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Author: rodney Check out the plot summary for Ryan North’s new comic book series The Midas Flesh: “Fatima and her space crew have decided to return to Earth—a planet completely sectioned off, abandoned, and covered in gold—to find out exactly what happened to this once thriving planet and see if they can use that knowledge […]

I lied to everyone who read my “furries from around the world” articles over a year ago. I concluded by assuring that I would post an article for Australia soon. That was, as GLaDOS would put it, “an outright fabrication”, as I moved back to college for the semester literally three days later and was absolutely confident (at least in the back of my head) that I wouldn’t be writing about furries during the school semester.

Then, suddenly, school ended and I had no excuse. I had a two-hour interview with Carnival and Kraden from ACTFur as well as four completed questionnaires, including one from a Midfur staff member. I had everything I needed. I just didn’t feel like writing. Four months bled into about fifteen months. But, I have the information, and it would be a shame to let it stagnate any more. It’s time to write about Australia.

I’m coming for you, you big chunky land mass!

For those who haven’t read any of these articles (or have, and forgot how my sleazy systematic method of hunting down foreign furries for info works), I’ve been accepting survey responses from as many furries as possible from certain countries, asking them a certain set of questions, and summarizing their responses all in the name of getting a more interesting idea of what foreign ‘furry’ culture is like.

One thing I learned from my research for the New Zealand article is that Australians and New Zealand residents (known colloquially as “Kiwis”) don’t like getting mixed up. It only seems fair, since I already wrote a New Zealand article, to give Australia its own article, lest I be beaten to a bloody pulp by a rainbow mob of fuzzy (and scaly and feathery and what have you) creatures with cute accents.

“Furmeets”, small gatherings of 10-40 or 50 furries, usually at a furry’s house, are popular in America. Do those exist in Australia, and if so, are they prevalent?

The social layout of Australia can be likened to that of America and really any country divided into many smaller regions in that population disparity creates subculture “hotspots”. Kraden made note that, just like anywhere else with small scattered cities, it’s really about how many people live nearby. Australia is bigger than the contiguous United States, but has just one twelfth of the population. That means tons of scatter and unpopulated area, and if you happen to live in a more rural part of the country you naturally aren’t as likely to run into any furries. Or any other people, for that matter. There’s an incredibly relevant XKCD regarding this idea (and not just for the mention of furry porn.)

Perhaps there are furries living on top of this? …unlikely.

In larger cities such as Sydney and Melbourne furries reported that larger (non-casual, regularly-occurring) meets could get upwards of 50-60 attendees. Some even made reference to different activities – sometimes furries meet up and go bowling, sometimes artists gather at a restaurant, things like that. Traditional fare, really. Also, I’m seeing more and more examples of a universal rule: if there’s a place, and it has furmeets, it also has furry bowling. No exceptions. Furries and bowling go together like ice cream and more ice cream.

However, I also noticed the repetition of a trend that’s fairly common in larger areas – there were responses indicating that they didn’t believe meets happened at all. I see it happen all the time on the internet. Someone poses a question like, “Are there any furries in California?” completely unaware that not only are there furries in one of the most populated regions in the world but that, yes, a handful of them even use the internet to socialize. I’d like to take a moment to point out that despite “furry” being a very online-based social sphere a lot of furries seem to undervalue the usefulness of the internet.

Anyways, to summarize, meets are very popular and widespread especially in larger urban areas. This is generally the case for populated first-world areas.

How important is sexuality to Australian furries?

I’m falling more and more in love with this question because it always draws out some interesting thoughts. Before I begin with what might be the obvious perspective I’d like to point out that there’s a pervasive regional difference in how sexuality is accepted. Carnival noted that Sydney is the sort of “gay capital” of Australia and, if I understand correctly, a general rule could be stated saying that the farther south in the country you look, the population tends to be more accepting of alternate sexuality. Since mainland Australia has only six states, it’s noteworthy that generalizing trends by state is much more difficult.

Now, about that obvious perspective I pointed out. Not everyone responds with “extremely”. The responses are completely based on how vested any given respondent’s interest is in the sexual part of the fandom. For example, two responses indicated a rather distant perspective on the subject, with a pretty disconnected “Well, it’s probably the same as elsewhere. People are tolerant and stuff. Also, there’s a lot of gays.” My favorite response was an anonymous one: Well, it’s probably the same as elsewhere, because it’s a big deal. As they said, “Yiff seems to be an important aspect of the fandom no matter where you are.” In short, it’s a significant component to many. There are plenty of furries only in it for the art and the hangouts, but plenty also see it as an expression of their sexuality.

