynamic for incestuous artwork, if the content explicitly depicts adults, there isn’t that potential for projection on the child’s part to see themselves in the content. If the content contains children, however, it needs to be relegated to the darkness. I would essentially argue that for all other types of content, some kind of opt-in barrier should be implemented to prevent retriggering of abuses by victims known or unknown.
Cub art should not have this opt-in barrier– it absolutely needs to be controlled, maintained and policed by its own community in particular due to its propensity for attracting abusive individuals to the kink. It cannot be publicly accessible. And since incestuous artwork has a tendency to sometimes pair hand-in-hand with cub artwork, the same rules should apply when children are involved.
We’ve ultimately broken down what makes these kinks appealing– from the positives of victimization rewriting in the mind to the strange gray-areas that make the abusive control dynamics not only appealing but additionally potentially fueling further abuses. We also broke down what can be done with regards to detecting potential abuses in either yourself or within your partner– namely in how one plays out these kinks. We ultimately concluded with the hot-button issue of cub porn, putting into great detail how the various players of the community function, how its consumers are for the most part innocents, and additionally how its abusers are both rare and evicted from those communities in general for their predilections for predatory behavior.
With the exception of outright rape, which can be applied to any scenario, people need to be educated in particular with regards to how consent works– especially from an early age. As much as parts of our community wishes it were true, animals can not consent to sex.[15] Body language, as much as it may appear as consent, is not explicit consent from an animal, making any act of bestiality regardless of body-language a technical act of rape. It is additionally not consent from a person.
And believe me, while I didn’t reach out to any zoophiles for this article in particular, I have spoken to zoophiles who for example have horse ranches. They’ve told me how explicitly sexual their animals can be. Nonetheless, because animals can’t communicate with us verbally– and I know how much some zoophiles will get upset with this comment– they cannot consent. And if they cannot consent, like children technically can’t due to their lack of education on the matter, then what they’re doing is explicitly nonconsensual.
One may potentially be able to argue that maybe bestiality content like writing and artwork has the same kind of negativity associated with cub art, but this sort of falls apart when one understands that the grooming process for children involves psychologically manipulating them with that content. The same can’t really be said of animals, meaning all the influence for playing out these abusive dynamics lies entirely within the potential abuser who may find themselves inspired by the victimless fantasy.
This lack of consent education is what fuels many of these coercive scenarios: incest, bestiality and CSA victims alike. With consent education regarding sexual encounters, many potential victims can be given tools to identify predatory behavior and avoid it where they can. Of course, this is not the only stop-gap measure– because of the simultaneous utility of cub porn, for example, as a grooming tool for CSA as well as a victim’s healing tool, it absolutely needs to be policed in a community that understands it best. Perhaps this would be useful, for example, for other types of content of this variety, such as rape, incest and bestiality, since they trivialize the abusive nature of the kinks they represent.
Either way, a walled garden approach to problematic kinks is a step in the right direction. It allows for safe discussions of these kinks in environments policed by personalities who know it best– so long as those policing the communities aren’t abusers themselves. It also allows the people who enjoy these kinks to indulge in safe ways, to communicate and discuss with others what makes their problematic kinks so enjoyable.
The ultimate issue is a need for education within our community to properly understand just what drives people to do what they do, and what drives people to enjoy the things they do as well. Some folks just simply enjoy the controlled fantasy of being abused temporarily. But some folks live it and can’t escape that reality.
And then there are the people we’re all trying to evict in this article: the abusers. Hopefully I’ve given you the tools you need to help us all effectively remove them from our community.
Maybelle Redmond has been in the furry community for somewhere between 15 and 20 years. She speaks primarily from the perspective of having experienced child sexual abuse within the furry community.
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=problematic+kinks Note how the absolute majority of a simple search for “problematic kinks” primarily brings up discussions of whether they’re good or bad, rather than a definition.
[2] https://medium.com/@jettarae/the-feminists-guide-to-why-every-kink-is-bad-3b0773e041a8
[3] http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/DiveFox#Judge_Mathis
[4] http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Frank_Gembeck#Controversy
[5] http://dogpatch.press/2018/03/09/the-zaush-issue/
[6] http://kinkipedia.wikidot.com/wiki:consensual-non-consent
[7] https://drmargaretrutherford.com/the-shame-no-one-talks-about-in-sexual-abuse/
[8] http://nordic.businessinsider.com/this-phrase-downplays-abuse-in-relationships-heres-why-its-so-damaging-2017-10/
[9] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kinkshaming
[10] http://www.fox19.com/story/16981231/teen-who-raped-5-year-old-girl-sentenced-to-in-patient-program
[11] http://phoenixaustralia.org/recovery/helping-others/
[12] https://www.dailynews.com/2007/09/30/outed-pedophile-leaves-mt-sac/
[13] https://books.google.com/books?id=uL2sAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA108#v=onepage&q&f=false
[14] http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/The_Astonishing_Treehouse_of_the_Secret_Moon#Disputed_changes_of_ownership
[15] https://naturallifemanship.com/can-animals-consent/
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FurAffinity updates Code of Conduct, backlash by hate groups promoted by 2 Gryphon
IN THIS ARTICLE: FurAffinity bans hate groups – click through the Twitter threads to see many screenshots of what they were promoting.
The true story of FurAffinity account bans
Furry art is full of cute, cuddly cartoons. Many FurAffinity users wanted to know – why was the site being used for hate imagery? If the art has to be edgy, couldn’t they just stick to good old-fashioned Hyper Diaper Pokemon Porn or whatever? At least sex is positive and life-affirming.
On the site and on Twitter, protest rose against activity that seemed to violate the Code of Conduct, while complaints were being dismissed by site staff. The CoC looked toothless because promotion of hate groups was excused with an exception for “fictional” activity.
What furry stuff ISN’T fictional? And depicting hate imagery in a positive light IS promotion. That’s part of the history of propaganda. And making excuses that it’s just historical interest reminds me of when I used to sell rare books at an antique mall; let’s be honest here, that chicken-necked skinhead with a swastika on his elbow wasn’t visiting that creepy dealer down the lane just for memorabilia. (His money was no good to me.)
During the protesting, FurAffinity users openly claiming to be alt-right trolls were gloating about driving traffic from the site and taunting those who left. That’s like getting acquitted for a hate crime and then mooning the judge. Sometimes nazis dress to impress, but nobody ever accuses them of being smart.
The dumpster fire kept burning until the complaints started tagging FurAffinity’s corporate owner IMVU. Perhaps they got worried about their anime-eyed avatars being the lesser evil on the site.
Soon the Code of Conduct was updated, and dozens of accounts went dark. It seemed to follow a precedent set a few months earlier when Discord Inc. flushed many of the same assholes and their alt-right servers down the drain.
Reactions included anger about indiscriminate punishment. But trolls never take their medicine, and evidence was less than compelling in some cases. I was asked to help a user who posted screenshots of accounts that they claimed were unfairly banned, but I recognized one as a troll for the Furry Raiders who may have been an admin for a group page that was also taken down. Bans for linked IP’s or plain bad behavior are nonpolitical too. Since appeals go through a closed process (which isn’t surprising for security concerns,) a handful of exceptions is hard to call a trend.
Bans of known assholes won community support with thousands of likes. Each like was a richly deserved spanking for the trolls who earned it.
We have updated Fur Affinity's Code of Conduct policy regarding hate hroups. For more information on the change please see our announcement here:https://t.co/0WeAKXSyN2
— Fur Affinity (@furaffinity) May 15, 2018FUCK YEAH
GO FURAFFINITY !!!
THEY'RE BANNING THE NAZIFURS!!! pic.twitter.com/S5HrVB3MeM
Hey guys, I'm excited about this positive action. 2.7 of the CoC is a great way for Fur Affinity to protect our community and grow as a social media and art site.
— Deo (@DeoTasDevil) May 15, 2018TIL being against people who are racist, sexist, against LGBT, promote hate makes me a tyrant. To that, I say nay nay! Free speech is a wonderful thing and I fully respect it... but hate speech has no place in our community. It doesn't deserve to be heard. https://t.co/FsWmY9ql3r
— Dragoneer (@Dragoneer) May 20, 2018I fully expected I might be doxed before I took the action we did. And you know what? I don't regret it. =3 Thanks for showing me I wasn't wrong about you, Alt-Furry. pic.twitter.com/wISNCk8Vlt
— Dragoneer (@Dragoneer) May 20, 2018They sure are Not Mad at me for reporting this!
Regular readers know that I’ve been outspoken for a long time about hate groups trying to invade fandom. It started before Rocky Mountain Fur Con closed in 2017, because the Furry Raiders exploited favor with the CEO to abuse hospitality, and the con wouldn’t listen to community protest. Threatening a critic is how they made more people speak up louder.
But if Furaffinity was just throwing a bone to a few yappy dogs, that would have happened ages ago. The community spoke and they didn’t ignore it this time.
MURRhurrhurr! #dogpatchruinseverything pic.twitter.com/CkOoWj8KAL
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 17, 2018Me and @dragoneer are also building a treehouse together #dogpatchruinseverything pic.twitter.com/HLLPHT4mSE
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 18, 2018I can confirm with this very legit photo that is totally not a drawing that I think is hanging on the fridge worthy pic.twitter.com/TaO7cyVQgG
— 4ever tired (@Sivi_Rabbynx) May 18, 2018Alt-furry backlash (by less than 1% of the fandom)
Never ones to quit while they’re ahead, alt-furries have been trying to inflate their small following into a sham “half the fandom” backlash. (I’m not kinkshaming inflation, just the genocide and stupidity.) Why it’s a sham: 1) Fandom population is probably a million and growing, but alt-furries hit a ceiling of a few hundred. 2) They can’t hide the hate.
One tactic they’re now using is distancing themselves from the racist “alt-right” label, to rebrand as regular conservatives, sham centrists or “diverse”. Of course if you’re a regular conservative, or have enough intelligence to tie your own shoes, you probably don’t want that kind of stink near your fursona.
Another tactic is to turn up the volume, and ride the tails of “popufurs”. Only one was that desperate for attention: a has-been comedian whose shock routine went stale long ago. (That’s the unbiased truth because 2 Gryphon’s disgraced career was already reported that way long before he had the brilliant idea to join a hate group, instead of working on better jokes to get ahead.)
And that game is to make people in the fandom think that the net is being cast too wide and that people who don't "deserve" to be pushed out of the fandom are suffering.
QuQu and everyone else in that chatroom knows "the truth" is that altfurry IS a paraiah group.
VƎX is a Satyr (@andreuswolf) May 21, 2018
2 Gryphon tries to raise his fallen star
Couldn’t he have just turned into a Juggalo or something? He could have hung out with Vanilla Ice and recuperated his career for a whole new fandom. Of course, the Juggalos’ underground energy made them the second most surprising subculture beside furries to rise against racism. Imagine him getting run off the stage in a cartoon whirlwind of Faygo-powered clown rage. But more likely he’d just get shot out of a cannon for being too boring, flaming out like a racist comet with a tail of broken dreams and inadequacy.
2 Gryphon joined the alt-furry chat and promised to promote them, after months of marinating in their hate speech like a duck in water. (A milkshake duck). He excused it as curiosity. Of course the Nazi-Curious Investigative Comedian was already a member of the Nazifurs livejournal for about 15 years. How long could it take to find out what they are? (These ones can’t stay unracist for 15 consecutive posts.)
In his resulting promotion for alt-furry, he lied to the face of the entire fandom about what was in the chat. If it looks like a duck… Just ignore all those quacking noises.
Below are Twitter threads full of screencaps from his goose-stepping pals. You can clearly see everything he denies in them, like over 1,000 hits for the n-word:
2 Gryphon is specifically and of his own volition actively promoting white supremacists now.https://t.co/71tWMzsX3z
— VƎX is a Satyr (@andreuswolf) May 17, 2018
@2_gryphon in the altfurry Telegram chat, notice dates and amount of search hits pic.twitter.com/kkoLWtXgbe
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 17, 2018Lol 2 said he was going to "make a video" about the group he's in that's run by the guy that literally made the Furred Reich and so to get more content he's lowballing questions to them that they can easily deflect and they can't even not be racist long enough to do that much. pic.twitter.com/l0FpiFSVbf
— bad syndrome (@nuII_dog) May 18, 2018Update: here's how 2 will excuse this in his upcoming video. "See, I told them I don't like potty words, after legitimizing and enabling the hate for months. I lent them my fading fanbase and literally became their PR department in their own words, it was investigative 'comedy'" pic.twitter.com/1BYaY6MfGf
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 17, 2018
"(2Gryphon)... is literally running our PR department right now" - TheFurredReich, the guy that said this stuff https://t.co/4wfEXo1td3
Tripling down
More chat screens: (Thread 1) Alt-furries treat themselves to a triple fudge sundae of Gamergate, pedophilia and doxing.
(Thread 2) Complaints about being “dehumanized” – because rejecting people for saying the Holocaust never happened makes YOU the real nazi!
(Thread 3) If someone should challenge one of the most documented events in history like the Holocaust, ask the edgy teens in a fringe chat room, right?
(UPDATE) adding two threads of anti-gay hate and more duplicity from 2 Gryphon, showing that if you can think of something civil people don’t do, they’ll do it. Maybe someone should announce a ban on punching yourself in the face.
Altfurry deserves less and less attention with Discord, FA, and cons taking real action about hate groups.
But it's wonderfully absurd to see them pose as "real" fandom for g@mergater doxers, while they sell out the fake concern for kids they claimed while attacking Califur. pic.twitter.com/SkZasntkta
I love the talking animal fandom. It's tiresome to keep exposing nasty things from the shadows of it, but it's good to seal in action against hate groups by Discord, FurAffinity and more.
Everything bad you hear about them is true. Let me show you their chat today. (Thread)
"Hey watcha talkin' about in the altfurry chat?"
"Oh nothing, just a little Holocaust denial"
Sorry guys, so sorry for putting this slime in your feed instead of happy animal friends. But can't let them deny this too. Right @2_gryphon? (Thread for article) pic.twitter.com/aLU5cjbjeZ
Two-faced hate groups (like altfurry) make a game of playing bullies and victims at the same time. It's a line-straddling, now-you-see-it, now-you-don't peekaboo game. If everything is "true" nothing can be a lie.
When they show the hate, hold them to it the first time. (Thread) pic.twitter.com/S1TfMtUuro
"Hi, I'm @2_Gryphon. Rejecting people who compare black people to inhuman criminals makes YOU the real nazi!"
When they play 2-faced victims and bullies at the same time, always point at the other face and hold them to it.
What real furry scapegoats an entire dog breed? pic.twitter.com/7FfzxoSsl6
Up Shit Creek
There’s a cost to proving that they’ll go any distance to be assholes. After a while, there’s no turning back, because everyone’s seen it and nobody’s buying the excuses. Then they’re stuck in the routine.
That leads them to blame you for making them that way, instead of their own deficit of self-reflection, foresight, vision, panache, or ability to even order a pizza without making it racist somehow. And they want payback, but it only costs them more.
Will they ever get out of this cycle of failure? It’s like they chose that one cart at the grocery store with a wheel jammed up with gummy bears (Jews did it, of course) and they refuse to pick another. Speaking of failure to learn, alt-furries got kicked off of Discord – again!
How about leeching on to other popufurs for help, or getting outside mercenaries? They wanted Dreamkeepers to do trolling for them, and rang Breitbart’s bell:
Nice big update on here, @XydexxUnicorn @ionotter @andreuswolf @ReadingRidley @pyrostinger @FuzzWolf @SYXG98 @Inkblitzer @EbonyGorilla@ArcticFletcher @Selenethoa https://t.co/mIgjxgwmyA
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 22, 2018Altfurries are now reduced to sniveling for attention outside of fandom to Breitbart, who mocks them as crazy lonely perverts (and not the good kind, LOL): https://t.co/7v2XrFaoMY Let there be no doubt they were always here to cause grief with bad media. https://t.co/UvcTN92CVv
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 20, 20182 Gryphon’s propaganda video – the joke is that he’s serious
Below is a small sample of lengthy apologism for worthless hate speech. You can look it up for the rest. But do you hate yourself enough to hear more than that quavery Eric Cartman voice at the end? This stuff is to an informed mind like used gum is to a shoe.
Notice how he acts wounded about a totally unexpected disinvitation to Eurofurence. It reminds me of a cartoon character trying to light dynamite and holding it up to his face to see why it didn’t go off. BOOM! Who could have guessed that a mouthpiece for Holocaust deniers might be unwelcome in Germany?
Speaking of worthless hate speech, the truth is that arguing about “free speech” is beside the point. It’s not about can you, it’s about should you. What’s the content? They act like just because their lips are moving, something worthy must be coming out – but when it’s willfully toxic, it’s like saying that since we all need to relieve ourselves sometimes, they can go right in the middle of the floor. Grown-ups can be expected to mind their poo-poo or go elsewhere if they don’t. And that’s not tyranny of a nanny state (which they seem to be thirsty for at this point.)
