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Hello Everyone!

We open this week with a discussion on FOSTA. This is an American bill that is soon to become law that is having a chilling effect on how we use the internet, and the impacts are being felt worldwide. We discuss what the bill is, why it's ten types of awful, and how this impacts the furry fandom. We at Feral Attraction would encourage those who feel so inclined to visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation to learn even more and find ways you can resist this awful legislation. 

Our main topic is on sexual roles. We go over the different axes that are present when it comes to sexual determination and how everything is fluid and in motion. We talk about how the persona you portray becomes your truth and the beacon by which you attract people in your life, how pretense is prologue and determines the lifestyle that you lead, and why it's not a bad idea to experiment with your sexual roles. 

We close out this episode with a question on poly and friendship. Our questioner is interested in a poly relationship with one of his friend's husband, but his friend doesn't want that. How can he keep his new romantic attachment and his friend? Spoiler alert: he probably can't. 

For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks for everything everyone and, as always, be well!

FA 104 Sexual Roles - Is FOSTA good? Are sexual roles dynamic? Can you have your cake and eat it too? Can Metriko make it through his last episode without messing up the Patreon shoutouts? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!

Tom Broadbent has been staging creative fursuit photography for many years. I covered him in: Five pro photographers advancing the art of furry documentary. For each I named a signature approach, and to me, Tom excels at “whimsy”. His carefully chosen fantasy scenes show a depth of intrigue and storytelling beyond conventional scenes. Tom takes great care with relationships with his subjects. I think he’s the ideal photographer that furries could ask for.

That’s why I’m rushing out a post on short notice to urge support for his project. Tom has a dream to showcase furry subjects in a photo book, a beautiful archival object. It’s a few days from the Kickstarter deadline, and of course the funding is all or nothing.

There are 124 backers at 70% of the goal – can it get all the way to 100%?

We’ll know on April 4. I usually avoid covering crowdfunding – so this is an unusual request.

Link: Please share and support At Home With The Furries on Kickstarter.

Tom chatted with me about his feelings about trying to get his work promoted and published to a high standard:

“During this Kickstarter campaign, Cosmopolitan approached me to do an article. They did a really nice job.

8 Fascinating Photos Inside the Daily Lives of Furries

The day after, an American tabloid asked to do a feature and I had to turn them down, mainly because of their previous coverage of the furry community. I’ve worked with the furries for nearly 10 years and I can’t have anything jeopardizing the trust I’ve built with them. It’s a balancing act, obviously I could have done with the publicity, but then at what cost!

In terms of how protective I am of the work, it’s very! I want the work to be seen in the right places, as in the type of platforms that will add to the message I’m trying to say, not take away, devalue or sensationalise it. Hence it’s broadsheets, high quality magazines, websites and exhibitions. I have worked in the media for a long time and I know how the industry operates.

So that has meant a certain limitation of who can use the work and it’s meant saying no to a lot of outlets, for example tabloids and the inevitable TV production companies. It’s absolutely key that the furries involved in the project are happy with the sort of coverage I get. Here’s a tweet I made last week which sums up my position on it.”

I've had to say no to so many outlets over the years of making the #furry project. Making a body of work that has longevity means that I have a responsibilty to the community I'm working with and that means no compromise https://t.co/7obd5VKKG3

— Tom Broadbent (@Broadbentius) March 16, 2018

Furries talk about supporting Tom’s work:

• From Edward Fuzzypaws, featured in the book: Please help back this amazing project! <3 It’s a beautiful book and a wonderful tribute to the fandom!

• From the Singapore Furs: Need a little something to start a conversation among your guests as they relax your living room? Check out @Broadbentius and his photobook on furries as featured in Cosmopolitan.

• From Alfa Fox, referring to the Cosmopolitan feature (also featured in the book): I honestly never thought I’d ever be able to say that I’d been in Cosmo! If you’ve not already, get behind @Broadbentius and his kickstarter.

