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I was at Furnal Equinox on Saturday and I realized as soon as I left that I probably should have taken some photos. I've been scouring the internet and not finding much at all. Do you guys know where photos for this event are usually uploaded, or am I just looking too soon after the event?

submitted by TFactor
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submitted by kejento
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Dear Papa Bear,

I'm a 21 year old male and I have 5 imaginary friends. I talk to them every night before I go to bed. I use to be depressed (it's gone now) and would think about suicide but they (my imaginary friends) would tell me not to think like that and give me reasons why I should live. I don't have a lot of friends and for instance if I was playing basketball by myself I would pretend they are playing along with me. I know they are not real but I like talking to them. Like I said before, I don't have a lot of friends and talking to them takes the loneliness away). So my question to you is do you think having 5 imaginary friends and being 21 is bad for me mentally?

G

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Hi, G,

I would only be concerned about you if you said that the five friends who live in your head were real or if they were telling you to do things that were hurtful to you or others. You describe them repeatedly as “imaginary,” as well as helpful, so, therefore, you are not crazy. Many people have imaginary friends in their lives, although they usually imagine them when they are children, not 21-year-olds.

But let’s consider this, as well: a lot of people would say that believing that Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit is watching over you is just as imaginary as having pretend playmates or companions. Or, look at people like me, who believe that they have guiding spirits in their lives who help them survive the vicissitudes of our existence. These things could be considered equally, if not more, crazy than your imaginary buddies. It’s all a matter of perspective, you see.

In a more quotidian example, many people in this country feel very close friendships to people they see on the television, especially on TV series. For lonely people, these characters become comforting, reassuring presences in their lives. Or look at the recent movie “Her,” about a man who falls in love with a talking operating system.

The thing is, G, we all need companionship; it is a very human need. And, when we find ourselves living alone or in isolation and unable to connect, the human mind and spirit will do what it can to cope with that situation. Your invention of five friends is your method of coping, and it clearly works for you. As long as you have a healthy perception of the real world (know what is real and what is not) you’ll be fine.

Hugs,

Papabear

I was just wondering what some of your expectations are for the Furry Fandom in the coming years; Like how The Art might change, the Scope and Size of people Identifying themselves as furries, and the like.

I ask Mainy because around this time I will be out of my parents house and able to interact with the fandom more in person I need a fursuit hug c: , and I would kind of like it to stay how it is now (in terms of size, community and creativity, if that makes sense) and not turn into something dramatically different from what I am used to as an adolescent fur.

Thanks (?>?<?)

submitted by Asvald_The_Highborn
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Seventeen years ago, at about this time of year, a female friend publicly accused me of hitting her.

There was a party at the house I shared with four others, and she was invited. At the end of the night she came into my bedroom. And a couple of hours later, she called a friend of mine, very upset, saying that I’d hit her. She probably told other people as well; I don’t know.

But I didn’t hit her. We didn’t even make physical contact. She was lying.

Here’s what happened next.

Short answer: nothing negative, to me at least.

Long answer:

This isn’t something I’ve ever really talked about, let alone explained in detail. It’s not easy. I’m going to try to use direct language as much as possible. Let’s call my accuser S.

About a year earlier, S was a housemate in the same house. She and I struck up a friendship, and we slept together a few times. It wasn’t a friends-with-benefits situation, nor were we in a relationship: it was somewhere in the middle. It fizzled out and she moved out soon afterwards.

The next time I saw S was at the party. We didn’t really talk to one another until after I went to my bedroom. She let herself in; said “why don’t we talk anymore”; I said something to the effect of “this isn’t the time or place for this conversation” and walked out. She left, and that was it until I heard about her accusation the next day.

And then a surprising thing happened. Nobody treated me any differently. I protested my innocence to people who asked, and people believed me.

Over time, S became an object of derision. My friends decided that she was upset because she “didn’t get any”. When they mentioned her in conversation, she would be called a “fat slut” or a “crazy bitch”.