Karl Popper’s Paradox of Tolerance is about freedom that enables it’s own ruin, whether it’s for a society, a fandom, or just a stage show at Eurofurence. [Insert the “You Played Yourself” meme.] Behold – here’s the living, mouth-breathing, hurf-durfing personification of the paradox:
Analysis of @2_gryphon 's Alt-Right defence video.
TL;DR:
"Alt-furries exist because of lefties"
"Muh free speech"
"How dare you deplatform me at PRIVATE events"
"Alt-furries are actually left-wing (wut?)"
"Alt-furs are basiclaly jewish people during the holocaust" https://t.co/J5rtCdUy9b
That Pink Snep (@HugoThePinkCat) May 23, 2018
Check the ratio. Good decision @eurofurence pic.twitter.com/2urY47l7AU
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 19, 2018 — Archantael Author 
golin-Fox (@phoenixtheblade) May 17, 2018
Stop the hate, spread the love
People claim that this kind of drama is dragging down furry fandom. It’s not. Whenever media presents furries opposing hate, it’s bringing good attention about cleaning house and being a leading example for other fandoms for how to handle their Least Valuable Players.
And despite a few bad apples and the worms who enable them, furries are good-natured to begin with.
Meet Emma the Tiger – A Showcase of Fandom Love from BLFC 2018 https://t.co/MeYXNgZFiQ pic.twitter.com/30h0dQMrOh
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 16, 2018Sure.@FoxAmoore and @peppercoyote are doing awesome music. @BoozyBadger and @QuotationMarkBB are examplea of people drawn into Furry because of our positive traits. @DogpatchPress does good fandom journalism. @FurryPinas just got like 1.8k attendees in the Philippines.
— Summercat the Furry Librarian (@Bengaley) May 24, 2018Just because you’re noticing drama, that doesn’t mean it’s bad or unproductive. It’s clearly setting forth challenges while fandom gets better and better, with rising con attendance, high profile members winning awards in Esports, increasingly friendly mainstream news and much more.
If you ever hear "the fandom is dead/torn apart/on fire/full of plague and evil" check this out. It's better than ever.https://t.co/dYK9QbJqxl
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 22, 2018Don’t just reject haters, support good examples too and welcome nice newcomers who are finding fandom and trying things for the first time.
@DeoTasDevil @DogpatchPress Question. In light of everything that's been going on, do you guys know of any funny fur comedians? I feel like just taking them and promoting the hell out of so we can put a spotlight on some good potential
— TheHoodedDragon (@TheHoodedDraco) May 18, 2018Hi! Sorry to burst in here but @isaacapandogist and I are non-racist, non-sexist, and perhaps most importantly, actively anti-nazi professional comedians working here in Chicago!https://t.co/HLAE2GmN3c :3
— Tiller, but very queer (@_thp) May 18, 2018See also @Poker_Wolf1 @CitrineHusky @PandezPanda and Chris the comedy bunny! We all tour most of the Midwest cons! There are lots of good friendly funny furs out there!
— Jakebunny (@jakebunny) May 18, 2018
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
Discover the best of furry fandom with the 2017 Ursa Major awards, and 2017 Cóyotl Awards.
Ever have a hard time knowing where to start with furry media? Does the horizon get lost in the digital sands?
Look no further than the Ursa Major Awards. That’s the Furry equivalent of science fiction fandom’s Hugo Awards, mystery fandom’s Anthony Awards, or horror fandom’s Bram Stoker Awards. The Hugos also have the Nebulas to complement them – and Furry has the Coyotl Awards for literature, as voted by the Furry Writers’ Guild. That’s not all – furry literature will also soon have the first Leo Awards, to be announced at AC 2018. (What’s the difference? The Leos are fandom-specific and voted on by a panel of judges.) The Ursa and Coyotl winners were both announced this month, so they’re all listed below to encourage you to check out some cool stuff you might not have seen.
URSA MAJOR NEWS
The winners for 2017 were announced at a presentation ceremony at the Furry Down-Under 2018 convention in Surfer’s Paradise, Queensland, Australia, on Saturday May 5. FurDu posted a video of the ceremony including a slide show created by Ed Otter:
There was a lot of talk about it here before they were announced. Fred Patten saw growth in activities like fursuiting competing for attention with fan media, while maybe the awards could use a boost for reach after lower voting this year than in the past. A lack of staffing and funding led to appeals for help, while Anthrocon began offering matching donation to support writers. For 2019, the Awards will be presented at AnthrOhio.
- Furry founder Fred Patten saw more partying, less fandom in 2018 with the Ursa Major Awards.
- Ursa Major Awards get matching donations from Anthrocon, help wanted from other cons.
- The Ursa Major Awards are a fandom institution, but can we fund them?
Here’s a few things that stood out about the winners:
I am actively amazed that Bojack Horseman did not get nominated. Critics have been going bananas for it — and, from what I’ve seen, they really did have one heck of a season. – Rod O’Riley (Awards co founder)
The nonfiction category had a strong list. Congrats to Joe Strike for winning for Furry Nation, the first published history of fandom. And the Best Dramatic Series or Short category had a mainstream production made by furries (it’s a story behind the scenes I can’t tell!)
Dogpatch Press won Best Magazine with a voting score of 450 in comparison to Flayrah’s 301, according to Dronon. It shouldn’t be that hard to muster up a few hundred votes with all the furries in the world needing news. If I had a few extra paws to type with, I’d even help post guest articles over there.
Winners are on the Ursa Majors site: http://www.ursamajorawards.org/UMA_2017.htm
Best Motion PictureLive-action or animated feature-length movies.
- WON: Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (Directed by James Gunn; May 5)
- My Little Pony: The Movie (Directed by Jayson Thiessen; October 6)
- Rock Dog (Directed by Ash Brannon; February 24)
- Ferdinand (Directed by Carlos Saldanha; December 15)
- War for the Planet of the Apes (Directed by Matt Reeves; July 14)
TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.
- WON: Duck Tales [2017 reboot] (Directed by John Aoshima, Dana Terrace; Season 1, August 12 to December 2)
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by Jim Miller, Tim Stuby, Denny Lu, Mike Myhre; Season 7, episodes 1 to 26)
- OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes (Directed by Hwang Ki-hoo, Chang-woo Shin, Sunjae Lee, Byungjae Oh, Eunyung Byun, Sunhung Kim; S. 1, Ep. 1–42)
- Here’s the Plan (Directed by Fernanda Frick; April 27)
- Mascot Fur Life (Directed by Jens Wernstedt; December 23)
- Doodle Toons (Directed by Jack C; Pilot episode to “Deleted Scene: Fast Food Follies”)
- Kouka and Bibi (by Dan Variano; January 8)
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.
- WON: The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)
- Always Gray in Winter, by Mark J. Engels (Thurston Howl Publications; August 10)
- Otters in Space III: Octopus Ascending, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions; June 30)
- Kismet, by Watts Martin (Argyll Productions, FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
- Black Friday, by Jan Stryvant (CreateSpace; September 8)
Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short written works.
- WON: “Lieutenant Kruger and the Mistress Jade Trophy Game”, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (in The Cross Time Cafe; October 5)
- “Behesht”, by Dwale (in ROAR volume 8; June 30)
- “Beyond the Great Divide”, by S.H. Mansouri (in Cirsova Heroic Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine #5; Spring 2017)
- “The Moon Like an Unhatched Egg”, by Mary E. Lowd (in Symbol of a Nation; June 30)
- “Rickety V”, by Rechan (in Intimate Little Secrets; March 24)
Includes art books, documentaries, opinion pieces, and news articles.
- WON: Furry Nation, by Joe Strike (Cleis Press; October 10 – Flayrah review)
- Furries Among Us 2; More Essays On Furries By Furries, edited by Thurston Howl (Thurston Howl Productions; August 18)
- Furry Fandom Conventions, 1989-2015, by Fred Patten (McFarland & Co.; January 3 – Flayrah reviews: Joe Strike, Huskyteer)
- 3 Ursa Major-ly Painful Victories, by Rooview (on YouTube; April 23)
- The Shocking Furry Fandom Conversation. Yes, Really! (on YouTube, featuring Stefan Molyneux; October 16)
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, and serialized online stories.
- WON: Dogs of War, edited by Fred Patten (anthology; FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
- ROAR volume 8, edited by Mary E. Lowd (anthology; Bad Dog Books; June 30)
- Arcana: A Tarot Anthology, edited by Intimate Little Secrets, by Rechan (collection; FurPlanet Productions; March 24)
- Symbol of a Nation, edited by Fred Patten (anthology; Goal Publications; June 30)
Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
- WON: DreamKeepers, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 2 [#340] to December 18 [#385])
- Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler (Internet; Lackadaisy Gimmickry to Lackadaisy Deliria)
- TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach (Internet; January 5 to December 28)
- A&H Club, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 7 to November 25)
- Endtown, by Aaron Neathery (Internet; January 2 to December 25)
Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
- WON: Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 2 to December 29)
- DreamKeepers Prelude, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 6 [#350] to December 28 [#393])
- Freefall, by Mark Stanley (Internet; January 2 to December 29)
- Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet; January 1 to December 29)
- Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet; January 4 to December 29)
Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
WON: Dogpatch Press, ed. by Patch Packrat (Internet; January 5 to December 25)- Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
- InFurNation, ed. by Rod O’Riley (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
- FurryFandom.es, edited by Mike Retriever (Internet; February 19 to October 9)
- Typewriter Emergencies: A Journal of Furry Lit, edited by Weasel (Weasel Press; May)
Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
- WON: David Lillie, cover for The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)
- Bone, cover for Always Gray in Winter by Mark J. Engels (Thurston Howl Publications; August 10)
- Teagan Gavet, cover for Dogs of War, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
- Teagan Gavet, cover for ROAR vol. 8, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Bad Dog Books; June 30)
- Baron Engel, Prepare to Engage the Enemy, cover for A Different Perspective by Bernard Doove (June 8)
- Idess, cover for Otters in Space III: Octopus Ascending, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions,; June 30)
- Ashley Foy, “Valentine’s Gifts” (February 14)
Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
- WON: Night in the Woods (Developer: Infinite Fall, Publisher: Finji; February 21)
- Cuphead (Developer and Publisher: StudioMDHR Entertainment; September 29)
- Star Fox 2 (Developer: Nintendo and Argonaut Games, Publisher: Nintendo; September 29)
- Sonic Mania (Developer: PagodaWest Games and Headcannon, Publisher: Sega; August 15)
- Yooka-Laylee (Developers: Playtonic Games; April 11)
Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.
- WON: Inkbunny (furry art community)
- e621.net (art, discussions, etc.)
- WikiFur (furry fandom encyclopedia)
- Furry Writers’ Guild (Supporting, informing, elevating, and promoting quality anthropomorphic fiction and its creators)
- The Cross Time Cafe (forum for comic discussions, including many on the Recommended List)
The Cóyotl Awards for excellence in anthropomorphic literature are voted on by members of the Furry Writers’ Guild. On May 25, the 2017 winners were announced at Furlandia 2018 in Portland, Oregon.
Best Novel- WON: Kismet by Watts Martin (Argyll Productions, FurPlanet Productions)
- Always Gray in Winter by Mark J. Engels (Thurston Howl Publications)
- reWritten by Jako Malan (Goal Publications)
- The Tower and the Fox (Calatians Book 1) by Tim Susman (Argyll Productions)
- WON: Dragon Fried Cheese (Dragon Tax Saga Book 3) by Madison Keller (Hundeliebe Publishing)
- The Earth Tigers (Star Spiders Book 1) by Frances Pauli
- Jazz at the End of the Night by Weasel
- The Pride of Parahumans by Joel Kreissman (Thurston Howl Publications)
- Sinful Behavior by Rukis
- WON: Behesht by Dwale (in ROAR volume 8)
- Clicking by Ianus J. Wolf (in Bleak Horizons)
- Hollow by Chris “Sparf” Williams (in Bleak Horizons)
- The Moon Fox by Amy Fontaine (in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores)
- The Ouroboros Plate by Slip Wolf (in Bleak Horizons)
- Personal History by Tim Susman (in ROAR volume 8)
- Richard Cory by Tristan Black Wolf (in Seven Deadly Sins: Furry Confessions)
- WON: Arcana: A Tarot Anthology edited by Madison Scott-Clary (Thurston Howl Publications)
- Bleak Horizons edited by Tarl “Voice” Hoch (FurPlanet Productions)
- Symbol of a Nation edited by Fred Patten (Goal Publications)
If you’re looking for something good to read or watch, why not try out one of these right now? And let the creator know you just bought checked out their work (and mention this article.) Thanks to everyone who votes and makes furry the fandom that makes it’s own media, and congratulations to all the winners!
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
Small World, by Gre7g Luterman. Illustrated by Rick Griffin – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Small World, by Gre7g Luterman. Illustrated by Rick Griffin.
Lansing, MI, Thurston Howl Publications, April 2018, trade paperback, $11.99 (301 [+ 1] pages).
Small World is Luterman’s The Kanti Cycle, Book 2. Book 1 is Skeleton Crew. Luterman says here that The Kanti Cycle is a trilogy, to be completed in Book 3, Fair Trade.
Skeleton Crew seemed to end with a definite conclusion, but Small World continues the plot in a new direction.
Skeleton Crew is set on the generation exploratory starship White Flower II, populated entirely by 10,000 furry geroo and one giant dragonlike krakun, Commissioner Sarsuk. The protagonist is Kanti, one of the geroo.
400 years ago, the krakun came to the overpopulated primitive world Gerootec and offered to hire thousands of geroo as their starship crews. The geroo who went into space and their descendants would never see Gerootec again, but they would live in luxury compared to the backward geroo on their homeworld. After 400 years, the geroo are asking if the krakun are their employers or their slavemasters. The White Flower II would be a paradise for the geroo, if it weren’t for the krakun’s cruelly arbitrary representative, Commissioner Sarsuk. It doesn’t help that Commissioner Sarsuk openly refers to them as slaves. In Skeleton Crew, matters build to a flash point, but Kanti, a lowly deckhand, maneuvers Sarsuk into seriously injuring himself before he can slaughter any geroo. The Kanti Cycle, Book 1 ends with Sarsuk returning to the krakun homeworld to recuperate, leaving the geroo on the White Flower II in peace — for awhile.
Small World begins with Sarsuk returning to the starship. He’s not happy, and he’s going to make as many people suffer as he can.
“‘On my shuttle you will find a cage. Fill it.’ Commissioner Sarsuk clipped his strand back onto his necklace. ‘I know that you love to agonize over choices, trying to make the perfect decision. So in the infinite compassion that I have for you –’ He rolled his eyes. ‘—I am giving you some extra time.’
‘Fill … a cage …’ the captain said quietly. ‘With?’
Sarsuk crossed his arms and leaned on his elbows so he could comfortably lower his face down to Ateri’s level. ‘You’re smart. At least you always act that way. What do you think? What’s the one thing on board this ship that has any utility at all?’
[…]
‘My crew?’
‘Fifty slaves should do, Ateri,’ Sarsuk said. ‘I had a ringel cleaning crew previously, but I can’t see any reason to buy more of them. Fifty geroo would be a nice perk considering how much I’ve had to endure for the company recently,’ he added, his eyes filling with self-pity.” (pgs. 4-5)
The blurb summarizes the setup: “The commissioner accidentally let his last cleaning crew starve to death, so now Kanti and forty-nine of his teammates will have to spend the rest of their lives living in a one room barracks with only a single airlock protecting them all from the planet’s poisonous atmosphere.”
Kanti and forty-nine fellow geroo are taken from their vast starship and brought to Commissioner Sarsuk’s home on Krakuntec to become the permanent cleaning crew for his apartment. The huge krakuns’ planet has a corrosively sulfurous atmosphere that would be instantly fatal to other species, so they are given one room of the apartment with their own atmosphere to live in. Theoretically, anyhow.
“Kanti studied the display next to the airlock. ‘The interior status is in the blue,’ he said.
‘So it’s safe for us to go in,’ Saquel proclaimed.
‘Not so fast,’ Kanti said, grabbing Saquel’s arm. ‘The air is safe for someone to breathe, but not necessarily geroo.’
The big male turned to face him, looming over the scruffy, junior engineer. ‘What are you saying?’
‘Well, what species did the commissioner use as his last cleaning crew?’ The other three shrugged. ‘We should presume that the systems haven’t been configured for geroo yet. Just look at the text on this display – it’s not geroo or krakun. I can’t read any of this. This blue indicator means that it’s safe for them to breathe, but what about us?’” (p. 75)
They are expected to emerge in sealed environment suits at night when the Commissioner is asleep, to clean his huge home – for the rest of their lives.
“‘Practicality is important,’ said Kanti. ‘It’s not hard to imagine what would happen fifty years from now if the air processor breaks down and no one knows how to fix it. But I think we need to preserve our culture too. What if, in a few generations, no one even remembers that we used to live on a star ship? That we still have cousins out there, somewhere, traveling between the stars? What’s the value in our continued existence, if we lose everything we once had?’” (p. 255)
Of course, things get more complicated than that. But as with Skeleton Crew, it’s impossible to go into more detail without giving away major spoilers. Life for Kanti becomes even more dangerous than he expects, with an unexpected menace within the geroo crew itself, and unknown allies – maybe – that nobody knows about.