• From Sticks, the Fox (Sticks is in the book:) The excellent photographer @Broadbentius has just started a Kickstarter for a printed version of his project “At home with the Furries”. I had the privilege to be part of this & I have yet to find anyone who paints the fandom in such a wonderful light.

• From Cosmo Snowmew: Remember the Sunday Times Magazine “At Home With the Furries” series? Photographer, friend of furries and all-round cool cat @Broadbentius wants to turn it into a book… and needs your help funding it on Kickstarter!

• From Ambery Badgyote:

Hey man, were nothing. It's such a great thing to do. I really applaud the effort you've put into it

— ambery the 13.5%vol badgyote (@badgyote) March 7, 2018

Last words from Tom and Wolfy:

“I think possibly the most touching thing I’ve read since I launched the kickstarter is from a friend of mine, Wolfy from Lincoln. He’s a furry I met for the first time at a London fur meet, maybe in 2009 or so. This hit me hard and maybe sums up why the furry community is well, so great!

I asked Wolfy about the furry fandom and what it meant to him – I blogged about it recently here.”

Before (the furries) I had no social life. Struggled like hell with people and often had panic attacks. It wasn’t until I started to go to furry meets that I actually felt connected with people. For the most part the people were friendly and welcoming and very understanding. I still struggle at times in crowds but I have been to conventions, done furry camping. Things that would have scared the hell out of me 10 years ago.

The guy who introduced me to furry is running a kickstarter to turn his project into a book. He is an amazing guy and one of the few professionals that treat the fandom with dignity and respect. Anybody who can should seriously consider backing this project https://t.co/bZJsMmqpsK

— wolfy adder (@wolfy_adder) March 13, 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.

Here is a well done con video by Polar The Lion [1] of ThaiTails [2]. I'm still amazed by how far furry conventions have gone. [1] https://twitter.com/polarthelion?lang=en [2] http://thaitails.net/en
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Such a shame. I met my boyfriend of 5 years through Pounced, as well as some other awesome furs. This is yet another instance of Congress using a flamethrower to address an issue rather than a scalpel.

— Zaphod Birblebrox (@PandemoniumHawk) March 24, 2018

Yesterday’s article covered the closing of Pounced, a long-lived furry dating and personals site, out of fear of legal liability under a controversial new law, FOSTA. A statement on Pounced discussed ill-defined wording that made the law overkill; and how the smallest organizations may face the worst liability. It particularly could require administration that sounds easy on paper, but makes an untenable burden in practice.

FOSTA is meant to protect assumed victims of sex trafficking, but falsely makes “victims” and “sex work” the same thing. My article suggested that nobody wants trafficking abuse, but sex work isn’t illegal everywhere, it exists everywhere and can be called a healthy consenting adult issue. Beyond that is anti-free-speech, anti-business, and intrusive paternalism of a law that has collateral damage on stuff like harmless dating. Here’s some editorial elaboration.

Personal ads, dating, and sex in fandom

Furrtrax is still open as this posts – a free personals site offering nonprofit service for furries/by furries. Furfling, Furrymate and Bronymate are pay sites sharing ownership that were covered in one of my first furry news exposes about deceptive commercial practices targeting fandom for profit. Closing Pounced will shift activity, but will it go to a better place?

Furry dating is part of a unique community. If I told you that 2/3 of Star Trek fans were LGBT, and 80% of those in relationships found them with other Star Trek fans, you might say I’m from outer space. But that was a survey finding by the IARP about furries meeting furries. A huge amount of positive activity is being swept under the influence of FOSTA.

Many furries are into art and genre stuff that has nothing to do with sex. But sexual tolerance thrives in furry. It might be part of DIY creative expression that aligns with LGBT and other identity, on a spectrum beyond plain and average. Adult furry stuff is self generated, and often direct and indie unlike exploitative business. It’s hugely popular. The communities r/furry and r/yiff are close in age, and the adult one is bigger than the clean one. The biggest furry business is Bad Dragon. There are furry kink events in formal venues. Adult stuff is a gateway for newcomers who become some of the most dedicated and creative fans. An alternative to suppressing sex with bad laws would be tolerating free expression with healthy, safe access and education.

