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We always talk about what music, movies, games we like but never any active fun. I think it'd be good to talk about that gets us outside or at lest off our butt.

I enjoy adrenalin pumping and near death type stuff. Mostly winter ones like snowmobing and snowboarding, but that's because it's winter most of the year where I live. In the summer I do lots of motor cross and competitive marksmanship. Also got into rock walls a little while ago.

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Let's give this a test run at the very least. If it doesn't work, oh well, we can at least say we tried.

Rather than make dozens of individual "draw my sona" threads each week, let's try collecting them into one post.

Requesters! Comment with what you're looking to have drawn. I'll leave that up to you. If you would like to make it an art trade, specify that you're willing to draw in return!

Artists! Come browse through the comments just like you would in your own free offer threads, pick and choose. Help make someone's day a bit brighter!

I know I'll be checking through here this weekend (end of the weekend, to give everyone a fair chance) to draw some of your requests, I hope other artists would be willing to do the same.

In fact I PLEAD to those artists to participate.

Let's give this through Sunday to comment, so plenty of people have a chance to make a request. This is a first time thing so let's give it room for error.

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Something I noticed at the extremities over the cholrine debate and now the Atlanta trailer theft is this weird persecution complex some folks seem to have with the fandom. This might come across as a bit of a ramble or a rant but I think is a message that could be taken to heart.

The world is not "us versus them." We are people and members of society first, furries second. The fandom is grew out of the internet, it attracts those of us who yearn for a different identity, and a form of escapism. We need not look far for our fandom cousins. Trekkies, Star Wars Fans, Potter-heads, Whovians.... we all share a similar desire to escape the mundane world into the realms of fantasy.

The problem I see, is that while these other fandoms have folks who take things so seriously, I've never seen them have such an adversarial outlook apon the internet and world as we see in the Furry fandom. Some may call it furry drama, but when a truck gets stolen and the first thought that comes to several people's minds is that it was stolen by a "fur hater" (I'll come back to that term in a moment) we have to stop and ask ourselves if we're taking things a bit too far. There is no conspiracy of fur haters. The world is not judging your fandom (in fact, the world really just doesn't care). Trolls are just that.... trolls.

There is no need to get defensive over the fandom, if someone expresses a criticism or an ignorant joke you don't need to jump to the defend the sanctity of your preferred hobby like its your own child. Every time you do you make the entire group look just a little bit more rabid, or a little bit more crazy. Think of it this way, say you don't know sports, so you make a ill-informed football joke. Some football fan starts furiously explaining how the sport works, why your joke is wrong, tells you to leave, gets upset, and just generally makes an ass of them self. You'd probably think that's pretty weird, seeing as you don't interact with sports fans that often you'd probably start to think that sports fans are just like this. Well, there honestly isn't much difference between our hypothetical sports fan and some members of the furry fandom. You got two good options, politely attempt to correct them, or just laugh it off and distance yourself from the person. There is no need to start a shit-fest over it.

As for the term "fur-hater." I won't say there isn't someone out their who simply hate furries as a concept, the world is too big for that. But people are generally similar to each other, and you probably aren't that far off the median of behavior. Do you get irrationally angry at some group for no reason? I'm willing to guess probably not. If someone is hating, they're probably a troll. They thrive of pushing the buttons of others, and when stuff like the chlorine brings out the worst in us then they fucking eat it up. Your fandom belongs to you, your love of furry is yours alone. It should not matter what someone else thinks, ESPECIALLY if they're a stranger. Ignore them, laugh it off, don't engage, and for the love of god leave the furry drama at home.

Sorry for the rambling rant, just wanted to say that.

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i just need a pick me up

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Dated March 24, here is an article in the Star Observer, a free tabloid and online newspaper that caters to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and intersex communities in the eastern States of Australia:

http://www.starobserver.com.au/features/community/freedom-in-fur/134400

The article presents an interview with Melbourne fursuiter Matt "Makoh" Sim.


If you ask someone what they know about furries, a very specific but probably inaccurate image usually comes to mind. Benjamin Riley spoke to one member of Australia's fast-growing furry fandom about misconceptions, community, and how dressing up as an anthropomorphic cartoon animal can be the most liberating thing in the world.

OVER a couple of drinks after work in a beer garden in Melbourne’s Collingwood neighbourhood, Matt Sim explained the origins of his character, Makoh.

“I sometimes find myself being awkward or shy — this character would be outgoing and very social,” he said.

“He has a lithe build — I’m not fat, but I’m bigger than the character would be. He’s very friendly, where I can be a bit dickish at times.

“It’s how I would envisage myself as the perfect me. Even if I think of the perfect me as a human, it’s how I would transfer that over to a character. That’s what a lot of people think — it’s what they would be if they could be anything. That’s what I would be if I could be anything.”

Makoh is an African wild dog. He is both a character, and Sim himself. Makoh is Sim’s “fursona” — who Sim becomes when he puts on the $4000, custom-made suit that allows him to act out this idealised version of himself.

Sim belongs to Australia’s burgeoning furry community. It’s difficult to pin down exactly what it means to be a part of that community, but for the most part it revolves around dressing up as and having appreciation for anthropomorphic cartoon animals. Far from the image of middle-aged men dressing up like mascots to have sex, it seems that within some loose thematic boundaries, furry fandom can look like almost anything.