“He closed his eyes, his head drooping. ‘Tasty Frooties, Tasty Frooties,’ he whispered idly. It sounded so familiar, like something that the commissioner bought.
His eyes popped open, as the realization hit him. He was inside a plastic bag. He had dragged giant, discarded bags like this one to the recycler chute – clear, plastic bags that Sarsuk had tossed to the floor after he had eaten all of his Tasty Frooties.
‘Hello?’ Kanti rasped again. ‘Why am I in a plastic bag?’” (p. 282)
Unlike Skeleton Crew, Small World does end on a cliffhanger. It is actually the first half of a single novel. The last half is The Kanti Cycle, Book 3, Fair Trade, coming soon.
Cover Art by Rick Griffin
Small World (cover by Rick Griffin) is hard-science s-f; it’s a tense mystery; and it’s furry and scaly — and more. It has unexpected surprises every few pages. Get it.
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
Furry Dance Parties in Europe – A look by Soffy
Independent dance parties by furries, for furries: the concept has been growing around the world since the late 2000’s. It can spin off from cons, but doesn’t depend on them. It’s more ambitious than informal meets and events that happen once. Those can stay inner-focused, but dances bring new partnership and support from overlapping communities and new kinds of venues. It crosses a line to public space, so a stranger can walk in and discover their new favorite thing. It encourages new blood and crossover. It makes subculture thrive. It’s a movement!
Parties that give a Q&A get a featured article. See The Furclub survey for questions and party list.
The big list recently got enough entries that it needed to be split between continents. It brought a tip about a bunch of Euro and German parties that hadn’t caught notice, too many for an article for each. There are already well established ones on the main list, so this is just the extras. Most seem to be once-a-year, which makes it great to find so many. Soffy, a journalist and furry in the UK, stepped up to collect them. (Thanks Soffy!)
DUTCH FURDANCE, Nieuwegein, Netherlands (2017 – NOW)
The Dutch Furdance is a relative newcomer to the circuit. The first year was a roaring success but it can only get bigger and better!
- Website http://www.dutchfurdance.nl/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/dutchfurdance
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DutchFurdance/
FURSTRIKE, Witten, Germany (one off date: October 6th 2018)
A brand new event for Euro furs is coming to Witten, Germany, late this year. Taking place at the WERK ° STADT club in the heart of Witten, it promises to be an event which is not to be missed! A furdance organized for Furries from Furries! The venue is furry friendly with no stairs, separate bar area for resting and an outside area to cool off (and in October, cool might not be the word I’m looking for. Brrrrr!).
- Website (in German) http://www.furstrike.de/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/FurstrikeNrw
NORDIC FURDANCE, Hamburg, Germany (2010 – NOW)
This is one of the biggest furdances to go to on the EU continent! Almost 10 years in operation!
- Website (in German) https://www.nordicfurdance.de/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/nordic_furdance
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NordicFurDanceofficial/
SAXONY FURDANCE, Leipzig, Germany (2013 – NOW)
Operating out of Leipzig, Germany, Saxony Furs organize multiple events throughout the year for furries in the Saxony region of Germany (notabley Leipzig and Dresden) ranging from a summer camp to furdances.
- Website (in German) https://www.sachsen-furs.de/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/sachsen_furs
- In the news http://www.sz-online.de/nachrichten/raubtier-alarm-auf-der-prager-strasse-3341145.html
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sachsenfurs/
SOUTH STATE FURDANCE, Stuttgart, Germany (2015 – NOW)
South States FurDance is the biggest fur event in the southern Baden-Württemberg region of Germany. South State furs also hold other events throughout the year so, if you are local, check them out!
- Website https://www.s-s-f.de/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/SuedStaatenFurs
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SuedstaatenFurs/
BERLIN FURDANCE, Berlin, Germany (2018)
I can’t find much out about this particular furdance. You’d probably be best of checking out their website and social media platforms for more of an insight.
- Website https://berlin-furdance.de
- Twitter https://twitter.com/berlinfurdance
BAYERN FURDANCE, Bayern, Germany (2014 – NOW)
Bayern Furs organize multiple furdances across the year in Nuremburg in March, June and November (venues vary).
- Website https://www.bayern-furs.de/
- Twitter https://twitter.com/BayernFurs
- Youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/bayernfurs
DUNKEL.FELL.TANZ, Essen, Germany (2015-NOW)
The best way to describe Dunkel.Fell.Tanz is… not your average furdance! Playing anything from EBM to Noise Techno, this event encourages darker furs to come out and play.
- Website http://dunkelfelltanz.de/2018/en/home
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dunkelfelltanz
- Twitter https://twitter.com/Dunkelfelltanz
HALLOWEEN FURDANCE, Wolfsburg, Germany (2018-NOW)
Info pending – they’re setting up as this posts.
- Website http://halloween-furdance.de/
CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, Vienna, Austria (2016-NOW)
I can’t find much out about this particular furdance. You’d probably be best of checking out their website and social media platforms for more of an insight.
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
A&H Club, Volume 1, by Rick Griffin – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
A&H Club, volume 1, by Rick Griffin. Illustrated.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, April 2018, trade paperback, $18.29 (unpaged [82 pages]).
Popular furry writer/artist Rick Griffin has two Internet comic strips. Housepets! is the one that everyone is familiar with. Once a year he collects them and publishes a Create/Space album.
A&H Club is his other Internet strip. In one way it’s just more familiar high-class Griffin anthropomorphic art, and jokes about not wearing any pants. In another it’s the opposite of what Griffin does in Housepets! It’s serious, not comedic, even if it does view today’s society as semi-comedic. It’s realistic, not fantastic; aside from featuring anthropomorphic animals who walk about nude below the waist. Its two main characters are a pair of lesbian lovers (Adrian is really bi), one of whom is a single mother. It consists of full pages rather than strips.
Griffin first collected his A&H Club into three comic books of between 22 and 28 pages each. Now he has gathered those into a CreateSpace album of 82 pages including the three front & rear covers.
A&H Club began on the Internet on June 19, 2015. This album collects all the strips from then to April 7, 2018, or the first three comic-book collections. The two main characters are Adrian Gray, an unwed gray kangaroo (and her young son Ali, about 2 years old), and Hildegard Rothschild, a wolf. Both are slightly punk; Adrian dyes her hair blonde, and Hilde dyes hers an electric turquoise, cut into a Mohawk. The strip’s double-meaning title refers to both Adrian & Hilde, and to the A&H (Athletics & Health Club) where they both work – Adrian teaches self-defense, and Hilde is a yoga instructor. Books 1 and 2 are black-&-white, and Book 3 is in color.
The strip begins (Book 1, “If There Is A Place”; 24 pages) with Adrian and Hilde having lunch at a food court. Adrian is distraught because she was barely making ends meet and now her rent has gone up, which she can’t afford. Hilde invites her to move in with her – only temporarily, but you know how that works. A little background is given on the two. In Book 2, “The Invitation”; 28 pages, Hilde runs into an old college friend, Henry Jones (bear), and he invites them both to dinner & to meet his wife, Eliza. She turns out to be an aggressively evangelical Christian who is determined to convert both A&H into church-goers. Ali is traumatized by a hand-puppet on a Christian children’s TV program. Griffin experiments with his art: “This issue I’m dropping the halftones and just going to flat grays, with noise and possibly added textures. In doing this I’m also trying a few different other things–there’s only 3 levels of gray for instance, 50%, 30% and 10%, so it’s easier to keep track of. (It’s also basically the most gray you can differentiate without getting too dark)” Book 3, “Negative Energy”; 22 pages), is the first to show the A&H health club, and Adrian in action teaching self-defense.
A&H Club is funny, tender, and heartwarming. As with most Internet comic strips, you can get the whole thing for free by logging onto it online and going to its Archives; but it’s so much more convenient to get this album. Speaking personally, I don’t find everyone’s being nude below the waist (Griffin keeps his art SFW here, but check out his online Shop) as eyebrow-raising as his showing a kangaroo walking rather than hopping.
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
The Milo Story, Nazi Prevention, and A Simple Hope – by David Lillie of Dreamkeepers
Welcome to David Lillie, artist of Dreamkeepers, a comic with a connection to here via Fred Patten’s reviews. A fantasy comic doesn’t need to tie to current events, but that changes when it embraces controversy.
Dreamkeepers did that by hitching their marketing to Milo Yiannopoulos in 2016, buying an ad on his show and giving him a fan art fursona. Milo was known as a demagogic celebrity who rose with Gamergate and the alt-right, and fell by condoning pedophilia. He addressed furries by bashing them on Breitbart, as I mentioned in this article about looking at conservatives before Trump was elected. But the topic here isn’t really Milo, it’s the things he rode in on, and they need to be clearly defined.
Regular readers will be familiar with reactionary groups aligned with the alt-right, like Altfurry. An honest look will find them inseparable from racism. Despite their claims to be defenders of free speech, I think they aren’t motivated by limitations being imposed on freedom, but the opposite; they’re reacting to society getting too free for the targets of their hate, who they consider lesser humans. Their leaders want unaccountability for it, and many of their collaborators simply don’t understand the greater context, or don’t care as long as they personally come out ahead.
Unaccountability isn’t even enough, so they push back with absurd counter-claims about things like “white genocide”. It comes from hate, not legit grievances, no matter what props they use for the pose. The proof is in the way they revise history for it (as if the Holocaust was caused by people hating Nazis, that’s the worst victim blaming ever.) It causes the conflict with those who they consider enemies. Enemies means new generations wanting to preserve advances for minorities and a better deal in times when the rich get richer with the poor getting poorer. To fight change, the alt-right casts it as cartoonish invasion and “degeneration” (except when they enjoy the benefits) while claiming to represent a false golden age from the past. But when they claim to be “hated” for troll behavior, it’s false equivalence to hating others humanity. With the alt-right, there’s no symmetry between their bad-faith backlash and those receiving it. There is no “both sides”.
The article here may imply that “both sides” deserve to be considered legitimate, and I don’t endorse that. Of course I endorse civil rights and free speech, which aren’t the issue with rules moderation by private platforms who don’t want trolls fouling the water for others. You can’t just redefine privileges as rights for that. Also, when it addresses Milo, it’s too bad it glosses over how he served Nazis to launder their hate, and how the sleazy association with them is a much bigger problem than their size. Association isn’t dismissable (especially to a fan subculture that depends on it in every way) – both when people choose to enable assholes, or show them the door. Choosing who to host is free association too.
All of this is to define the fundamentals if you sense cynical dissociation and rebranding in the article, which was criticism I got about hosting it. So why do it? I have to say that the author already has his platform and doesn’t need mine, and I don’t need his. I don’t think a one-time guest article is like giving up keys to the site and he could easily put it elsewhere. It’s here to be open and raise questions.
An open mind can lead to common ground, but also let nasty things crawl in. (You might enjoy this guest article about that: How I Ended Up in the Alt-Lite, and How I Got Out). Which one is this article trying to do? And do you feel rabid or poisoned about it?
– Patch
The Milo Story, Nazi Prevention, and A Simple Hope – By David Lillie.
Thanks to @Boneitis and @kaze_the_wyvern for providing constructive feedback and advice.
You may be reading this to check whether it’s okay to continue hating me. Let’s cut to the chase and give that a simple yes.
I create the best comic I’m capable of rendering; but I also drew Milo as a snow leopard, and occasionally shake my head at the firestorm it caused. Since I still think it was funny, your hatred is socially acceptable. Including acceptable by me. I’m not holding it against you. It’s just how you feel.
So we’ve covered the hatred question, but you may still be curious about why I changed my opinion regarding Nazis in the furry community. Especially if you think Nazis are a problem. Because I agree with you, and previously I did not.
(Any Nazis reading this just began considering whether they, too, should hate me.)
We’ve established I’m not writing this article in the hopes of reducing the number of people on twitter hostile towards me. So why would I change my mind, if personal social approval is off the table?
To establish a starting point, let’s examine a common question about the Milo fursona.
“What were you thinking?”
Generally my mind is in one of two places; the next comic page, or hare-brained marketing schemes. Aspiring content creators may relate to the constant drive for experimentation, improvement, and the hope for success.
During some of my many thousands of hours of drawing I listened to a podcast by Milo. I knew him as a provocateur attracting massive crowds and protesters while advocating free speech and being banned from twitter. The controversy swirling around him was many things, and entertaining was one of them.
I heard him do a live-read advertising, of all things, cars. Talk about boring. Too bad he wasn’t promoting something interesting. Like a webcomic… Like a furry webcomic. Like OUR furry webcomic!
The idea popped into my head like a Robin Williams punch line, and I laughed.
One of culture’s most controversial figures, promoting a furry comic. The thought was so absurd, I had to at least try for it and see what would happen. I probably wouldn’t be capable of pulling off such an advertising coupe. No publicist, no ad agency, no form of professional representation.
But it turns out I could.
And I did.
Milo’s audience heard all about Dreamkeepers, and then he became a snow leopard.
If you’re concerned about social problems, and shaming others into agreement is a tactic you sometimes use, what happened next might be of interest to you.
I was called the usual assortment of smears that we’re all so familiar with, whether we’re hitting with them, or being hit by them. Fascist, alt-right, x-phobe, Nazi.
Now, was the pitchfork crowd aware that the labels they flung at me were inaccurate? I can’t say. I have difficulty reading minds.
But I know my own mind (a little), so from my perspective it was obvious those labels were wrong. I don’t identify as a fascist, and my values are incompatible with fascism. The credibility of my accusers thus dipped a bit, and not just their personal credibility. Being falsely labeled confirmed for me that these labels were used falsely, broadly, as a disingenuous social weapon.
I shrugged off the pitchforkers seeking to apply shame and control, because, no thanks. We carried on drawing things, sharing art, and having a good time.
Now remember, you are permitted to hate me for all of this, as we established at the beginning. That’s fine. I don’t identify the way you have labeled me, and you’re allowed to be upset about that.
But the takeaway here is that, even for oddly agreeable fellows like myself, social shaming tactics are losing effectiveness. The hammer still has force- but everyone has been pummeled so long, over such trivial or fallacious things, that hardened shells have become mainstream. Shame doesn’t work. That weapon has been removed from our arsenal of social correctives. And as it happens, we may have disarmed ourselves at just the wrong moment.
I’m starting to get worried about Nazis. Now, when I say that, I don’t mean Dave Rubin. (I could take ‘im.) Allow me to briefly clarify how I conceptualize “Nazi.”
I don’t use it in the colloquial sense of “person outside my political tribe.” I’m talking about a fringe ideology that opposes individual rights, seeks to purge all disagreement from society, and minimizes historic mass murders.
The left-leaning readers are pulling their hair in frustration at that definition, thinking, “Yes you idiot, that’s what we’ve been telling you this entire time! There are actual Nazis, we’re not making this stuff up!”
I hear you, and you’re correct.
Real people exist who are Nazis. I’m sure you can find examples who are not Dave Rubin, and they will be valid examples of very bad Nazis. There were valid examples a few years ago, and before then as well.
The existence of a few people thinking totalitarian thoughts doesn’t concern me then, nor now. I’m concerned because of a major contextual social shift.
Moral credibility.
Up until now, mainstream society was generally Nazi-proof because of one universally accepted truism; that Nazis were morally reprehensible. Nobody would ever vote for a Nationalist Socialist political party, because there wasn’t one single good thing about Nazis.
Or at least, there wasn’t.
The door is opening to Nazis having some mainstream appeal, and here is why.
Public perception is beginning to register Nazis as defenders of free speech.
If you disagree, just check this for yourself. How often do you see online conversations touching on the topics of Nazis and free speech at the same time?
That proximity alone, repeated often enough, will form a link in people’s minds long after they forget the context of the arguments.
If that impression solidifies, then we have destroyed the decades-long public consensus that there is nothing good about voting for Nazis. People will start saying, “Well, I disagree with their French foreign policy, but at least somebody is defending free speech.”
What’s even worse, the furry community’s efforts to eradicate Nazis are making this catastrophic impression- this idea that Nazis defend free speech- correct.
If you fight Nazis by revoking their civil rights, then they will defend themselves by advocating for civil rights.
The moral high-ground is the one thing Nazis never had. It is a massively powerful weapon, and we are giving it to them, for free.
Please, let’s all stop giving Nazis the moral high ground. It’s easy. We can disarm them by simply respecting everyone’s civil rights.
Many will rush to explain that no civil rights are being violated. Perhaps you are technically correct- let’s not argue the legal minutiae outside of court. If it satisfies your desire for accuracy, every time you hear “violating civil rights” simply replace it in your mind with “deplatforming, demonetizing, censoring, and social banishment, with no criminal charges, no trial, and no recourse.”
Many of the people being purged are not Nazis at all. Not even a little bit. Tossing around hateful labels like ticker-tape at a parade makes these kinds of civilian casualties inevitable. And they are mounting.