Is there a skew towards gay/bisexuals in the fandom like there is in the American fandom?

There has always been some repetition with this question but I’m certain it’s because alternate sexuality is a notoriously prominent piece of the furry fandom. Most responses are on the same page as far as this notion goes.

Simply, it turns out that furry, with a huge population of semi-adolescent males, has a significant homosexual lean. (If you squint hard enough at some of the surveys over the years, furry sexuality approaches a relatively straight line across the Kinsey scale.) But, the question asks for a direct comparison to America, which relies on the respondent’s own perspective of American furries. Are we all willywashers over here? (Carnival used that word in the interview and I *absolutely* had to use it.) I think it’s a fair question. I’ve only been to one convention in my life, but if I had a dollar for every pair of guys I saw making out at that convention I could buy a pretty fancy sandwich. My point is, we might have a bit of a reputation, and it offers a basis of comparison for foreign furries.

One estimate guessed that maybe half of furries are straight and the rest are scattered across the bisexual/homosexual spectrum. Others suggested that there’s quite the lean towards the homosexual end of things, adding some speculation about the generally mandated rule that furries have to be nice and accepting to each other, thus fostering a welcome environment for alternate sexuality and explaining the rate of same-sex interest. Another noted that homosexuality might not be as prominent as it appears. The range seems to be from “yes, of course” to “well, maybe not”. There hasn’t been much in the way of “foreign furry survey data”, and there could be much to learn in the future.

Ultimately, the perception of the furries one has met versus the seeming “general consensus” is a pretty loaded and tricky question but always does a lot to shed light on the respondents.

How do Australian furries see the American furries? What do they think of us?

Kraden called America’s furry growth as a “trial by fire”, a sentiment echoed by a respondent to this same question mentioned in my Brazilian article. Consider first that the fandom’s growth has arguably been most pervasive in America. Nine of the ten largest furry gatherings in the world are in America. Fifteen of the top twenty are American as well. Large slices of furry activity inevitably lead to issues. (4chan word-filtered “furry” and its variants to the word “drama” for a long time. Technically for different reasons, but still accurate.)

As one respondent said, American furries would possibly be seen as “a bit more over the top, more drama, etc.”

Since America is exploring some uncharted territory as conventions and meets become bigger and more pop up, non-American furries can learn from the shortcomings of American furry activities. Thus, a “trial by fire”. We’re slowly figuring out how to do this whole “furry” thing together.

Do furries in Australia have a strong internet presence? How important is social networking over the internet?

There’s a general agreement that Australia is just as active over the Internet as any other nationality. There were citations of Facebook and FurAffinity groups, though most answers were pretty general. It’s certainly important for communication, but there weren’t any specific or unusual answers.

Kraden and Carnival reiterated this, also noting that word of mouth is important. They mentioned that message boards used to be the active way to get in touch with people (“Shoutouts to Furstralia.”) Finally, between Facebook, Deviantart, and FurAffinity, they claim you can cover just about all furries, thus making it at least relatively easy to maintain contact.

Pictured: The Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, and about $12 billion (USD) in fursuits.

What does the fandom mean to you?

The reports sent back from my Australian respondents seem to echo [what I sort of remember as] the general sentiment from many other places. Your involvement determines how meaningful being a “furry” is to you. What you put in, you get out.

One answer was a flowery chunk of reflection on the deep creativity, brilliant artistic work, and fun-filled meets of furries. Another was less enthused; it’s like reading, like a little bit of escape from reality. One answer called it “somewhere I was meant to belong.” Another said “it’s really just a way of meeting people with common interests.” (One of those previous two responses was from an artist; I’ll let you guess which one.)

The fandom is certainly important to some Australian furries. Though, as always, results vary.

What does the fandom mean to those in your region/locally?

One response noted that the fandom is very important to some Australian furries, though not as much as to the enthusiasts in Europe or America. I thought this was interesting. There are some pretty intensive furry enthusiasts who run conventions, host meets, and partake in everything else that goes well above and beyond what many (like myself) just consider a passive interest. However, Australia still has some pretty dedicated furries. After all, RivFur, Camp Wildpaw, MiDFur (which I learned recently is turning into ConFurgence due to its size), FurDU, FurJam, and FurWAG aren’t going to run (and participate in?) themselves.

However, the same respondent, as well as some others, place some reasoning on Australia’s size. This is reminiscent of the furry meet question. Since furries are scattered around an especially large area in this case those who don’t live near other furries or have any deeper interaction with the fandom may not consider it an involved hobby.

Supposedly, 98% of Australia’s population lives in the white, non-yellowed area. As Carnival said, “crusted around the coasts of Australia”.