“To me, furry is a very broad topic,” Sim said.

“There’s the people who dress up, there’s the artists who draw artwork, which often the characters are designed off of to make the fur suits, and then there’s writers who write fan fiction, and people like myself who appreciate all of this.”

For Sim, furry is a hobby, and a community based around that hobby.

He’s 23 now, and he’s been living in Melbourne since moving here from Dunedin in New Zealand a few years back. Sim first got into furry when he was 16, through online chat rooms. He bought his Makoh fursuit less than a year ago, so most of his involvement in the community has been as an admirer. He explained that, largely due to the costs of a good quality fursuit, only a minority of people in the community are what’s called “fursuiters”.

As a concept, Sim’s fursona Makoh is only a couple of years old.

“I talked with my friend who’s an artist, and we sat down and formed this design of my character,” he said.

“I tried to encompass features of myself, but it’s also an ideal I have, this ideal character that I would like to be if I was in that position… both personality and physically.”

Once Sim was happy with the design, he got in touch with a well-known American fursuit maker who goes by ByCats4Cats (he’s since branched out into other animals) to have Makoh created. Between manufacturing and shipping the suit from the US to Melbourne, it cost Sim around $4000 AUD. He could have paid a lot less (though even a cheap fursuit will set you back around $1000), but Sim explained the best quality fursuits are highly prized in the community.

“There’s definitely people out there who do them cheaper, but those are often the people that aren’t as well-known,” he said.

“There’s the renown factor, the quality and the look of it… It costs so much because there’s so much patchwork in it.”

There aren’t a lot of people wearing suits at most “furmeets”, though there are usually specific events organised for fursuiters.

The furry community is now a huge part of Sim’s life, and knowing people online meant furries were the only people he knew when he moved to Australia. He said the majority of his friends are furries, including his boyfriend.

That’s another thing: the community is really gay. Sim estimates that in Melbourne, the community is around 70 per cent male, and most of those men (as well as most of the women in the community) aren’t straight. Sim said it goes hand-in-hand with the shy, awkward archetype of the furry fan. Furry fandom is both a haven for outcasts and a space to try being something different.

“It definitely helped me when I was younger to come into my own as a gay male,” Sim argued.

“It’s a very open community. There’s no ‘off-limits’ to just chat about, I find. Furries tend to be happy to talk about sexuality like it’s not a big deal.”

Sim was happy to discuss the subject of sexuality and furry fandom. He wants people to understand the community better, especially given the many misconceptions about furries. He said most wouldn’t even talk to a journalist about it, after a wave of mainstream media coverage a while back painted the community as completely sex-obsessed. Some media coverage of furry fandom has even drawn a connection between furry fandom and bestiality, which Sim vehemently rejected as both offensive and untrue.

Sim said most fursuiters would never have sex in the suit (known as “yiffing”) — their exorbitant cost is a good incentive to keep them clean.

“I won’t deny that there are some people that do that — denying that’s just stupid because it happens,” he said.

“It can be a very sexual thing for some people. It can be a completely non-sexual thing for others.”

Although only a small minority of furries have sex in the suits, furry fandom can be sexual in other ways. Sim said it’s common for people in the community to commission sexualised “pin-ups” of their characters, or just straight-up illustrations of their fursona having sex with another fursona.

“An artist generally won’t draw something without both parties saying, ‘hey, I want this drawn’,” Sim explained.

“It’s reasonably common, surprisingly, for people to have artwork drawn of say, them fucking each other. But that doesn’t mean that anything would actually happen between those two people, it’s just the characters.”

After years spent admiring fursuits, Sim remembers what it was like the first time he went to a furry event as Makoh.

“I didn’t really know how to act. I felt slightly awkward at first, before I started to come into my own in it, because it’s a very interesting feeling being inside that fursuit… you overheat very quickly, and your vision is limited. But once that went away, it felt really liberating,” he said.

“It’s an interesting feeling when everyone finds you cute. Suddenly everyone wants your attention, everyone wants to be around you, everyone wants pictures with you, everyone compliments you. It feels good. I won’t lie, the attention is a good feeling. I have always lacked that in myself — I have never felt overly attractive.

“In some ways it feels fake, or that they just like what’s on the outside of you, but at the same time, it still feels nice.”

Sim believes being Makoh has changed how he feels in his everyday life, outside the suit.

“I feel like a normal, confident person since I got Makoh,” he said.

“It’s made me feel more confident in myself, more confident in my own appearance, my own personality. I think I act a bit more outgoing. It’s in some ways changed me into that more ideal self that I thought of when I created Makoh. It’s liberating.”

Part of the interview series:  artists, animators, and more. When he was younger, Adam Conover went to anime conventions dressed like a bad guy from Sailor Moon. Adam writes jokes about internet culture for CollegeHumor.  The comedy website earned high praise this week with 9 Webby award nominations.  He told me that winning those would be way less cool than getting […]

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I've narrowed it down to 2 reasons

1. Exponential growth of people joining the fandom at a young age

2. People growing out of the fandom

There's also factors to consider like the fandom isn't that old and etc

There's probably many more reasons than and I would like to hear your ideas on why the average age of the fandom is young.

Edit: I shouldn't of use " so young" that sounds a bit harsh I will just use "young"

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