The recent Furaffinity purge provides the latest examples.
People with no ties to the alt-right have had their accounts nuked, being told opaquely “you’re not the sort of person welcome in our community.”
Many just want access to their account back, even briefly, so they can save copies of favorited art, gather their posts and journals from past years, and consider if they can take their belongings to find a new home. One where they won’t be banished for reasons that are never disclosed.
And that game is to make people in the fandom think that the net is being cast too wide and that people who don't "deserve" to be pushed out of the fandom are suffering.
QuQu and everyone else in that chatroom knows "the truth" is that altfurry IS a paraiah group.
In the furry community’s zeal to expunge “Nazis,” you might anticipate another unintended consequence.
Fearful people gravitate towards group identity, for protection.
I will let you deduce what happens when raving headhunters add notches to their belt and gloat over scalps.
A few furs will choose to live in fear. Re-reading every tweet, anxiety spiking as they second-guess each joke, knowing one wrong move could end their social existence in the oh-so-welcoming community, but hoping the next person to be cast out will be a different member of the herd.
But for every furry who stays quiet and toes the line, more will stay quiet and drift away from the headhunters, into the opposing camp.
During the Milo fursona days every public tweet or comment bullying us would correspond to roughly ten private messages or e-mails expressing solidarity with our actions, and fear of the online mobs.
The furry community is devolving into one defined by anxiety, insecurity, and fear.
I’ll repeat it, in case you didn’t feel the psychic surge of readers around the globe nodding mutely in assent.
We are creating a climate of fear.
One where polarized factions misrepresent one another. One where artists, working maniacally to build up a career, live in fear of being next on the chopping block, their hopes and dreams just more collateral damage. We’re creating a community where any creator who fails to join a rigid political bloc risks being caught alone in the crossfire between the two.
On our current path, we’re only a few years away from politically segregated conventions. That will take the reciprocal ugliness and intolerance that exists online, and make it worse. We can only throw so many people out of the fandom before it generates an entire rival community. That’s a road we don’t have to go down.
Now, I’m not telling you to start liking Nazis. I don’t like them- every time I see those movies, I’m rooting for Indiana Jones.
I can see a better future for the fandom, and it doesn’t require us to join hands and sing kumbaya. Dislike some art? Explain why in a comment. See people agreeing to a bad idea? Explain why it’s bad. Want to shun a person? Use your block button, and don’t invite them to your parties.
But we have to exist together in the same society. We can curate our personal social circle- but we cannot claim personal ownership and curation rights over the entire fandom. Law abiding people, even those who disagree with us, must have access to publicly accessible social events, publicly accessible online platforms, the ability to earn revenue, and basic civil rights.
That’s a pact I can support. Even if I disagree with someone, and even if they’re a genuinely bad person, if they follow the law I won’t try to demonetize them, deplatform them, or eject them from the broader community and its gatherings. (Openly or otherwise.)
It’s my hope we’ll move towards a future where the furry community truly is a welcoming place. Where people can disagree and have political spats, then grab a beer together, or play the latest game, or go nuts on the dance floor. A community that doesn’t mandate opinions. A community where anyone can draw anything. (Yes, even that.)
In world like that, it’ll be awfully hard for Nazis to pose as free-speech defenders. I won’t have to worry about culture siding with them. I can laugh at the occasional outrageous Nazi fursuiter, and then continue living in a society that stands for individual rights and against totalitarian social purges- regardless of who is doing the purging. A society where silly people can advocate crazy ideas which the majority will never take seriously, because the ideas crumble under scrutiny. Where we can create any sort of fiction imaginable.
It’s just a hope, not instructions. You’re free to agree or disagree. I’ll still greet you with a smile if you ever decide to swing by, and support your right to viably participate in the community, your right to contribute color, life, and stupid opinions. If I don’t support those rights for you, god knows nobody will support them for me. I think we can do that much for one another.
– Dave Lillie
UPDATE 5/22/18: who could have predicted this would trigger disingenuous concern trolling?
This was published to raise questions. Dave Lillie’s Gab post that disrespected the readers (and the clearly communicated intention to add an editor note) made a question about honesty. Another was how badly would altfurries behave about it?
Their chat didn’t give Dave Lillie much credit for an honest opinion without a trolling agenda. And they couldn’t wait to push their own.
After bringing up a trolling agenda, they couldn’t help themselves from showing what hate is at the root of theirs:
No surprises here. Even an attempt at looking as bland and reasonable as possible comes with hate from altfurries.
Perhaps Dave Lillie would like me to legitimize it by patiently discussing about why grown-ups don’t do that.
But I prefer speaking to everyone who already knows it. (Why act like “moral credibility” is supposed to be the burden of the targets?) Acting like grown-ups isn’t a big expectation. You could call it A Simple Hope.
Have fun trying to post comments and crying oppression when they go to the trash, guys. (That means 4 that came in between 9-11 PM sourced from the altfurry chat egging them on.) Bad faith trolls will never be welcome here, even if they pretend to speak nicely in public. Playing obvious games is a terrible way for hate group members to present themselves as victims. Exposing them might not prevent nazis from existing, but it helps make sure they don’t get anywhere.
Thoughts from regular readers:
re: the Dreamkeepers "we're not alt-right I promise" article on @DogpatchPress pic.twitter.com/uTuEyjVGUE
so the reason they drew a white supremacist fanart is "for the lulz" and also we should be nicer to nazis?
— Piper Ridley (@ReadingRidley) May 21, 2018Also the argument that people think Nazis stand for free speech. Like, I don’t know anyone who thinks that. What world is he living on?
— Fuzz (@FuzzWolf) May 22, 2018They don't offer anything to the discussion besides gleefully admitting again, they conspired with a bigot to make more money for themselves.
— SYXG98 (@SYXG98) May 21, 2018'Freedom of speech' goes both ways, and people keep forgetting that.
— zʇᴉlqʞuI
AC2018 (@Inkblitzer) May 21, 2018
Patch, why'd you invite these guys to the potluck? pic.twitter.com/so13Ht4qGl
— Be Good
Have Fun Launch Nazis Into The Sun (@XydexxUnicorn) May 21, 2018
I don't care if they cry censorship because they've lied before and they'll do it again. It's what they do.
— Be Good Have Fun Launch Nazis Into The Sun (@XydexxUnicorn) May 21, 2018
A "centrist" who collaborates/enables can't just cop out by complaining "guilt by association" like they aren't choosing to associate. And anyone who says "you turned me into a hater by calling me a hater" is a manipulative liar.
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 21, 2018How does one, who's an adult change their minds from thinking Nazi's were not so bad, to yeah, they bad? How do you wrap that around your brain stem and come to that conclusion to have even thought they were ok to begin with. I mean..really? Well not another dime from me FTG.
— The Ebony Gorilla (@EbonyGorilla) May 22, 2018The man reason why I wouldn't is, my credibility isn't worth a buck for one additional reader, follower, or fan.
— The Ebony Gorilla (@EbonyGorilla) May 22, 2018I've seen this going on for a long time. I turned a blind eye, hoping they'd come around eventually. I had high hopes for their @DogpatchPress article today. I'm crushed to see those hopes dashed.
— Princess Meat Grinder - Fletcher (@ArcticFletcher) May 21, 2018Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
River Water, by Eikka – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
River Water, by Eikka.
Capalaba, Qld, Australia, Jaffa Books, May 2016, trade paperback, $9.00 (122 pages), Kindle $2.99.
This is a happy nature novella, like Bambi by Felix Salten – not! (Not that Bambi is very happy.)
Flix is a pregnant young vixen, happily mated to Bracken, a strong but not very bright tod. This is fine with her. She doesn’t love him as much as she feels that she can relax with him as the protector of her and her (and his) kits. This is a great relief after her own orphaned and very insecure childhood.
“His brain wasn’t talon-sharp, if that wasn’t obvious from his idea that shrubberies could spontaneously attack, but that was fine by her. She knew he’d sooner let his bones collapse than let anyone get a strand of fur on her, and she’d given him a litter of magnificent kits growing inside her body alongside a growing feeling of being protected than she’d had in a very long time.” (p. 8)
Unfortunately for her, Bracken is immediately killed while she is out hunting. She does not grieve for him as much as she’s panic-stricken at being without a protector once again. Even worse now that she has a wombful of growing kits to also care for.
Flix is so desperate for a new protector that when she comes across a lone stoat, even younger and more naïve than she is, she grabs him for the job. He takes some persuading at first –
“The stoat blinked open his eyes, and reacted just as expected, twisting, scratching, biting, kicking. Flix, feeling disturbed but making sure she remained calm, called out as clearly as she could.
‘Okay, stop! I’m not going to hurt you! I know you’re lost and I know you’re alone – but that’s why I’m here! I want to help you! But please, I need you to stop!’
The stoat began to slow his struggling, but whether this was because he believed what she was saying or just getting tired, Flix didn’t know – she just continued speaking regardless.
‘Are you listening to me? Are…? Look, what’s your name? Mine’s Flix. What’s yours? Mmm?’
He just stared at her. She asked the question again. ‘What’s your name?’
‘…You’re a fox” the stoat breathed out.
‘Yes, I know,’ Flix said, ‘but there’s nothing I can do about that. And anyway, I’m not an ordinary fox… I’m a good fox.’
‘G… Good fox?’
‘Yes,’ she said, astonished at what she was saying; the amount of animals she’d torn the fur off, she was akin to a good fox as much as a stick insect was to a vicious destroyer of nature. ‘Ground squirrels, tree squirrels – good foxes, bad foxes. So you don’t have to be afraid. Just tell me your name.’
The stoat stared for a while longer, before sliding out the word ‘Nezzick’.
‘Nezzick,’ Flix repeated. ‘Brilliant name. Now… You know I’m here to help you, don’t you? … Just say yes or no.’
He didn’t say anything.” (pgs. 11-12)
Flix, with Nezzick, travels back to her childhome home in the forest. She is sure that, with Nezzick’s help to catch food for her and her soon-to-be-born kits, life will be much happier for her. She meets many of her childhood acquaintances: Reffaw the river otter, Manneran the beaver and his mate Cirrie, and Krissy the squirrel. They are not all as delighted to see her again as she’d expected.
“Cirrie turned her head so quickly she hit her forehead on the trunk.
‘Flix! Hello and welcome back!’
‘Thank you!’ she said, beaming. ‘And I’m not alone; I’ve come with this little one: Nezzick!’
‘Hello, Nezzick.’
‘…Hi.’
‘Right!’ Flix said, ‘Nezzick, we’ll leave you here to slow down and catch some sleep for a bit, and me and Reffaw will go off and have a chat. Okay?’
Nezzick nodded. ‘Excellent… Now, Reffaw?’
Reffaw, looking as stern as he’s ever been, led the way back east.
‘Why did you come back, Flix?’ the otter demanded the moment the dam was well behind them.
Flix told him the story as quickly as she could. Reffaw glared throughout, but made no threat to interrupt.
When she finished, Reffaw said, ‘So you came back here… because I’m here.’
‘Is that a bad thing?’ Flix asked.
Reffaw sighed, ‘Flix,’ (she groaned – he was preparing himself to rant) ‘Forgive me if I’m wrong, but what you’re saying is that you came back to a place that was – to use a term I recall was a favourite of yours – ‘infested with the subsistence of evil’ – simply because you wanted to be around those you knew at some point in your life on the off-chance that they may agree to spend good time collecting food for you and your offspring.’” (p. 25)
Flix is made to realize that the herbivores of her old home are not delighted at having a predator return to their neighbourhood, and bringing another predator with her. She tries to explain to Nezzick.
“‘Good,’ she said, resting down to his level, ‘So how were the beavers? They didn’t give you a hard time?’
‘They weren’t fun.’ Nezzick said. This time, Flix did twitch a smile.
‘Yes, I’m sorry I left you with them; I know they’re usually about as entertaining as banging your head against a cliff.’
Nezzick tittered. ‘They’re idiots.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that,’ Flix said, ‘It’s just it’d probably be better if they left their cleverness nicely in their brains. Instead of rambling to the ends of the earth all the whole bloody time.’ Nezzick tittered again, and Flix grew a smile; but it turned out more solemn than warm.
‘Well, I’m glad you’re not too unhappy,’ she said, placing her paw on his, ‘because there’s a rather strange favour I need from you.’
Nezzick nodded.
‘Could you stop hunting for a while?’” (p. 30)
River Water (cover by Penny Virsu) grows more depressing from there. It is humorous at first, in the style of British (or Australian) snarkiness. Raw nature isn’t pretty or happy. Life’s a bitch and then you die.
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Meet Emma the Tiger – A Showcase of Fandom Love from BLFC 2018
Thanks to Matthias and Rune of Rune’s Furry Blog. Her guest article about the story was submitted at the same time, so some of her info is included too. – Patch
This was the sixth year for Biggest Little Fur Con (BLFC), one of the biggest and fastest growing furry conventions in the fandom. Last year it had over 3,500 attendees and raised $36,000 for charity. This con has been The Con on many Furries lips… (or is that maws?) Many furs will travel far and wide to attend for a weekend of anthropomorphic fun. It’s attended by many fandom favorite suiters and seems to have good control of its public image.
However, with cons as big as BLFC, news and drama from within can spread like wildfire on social media, for better or worse, becoming the “face” of the convention for that year. Things were going smoothly at first, but during the con it was reported that a 10 year old girl was a target of verbal bullying.
The story of Emma the Tiger and how she almost left the fandom emerged on Twitter. A user posted a screen grab from Instagram by Krysta Kennedy (xrainbowdawnx) explaining what happened. Emma was there for the fursuit photo shoot that takes place at every con’s massive fursuit gathering. She was approached by two mice who started to mock her fursuit. Emma was so embarrassed that she ran out without her father, saying that she hated being a furry and didn’t want to be in the fandom anymore.
The story was confirmed by Emma’s mom. Patch, editor of Dogpatch Press, met her shortly after the incident and learned that she was being overwhelmed with messages, and talked to Emma too.
My little tiger at #BLFC before some mice ruined it for her. She missed the main photo because they were mean. @BLFC pic.twitter.com/lDpsFL0otq
— Molly Bell (@mia_s_mommy) May 12, 2018
I met the mom and little girl and told her she had a super cool curly tiger tail! https://t.co/wFvSitb084
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 13, 2018
As word of Emma’s story spread, a lot of Furries voiced out how this gatekeeping behavior is not acceptable. Rune Angeldragon said in her post about it:
If there is one thing the Furry fandom is NOT tolerant of… it’s bullies. This little girl loves furries and just wanted to be part of the con in her fursuit. It does not matter that she was wearing a maskimal… it should not matter that she didn’t have full sleeves or paws… or anything like that.
The fursuit elitism BS in this fandom needs to stop!!! Not everyone can afford a multi-thousand dollar suit, nor should they have to in order to participate or feel welcomed in the community. Anyone that does something like this should be ashamed of themselves! 
https://t.co/XFllim5kSw
— Ｒｉｖｅｒ (@ariverofstars) May 13, 2018
Hey there, heard about this earlier! I am so, SO sorry that this happened to her. Sending love and hugs from Florida. <3 I know this has been offered up quite a bit, but I'd be more than happy to draw her a badge and maybe even give her a pick-me-up card, if you are willing! <3
— Tod Puppy (@SarahandTod) May 12, 2018
I told my bf about what happened as soon as he got home (livid really) and he wanted to contribute something in his own way as well. (Drawn by me since he's not an artist) pic.twitter.com/uDZ6EGyDcR
— ☆ Cereza (@Cerezachu) May 13, 2018
I just found out about some fursuitera bullying a little girl at #blfc
What the hell?
Honestly? Really?
What is wrong with people
I don't care what YOU think this fandom is about, but this fandom is for EVERYONE
Any age, anyon who likes anthro animals.
— damn will never quit (@VixNdwnq) May 12, 2018
The word spread far and wide that furries of all shapes and sizes wanted to help Emma show what our fandom is really about. That would soon lead to a surprising ending.
After Emma was bullied and ran out of the con, her father and witnesses banded together to get her back. People started rallying behind hashtags such as #emmaisawesome & #bringemmaback2018 to show their support. Art threads appeared in furry groups across Facebook gathering art for Emma’s tiger fursona. And then they reached her personally.
Hey Molly,
I represent a group of fursuiters who would love a chance to hang out with your daughter and make sure she has a great con and feels welcome.
Please reach out to me so we can work something out! pic.twitter.com/IRtCGemXy8
— BurrReno (@Birdburrr) May 12, 2018
UPDATE!:
We have gotten in touch with Emma and her family.
We have arranged for her to have her very own photo shoot.
They have been very moved by the enormous outpour of love and support from all of you!#BLFC2018 #AllFurriesWelcome pic.twitter.com/sA9fd2UKKG
— BurrReno (@Birdburrr) May 13, 2018
Hey we found the kid! Had a good talk with her mom! She would love to do a big group photoshoot. Please meet us at second stage at 6:45 today!