Peanut butter doesn’t have to go with jelly, but arguing that furries and sex don’t go together is impossible to do honestly these days. Trying to redefine it out of existence would be like shooting oneself in the foot about fixing a problem for furries and the larger culture too. A bad law doesn’t deserve to go unopposed just because it’s tricky to talk about. To the extent that trafficking is real, shouldn’t solutions happen with mutual participation of those close to it?

The wake up call is to own this issue as a community, or lose important parts of it. If “commercialization” is unwelcome to grassroots fandom, the effect of FOSTA is what it looks like. The threat isn’t companies hiring furry skills or supporting their platforms; it looks like being crowded out and having benefit shift to predatory or bigger companies, up to tech giants (Facebook, Google etc) that can afford to buy in.

It’s more complicated than “Free Speech Good, Moderation Bad,” and it shouldn’t be partisan.

When free expression comes up, there might be attempts to conflate this issue with another one, hate group recruiting and hate speech. But telling haters to go somewhere else isn’t like putting people in jail. Wearing earplugs and saying “stop yelling in my ear” isn’t punishment. Moderation for quality control on private platforms isn’t the same as censorship. There’s a difference between community policies and broad government acts. Refusing service to unwanted customers is a freedom too. Hate groups have a death toll and hate is hard to call useful for anything. Consenting adult sex work can be called a service.

Arguments to keep sex work illegal often come down to “because it’s illegal” or “it’s immoral.” Those aren’t arguments or evidence, but statistics can be. Here’s where it isn’t a liberal or conservative issue, it’s a pro or anti-sex issue that needs independent thinking and caution about trafficking statistics. Debunking bad ones is itself accused of murky politics, but there’s a lot of common sense criticism about an industry of inflating numbers and causing panic. It’s like marijuana use being accused of heinous affects that don’t exist.

More context:

• Washington Post: Lies, damned lies and sex work statistics
• Village Voice: Women’s Funding Network Sex Trafficking Study Is Junk Science

Where furry meets counterculture

To see how fandom overlaps with things beyond the ordinary, it’s worthwhile to look towards the San Francisco Bay Area. Silicon Valley’s relationship with furry should need no introduction, and here’s some data about it.

• The Bold Italic: Map Shows SF is a Hotbed of One Kinky-Creepy-Cute Subculture

There’s great support here for furry kink events. They can cross over with subcultural circus theater, avant-cabaret, burlesque, comedy and music, and other radical subculture like Burning Man, like in this article.

• It was so much fun to be in an outrageous Rap CD and a live comedy show!

The most freaky and creative stuff is under pressure to exist. To the extent that furry represents DIYness and outsiderness as a self made community, members whose interests align with kink deserve tolerance. They’re just as much fans into books and art as anyone else in it. Kinksters may be a reason fandom has independence and isn’t a corporate run Mickey Mouse club, and might deserve a special thanks for that.

Even if you never used Pounced, this is an opportunity to look at what makes the community run and what it’s about.

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.

In Wimbledon there is a children's theater called Polka that puts on some rather elaborate plays with puppets, costumes and original music. They managed to adapt Helen Stephens's book How to Hide a Lion, I may be biased but this looks rather cute. Here is more info on the Polka Theater [1]. [1] https://polkatheatre.com/home/about-us/
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CBS News: “Bizarre dating sites you didn’t know existed”

The site was key to starting a convention in Sweden.

Pounced.org, launched in March 2003, was a free, location-based service to help furries meet other furries. This long-time staple of fandom served them anywhere they exist. According to Wikifur, over 71,000 users and 13,000 personal ads were listed in 2016.