Carnival made a point about Australian furries not really drawing Australian animal art or choosing Australian animals for their fursonas. This has been an issue in the past when I wrote my previous articles. For each article about each part of the world I tried my best to find at least a picture or two with some “local flavor”. Carnival/Kraden claimed to know a bunch of dingoes but said kangaroos are hard to come by. Kraden himself is a “WolfCoyoteFoxJellybean”, which are native to Australia. However, I ended up deciding to use some fursuit outing photos from the awesome Atpaw to add some color to the article. I think they work just as well.

How is furry looked at by non-furries in Australia?

One respondent sized it up pretty handily: Some see the costumes and think they’re cute. Others think they’re weird. But, most just don’t really care.

In a way, this is echoed by the other respondents. It’s mostly in the dark, as one answer added. People who know about ‘furry’ and have a weird impression of it exist, but seem to be uncommon.

Ultimately, furry is still its own microcosm. Anthrocon, easily the biggest furry convention, had just under 5,600 in 2013 and only surpassed 5,000 last year. As reference, Anime Expo had 61,000 attendees this year and Comic Con (San Diego) has reportedly had to cap its attendance to around 130,000 for several years. Furry is, like, a thing, *maaaaaan*, but you can’t walk up to just anyone and expect them to know what a fursona (or a sparkledog) is in the same way you can walk up to most people and expect them to know what a comic book is.

What do people do in fursuit in Australia? Community activities? Furmeet activities? Just at conventions?

One respondent simply noted that one reason fursuits are rare (at least in Brisbane) is simply because it’s hot. I can understand. I’m a redhead, so I feel like I’m going to burst into flames whenever I walk to my mailbox. A fursuit seems like a death sentence.

There was some disagreement regarding how popular fursuiting was. One answer remarked that fursuits were only seen at conventions, as far as they knew. However, another answer said that people would get into suit at barbecues and meets as well. I’d like to note that the first respondent implied that they hadn’t been to a convention or possible even a furry meet-up.

The more real-life furry activity going on, the more likely there is for fursuiters to do their thing. Unless it’s hot out. Because the heat is awful.

I did some quick research on how you could fursuit at a beach and not die. April in Australia is autumn, but on the Gold Coast in that time of year it should be around 27ºC, 80ºF. That’s still pretty warm, but not too warm to be a bad dog.

How are fursuits different in Australia from America?

The joke’s on me because literally every answer made reference to the fact that the Australians who do wear fursuits generally buy theirs from overseas. I don’t even have much else to add to this one. I’ve been bamboozled, because it turns out a lot of Australian fursuits *are* American.

Do know, however, that Carnival mentioned a furry called Oz Kangaroo who is a relatively popular fursuit creator from Australia. In addition to that, a handful of people dabble in making tails and other accessories, but for the most part it seems that fursuits are imported.

Anyways, that’s just about a wrap for Australia. I don’t intend for it to be a finish to the series. There are nineteen interviews unaccounted for in my notes from all over the world. I would like to write a large collection filled with some of the insightful things people said in response to the questions. I also have a super-secret bonus plan for one more article that will hopefully happen as well. I’m moving soon (again) and starting a new job, so no guarantees, but I’ll be keeping an eye on [a][s]. Thanks for reading!

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Dear Papa Bear,

I'm not sure where to start with this letter. My birthday is coming up in less than a week, and it will be my 21st birthday. My parents are taking me to Vegas for the occasion, and I was hoping to bring along a friend, someone around my age. I had planned on bringing my girlfriend of a year and ten months. I had let her know about the trip back in February, and it was understood that she wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it or not. Back in October, I asked her if she could come to Vegas and Midwest Fur Fest this year. She said she couldn't make it to MFF, so I said "Well you have to at least come to Vegas, We haven't seen each other in a year." (Last time we were together was at last year's MFF.) She responded saying that she didn't "have" to do anything, I wasn't the boss of her. This ended with a large fight where we took a two-week "break."

We started talking again, but things were very strained. I could feel her drifting away. So I kept trying to ask her to set aside some time so we could talk and hang out since, with finals and trying to find a job, she was very stressed and busy. I just couldn’t seem to get her to set aside some time. Finally, with only two weeks until the Vegas trip, I got her to respond to a text so I flat-out asked her. She responded that she had no desire what-so-ever to go to Vegas.