At the time, it was a relief to be trusted. In hindsight, how can it be, in a he-said-she-said situation, that the accuser is considered to be wrong by default, and the accused presumed innocent? Of course my friends would be more inclined to believe me due to our pre-existing relationship, but why I am so unquestionably trustworthy, and why is S so untrustworthy?

The answer comes down, fundamentally, to sexism. This particular case could be seen to be an example of rape culture, a broad term that describes how society tacitly permits or excuses sexual assault.

In the case of me and S, there was no suggestion of rape or sexual assault, but the situation had a definite sexual flavour. The thought processes of my friends can be seen in the language they used. S’s behaviour can be distilled down to two “bad” traits: being interested in having sex, and expressing emotions.

Women often find themselves in a bind when it comes to sexuality. If a women presents herself as sexual being, she risks being characterized by men as a ‘slut’. Conversely, if she refuses to present herself as a sexual being, she is just as quickly characterized as ‘frigid’. Even in 2014, sex is a taboo topic for women in many environments.

This frigid/slut dichotomy can be clearly seen in a lot of popular movies. Consider a mainstream film, with a male lead who has a female love interest. There is a good chance that the female love interest will be, simultaneously, both sexy and chaste. Typically, she will wear sexy clothing and flirt with our hero, but also have no apparent sex life outside of their sexy banter.

Example: Carly Spencer from 2011′s Transformers: Dark of the Moon

S’s sexuality was one target of my friends’ jibes. Their language implies that she did something wrong simply by being interested in sex.

Zaush does this too, when he defends himself against allegations of sexual assault, such as in this tweet.

A widely-circulated screencap of Zaush’s Twitter, click for source

Here, Zaush implies that the sex is evidence that his accuser has done something wrong. He also writes as if he is a passive victim in the whole affair, reinforcing the idea that sex is something that women “give” and men “get”.

The second “bad” trait that my friends noted in S’s behaviour, further demonstrating that she can’t be trusted, is that she was upset. S expressed emotions, so she is presumed to be ‘crazy’, as if this were some guaranteed biological outcome of the condition of being female. This is another catch-22, where women who don’t express emotions can be accused of being ‘ice-queens’. (Men, of course, are either passionate or pragmatic.)

I’m quite confident, that had I actually hit S, my friends would have concluded that she ‘drove me to it’. They probably would have used rationalizing language like Zaush does:

Notice how, in these two tweets, Zaush presents himself as the completely logical victim of a ‘crazy’ woman. At no point does he take any responsibility, and nor does he in any of the myriad journals and other written records I’ve seen.

This creates a lose-lose-lose situation for women who are sexually assaulted. If they make an outright accusation, like S, they aren’t believed. If they make a vague accusation, perhaps without naming names or going into detail, they can be accused of spreading malicious rumour. And if they say nothing at all, as some of Zaush’s alleged victims have chosen to do, then people will assume that nothing happened.

It’s through this final option, where women who are assaulted choose to stay silent (perhaps because of the abuse they risk receiving if they speak up), that sexual assault becomes invisible. And then it becomes easy to assume that sexual assault doesn’t exist, or at least is vanishingly rare.

In Zaush’s case, the primary accusation against him was made in a private conversation, and not mentioned in any public forum. The accusation only came to light when FA’s private messages were leaked. So even though the accusation was detailed, specific, and made in private, the accuser was still presumed to be lying by many furries.

Further, she cited several other women who had experienced similar problems with Zaush—again, aired only in a private message. The fact that these women have not publicly accused Zaush is seen by some as ‘proof’ that these attacks never took place. But of course, if they did come forward, they too would be discredited with the twin sins of having sexual desire and of having emotions.

This is rape culture, and even if it sounds like an OTT term to some ears, what it describes is very real. Nobody thinks that rape is acceptable, and everyone would like for rape and sexual assault to never happen. But the culture of many male-dominated spaces, including furry, creates an environment that forgives the assaulters, and facilitates future assaults.