Ethan Staghorn, a Swedish furry, told me:

Ethan Staghorn

Pounced was key in making @NordicFuzzCon happen, and in growing the local fandom. Through Pounced, I found my very first local fandom friend, @MrJoelFox. A few years later, we decided to advertise a local furmeet since we wanted to make more local friends. About eight people showed up, among them @new_einstein and @traxswe, who both were attending their first furmeet. They started talking (and spoke to me) about doing a convention, which became the first NordicFuzzCon a little over a year later. They were the first two chairmen. NFC really did wonders for the local community, too. But I doubt any of this would have happened if I hadn’t seen Joel advertise on Pounced. He’s the only person I ever contacted through the site. I don’t really get personal ads, but his ad was calling out to me “this person is in your town and must be studying the same thing as you; you have to contact them!” @new_einstein knows the exact dates of many of these occurrences, since he recently did some digging for a wonderful panel he hosted at NordicFuzzCon about the history of NFC.

The site feared legal liability under a controversial new law – Fandom can’t just say no to politics. 

On March 23, 2018, Pounced closed in fear of FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) – U.S. Congressional bill H.R.1865. I read the text to find out what the fear is. Previously, section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 provided legal protection to websites for content they publish that was created by others. Now, websites are criminally responsible for anything that may “facilitate traffickers in advertising the sale of unlawful sex acts with sex trafficking victims.”

Pounced posted an explanation when this became Furry News:

FOSTA “makes sites operated by small organizations like pounced.org much riskier to operate. FOSTA essentially says that if we facilitate the prostitution of another person we’re liable. If you read FOSTA carefully the bill says “or facilitate” – the problem is that “or facilitate” is ill-defined.”

I’m not a lawyer, but this seems as broad as a violation if a site user offers to sleep with someone else for the cost of a hotel room (creative con travel).

To go farther, sex work isn’t illegal everywhere, it exists everywhere, and can’t be called a universally bad thing. It may be argued as a healthy consenting adult issue, like decriminalizing homosexual sex or marijuana use where nobody gets hurt. The bill isn’t meant to stop selling sex where it’s legal, but alarmingly, it combines “sex work” and “trafficking victims” as one thing. That’s not true, as more than a few furries know, including ones using Twitter AD accounts or Fetlife groups who may even occasionally do sex work at cons. (I’m not calling it common, I’m calling it a consenting adult issue. Trafficking themselves?)

 People sell sex at furry conventions. Even in cases where it isn’t sold, furries use the Internet to plan and coordinate sexual encounters at furry conventions, and since attending a convention costs money, it could be interpreted that way legally. Do you see the problem that puts websites in? The fact no actual trafficking is involved doesn’t matter; any facilitation of sex work can already get you in trouble for “trafficking”, like driving your consenting wife to a motel. – (Equivamp on Flayrah)

It’s much bigger than that too – besides a website suffering for one narrow use, all users are affected. Nobody wants trafficking abuse, but the law is comparable to using a bazooka to kill a mosquito – plus anti-free-speech, anti-business, and intrusively paternal.

“This is like a perfect example of ‘chilling effect’ by making it impossible for people to proceed with protected speech.” – Crissa Kentavr

The collateral damage to fandom started in mainstream culture when Craigslist shut down their personals section. That includes ditching all platonic friend ads and “Missed Connections” (I placed one of those ads earlier this month to reconnect about art with someone met at a furry party.) Craigslist is huge, and as the Pounced statement elaborates, the smaller the organization is, the worse the liability may be. When one small community is thrown under the bus, the reverberations can be international.

More news:

• Gizmodo: Craigslist Is Shutting Down Its Personals Section
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: How Congress Censored the Internet
• Engadget: How ‘sex trafficking’ just opened the censorship floodgates

Ya alot of furries complain about politics being discussed, but it is really important to discuss for the sake of the community as a whole and it's long term life. This bill needs to be shut down by the supreme court

— 清流IIDX (@SeiryuIIDX) March 24, 2018

Every Sex Worker I Know: "Here are a dozen articles about how SESTA/FOSTA will kill us, please call your Senators"
Civilians: ...
Craigslist: We're shutting down personals because of FOSTA
Civilians: "OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING NO ONE WARNED US"