— BLFC Ino89777 (@The_Ino89777) May 13, 2018
An act of kindness that this girl will undoubtedly remember for the rest of her life. Thank you @The_Ino89777 and all supporters for this wonderful moment! pic.twitter.com/n3FNk5YMJH
— SABERGHATZ @ BLFC (@SaberGhatz) May 13, 2018
Thank you @Draconicarcher for letting emma wear your tiger suit for the photoshoot!
— BLFC Ino89777 (@The_Ino89777) May 13, 2018
Big props to @The_Ino89777 for making this happen!! Everyone should feel welcome at a con! #BLFC2018 pic.twitter.com/bGmEHvTrqd
— soft boi @BLFC2018 (@Deikitten) May 13, 2018
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Thanks to each and every one of you who have shown your support to Emma and her family.
We had over 40 suiters come out for her photo shoot. Many of whom stayed afterwards to interact and play with Emma and the other kids.#BLFC2018 #AllFurriesWelcome pic.twitter.com/0O8uEA9qqY
— BurrReno (@Birdburrr) May 13, 2018
in this house we stan one tiger queen! 
@mia_s_mommy !!!! Ty so much @The_Ino89777 for doing this for her ! #BLFC18 pic.twitter.com/vdoZCa9sIB
— HyenaHijinks @ BLFC (@HyenaHijinks) May 13, 2018
Stories like these remind us how much love the fandom can show. The only thing left unanswered was who were the two mice fursuiters that bullied Emma in the first place? There was good news on that front.
(1)The situation has been handled thanks to @BiggestLittleFC , FLARE, and the wonderful community, the situation has been settled. The individual has had their badge pulled after a positive ID by Emma.
— Molly Bell (@mia_s_mommy) May 13, 2018
Their names were not made public for a good reason. It however led to other mice furs getting the blame. Two in particular were Click the Mouse and RC Mouse, who posted thoughtful threads in response to negativity aimed at them:
1) Thread: Someone at @BiggestLittleFC claimed my mouse and @BigbyRat bullied a little girl. It was not us. The con dealt with the person responsible, and Click and I are home safe with my badge. Let's talk about bullying and empathy. #BLFC2018 #WesupportEmmaTiger pic.twitter.com/Msejicx5cf
— Click (@HiClickMouse) May 14, 2018
First of which is, yes, this kid did get bullied. Yes what was said to her was innappropriate, and in a million ways wrong. I'm upset it happened. This should not happen and needs to be fixed. I will come back to that here in a moment.
— RC in Dimension BLFC (@Rcmouse) May 13, 2018
If there are security footage of the area, please feel free to follow me around the hotel being a doofus with a coyote walking to a photo shoot and back.
— RC in Dimension BLFC (@Rcmouse) May 13, 2018
Do I have to be believed? No, as I know who I am and it is far more important to me that young furries have a great time at BLFC and cons everywhere.
— RC in Dimension BLFC (@Rcmouse) May 13, 2018
Thank you all for being great people, and sticking up for the little ones out there. Have a great time for the rest of BLFC everyone, and no matter what I love you all.
— RC in Dimension BLFC (@Rcmouse) May 13, 2018
It’s understandable about where people were coming from, acting like a Mama Bear wanting to give protection. The better approach is to speak up if you see it happen in person, but if it’s something heard second hand, check with con staff instead to see if they can address the situation.
To show Emma some love and support, visit her official Twitter handle.
There are many who wish to know who these mice were, but whatever was discussed with the parties involved was for them alone. It would be a good reason to look inward and work to be better people with a second chance. It’s also a story that doesn’t stop with Emma.
Hey you furbies are awesome but don't become a bullie yourself by going on a witch hunt for any mice/rat suitors for emma. Its been dealt with by the con. They did there job and we did ours. Now go have fun
— BLFC Ino89777 (@The_Ino89777) May 13, 2018
I don't really care who the bullies are, and the only reason I'd find information on them useful is so I can avoid them at future conventions.
— VƎX is a Satyr (@andreuswolf) May 13, 2018
Bullying is still rife in the fandom, and we need to work on it. Young furs and even new furs who aren't young get pushed to the edges or even entirely out by bullies and gatekeepers every day.
— Bowen the Super Floofer (@FloofRam) May 13, 2018
The next young fur to get bullied is gonna go ignored, possibly to the point of leaving the fandom like this young girl probably would've if she hadn't been in the right place at the right time.
— Bowen the Super Floofer (@FloofRam) May 13, 2018
Certainly because I never got the care and reassurances that Emma did. No outpouring of art and thousands of twitter followers. I didn't 'win' the fandom-is-nice lottery. Nor did thousands of other bullied young furs.
— Bowen the Super Floofer (@FloofRam) May 13, 2018
and especially don't ignore it just because there isn't someone like @The_Ino89777 leading the charge.
— Bowen the Super Floofer (@FloofRam) May 13, 2018
It was a good job by everyone involved including Telephone, the staff of BLFC, and furs who helped spread the story and gave Emma a con to remember. It’s also a reminder to keep your eyes and ears open during events like cons, meets, gatherings, or places like telegram or amino, for other Emmas who would love to know that they are welcome. Her story happened to take place during one of the biggest events of the Furry year, but you can help any time.
(3) to try and show Emma that the there were more people in the community that are good loving people than one bully and that she shouldn't let the actions of one person stop her from what she truly loves. We are sorry to those that met us today if we seemed
— Molly Bell (@mia_s_mommy) May 13, 2018
(5)and wanted to return with us to BLFC, and to wear her tail and tiger hat with a smile, we were overjoyed just to see her smile when we came back today and started having fun like nothing had happened.
— Molly Bell (@mia_s_mommy) May 13, 2018
(6) We love this community and to see let alone receive so much love and support from the community… just.. Thank you, thank you all so very much. Never change, keep loving and caring.
— Molly Bell (@mia_s_mommy) May 13, 2018
Here’s a few more sweet tweets – there are way too many to show, especially because Emma gained thousands of followers in days. Check Emma’s Twitter @emma_wolfie where she retweets a lot of the art and love everyone has shown her, with thanks to them all.
I saw the update from Telephone I'm so glad she's okay and decided to return ♡
I hope this picture helps her smile <3 pic.twitter.com/buZGu9bhkg
— ☆ Cereza (@Cerezachu) May 13, 2018
A quick bit of arts for Emma, hope you enjoy the rest of #BLFC! #bringemmaback2018 @mia_s_mommy pic.twitter.com/YTt0Bh24GB
— Snapai 
(@Snapai) May 13, 2018
Emma, what happened to you was unfair. You deserve all the happiness in the world and many fuzzy hugs!
I hope your con gets better, and if you come to AC, Rika and I will be excited to meet you!
Rika wanted you to have a strawberry because those always help her feel better
. pic.twitter.com/u1LlOBciMp
— damn will never quit (@VixNdwnq) May 13, 2018
this is for her from Me 
pic.twitter.com/ddrrxDLhfd
— Maxwell Akashiyah (@Akashiayh11) May 13, 2018
I hope you got room for one more.
As someone who got bullied as a kid, it just stinks! and people can be really unfair, BUT, there is a great side to this fandom and it's people.
For Emma, keeps those stripes! And be the BEST tigress you can be! Hope to see more of you girl! pic.twitter.com/jigJ8BX5kb
— Pine_the_Rabbit (@Pine_the_Rabbit) May 13, 2018
Thank you everyone #BLFC
— Emma the Tiger, Wolfie (@emma_wolfie) May 13, 2018
Till next time Fluffer Nutters. Have a nice day.
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AZ Republican Leader Exploits Furries To Disguise Anti-LGBT Policy, “Concentration Camp”
By Tempe O’Kun and Patch, with thanks to Tonya Song for interview questions.
Recently, AZ Rep. Kelly Townsend (a politician in the Arizona House of Representatives since 2013) stumbled into the furry fandom. She’d been threatening to sue teachers who were organizing for resources to fix a crisis in schools with leaky roofs, 25-year-old textbooks, rats in classrooms, and no budget to afford toilet paper. It all started when she responded to criticism by Pepper Coyote, a furry who happens to be a teacher in Arizona.
- Teen Vogue: Republican Politician Rep. Kelly Townsend Asked Twitter What a Furry Is
- Phoenix New Times: Representative Kelly Townsend Wants to Know What a Furry Is
please educate me as to what a furry is.
— Rep. Kelly Townsend (@KellyTownsend11) May 4, 2018Furries, as we are naturally inclined to do, welcomed the curiosity with the usual range of mostly-SFW responses. This sort of interaction happens with some regularity. Some innocent outsider happens upon the fandom, and we get to watch him or her discover the wacky world of talking animals. Sometimes they even become a loved fixture of the community like Boozy Badger.
Except that’s not what’s happening here.
Rep. Townsend is not some obscure figure or mere curiosity seeker. She’s the Republican Party whip in the Arizona House. In politics, a “whip” is the enforcer —a high-ranking official who ensures discipline. In the case of the AZ GOP, that means things like supporting Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a convicted felon whose crime was pardoned by Trump. Arpaio ran what he called a “concentration camp” where he imprisoned immigrants.
Through a combination of looking the other way about rape, exposure to the brutal Arizona elements, and assault on human rights, Arpaio hoped to make life even worse for refugees than in the countries they were fleeing. Far beyond administering justice, he took pleasure in brutality and used it to boost his career. Virtually all of his prisoners were Latino or Native. This issue even directly affects some furries. Dogpatch Press hosted a guest article by Sisk, a fur imprisoned in Arizona (who is the focus of a support campaign to address injustice in her story.)
Arpaio’s “concentration camp” is just part of the GOP agenda in Arizona, which includes:
- Harassment of US citizens with a “papers please” law.
- Inhumane destruction of water caches meant to save the lives of refugees in the desert.
- Cutting food and health programs for poor children, hitting minority and LGBT kids especially hard.
Then there’s constant assaults on rights of all LGBT citizens – an agenda personally enforced by Rep. Kelly Townsend.
The internet offers chances to connect with people we’d never get to meet in real life. It can be fun and exciting to talk to celebrities, creators, and even legislators. But it pays to be careful about who we lend the fandom’s public approval. The public image of the fandom can be fragile at the best of times. Why draw fursona art for radicalized conservatives who not only vote for racist and anti-LGBT laws, but are primary agenda-setters for other voters to make bigoted laws? That’s bad for the fandom. Here’s why.
Normalizing bigotry
Let’s look at how Rep. Townsend’s first contact with furries was instantly cashed in as a gimmick for attention to normalize her career to onlookers. She barely knew what a fursona was, or the conventions of using one (such as not taking original art that wasn’t made for her.) It was like a tourist visiting another country who’s rude to locals and doesn’t care. She milked the attention anyways when an artist donated her fan art.
Ok, here's my new fursona! #FursuitFriday pic.twitter.com/BAOJkpnKsS
— Rep. Kelly Townsend (@KellyTownsend11) May 5, 2018,DFHKFKFDFD .. KELLY TOWNSEND STOLE ART ON GOOGLE AND SAID IT WAS HER FURSONA?????????????????? ((it was a screenshot ogfkdfhkdfkj))
— flame
(@FLAME_IS_AMAZIN) May 5, 2018
been schooled and having a gr8 time on #FursuitFriday. But now I have to get somebody to draw my lioness suit. Know any1?
— Rep. Kelly Townsend (@KellyTownsend11) May 5, 2018
Maybe this looks like harmless fun or innocent curiosity on the surface, but it’s way more than skin deep. There is no “keep politics out” when a career politician is using her official account as a soapbox about furries, and cultivating an appearance of tolerance that doesn’t match reality.
Furries play cartoon animals, but they’re people. The furry fandom isn’t just a place for fun detached from reality. It’s also a real place where LGBT people and other minorities feel safe. Safe, specifically, from people like Rep. Townsend.
By giving her the fandom’s public approval, you’re not being “politically tolerant.” You’re enabling bigots. You’re helping re-elect them. And you’re mortgaging the limited good PR of the furry fandom to do so, against the wishes of many who did the work to build a community in spite of bigotry they face in life.
The appearance of tolerance vs. a native perspective
Look closer at how she had zero prompting to tie furry fandom to Native American religion, but did so immediately. Nobody had been making a legit connection to Native American spirituality. This, again, is a calculated and cynical move to exploit goodwill.
Why do it? Simple. The AZ Republican Party has a long history of approving abuses against Native citizens. She wants to continue to belittle Natives by putting their traditions in the same box as kooky weekend fursuit romps.
For a better handle on this, let’s hear from Tonya Song, a Native American activist and LGBT furry who has earned respect for her informed perspective.
DogPatch Press:
Why would you say it’s a problem to conflate furry and “original North America” cultures, as Rep. Townsend puts it?
Tonya Song:
Indigenous cultural references are not an equivalent to a hobby subculture. Indigenous cultures arise from the environments of which they come from. It informs their ways of society, philosophies, beliefs, and from there derives things like lore, art, dance, and music. The same can not be said for the fandom. The furry fandom, while it carries an important place in many peoples’ lives, can not be compared to a multi-faceted, ages old continuous culture; especially not one from the lands in which a lot of these conventions take place.
DogPatch Press:
How should people like Rep. Townsend view conflating Native American traditions and furry fandom?
Tonya Song:
How can you compare a hobby subculture to something you literally have no understanding of outside the media stereotypes? Rep. Townsend was in the US Navy. So, to her, it should be viewed as similar to “stolen valor.”
[Editor’s note: Stolen valor is the practice (by militiamen and others) of wearing military medals they purchased instead of earned. It is widely considered disrespectful to military members, and a form of fraud crime.]
Our cultures are something not only that we learn from childhood, thus know at a very deep and personal level, but it’s also innate in us, it’s almost like passed down genetically, it’s that integral to who we are. It’s not something we discover over the internet and do only as a “pastime.” Indigenous people have such a different set of perspectives and values—that’s what makes translating our stances into modern western society terminology is so difficult. But in summary: fursuits aren’t derived from a culture that, through its beliefs brought it forward. Culture isn’t a hobby.
Times like this I think of @Remy__Wolf
People saw they were selling tribal zox and were uncomfortable about cultural appropriation.
What did Remy do?
Remy contacted local Tribal administration to ask for permission and even went a step further donating some of the profits. https://t.co/nbioUSKlTc
If you’re actually curious about early roots of fursuiting across various cultures, check out this recent video: Culturally F’d – Fursuiting: a History – Part 1: Masks.
Note that Culturally F’d takes care to explicitly not conflate Native American religious practices with supposed neon-furred hotel-room orgies. This isn’t just because it’s clumsy or inaccurate. It also feeds a negative agenda. Mocking non-white culture is the main avenue to justify mistreating minorities —as Rep. Townsend does regularly and officially, as the AZ GOP whip.
What can we learn here, going forward?
First off, how you act online matters in real life. It might not matter for you specifically, but it certainly matters to victims of policies that Rep. Townsend promoted —citizen and refugee alike. Don’t normalize bigots, especially bigots in office; it helps them cling to power.
Second, when someone mysteriously appears in the furry fandom and starts using it for radical anti-LGBT anti-minority purposes, get suspicious. Just like leaders of “alt-furry” entered the fandom with an agenda to use it to spread hate, so too can cynical and abusive Republican Party leaders.
Evidence of what they are. When an organizer of a cult that pretends to welcome all furries lets out that it's BS - yet they still try to worm in where they're not wanted - it's a good clue that nothing they say is true. Just empty suits with nazi armbands, trying to cause grief. pic.twitter.com/xV7jvkaUKU
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 8, 2018
It’s no accident that some of the remaining alt-furries immediately pounced on Rep. Townsend. They shared a lot of “policy” stances that concern compromising your rights as a human being. For her part, Rep. Townsend likely had no idea who alt-furries are, but certainly knows what the alt-right is, and how to spot those who openly identify with hate groups. White nationalists are a voter base her party has carefully cultivated.
Then she got in their game by retweeting one of them, echoing their talking points about “this fandom” as if she’d been here for more than a few days.
“Fun and interests, no politics”
What can we do when someone tries to exploit the fandom?
If you’re an artist, do a quick check on who commissions you. Don’t draw what you don’t agree with, even if they get mad and accuse you of being intolerant of their hate. (At least one savvy furry artist took the opportunity to hold her accountable for attacking teachers unions currently on strike.)
If you’re on social media, don’t spread posts that normalize anti-LGBT or racist people. Yes, it’s weird and wacky when some hardline conservative who looks like your mom finds the fandom. But sharing and liking those posts without calling out hypocrisy helps people like her get reelected. Normalizing people like her has deadly consequences for real, live people.
If you’re disgusted by Rep. Townsend and her bigoted party, register to vote, so you can vote against people like her, who’d smile and accept furry fan-art one day and strip away LGBT rights the next. And donate to her Democratic opponent. [The below tweet to him is a joke where he gracefully segued to sincere.]
Hi Nathan are you campaigning for the furry vote? What's your platform and are you making any election promises about it? Can I quote you for #Furrynews? #furryrights
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 4, 2018Jesus christ you are smooth.