A further example of rape culture is the number of people who will believe that an accusation of rape or sexual assault may be false. False accusations are incredibly rare: a study by the UK Crown Prosecution Service found only 35 false allegations of rape (out of 5,561 prosecutions), and just 6 false allegations of domestic assault (out of 111,891 prosecutions)*.

* Ref Violence against Women and Girls Report 2012-013

Of course, there are no statistics available for informal accusations, such as those levelled against myself and against Zaush. However those statistics show very clearly that false accusations are very unusual… and yes, I accept the irony of that statement given that I was falsely accused.

The challenges faced by women who have been assaulted is worse in a male-dominated community like furry (we have about 4 men for every woman). This isn’t to say that all men (or all women) think the same way, just that the preponderance of men puts increased focus on the male point-of-view.

In hindsight, I think that S accused me of assaulting her because she wanted to hurt me. I had unwittingly hurt her.

I’m (fundamentally) gay. The affair that S and I had was unbalanced: for me, it was little more than casual sex with a friend. It’s fair to guess that she had romantic feelings towards me, and I certainly did nothing to contradict that idea. I find it hard to read my own motivations, but maybe I was just trying to avoid conflict, or maybe I trying to prove to myself that was heterosexual after all.

I probably let her believe that there was a relationship on the horizon, and it would have been a painful process as she slowly learned that was never going to happen. Perhaps she was still optimistic on the night of the party.

I don’t want to be too hard on myself, because I was young and I didn’t have the slightest clue what I was doing. And the same goes for S, and her accusation: her actions were about as reasonable and sophisticated as my own.

I don’t think I, on the cusp of 40, would treat someone so poorly nowadays (although I suspect there are one or two people who might beg to differ). At the very least, I think that my actions (and S’s actions) are forgivable. I hold no grudge against S but I remain sorry for the way I treated her.

And my sexist, rapey friends? They aren’t my friends anymore. Nowadays I spend my time with furries. We’re an imperfect bunch, and as a group we have a long way to go to make our community a safe place for women. But I think that we’re improving.

submitted by evilsibe
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Here is a wonderful student film from Sabrina Cotugno. From her description:

This is my fourth year film at Calarts! It is the story of Beopup, a little fox who goes hunting in the woods and uncovers something rather unpleasant.
Animated in TVPaint with backgrounds painted in photoshop

What's a hyooman?

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submitted by C_Redfox
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Author: Hello Papabear, I am an Indian Muslim guy brought up in a strictly traditional family. I’ve had a friend since my childhood with whom I’ve had a relationship beyond any boundaries. I’m a deep in the closet bisexual. The problem is I really love my friend so much. And I think he, too, loves […]

submitted by Asakari
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Recently on Animation Scoop came the announcement of a new feature-length 2-D animation project called Unstable, which is being developed by “the star studded animation team of Jeff ‘Swampy’ Marsh (Phineas & Ferb), David Freedman (Groove High) and top BBC Comedy Producer, Gareth Edwards (Mitchell & Webb). The three have been looking for the right project to collaborate on since they all worked on the adult animated animated series The Mr. Hell Show (BBC2 and Showtime) back in 2000. ” Unstable tells the story of a police horse who is accused of a crime he did not commit (“un-stable”, get it?), and of the little girl whom he turns to for help. One of the producers describes the film as “Witness meets Oceans 11 bumps into Madagascar“. The film is being brought to the screen by Peafur Productions.

image c. 2014 Peafur Productions

Me and a few friends want to do furry RP, and have been doing a small thing on Skype. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a place with good sfw furry RP.

Thanks if you can help!

submitted by Tomiix
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submitted by Falafox
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I love to RP on there and it would be loads of fun to RP with some furs from reddit.

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submitted by KrytheonRenzorii
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