— *Kriss_Lowrance (@kriss_lowrance) March 23, 2018

Pounced users speak out:

This SUCKS. I met my husband on Pounced ;-; – @TimidClef

Jesus, this sucks. Pounced is the reason i have my boyfriend, and several really good friends. – Ulrick

Met some of my first fur friends after moving away from my hometown through Pounced. – @BigBlueRudder

I met my fiancé on pounced, we’ve been together almost seven years and are getting married this summer. Shame to see it go. – @Asunyra

My partner and I met on pounced and our first conversations were still in my inbox after almost 3 years. I used to go back and reread them every now and then. Sad they’re gone, as well as the site itself. :< – @MallieTheSheep

My friends met on Pounced and are getting married this summer. My cousin saw his wife on the NY subway and met her through the ‘Missed Connections’ section. – @Reweth

Pounced was the only legit furry dating service I respected, considering the others tend to be the ones riddled with bots wanting you to buy premium to reply to their flirting. That’s a shame – Venice Springs

Tomorrow: a few more thoughts about this issue and what it means.

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.

Back from WonderCon 2018, and there is so much to talk about.  Like… The folks at Corgli & Co describe themselves like this: “The unnoteworthy life & non-adventures of a Blob of Corg & Company.” Actually it’s a web comic following the life of a plump corgi with a different sort of outlook on things. There’s also a Corgli Store with art prints and other funny animal objects. Check ’em out.

image c. 2018 Corgli & Co

That burger is glorious. SQUIRREL!
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reminder that these stream FRIDAY @7pm on YouTube if you would like to join the chat! for all things Dragget: www.draggetshow.com Here is video of it w/ illustrations and more! -- https://youtu.be/2zbQZ9CcPCQ Our Patreon w/ great new rewards! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow Dungeons & Draggets #09 - reminder that these stream FRIDAY @7pm on YouTube…

“Dogs go wacko for Schmackos!” If you grew up in Australia, you might have this TV ad series stuck in your brain. A big reason is the hand-made, stop-motion animation (think Wallace and Gromit, from before everything went CG). These ads have quirky, nostalgic appeal for a long-standing branding win.

North Americans might have no idea this exists. That’s why I’m happy to share it as Furry News, with a bit of animation-nerd interest. Yes, the fandom has become part of pop culture down under. The official mascot for Schmackos pet treats is now crafted by Furry paws.

Schmackos has been made since 1989 by Mars Petcare. That’s the Australian subsidiary of Mars Inc. (a global brand worth over $30 billion and famous for Snickers and M&M’s). In late 2017, they approached Lucky Dog Fursuits to commission a suit for their mascot.

He’s a Jack Russell terrier named Roger, and the commission is special because the character design is already well established. Usually if you hear about branding and fursuiting, it’s about fans copying something trademarked. This is a reversal where a mascot was entrusted to an indie maker, instead of ad industry professionals.  I think it happened because fandom has raised fursuiting quality so high. They came to furries to ask for their skills, not to take over an existing fan creation – so I would call it good work and positive to fandom. It’s a high profile portfolio piece like a pro sports team fursuit. Such work can help a maker to establish a career as a “pro-fan”.

Here’s the suit maker Topaz, her business, and the finished commission of a Roger suit for Shmackos.

Lucky Dog Fursuits is a small business based near Brisbane, Australia. It has been up and running since November 2016, and it couldn’t have been more of an enjoyable experience! I have absolutely fallen in love with the craft, and can’t see myself doing much else in years to come.

• The Lucky Dog Fursuits website
• Business Twitter 
• Don’t forget the Patreon!

Work room part 1! pic.twitter.com/FKAFN1qcZ4

— Blue and Topaz @ FurDU (@TopazBean) February 22, 2018

Now!
I know you’ve all be wondering what that big secret project as all about?
Well, here it is!

I was approached earlier in the year by Mars Pet Food Company, Australia, and they needed a new mascot for their pet treat line, Schmackos! And I asked me! pic.twitter.com/Z7UmL2WpRs

— Blue and Topaz @ FurDU (@TopazBean) December 13, 2017

But wait, there’s more! Let’s look at the TV ads and how this started. I talked to Nick Donkin, animation director for the original campaign. 