Take notice, folks: No attempt to pretend he is one of us or understands us, yet he managed to tie engagement with us with his larger stand in defending against the bigotted.
That's bloody good pr and outreach.
Thanks. We're all glad that Arpaio lost to Penzone. He was the type of person that would retaliate against people out of spite, revenge, or for political reasons. https://t.co/pQZx95HNRB
— Nathan Schneider (@Schneider4Dems) May 8, 2018No matter who you are, be more mindful. Furry is a place of imagination and freedom, but that doesn’t mean nobody will try to exploit us. Be smart, don’t let people get away with being horrible, and don’t let people disguise hatred as humor. Don’t let people take advantage of the furry fandom any more than you’d loan your fursuit to a stranger to go wade through sewage.
You’re not required to play nice with people whose goal is to dehumanize and abuse you for political gain. This applies just as much to alt-righters in office, as out. Furry is way too important to all of us to let bullies subvert it to put a cutesy facade on their cruelty.
Guys, instead of drawing Kelly Townsend a fursona, maybe donate to the campaign of her opponent.https://t.co/Iij2FIIpFDhttps://t.co/FNfFMdN8YG
— Mythic (@MythicalRedFox) May 5, 2018Hey, guys, instead of supporting Kelly Townsend, who is a vicious anti-teacher, anti-LGBT legislator, perhaps you could instead support #RedForEd and the push to get teachers in Arizona paid a fair wage for their work
— VƎX is a Satyr (@andreuswolf) May 5, 2018@KellyTownsend11 Just because you got a furry character done up doesn't give you a free pass for your exclusionary politics to prop up a religious hegemony. While it's amusing a GOP has a fursona, you don't earn a free pass.
— Iron Raptor (@iron_raptor) May 6, 2018I decided to get in on the fursona hype for Kelly Townsend and made her a ref sheet: pic.twitter.com/jU3DypZtOg
— GeorgeSquares (@GeorgeSquares) May 5, 2018
[Editor’s note: We here at DogPatch Press aren’t perfect. We felt the need to get involved in this issue, in part, because Patch personally responded to the situation by commenting on adult artwork other furries made to satirize Rep. Townsend. This was not a productive means of engaging, and he asked for the art to be withdrawn to encourage better communication.]
Eagle Furdance swoops in with a dance party for Swiss fandom – with bowling!
Furclub: “A repeat/regular nightclub event by furries for furries.” The concept has been spreading since the late 2000’s. It’s a dance party independent from cons. It builds on their growth, but takes things farther. It’s more ambitious than informal meets and events that happen once. Those can stay inner-focused, but this brings partnership with new kinds of venues, and new support for what they host. It crosses a line to public space, so a stranger can walk in and discover their new favorite thing. It encourages new blood and crossover to other scenes. It makes subculture thrive. It’s a movement!
Parties that give a Q&A get a featured article. See The Furclub survey for questions and party list. Here’s Eagle Furdance in Switzerland, introduced by organizer Avalon Bluejay. Their 4th party happened on April 28, 2018.
- Wiki german: http://de.wikifur.com/wiki/Eagle_Furdance
- Website: www.eaglefurdance.com
- Twitter: @EagleFurdance
Who is involved?
Me (Avalon or Blueavian), I founded this event back in 2014 because there were no furdances around in Switzerland. The only ones even near the country are in Germany. I’m very interested in organizing events (like Golden Leaves Con, I’m also one of the founders for that), so I did this to bring something that didn’t exist for Swissfurs before. They only have a few events, and those are the two main ones.
I’m not only the chair for the event, but even the Bar Manager. As a Barkeeper myself I make the highest quality cocktails we can do. The dance is sponsored by the Swissfurs Club that sponsors Golden Leaves Con and other little events too. The main staff there is Luxen, who is also crew for the bar. Many volunteers are working with us (there’s a list of them all on the website), but it started small with just a few people. One special guy I want to thank is Fendracus. He is our logistic manager, and brings the party to life, like with lighting for the whole building. Without him and other volunteers it would never get this far.
We have had DJ’s for each party like RobSqrl. He’s a more professional DJ who’s on Spotify. We gave him the first platform at a furry dance, and since then many other dances and Eurofurence have wanted him to be there to make music. Next to him we have R4MS, Trackqube, and new to our team is Asgra. He played with us for the first time at our 4th party. (You can see what they play on the website).
What kind of party:
EFD was conceived as a club socializing party. As it grew, some people wanted more activities, and because we have a kind of a bowling alley area, we decided to move the fursuit lounge somewhere else and make a second bar. Since last year, we have had a chillout lounge bar with 3 bowling lanes.
Our belief about price is that a ticket should support the venue and some other costs. So the ticket is around 30 Swiss Franks (about 30 US Dollars), but for that price, we can keep drinks and food prices lower. Like a cocktail for 8 Swiss Franks that you get in the city for 25.
Our attendance has numbered around 80-112. For the 4th party it seemed unpredictable because we had 60 registered, but there are always last minute attendees, so we estimated around 80-90.
When is it, where, and how can people be part of it?
EFD has been around since 2014. The debut was around September/October. 2016 was the only year it didn’t happen because of problems with getting everyone together. The 2017 party was on September 23, and was a total success after a year of absence. For the 4th party we had new staff and better equipment, and it made us look forward to how people would react.
EFD has been held since the beginning in the Disco Metropole, with additional space from the Telli Center Club, in the city of Aarau Switzerland. Most furs come from Switzerland, but we have had a few from Germany, and sometimes one or two from the UK or USA.
How to be a part of it is easy, just be interested. We always want to embrace people to do stuff that they normally can’t do, like set up the music or light system or help at the bar, handle security, and so on. It’s important for me as a chef that everybody is happy and has fun. If not we wouldn’t do it.
How did it grow?
It can be stressful before and at the event because it’s like a real job. But if you do it to have fun, you don’t see it as something for profit, and it lets you do stuff you never do.
As I said before, I liked to do events, and that’s the reason I got some people together and asked if we could do it. I wanted to make it a success, and I got a lot of support from all sides. At this point i lived in Aarau. I was searching for a venue that had enough space, a bar, and something extra, but it was important that we do it all ourselves. Light, Sound, Bar, everything – so we could keep the prices down, because if we rented a club nobody would come. Switzerland has expensive costs on average, and furries who enjoy cons, meets, fursuits and art usually have less pocket money.
I found out that my shopping center next door had kind of a club with many rooms, and even a disco that never really got properly used. I already had a huge supply of bar stuff at home, so I thought it was a good opportunity to try it there. The staff could sleep at my place, and it wasn’t a long walk to the venue. Everything went well, and since then, the venue asks us first when we want to do it again. So we’re loved there and that’s great. I hope we can stay there for a long time.
Vibe:
The vibe is great. Every one of our guests are chill and has fun, especially with the chillout lounge and bowling until 4 in the morning. You can dance if you want, you can chill if you want, you can even bowl or go out and sip a drink with friends outside. I think we have as much as 50% fursuiters, and they rock on the dance floor. The event starts at 4pm, and the shopping center above us is still open until 6pm, with a plaza where the fursuiters entertain children and others. The general public loves us, and the best part was last year two non-furs came in and asked if they could be a part of this party, because they think we’re awesome. We got a great review from them at the end.
Promotion:
This is always the hard part. People don’t want to decide early for an event like this, because they already have expenses with cons and other events. And because we’re not the only event, you want to make the best of it. So we try with word of mouth, flyers, trailers on youtube, going to meets, and even having a special promotion if you register by a certain time – you get some additional money on your drink & food account (usually 10 Franks). But what works best is still to get the right people to your event, and their friends will come too. So sometimes you need to go directly to those guests and convince them to come.
Reactions:
At the moment we don’t draw media attention except from you as news. We’re too small, but the Telli Club still sees us as something amazing and cool. And of course we give them a lot of money for all the stuff we need, so coming back every year is perfect for them. We have never had a problem with authority or other people, just a little excitement as always, but you don’t need to call the police about anything you can’t talk about normally with someone. Everything has been perfect in the end.
The whole event is fully supported by furries, but also supported by our drink vendor and Telli Club of course. (So 80% furry, 20% non furries.)
Business:
EFD is a part of the Swissfurs Club. That means we’re a non-profit organization. We do it for the fandom. We have strict regulation and licensing is needed from the government, but we always have it, and because our NFC/RFID payment & regsystem worked from day one, we can start having people as young as 16 years old. If we get profit (the last two times we made 0), we donate to the Swisspawpeteers Club that does free theater shows at Golden Leaves Con and sometimes elsewhere.
The EFD at the moment has stable numbers, so business isn’t really growing or falling but we think we might grow a bit next year.
Videos/Pics:
Videos on youtube and pictures on the website speak from themselves, I would recommend to search and see what comes up.
Follow @EagleFurdance on Twitter for most updated news. Thanks to Avalon for giving great responses and organizing this for the fandom!
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
The Wonderling, by Mira Bartók – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Wonderling, by Mira Bartók. Map, illustrations by the author.
Summerville, MA, Candlewick Press, September 2017, hardcover, $21.99 ([vii +] 450 pages), Kindle $9.46.
The Wonderling is a Young Adult fantasy recommended for grades 5 to 9; ages 10 to 14. It has “already been put into development for a major motion picture,” according to the blurb.
It has been compared to the novels by Charles Dickens about wretched orphans in Victorian England. Think of A Christmas Carol or Oliver Twist, with furries – or at least strange beasts.
“He looked like a young fox but stood upright like a child and had no tail to speak of. His eyes were a lovely chestnut brown and flecked with gold. But there was something about them that gave one the sense that, although he had not been in this world very long, he carried within him some inexplicable sorrow.
He was a creature with an innocent heart. What kind of creature, though, who could say? Despite his fox kit face, his snout was more dog than fox, and there was something rabbity about him too, in the way his nose twitched when he sensed danger, and how he trembled when he heard the loud clang of the orphanage bell. But the most singular thing about him was that he had only one ear.
[…]
But Number Thirteen – one-eared, nameless, and small of stature, for he never grew taller than three feet high – could not remember where he came from.” (pgs. 4-5)
Number Thirteen has been raised from infancy in Miss Carbuncle’s large Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures, just outside the large “Great White City of Lumentown”. He is about 11 years old.
“On the front of the Home’s brochure was a happy-go-lucky creature with the head of a rabbit and the body of a little girl, wearing a polka-dot dress and bow, clutching a bouquet of daisies. Beneath the picture, the caption read: Have you been unexpectedly burdened by a recently orphaned or unclaimed creature? Worry not! We have just the solution for you!” (pgs. 6-7)
Miss Carbuncle is a cold-hearted villainess like the worst Dickensian orphanage masters. She can’t even be bothered to give the fox-boy a name. She calls him after his bed number, Number Thirteen.
“A damp mist swirled above the courtyard, slowly creeping into the orphans’ threadbare coats and bones. All the wayward and misbegotten creatures the orphans, the foundlings, and the street urchins doing penance for petty crimes – stood at attention. They were the “groundlings” of the world – a hybrid mix of animal and human, or of animal and animal, that, in the hierarchy of the day, inhabited a place very close to the bottom. They were skinny and squat, furry and feathered, some nearly human if not for a rat tail or jackrabbit ears, a piglet face or wings and webbed feet. Most were half human, half animal, but not all. Some appeared to be all mammal, or reptile, or bird, but for the fact that they spoke and acted like human beings.” (p. 11)
I won’t quote each description or this review would grow endlessly; but here is the orphanage bully who torments Number Thirteen:
“All of a sudden, someone pulled his ear really hard. Number Thirteen spun around to see who it was. Next to Mug and Orlick stood an imposing new arrival: a tall, gray, bristly-furred rat groundling with a long snout and two sharp incisors protruding from his mouth. He had large yellow-clawed feet and a long wiry tail. His shoulders were so scrunched up that he seemed his head was attached to them and that he had no neck at all. His eyes were small and shrunken and black as night.” (pgs. 16-17)
Most of the juvenile creatures are indifferent towards Number Thirteen or actively pick on him. The first one who becomes his friend is Trinket, whom he rescues from the Home’s bullies:
“He gently touched her head. She wasn’t covered in fur at all but in dark-brown, mud-soaked feathers. She was a Bird – a bird with no wings, just two feathery appendages sticking out from her sides, and no tail feathers either. One of her winglets was bleeding, though not too badly, considering how she had been batted about. At the end of each of her mustard-yellow feet were three long toes. Her beak was long, slender, and curved.” (pgs. 43-44)
Bartók’s illustrations show a miniature kiwi, small enough to fit into the palm on Number Thirteen’s hand – and remember, he’s pretty small himself.
Frankly, Number Thirteen is such a wimp and coward that it’s hard to sympathize with him. All of the Home’s mean human adults have names like Sneezeweed, Bonegrubber, and Bunmuncher. Carbuncle could be accepted, but this quickly becomes ridiculous. Dickens’ characters had funny names, but not completely unbelievable ones. How hard would it be for Miss Carbuncle to give Number Thirteen a name instead of a number?
Trinket gives Number Thirteen a real name – Arthur – and persuades him to escape from the Home with her to the Great White City. She gets into the Home’s files and finds out the address in Lumentown where he came from.
Arthur finds wonders in Lumentown that are as fantastic as what Alice finds in Wonderland. Many of them are animal-related, such as Quintus, another rat groundling who is Bartók’s version of Dickens’ Artful Dodger:
“The group made a semicircle around Quintus and Arthur. They were a motly crew of all shapes, sizes, and ages, although none of them looked as young as Arthur. There was a rather corpulent mole-porcupine groundling, a white weasel groundling, a groundling who was part English setter, an anteater groundling, a raccoon groundling, a stern-looking rabbit person, and a creature in a bottle-green trilby. Arthur had never seen such a peculiar-looking groundling. He had the face of an aye-aye and the body of a small hunched-over man.” (p. 193)
If you want bizarre creatures and don’t mind an imagination that sometimes descends into silliness, The Wonderling (cover by the author) is full of them.
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
Vincent and the Dissidents, by Christopher Locke – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Vincent and the Dissidents, by Christopher Locke.
Los Angeles, CA, Fathoming Press, April 2018, trade paperback, $14.95 ([x +] 335 pages), Kindle $3.99.
This is The Enlightenment Adventures, Book Two. When I reviewed Book One, published in February 2015, I said: “And this is only Book One of The Enlightenment Adventures. Those who read it through to the end will not be able to resist going on to Book Two.” Now, after a three-year wait, here it is.
In Book One, Persimmon Takes On Humanity, the raccoon Persimmon leads a tiny group of North American forest animals in an apparently hopeless drama of taking on all humanity to destroy its enterprises that exploit animals: commercial meat farms, fur farms, puppy mills, and especially circuses with performing animals. Persimmon starts out as an indignant but naïve protester against all human callous exploitation of animals for profit or amusement. By the end of the novel, she is a grim militant.
“She looks directly at the Rottweilers with a stern expression. ‘Listen to me very carefully. I want to help you, but there are two of you and thousands of minks, and they’re suffering immensely. I’ve heard horrible things about what they’re forced to endure. Right now some of them have open wounds. Some don’t have any water. And some are going slowly insane because they’re trapped in stifling, barren cages. It’s unbelievably cruel, and we’re here to put a stop to it. You’re either with us or against us.’” (Persimmon Takes On Humanity, p. 146)
Vincent and the Dissidents begins with a ten-page Cast of Characters and Synopsis of Book One, so the reader can drop running into the action. The Cast of Characters says about Vincent:
“VINCENT – A cunning mink whose fur is mostly black with a hint of blue. He lived a hellish life on a fur farm before he finally escaped. He then vowed to himself that he would rescue the minks who were still trapped on the farm. A few months later, he was lucky enough to meet Persimmon and her team. They joined forces and successfully rescued most of the minks. Little did Persimmon know that after she and her team had moved on to their next mission, Vincent began gathering his own army of animals who would rescue other animals using more aggressive tactics against humans than her own.” (p. [iv])
It’s more complex than that. Persimmon originally grandiosely dubs her animal group The Uncaged Alliance. In Book One, she constantly argues with Rawly, another raccoon, as to what tactics they should use and what their next mission should be. They end up splitting, with Rawly leading the remnant of The Uncaged Alliance (including Persimmon’s younger brother Scraps), and Persimmon starting afresh with a new title, The Enlighteners. Vincent has been organizing his own group, the Dissidents.
Chapter 1 starts:
“PERSIMMON OPENS HER eyes. The room is pitch black. Where am I? The confused raccoon starts to sit up, but suddenly the room begins to spin. Dizziness overcomes her, and nausea hits her hard. She closes her eyes to collect herself. She takes a deep breath. Breathe. Breathe. With her eyes closed, her hearing becomes more acute. She can hear other animals in the room – weeping, moaning. She quickly pops her eyes back open. They’re in pain. I need to help them.” (p. 1)
(This quote exhibits a peculiarity of The Enlightenment Adventures. Both books are written in the narrative present tense, not the past tense as is most fiction.)
