GreenReaper's stories

Part of Australian documentary Alter Ego offers an escapist view of a therian in Second Life.

Peter and the Wolfie uploaded by Shelley Matulick (from furrymedia post by Terra Wah).

Read more: Thoughts on the documentary from Wolfie, and cut footage featuring Rattus.

Wolfer and Tobi compete in Guitar Hero (credit: Writerfox)

Last month saw a long-anticipated event - FurryCon, the first^[1] furry convention in Sweden since Eurofurence 2 - drawing 110 people to the city of Karlstad on the north shore of Lake Vänern.^[2]

The event ran from late Friday (18 September) to Sunday afternoon. It was organized by Spots and Stripes, and run by a team of 30 volunteers led by kirrow. Alcohol was banned, as was the display (but not private sale) of adult material.^[3]

The two fursuiters were very popular, especially at the fursuit bowling outing. Also popular was the ear and tail workshop, roleplaying games, and party games such as Mafia. A large collection of video games were available; those wishing to loan them were required to leave an item of value behind.

The event was a financial success, running a surplus of 4000 SEK (~US$570). 10% was donated to the event's charity, Djurskyddet Karlstad (Karlstad Animal Welfare); their total was 1181 SEK after a charity raffle and dealer contributions.^[2] Some found the furry theme lacking, but event organizers - most veterans of anime cons - pledged to address this in future years.

FurryCon's future location is still uncertain, though one proposal is to move to different cities each year, starting in Stockholm. However, a competition for next year's homepage mascot has begun. The theme? "Friendship and love . . . anthro style."

Preliminary results have been released for a psychological survey taken at Anthrocon 2009 this July.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} The survey team was led by Dr. Kathy Gerbasi, a social psychologist and anthrozoologist at the Niagara County Community College, and supervised by the Kent State University Institutional Review Board.

The team has run surveys at Anthrocon since 2006, covering topics such as connections with other species, species dysphoria and gender identity disorder, happiness and social rejection, transliminality, the essential characteristics of being a furry, and the reasons furry fans wear (or do not wear) fursuits.^[6] Many topics were chosen to address prevalent stereotypes. The first portion of their work was published in the academic journal Society and Animals in 2008.^[7][8]

This year's survey focussed on determining sociability, empathy, sex role identification, and social desirability.^[9] There were 275 participants; fewer than in previous years due to IRB restrictions intended to prevent distribution of forms to minors.^[10]

Syber and Skittles prowl the halls (photo by Orzel; more)

Visitors to this month's Califur had low expectations after last year's disappointing experience.^[1] Instead, hotel and convention staff delivered what attendees dubbed "the best Califur by a wide margin", "light years better than the last time" and "the best year yet".^[1][2][3]

The registration count rose 23% to 720,^[4] with several dealers reporting a decent profit.^[5][6][5][7] The event made much of its safari theme, printing the now-common personalized room keys. Several fursuiters played along, accessorizing their costumes with plastic guns and crossbows; at least 87 participated in the fursuit parade.^[8]

Some commented adversely on the presence of Cal Cotton, a dealer in real fur tails, mink-tipped floggers and scrimshaws.^[9][10] It was not their first year, though, and despite recent activism against the use of real fur in plush toys, many attendees saw no real problem.^[9][2]

Califur 4's venue was memorable for all the wrong reasons — a disappointing ice-cream social,^[11] filming (albeit by furries) in the halls,^[12] and a wedding reception forcing the event into what one con-goer described as a "furry ghetto" of black curtains.^[13][14] The curtains were so notorious that their lack was advertised as a feature of the new hotel, the Irvine Mariott.^[15]