The Schmackos campaign started with Flying Gherkin studio, maker of boutique work for some of the biggest brands.

Flying Gherkin is a Melbourne based animation company established by Nick Donkin in 1993. Specialising in traditional stop motion, claymation, mixed media, puppetry and live action for film and TV ads, branded content, music videos, idents, title sequences and stuff that hasn’t even been invented yet. Your eyes are going to go crazy.

Hi Nick, can you fill me in on the background and what you do?

I created the campaign in 1997 in Sydney, Australia. Directed and animated 3 x 30 sec tvcs. They were well received and won a bunch of advertising awards. I created the characters in collaboration with the ad agency and my puppet crew.

What was it like to work on them?

A lot of fun. Had a great crew. Shot on 35mm film. Good times.

How long did your ads run and who made them after that?

They played my old ads as recently as 5 years ago. I made the first three, then they gave the campaign to a cheaper company who did a really crappy job imitating my style. Anifex took it over after my initial campaign.

When fandom artists deal with tracing and more, it’s a universal complaint, it seems. But Nick’s animation aesthetic still thrills me today. Look at all the warts-and-wrinkles charm in the characters:

Here’s six ads that appear to have been made by another studio for New Zealand.

And here’s a whole “movie” – a 3 minute short that’s more than just an ad. If they made stuff like this in the US I would watch it for fun!

For a look at Anifex, here’s a 2009 Schmackos ad they made. In 2012 they won awards including for a short film, Sleight of Hand – it helps to show how commercial work supports creative art.

Says Michael Cusack, writer, director and animator of the short film: “We work on our short films between commercial jobs. Consequently, they take a long time to make! Sleight of Hand is just under ten minutes long and it took a year to complete.”

If fursuit makers get higher end commissions, it can help them do full time “pro-fan” work.

So why did advertisers want a fursuit maker when they sought Lucky Dog Fursuits?

Marketing business news says that Schmackos was off TV for two years, and in 2017, they wanted a comeback to modernize the brand. I guess the animated style ran it’s course after many years so they tried a live action dog and a guy in costume. That aired, and it seems to have led to this story.  I haven’t learned if the fursuit will be on TV, but if that’s what modernizing means – welcome to the furry future!

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.

Ward’s Valley is a new full-color fantasy graphic novel from IDW and Top Shelf Comics. “Ward is a grumpy gnome who only wants to be left alone. He never asked for company… but when his beautiful forest starts filling up with animals, it’s more than just grumpiness that makes him nervous. Mysterious trolls are one the loose and Ward will need all the help he can get to defend Ward’s Valley.” This is interesting to note: The art is by Brenda Hickey, known for her work on IDW’s My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic series, the the story is written by Bobby Curnow, the My Little Pony series editor. Look for it on the shelves now.

image c. 2018 Top Shelf Comics

Looks as if next month IDW will release a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collection of particular note. According to them, it’s like this: “Go back to the very beginning, with the Turtles’ first encounter with the Foot Clan and their mysterious leader, the Shredder. With over 300 pages of mutated martial-arts action, this volume is perfect for fans to relive the glorious days of the Turtles’ origins, as well as an excellent place for new readers to see where the TMNT phenomenon began. Collects the first seven issues of the series, plus the Raphael and Michelangelo Micro-Series one-shots, all in brilliant color.” Yep, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Color Classics Volume 1 was written by Kevin Eastman and illustrated (and colored!) by Peter Laird.

image c. 2018 IDW Publishing

Not sure if I'm happy with the new designs but it is a new Ninja Turtles series. I will wait and see the pilot before I decide to hate this.
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Yes, this is one major problems furs have when they have to interact with humans.
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Hello everyone!