Chapter 2 begins: “(two weeks ago)”, in happier times. Everything up to Chapter 22 leads up to Persimmon and other animals trapped in that room. The rest of the novel is what she does about it.
Another early quote illustrates part of the problem. Persimmon has led her Enlighteners to her Aunt Adelaide and Uncle Bennett for some Rest & Relaxation:
“Aunty Adelaide […] turns back to him and says, ‘Go see if you can catch some fresh fish for them.’
‘No! No fish.’ Persimmon immediately climbs up the tree, blocking her uncle from hopping down. ‘We don’t eat fish.’
Aunty Adelaide almot falls out of the tree, she’s so flabbergasted by this statement. ‘What respectable raccoon doesn’t like fish?’
‘Actually, we do like fish,’ Persimmon explains. ‘That’s why we don’t eat them.’
‘You’re speaking in riddles, dear. I can’t understand you.’
‘All of us have vowed to be compassionate toward other animals, which includes not eating them,’ Persimmon says.
‘But you’ll die of starvation if you don’t eat other animals,’ Uncle Bennett says.” (pgs. 8-9)
Persimmon has become a militant vegan. She won’t eat any animal, nor will she allow her followers including the carnivores to do so. That’s one reason her Enlighteners and Rawly and the others in The Uncaged Alliance split. The others consider that the ‘no eating other animals’ rule should have some obvious exceptions, such as for fish or chickens, while Persimmon says that not eating animals means no animals. Persimmon also wants to rescue animals without harming humans, while The Uncaged Alliance doesn’t mind harming humans if necessary to help other animals. Both groups are horrified by Vincent’s readiness to kill humans.
Well, most of both groups. Apricot, a housecat who remains with TUA, is as much a predator as Vincent is. She and Vincent praise Rawly for being willing to harm humans when necessary. Rawly, flattered, doesn’t realize at first that “harm when necessary” means “kill whenever possible”.
Vincent and the Dissidents splits into two alternating stories: that of Vincent and his Dissidents, with the increasingly reluctant alliance with Rawly’s The Uncaged Alliance, building an army of ferocious dogs to attack and kill humans when they are unleashed; while Persimmon and her Enlighteners try to liberate the chickens on a chicken farm.
Vincent may be ruthless, but he is not amoral. He is loyal to his fellow minks, and considers that killing humans is the only way to ensure the animals’ safety.
“Vincent sighs, thinking about his family, friends and all the other minks who were murdered at the Peterson fur farm. He thinks about his brother Frestin being skinned alive right in front of him. So many memories have faded with time, but that one – that horrifying experience never fades.
Vincent stomps the dirt to knock the memory from his mind. ‘And you’re telling me that Persimmon still thinks humans are redeemable despite the fact that they murdered all those animals, including two members of your team?’
Rawly nods.
‘How dangerously naïve.’ Vincent shakes his head, bewildered.” (p. 15)
Apricot, on the other paw, just considers killing humans to be fun.
The reader can see trouble coming. Animals can’t kill humans indefinitely without other humans retaliating en masse. Persimmon allows her followers in The Enlighteners the freedom to discuss, debate, and argue over her orders, which is fine for friendship and allowing all her group to express themselves, but as anyone can tell you, is a lousy if not fatal way to run a military operation. As the back-cover blurb gives away:
“Vincent and The Dissidents are conducting their own rescue operations, but their violent tactics against humans are quickly leading to catastrophic consequences. Meanwhile, just as Persimmon and The Enlighteners are mounting their most ambitious rescue so far, a tragic incident alters Persimmon’s life forever and jeopardizes the fate of The Enlighteners.”
Vincent and the Dissidents (cover by L. A. Watson) is a fit sequel to Persimmon Takes On Humanity. It is a sometimes humorous, sometimes harrowing read:
“That’s when Persimmon sees Rasha’s face – her horrifically mangled face. All the pain that this pit bull has endured is exposed right there in her shredded ears, chipped teeth, and chewed-up nose. Persimmon can almost feel the bite marks as if she had been there herself. What kind of ruthless human could do this to another animal?” (p. 333)
Locke says in an Afterword to sign up for his newsletter to know when Book Three is published. So there will be more.
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Etienne Willem: Artbook Collection. Illustrated – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Etienne Willem: Artbook Collection. Illustrated.
Geneva, Switzerland, Éditions Paquet, July 2017, hardcover, €20,00 (unpaged [94 pages]).
“Etienne Willem is a recognized cartoon author. Author of the semi-realistic crime series Vieille Bruyère and Bas de Soie, from L’épée d’Ardenois, starring animal characters in a medieval context, he is currently directing Les ailes du singe, taking the reader to a new dizzying air universe. A multi-talented author who will still amaze you in this completely new book.” (blurb, machine-translated & corrected)
Dogpatch Press reviewed volumes 3 and 4 of Willem’s 4-volume funny-animal The Sword of Ardenois, set in Medieval Europe, and the first two volumes of his funny-animal The Wings of the Monkey, set in Depression-era New York and Hollywood. (His Old Heather and Silk Stocking, a semi-serious 1920s-‘30s British detective series, isn’t anthropomorphic.)
Now here is a collection of Willem’s work, from rough sketches to model sheets, to parodies of popular dramatic comic-book artists like Frank Frazetta, and one-off drawings like a poster for a comic-book festival in Bastogne, and a beer label for the 2013 Comicsmania Festival in Belfaux-Corminboeuf, Switzerland. (No, I never heard of it, either.) Only about half of these are funny-animal, but his non-animal parodies like a team-up of Doctor Who (“the eleventh Doctor – the best”) and Harley Quinn may be appreciated by some of us, too.
There is a lot of steampunk-inspired art here, and some H. P. Lovecraft. A cartoon inspired by Game of Thrones combining human and animal characters. “Steampunk and funny-animal… I absolutely had to combine the two… So here is the little world of Drowningfish, a furry steampunk story set in the bayous of Louisiana after the War of Secession between the terrible carnivores of the South and the peaceful vegans of the North. Fortunately, the brilliant Professor Mole proposes to devote his intense efforts to developing a food that will let all nourish themselves without taking any lives … almost.” It sounds/looks like a cross between Jules Verne, Sherlock Holmes, Kimba the White Lion, and Pogo. I want to see more than a concept sketch!
The Belgian Willem is one of the best European funny-animal cartoonists today. His non-anthropomorphic work isn’t bad, either. He is probably most comparable to Albert Uderzo, the Astérix artist (and writer since René Goscinny died), but Uderzo doesn’t do funny-animals. Willem does. Wonderfully. You don’t have to read French to enjoy this.
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
The Worst Anthropomorphic Movie of the Decade, Revisited – By Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Not quite three years ago, I proposed a poll to pick the worst anthropomorphic movie of the 2011 to 2020 decade. I named five movies to get started.
Check out the Original Worst Movies Post from Food Fight to The Last Flight of the Champion
There are still a couple of years to go, but it seems worth re-posting this now; both as a reminder, and because Hollywood seems to have actually sorta-remade one of these.
Compare Pups United, about soccer mascots protecting a priceless soccer trophy:
With the forthcoming (May 18) Show Dogs, about the dogs in a Las Vegas dog show protecting a priceless dog show trophy:
Max, a macho, solitary Rottweiler police dog is ordered to go undercover as a primped show dog in a prestigious Dog Show, along with his human partner, to avert a disaster from happening.
Two years to go. What’s your pick for the worst anthropomorphic movie of 2011 to 2020, theatrical or direct-to-DVD?
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
SonicFox, world record Esports champion: fursuit “a peak thing in life for me”
It’s not every day that a POC furry pro gamer with 4 Guinness World Records wins a tournament in a fursuit. When I talked to a friend about interviewing SonicFox, I heard he was cool and didn’t have a big head about it. It was true, but the question lots of people are asking is how does he do it in a fursuit head? The best thing I do in mine is fit a beer through the muzzle. And SonicFox isn’t even quite drinking age while earning more than enough to pay for college.
Pro gaming is getting huge, and it has a juggernaut representing furries – but to SonicFox, it seems like the representing and hugeness is no big deal compared to the furry part. It’s like whether he was a rock star or just a guy next door with a cool hobby to share, he’d give it the same attitude. It’s about being friendly and as sincere as you can be in being who you want to be, especially if that’s a cute blue fox. He should win all the hugs.
Thanks to SonicFox for being so prompt and enthusiastic about an interview from a tiny furry blog – it was fast and good like his gaming. (And thanks for question suggestions from Chip, Summer, Matthias, Tempe, Codex and Tex.) Here’s some further reference, then the interview.
- Kotaku: Even In A Fursuit, SonicFox Keeps Winning Fighting Game Tournaments
- Paste: Evo Champion SonicFox Takes Home Two Titles in Full Fursuit at Clutch 2018
- DailyDot: Dominique ‘Sonic Fox’ McLean is at the top of his game (Good 2015 profile)
- Guinness World Records: American gamer “SonicFox” enters the record books with four eSports titles
- E-Sports Earnings: Dominique “SonicFox” Mclean
- Wikifur: SonicFox5000 (social media links)
- Wikipedia: Echo Fox (His Esports team)
- Dogpatch Press: Furr-Esports article
I am the WINNER!!
1st DBFZ
1st Inj2
In suit! pic.twitter.com/EaxCcGOcGD
Sonicfox has been such an uplifting thing for the furry fandom. Not only is he generally a cool guy, but because of him, gaming blogs that once openly mocked us now have had to use fandom terms seriously and write about furries in a positive manner. XD
— zʇᴉlqʞuI AC2018 (@Inkblitzer) April 24, 2018
Interview
Hi SonicFox, want to give an intro about yourself? Do you want people to know anything about your life besides gaming?
There’s nothin’ much to me. I’m just a furry who happens to be good at fighting games!
How/When did you discover Furry Fandom?
I discovered the fandom a looong time I ago when I first started off as a Happy Tree Friends OC. Then I wanted to get anthro art of my character one day and then before I realized it, I was a furry!
What made you join it?
Seeing all the anthro art, I was so fascinated by it. I thought it to be the coolest thing ever and wanted to be a part of it.
Why a fox?
Foxes happen to be my favorite animal, though a big reason I became fascinated with them was after beating my friends a loooong time ago with Fox Mccloud in Super Smash Bros brawl.
When did you know you wanted to be a competitive player? How did you join a team?
After playing fighting games for as long as I can remember, I could tell I had a competitive spirit. I think I get it from my Mom honestly. So when friends recommended me to go offline to a scene rather than be an online warrior, I tried it out and have been attached since!
I joined a team by being the best in my respective games! It’s not too hard to get sponsored if you are N I C E.
How many tourneys have you been in? How much money have you won, and what else are you proud of? Does anything besides prizes make it worthwhile?
I can’t really recall how many tourneys I have been in. It has to be well over 100 by now. I think in Esports winnings its been like over 400k or somethin? I think the biggest thing I am proud of was that I got the chance to be on TV multiple times and even have a little docuseries that aired live on TV too! The people that I encounter and the bonds and the competitive drive I’ve made makes competing so worthwhile. The money is just icing on the cake.
Furries and gamers haven’t always mixed, what made you decide to be so openly furry?
Well I sorta said fuck it, if I am gonna be me, then I am gonna be ALL of me. I didn’t really care to think what other “gamers” had to say about me. If they had a problem with me I’ll just take all their money LMFAO.
This was a highlight of the weekend for me. Booping @IFCYipeS on commentary LOL pic.twitter.com/HALIMjUKFb
— Echo Fox | SonicFox (@SonicFox5000) April 23, 2018What’s it like to use your fursona for press and promo shots?
I think this is the coolest thing in the world. The fact that I am on one of the biggest esports teams ever and that I get to brand myself as a furry has me fuckin’ lit! Sets up such a great future with furries and esports!
What was it like to get a fursuit? Do you have any stories about using it that other furries would understand the most?
Getting a fursuit has to be a peak thing in life for me. Having Yamishizen hand me my fursuit filled me with soooo much power. I have been having fun with the suit ever since! The fursuit is honestly only like 2 weeks old so I don’t have much story with it yet, other than winning in a fighting game event in a fursuit~
Do you have a favorite piece of art, photo or video of your fursona?
Hmmm, I have to say that I love every single piece of art I’ve ever commed or someone giftart’d to me, but if I had to choose one, I would say the animation I commissioned from Suckmcjones has to be one of my favorite pieces ever. There’s even a blood variant! (LOTSA LORE YOU GUYS AINT GETTIN’ >:C)
How did your teammates or sponsors react to you being openly furry? Or your competitors? Have you faced any harassment or negative comments?
My teammates reacted so positively! They find it super unique what I am doing, and my sponsors think so too. It is a brand new image not seen before in esports gaming so I am about it. I haven’t really given much thought about what my competitors think though they find it pretty comical. I’ve of course received negative comments, but I’m like if you don’t like what you see, come and stop me~!
Some people are treating you like a furry ambassador. Do you see yourself as a furry standard bearer or are you just trying to be your own thing?
I’m just kinda doing my own thing! I highly encourage people to truly be themselves, and so that is why I am so open about myself. Being put on a pedestal for it though wasn’t my intent eheh, but with my popularity, I have a platform I need to use properly. Just don’t call me a popufur cuz I HATE that term!
I love that @SonicFox5000 is having the time of his life blasting through tourneys in suit and the worst thing that people can come up with is "furries r bad" and "i hate him hat"
I'm not even a fighting game dude but his positivity make me wanna sit and watch and bathe in hype
In the media you seem like an uplifting thing for the furry fandom. Gaming blogs that once openly mocked furries now have had to use fandom terms seriously and talk about them positively. There’s a trend where they don’t explain what furries are and take it for granted that everyone knows. Do you have any stories about how they treat the subject?
Gaming articles have to treat me with respect. And part of that means you have to also treat my community with respect if you wish to continue to have good relations with me. I am very happy that more often than that not, high profile people that interview me always bring up the furry side of me which has me fuckin’ lit 
. I do recall in the very first docuseries I did for Mortal Kombat X, the people documenting me wouldn’t use the term “furry” as they said it had a sexual connotation to it. That had me pretty upset, but I think they are a lot better about it now!
On Twitter you have 59k followers and a blue check (the only other furry I know with one is Uncle Kage.) What’s it like to have that platform?
It was highly unexpected to have a platform like this, but I guess I have to make the most of it to promote positivity? IDK, I just try to be myself and I’d be acting the exact same whether I had one follower or a million. Lotsa people like to treat me differently based on my follower count which sucks. I thought the one thing I was really good at was not being too “Hollywood.”
Once in a while there are sexy jokes or likes on your Twitter and furries seem to love it. Do you feel confident about that? Why or why not?
Hey what can I say~ I do enjoy some of the lewd aspects of the community too or just bein lewd in general. Though I try not to retweet gay furry porn (THE GOOD SHIT) onto peoples timelines, twitter tends to be a snitch anyway when I like the piece and go like “SEE WHAT ECHO FOX SONICFOX LIKED!!!!” and then it’s over for your timeline LMFAO. Those likes are for later >;3
LOL IM IN TOTAL DISBELIEF KOTAKU USED THIS PHOTO AND IM BEAMING pic.twitter.com/QvDl6jKI1i
— Echo Fox | SonicFox (@SonicFox5000) April 23, 2018Would you call yourself a gamer furry who isn’t friendly to alt-furry, and do you want to give any opinions about that?
As far as I am concerned, whether I was a gamer furry or not, the alt-furry can go to hell. I have absolutely no time for people who think that they are more of a superior race based on their skin color, and you all might as well be Nazis if you aren’t already. They would be doing me a favor if they clicked that unfollow button on my twitter timeline. I am not afraid to stomp out some racist alt-furry shithead in my feed LOL.
Want to say anything about relations in the fandom?
I like to think I have been doing pretty ok for PR relations in the fandom. But if I wanted to talk about personal relationships, I’d say I have very few eheh. TBH, I don’t think I have like a friend group that I entirely fit into yet! I have my fair share of friends, but they all have their own friend groups and stuff they fit into. STILL SOUL SEARCHING.
Has being a person of color affected how people in gaming or furry treat you?
I would say it hasn’t so much in either regard. The furry community and FGC is pretty inclusive diverse and accepting of all people and backgrounds.
What are your furry influences? Do you want to share any favorite books or comics, or favorite artists?
I would say I do have a huge crush on Jon Talbain (GIMME MORE BUFF), but if I had to go over favorite artists and stuff, I’d say PermaVermin is pretty up there as she’s the one that has drawn so much cool stuff of my character as well as her art is the one I use for my esports image! Shes been such a great friend to me and I am happy to have her in my life <3
Who are your favorite furry characters in games? Why?
J O N T A L B A I N. see above question
Sonic or Shadow?
MY NAME IS NOT A REFERENCE TO ANY OF THE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG CHARACTERS AND THIS IS SUCH A COMMON MISCONCEPTION BECAUSE I HATE BOTH OF THESE CHARACTERS.
… but tails.
Any guilty gaming pleasures?