In an effort to keep this short-ish, I'll just say that she's showing no interest in anything couple-related. I'm slowly coming to terms with the realization that things are going to be ending soon.. But I'm in that stage where you're looking for any last threads of hope. Is there anything I can do to keep the relationship afloat? What can I do to keep our friendship if the relationship can't be salvaged? Should I hold some hope for possibly getting together again in the future? I know these are multiple questions, so if only one can be answered. What can I do to avoid losing her as my friend?
I'll answer any questions you have for details I may have missed and such.

Thank you,

~Brandon

* * *

Dear Brandon,

Oh, dear, when any relationship gets to this point, it’s pretty clear where it is going. You and I both know it, and I think you just wrote to me to see whether or not I would confirm your suspicions.

Since your time at MFF, she has backed out of seeing you again, she has become irritable when you tried to insist she go to Vegas, and you ended up fighting when you pressured her. Two things going on here: 1) the problems with that ol’ pain in the butt, the long-distance relationship, and 2) she is super stressed with school and her job search, which are her priorities right now.

The best thing you can do is back off. Contacting her repeatedly will just drive her away. Asking her to go on a trip with her will do that, too. Another option would be for you to go see her, but that would also cause her undue stress at this time.

This is the time when you put the relationship on pause. Let her focus on school and work. After those things ease up a bit, she will either contact you again, or not. You cannot force a relationship to happen, nor can you make someone love you. Contact her just one more time and tell her that you are not going to bug her for a while, but that you are always there for her if she needs to talk to someone. Then, let her make the next move.

Find someone else to party with in Vegas. While there, celebrate YOUR birthday and having fun. Don’t worry about her because that will just ruin your parents’ very cool gift to you. She’ll be fine, and so will you.

Hugs,

Papabear

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my other question is how do you know what you really are? are there quizzes out there to find out what animal you are? What you relate to the best? I'll be honest I always thought of myself as a grumpy triceratops dinosaur!

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I just figured that I would take this moment to introduce myself, and familiarize myself with how reddit works from a user's stand point (instead of as a lurker) all in one go. I am ThatOneTrees, and though I am technically not new to reddit, this will be my first post. As for being a furry, I suppose the same could be said to an extent. I didn't really know much about the fandom for the longest time, but had an interest in it for quite awhile. Unfortunately for me, my skills when it comes to drawing are somewhat limited, so I haven't really been able to explore this side of myself in that respect. In finding a "fursona" I believe the term is (well as far as appearance is concerned, anyway). I could always write it out though, as I am a writer. Still, I have yet to make one.

But I digress. My reason for being here (and even making an account) was so I could learn about the fandom. A number of months ago I went to a furry convention with the same goal. But having gone alone as well as only getting a single day pass, I ended up not learning much and left with more questions than answers. Thus, joining here seemed like the next logical step.

Also, please forgive any misused terms and mistakes I may make, as they are unintentional.

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That's right everyone, it's that time of year again. Time to bust out the tissues and park yourself in front of your gaming machine of choice because the Telltale Walking Dead series is coming back. You'll cry for the returning characters, for those who can not return, and because it has to end eventually, leaving you to wait fo the next installment.

Go ahead, try to tell me I'm wrong. 

Anyway, while on the topic of returns, according to the Telltale Games Twitter, "A familiar face returns in The Walking Dead Season 2 premire episode "All That Remains," releasing this month."

The tweet is accompanied by a photo of Cementine and Omid (From episode 3 onward) walking to a gas station.

There's not much to take from this other than Omid is coming back to the series, so if you're a fan of him, then there's that.

The first episode of season 2 will drop a month from now, so we'll just have to wait and see for what other secrets and reveals Telltale has up their collective sleeves.

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Check out the plot summary for Ryan North’s new comic book series The Midas Flesh: “Fatima and her space crew have decided to return to Earth—a planet completely sectioned off, abandoned, and covered in gold—to find out exactly what happened to this once thriving planet and see if they can use that knowledge against the evil empire that’s tracking them down. As luck would have it, they just landed the most powerful weapon in the universe: Some ancient dead guy’s body.” Why should we care? Well, one of Fatima’s “space crew” appears to be a talking dinosaur with horn-rim glasses. That, and the fact that Ryan North is one of the creative minds behind the Adventure Time comic book series. He talks about this new full-color series at Comic Book Resources. The Midas Flesh is illustrated by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb, and the first issue is coming later this month from Boom! Studios.

image c. 2013 Boom! Studios

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InkbunnyApp v0.2 Beta aviable on Ubuntu Touch.

Please show opinions and everything here. :3

(Update) https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=516390

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Author: Sonious Furries are pretty creative. Where conventional companies will pay advertising companies we find new way to promote our products and selves to others, the independent artists in the fandom have to use less conventional means of promotion. Two such staples that have become popular in the fandom over the past year which have […]

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