We open this week with a discussion on to best mediate conflicts in relationships. While this is a topic that we've covered before we wanted to present an alternate take from one of the main contributors from PolyWeekly, LustyGuy, as he offers his views on how to fight fair in a relationship to ensure everyone has the maximum potential to "win".

Our main topic is on transitions. During the course of last week's episode we discovered that this was a topic that we both wanted to delve into, so here we are. We talk about what the more common transitions that we will face in life are, and the ways we can best broach them, prepare for them, and thrive from them. 

We close out this week's show with a question about compatibility. Our questioner keeps dating guys that he discovers aren't compatible with him once they start dating. Is this a question of romantic connection, vulnerability, or of being true to yourself? 

For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode. 

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 103 Life Transitions - Can you fight fair in a relationship? Can you hasten the rate of change? Should you hurry love? No... you just gotta wait! All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!

Getting in on the ground floor regarding a new animated film — We don’t even have any images yet! But, here’s what we got from Variety: “Production is now under way at Cinesite in Montreal on Extinct, an animated feature being directed by David Silverman, the co-director of Pixar hit Monsters Inc. The film is a co-venture between multi-territory distributor China Lion Film, which will finance the picture, and China’s Wink Animation, part of Huayi Brothers Media. The adventure-comedy involves an adorable species of fluffy animals, called flummels. When two flummels are transported into the present day, they learn that their genus has become extinct, and travel back in time to try to save their race. The story is written by written by Joel H Cohen, John Frink, and Rob LaZebnik (The Simpsons).” According to the article, look for it in late 2020.

image c. 2018 China Lion Film

 

A very cute animation by Blankie [1]based off of TheFatRat's music track "Never Be Alone" [2]. [1] https://www.furaffinity.net/user/blankie/ [2] https://youtu.be/Ic-gZlPFTkQ
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(Content warning: antisemitic hate)

Altfurry and the Furry Raiders are toxic trolls on the fringes of fandom. These tiny groups claim to be furries, but they align with alt-right hate groups in the larger culture. Their harassment of a subculture comes disguised with bad-faith claims to support “freedom” and oppose “SJW’s.” Here’s a look behind the false front and a reminder that their hate is like oil and water to this community.

Racist hostility can’t coexist with a group full of queer nerds that’s based on tolerance and creativity. This makes altfurries uncomfortable about their alt-right associations, especially when they try to recruit – making them do two-faced, propagandistic denials that they’re “diverse” and not actually hateful. The denials are contradicted by how they look, talk, and act.

The denials are also contradicted by ban after ban for abuse on the platforms that they use for organizing. From early 2017 to February 2018, altfurries relied on Discord servers that hid behind layers of secrecy. Then on February 28, Discord kicked them out along with numerous other alt-right servers. I’ve been in contact with company reps about their investigation. What they found was as extreme as groups being responsible for murders – but Altfurry and the Furry Raiders weren’t let off the hook for the coordinated bans. They were all violating terms of service against hate.

When a company weeds out potential customers like that, money talks and bullshit walks. But if you still hear Altfurry denials, here’s a screenshot to prove beyond a doubt why they’re unwelcome on Discord. This was posted in the group – and then there’s a phone call with organizers who admit making a special channel for this.

The best propaganda move the fash have pulled was reframing their propaganda as a free speech issue.
Instead of "The Holocaust never happened" it's "Why won't anyone let me say that the Holocaust never happened?", and boom, instant support from conservatives for Holocaust denial.

— High Road Taker (@InnerPartisan) March 10, 2018

When they claim to support “freedom”, that includes explicit Holocaust denialism. When they claim “diversity”, that includes for spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories. And when they claim to oppose “SJW’s”, that’s code for evading limits on trolling and rule violation, as well as a tactic to scapegoat their targets (up to and including Jews).

After being banned from Discord, now they’re on a recruiting spree.  That’s one way to compensate for steady losses (you’d be overestimating their intelligence to tell them to give up already). ZeloxQuo, who staffed the group responsible for hate speech, and was previously exposed for assisting white supremacists with trolling, has been baiting FurAffinity users for attention. This calls for pointing out bad faith manipulation.