I doooo enjoy going to like game rooms at like conventions and when somebody has no idea who I am, I love beating them up and getting them salty hehehehe.
Any words of advice for fellow furries looking to getting into esports?
If you want to get into Esports, start now. Find a game you like, learn how to practice and get better, and then go to an offline tournament as often as you can to get the experience and training you need!
Any words of advice for esporters looking to get into furry?
Make a fursona LOL
What are your plans for your future beyond esports?
I want to eventually make my own furry fighting game. I am in school right now for computer science, but creating a fighting game with either my own character, or just a bunch of my friend’s OC’s would be soo neat! It is literally my aspiration. I already have hella movesets created for my own OC’s along as other friend’s OC’s too! I am already on a good path for it too as I am good friends with Mike Z (creator of Skullgirls!) as well as sponsored with Jace Hall who has made multiple gaming companies hehe. Let’s see what the future holds!
Thanks so much for interviewin’ me!
Fox is living the dream. Young Man was cleaning up at tourneys even before his sponsorship. He got his boss to give the furry community a shout out a while back.https://t.co/1qnNc2nHvS
— CECIL (@cecil) April 24, 2018me: cheering for someone based on nationality is kinda weak
also me: is that my fam out there repping furries in esports?? I love them holy fu
I’m a little while away from this happening, but the esports organization I help run in my free time is allowing me to use a picture of my fursona wearing our apparel on our official website when we get it running.
Furries are taking over. >:3
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The Cure for Ignorance and Apathy on Furry YouTube.
Editorial with Sam Hyena in collaboration with Patch.
Ignorance and Apathy on Furry YouTube
Over the last 2 years with the demise of Vine, many Furries have started to migrate over to YouTube. Many have amassed groups of followers, hold regular livestreams on Twitch, or have Patreons. And some have used this platform as a guise to get away with borderline toxic or outright hateful behavior.
The platform makes every click content-neutral. Getting attention for any reason gets advantage over quality, so being edgy plays to the lowest-common-denominator. Lines get persistently pushed, and suddenly things that aren’t debatable at all get some asshole demanding a debate. Is the earth round, is evolution real, should racist altfurries get kicked to the curb after swatting Califur? Yes, yes, and yes, if we’re all telling the truth. But unending conflict between “sides” is a substitute for good stories, real jokes or having anything sincere to say. It brings the clicks that raise clout for edgy people.
While the line-pushers thrive on conflict, faux-“centrists” tag along and enable them, trying to play all the sides and turning definitions to mush. They do posing about freedom, but really have no side except mercenary selfishness. It’s a cooked-up conflict between people who act in good faith vs. people with none.
In this barrel-scraping free-for-all, there’s many examples of people doing it and it goes way beyond just furries. Let’s name names.
In 2017, JonTron did a livestream with right-wing commentator SargonOfAkkad in support of Donald Trump, which continued on social media and this video, where he promotes reactionary “white identitarianism” while denying that’s what it is. (They love disguising it as “both sides” centrism to cook up a “debate” that spreads the racist side no matter who “wins”.) The first step is calling white a race, for false equivalence between an arbitrary label and specific conditions – like being redlined or arrested for sitting in a Starbucks while black. It’s as disingenuous as saying that incident wasn’t racist because they served black coffee.
OH MY GOD pic.twitter.com/f84wkPulu1
— Lichqueen
(@gwen_no_fear) April 25, 2018
We’ve seen that kind of ignorance across 2 Gryphon’s entire career. Newer furries such as Dojo Dingo imitate that model like empty suits anyone can get inside, seeking clicks from haters AND people they hate. It’s clear that they’re acting in bad faith, but their platform doesn’t just change if it’s demonetized while they also use Streamlabs or Patreon for money. Some of their fans are kids, not just “college kids” but 12-14 year olds or younger. They’re prime targets when they support and even idolize furry Youtubers, taking it as a character act (it’s not) and an excuse for apathy about demagoguery.
Demagogue: A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.
What’s really beneath excuses like “it’s just their opinion”, or “it’s a joke” or “they’re being sarcastic?” When they go out of the way to offend people for the sake of it, or enable ignorance while pretending to be unbiased and aloof – there’s no practical difference between hating ironically, and just hating.
Such ignorance on Youtube isn’t going to get improved by YouTube. Whether content is nice, hateful, well-crafted, or crappy, they profit from clicks no matter what. When it can just shift around to other platforms, general society isn’t so likely to improve it either.
But there is a choice on the ground level inside a self-aware, self-defined subculture. When people say “furries are fans of each other”, no other community has more power to choose what they consume.
You’re more than a consumer, you can be an active member of a creative community. It’s a 2-way street when content isn’t premade and blasted out by corporations. You can demand better, and that isn’t censoring or being an “SJW.” (The strawman about implacable offense is flipping the direction it comes from, when indifferent platforms are exploited by line-pushers). You don’t have to settle for crap, and a basic standard isn’t gatekeeping. It’s your choice, and that’s the free market. That doesn’t mean telling those empty suits how to act, it’s just expressing how you, as an audience, aren’t buying it.
For proof that you have power, cue up any 2 Gryphon rant and see what he blames for his faded career as a convention performer. Expect him not to name himself, his declining relevance or the hate he spreads. When selfish mercenaries won’t improve themselves, getting better starts with demanding better.
People who do that share beliefs with hate groups. The wink-wink kek flag isn't fooling anyone.
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) April 27, 2018TL;DR: It amazes me that people take meticulous care of their fursuits and yet have zero self-awareness how palling around with Nazis makes them look.
That stain's gonna be hard to get out.
Have Fun Launch Nazis Into The Sun (@XydexxUnicorn) April 26, 2018
@SpicyFurryTakes @DogpatchPress on the subject of people like Dojo and Huscoon pic.twitter.com/cV69Xos01P
— Samantha (@SamHyena) April 28, 2018Response from Summercat:
Free speech is a good idea, and it’s predicated upon the assumption that all involved are acting in good faith. Those who are not acting in good faith by knowingly and intentionally spreading dishonest discourse, untruths, mis-statements, and any other forms of lying, are acting in a manner counterproductive to free speech. Here’s what poisoned discourse is like:
There are two pools. One is cleaned regularly. The other has toxins intentionally dumped in by people who hate swimming. Which would you rather swim in? Would you consider it to be free speech by those who hate swimming, if they point at the pool filled with toxins they dumped in and claim that swimming is therefore bad?
The rising potential of fandom to be better:
- Furry YouTubers You Might Not Have Seen – guest post from Pup Matthias.
- Furries are winning Emmys and Youtube Creator Awards – guest post from Arrkay of Culturally F’d.
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Camouflage, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Rukis – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Camouflage, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Rukis.
Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, December 2017, trade paperback, $19.95 (293 pages), Kindle $9.99.
Camouflage is a spinoff of Kyell Gold’s popular five Dev and Lee novels. It features tiger footballer Devlin Miski’s cousin Danilo in a very different plot. That puts Camouflage into Gold’s Forrester University world.
Danilo is an adolescent English 19-year-old white tiger, currently studying at the Student Center of the Université Catholique in Tigue, Gallia, on the Saône River.
“Tigue, like many Gallic cities, contained many identities within her borders. The main campus of the Université Catholique lay on the edge of one of the newer parts of the city, a small suburb that had been built up twenty years ago, stretching sleek glass and elegant steel skyward. Old photos of the Université’s stately limestone buildings from before the expansion showed their red clay roofs over grey-white arches amidst of modest forests and fields. In the Presqu’Ile campus in the heart of old Tigue, ancient limestone and red clay dominated, broken up by cold grey churches, and through them, modern cars honked along the rain-slick street, though down on the riverbank, the babble of the crowd faded next to the light hiss of rain into the river.” (p. 13)
“Currently” is the year 2008, when Dev has just had his press conference in the States announcing that he’s homosexual. Danilo is much more private and withdrawn, and he’s not interested in sports. He hasn’t announced his homosexuality yet, although he does have a gay lover; Taye, a mouse Romany fellow student. (Actually he’s bisexual, but he doesn’t realize that yet.) Readers of Out of Position, the first Dev and Lee novel, will know that Dev was forced to “come out of the closet”. Danilo resents the notoriety-by-association that makes it harder to conceal his own sexual orientation.
“Gah, this was going to drive Danilo crazy. All because some cousin he’d only met a couple times decided to make his sexual preference public. Who did that, anyway? There was a question he could ask: why would you do that, declare that you’re gay in a big spectacle for everyone to see? Nobody needed to know. Maybe when you were a big football star, you lost sight of the fact that not everyone cares about your private life. Maybe you didn’t stop to think about the other people who would be affected by your actions, like your cousin across the ocean who had used you as a shield because he couldn’t play footer, and nobody in this country wanted to play cricket.” (pgs. 14-15)
Danilo’s sister Lena is thrilled by the news (“He’s the first professional athlete to come out. He’s a homosexual. Isn’t it wonderful?”), and is determined to tell everybody, which makes him feel even more exposed. He tries to get away from his classmates by retreating to a private spot he’s found, underneath an old stone bridge across the Saône.
And then suddenly, impossibly, he’s transported back in time to 1508 A.D.
Why? How? The reason doesn’t matter as much at first as just trying to stay alive in 1508 Tigue. Danilo meets two local teenagers; Théodore, a mouse very like Taye but more aggressive, and Luc, an otter. Luc takes pity on him and takes Danilo to his room within sight of Tigue’s Saint-Jean le Baptiste cathedral:
“Danilo took a moment to stare at the cathedral. In 2008, it had been impressive, but as a monument. […] Here the cathedral rose in its prime. One square tower stood behind its twin, and to their right, the arched roof extended on and on, five times longer than the largest other building Danilo could see, all of it shining bright and new. No, wait: that part on the was something older, where the stone did not gleam as brightly. But the cathedral itself still towered over the town, even across the river, and Danilo’s paws trembled against the window. As far as he could tell, it looked the same as it had been in his time (in the real world?); he wondered whether that weird clock was there and if the other features he remembered would be the same.” (pgs. 36-37)
Gold writes a good time-travel novel. There are a few quibbles, such as Danilo peeling potatoes in 1508 before they had been introduced from South America, but no more than in most authors’ time-travel novels. The magic that transports Danilo into the past turns his 21st-century Gallic into 16th-century Gallic. Danilo finds that 1508 Gallia is filthy and disease-ridden compared to 2008. He has to get used to much less modesty than he expects. Over weeks trapped in the past, he meets friends and enemies, discovers hetero sex, and builds a new life.
More importantly, Danilo discovers what it really means that 16th-century Europe was dominated by the Catholic Church. This was the century of the Iberian Inquisition and executing heretics; and neither the Church nor society in general are tolerant of those who stray from heterosexuality.
“The otter withdrew his paw slowly. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘the first time you are caught, the Church removes a testicle. The second time, you are castrated. Fully.’” (p. 107)
Danilo, as a bisexual, can pass as heterosexual adequately, but Luc, his first and best friend, is openly gay. Tigers are unusual but not unknown in Gallia (everyone thinks he’s from far-away Etrusca), and Danilo stands out by his white fur:
“‘Well, white fur in Tigue – in Gallia – is quite rare. White-furred people are said to be pure, to be touched by God. And so you will be more welcome in the church than… well, than if you were not white, we will leave it there.’ Luc lowered his voice.” (p. 74)
Danilo’s white fur brings him to the attention of Tigue’s highest ecclesiastical authorities, for both better and worse. When Luc is arrested and condemned to mutilation and execution, Danilo determines to rescue him. Somehow.
“All he knew was that he had to rescue Luc somehow before he was castrated, if that hadn’t already happened. […] Danilo sighed and rested his head in his paws. The only other option he saw was a movie-style jailbreak. And this was a sixteenth-century jail, so it was probably pretty solid, not one where you could bust up a computer panel or fake your entry and then knock out the guard and take the key.” (pgs. 160-161)
Cover by Rukis
Camouflage (cover by Rukis) is a novel of religious mysticism more than of materialistic s-f. Gold says in his Acknowledgements that he visited Lyon, France, the model for Tigue, in 2013, and the novel is steeped in the ancient city’s anthropomorphized history.
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.
“Naughty Bits” fursuit video shoot with Rachel Lark – sex-positive art in the age of Trump.
(Adult content)
Armed with a ukelele and raunchy/smart songs like “Fuck My Toe”, Rachel Lark is an Oakland, CA based singer-songwriter with a fierce and funny voice. She has a new song, “Naughty Bits”, that playfully protests against sex-negative politics. It’s a response to SESTA, a law against sex trafficking that throws free expression under the bus. Furry dating site Pounced closed in fear of overreach of the law.
For those of you who don’t know what’s up with SESTA (and I’m not judging, there’s a lot going on these days) here’s what you should know….
1. It equates all sex work with sex trafficking (not the same thing)
2. It hurts sex workers AND victims of sex trafficking
3. It has serious and scary implications for free speech on the internet
4. It potentially criminalizes sex worker solidarity and advocacy
This law sucks, but when things suck, we make art, and that’s the only way out of the despair. – Rachel Lark
Rachel wrote an in-depth article about this: SESTA, Sex Work, and Art in the Age of Trump.
Her music career has included work with Dan Savage, media personality from the Savage Love column and podcast. That should tell you that her songs are perverted in a socially redeeming way. She plays at Bawdy Storytelling, a popular San Francisco performance series. (They warmly welcome furries). It’s not radio music, but now I have to compare her to artists like Moby or the Dandy Warhols, who are my evidence that successful artists use furries in music videos.
Rachel’s need for furries for the “Naughty Bits” video reached me early on a Sunday morning. The call for help came with almost no notice. I read a tip about it while waking up at a furry house party. It was full of so many cuddling animals that I crashed on the kitchen floor at 4AM.
Hey, San Francisco! @rachellarkmusic is shooting a music video about #SESTA and she needs furries! Are you a furry that can be in her video today? Reply to this tweet!
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) April 21, 2018A super fun furry party with super cool furries! pic.twitter.com/vg4VMOK6K8
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) April 22, 2018Rachel had missed 3 furry parties in one day, including that private-invite cuddle party. Half of the Bay Area Furry community must have come out for all of them and it would have been a great opportunity to shoot. But in the morning nobody had energy to come with me. She needed two fursuiters and I was alone. So I took both of my suits to Rachel’s house, where her non-furry helper was waiting to gear up with me.
“Sorry about the short notice”, Rachel told me while I unpacked in her living room. “I wrote the song and got it recorded with a video in 8 days. That’s a thing about making art in the age of Trump. If you don’t do it right away, every day some new scandal pops up and makes people forget the previous one.”
We traded chat about furry lore and the practicalities of suiting, and Rachel was as curious as could be, unlike an outsider looking for a jolt of sensationalism. She was just being an artist with a vision that needed both of my fursonas to cuddle. Of course, that wasn’t hot at all. It was just doing my professional duty to partner with an innocent yet enthusiastic non-furry and fluff him up.
Furry cuddling only got in a few shots of the video (3:40, 4:20 and 5:00) but it was worth the effort. I met the crew, spread goodwill and got a look at the production. The video has fabulous drag, puppy players (one is a furry too) and slow-motion flogging. The song starts with slow fingersnaps and swells into an epic chorus. Try some of her music, and think, what if we got her to do a show with Pepper Coyote or a furry song?
When puritans try to wipe out expression, artists are on the same side together. I’d already been in music videos with shared associates with Rachel. This was part of a thriving local subculture and I’m glad furries were included as a vital part of it.
Backbone – a pixel art detective adventure game.
Thanks to Summercat for this guest post.
Here’s the Kickstarter for Backbone. I’ll save you reading the article. Go check it out. I am more than impressed; I am excited.
Still here? Okay fine, I’ll elaborate.
Backbone, by indie developer Eggnut, is a “pixel art cinematic adventure with stealth and action elements” set in a dystopian retro-future Vancouver, filled with the sounds of Jazz, the scents of Anthropomorphic Animals, and murder.
You play as Howard Lotor (cough), a raccoon Private Investigator who, in typical noir fashion, gets drawn into cases he might otherwise have avoided. You’re free to investigate the cases how you choose, finding clues in the city of Vancouver – including real world locations.
The game boasts these fun points:
- Original doom jazz OST.
- There is a technology that will make you grow out a huge bear claw out of your small raccoon body.
There’s your standard combat and stealth mechanics, but something they also stuck in is scent – a mechanic that simply wouldn’t work with human characters, but it’s so obvious in a world of anthro animals.
The inclusion of scent as an important mechanic impressed me more than the detailed pixel art, but what got me excited for Backbone is how well put together the project appears to be.
EggNut may be a new indie developer but they appear to have all their ducks in a row – pre-production has been ongoing for a year, and they have mostly completed a working demo level, with an expected Summer release. They even have someone designated as a project manager, and the kickstarter itself shows a level of cohesion that I don’t often see.
Based upon what I see, I’m in. The gameplay looks intriguing, the art, noir aesthetics and original jazz music are pleasing, and I’ve got a good feeling about the developer. I recommend you check out Backbone’s Kickstarter for yourself.
– Summercat
Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.