Giving a heads up to all my followers and friends. Keep your distance from this guy. He's an altfurry artist and recently just started finding a bunch of people to watch that don't align with his views. Just block him and ignore him. pic.twitter.com/qgcq80Rzvy

— Snowball Foxxo (@RussellTehFox) March 19, 2018

These manipulation tactics may work on oblivious or less involved members of Altfurry (and “alt-lite” catchment groups). Exposing exactly what they represent can ensure that the public won’t be fooled too.

For context about bans and recruiting, let’s look at the main organizer for Altfurry Discord, “Len Gilbert”, AKA Casey Hoerth.

Altfurry’s Diet Führer herds the sheep.

Some of Casey’s greatest hits of trolling and hate that he organized: (1) Urging members to attack Califur with swatting calls, contributing to its possible closure. (2) Supporting violence at the neo-nazi march in Charlottesville in August 2017, which contributed to the death of a former furry.

Casey styles himself as a Richard-Spencer type, PR-savvy white supremacist; the oily kind who tries to avoid open slurs and hides racist hate behind plausible deniability, euphemism and code. But sometimes it slips out anyways. Below is a video where Casey admits inviting alt-right hate groups into fandom.

His group shifted between Discord servers to dodge scrutiny, but always maintained a core of the same low hundred or so members. One of their final organizing phone calls happened on February 16, 2018 before Discord banned them. Below is an hour and a half recording plus casual transcript. You can hear Casey admit making a channel for “The Jewish Question” and call Zelox his “Gatekeeper” to help draw young kids into the group.

Transcript

The first 1/3 is all Casey, and worth most attention. It gives a feel of how he is focused on manipulating a group.

Casey was proud of getting 70 or so people to merge with his group from another one run by neo-nazi Blumiere (AKA Romulus.) They were afraid of security because the merger required a public link for a short time but it changed to vetted only. They had a “dummy” server where newbies were contained and vetted in by staff (including Zelox). Casey says his AltFurry server is different from Blumiere’s because it’s not public and has a litmus test for members being right wing, and the other one attracts a younger group, more from the alt right. He talks about lowering age to get in to 16, and how young white kids are “more right wing and tribal minded”. To introduce new members to his group, he shares his idea of what AltFurry is for and sets a goal of maybe posting a mission statement on Twitter.

Next, funny enough, he says there’s no litmus test because they’re open minded. The contradiction with his previous statement doesn’t seem to matter because he’s talking to sheep. (It’s a good example of him manipulating by saying two things at once and picking which one fits). Being “open minded” means herding together with a getting along principle. That’s mentioned at 18:40, and at 20:30, he admits that when Legofreak was going on about the “Jewish Question” and making debate a “contact sport” – he got his own special channel where Holocaust denial was welcome.

Another of their principles is being “creative” (that’s funny, because then they go on about meming, stealing art to do it, and trolling an artist who got upset about it.) They say they all do trolling, but that’s not what the group is really for – it’s really for fighting “SJW’s”. They think the left has been like a united army, and they have had people with big ideas clashing, but will fix it with organization now. (Isn’t it great how that worked out? Back to square 1…)

At the 1/3 point Casey opens channels to everyone, for boring talk about how to have artists in a channel. They stopped trying because of fear of consequences of being openly AltFur. At 1/2 way is trolling talk. One member jokes about getting homoerotic art of Casey and things get very awkward. They laugh about how “it’s all guys there” and that makes things easier.  At the 2/3 point Casey makes jealous, resentful attacks at myself and @Deotasdevil. At the 3/4 point Casey leaves and there is groupie praise for how “alpha” he was (to a tiny group with zero self awareness about being rejected losers). At 85%, a member talks of having worked with database admin and organizing/recruiting members for game servers. He conceptualizes furry fandom as a game with sides and bosses to beat. They use the term redpill about recruiting for AltFurry.

Bonus info

There’s a look behind the false front. It should be emphasized that despite Casey’s oily togetherness talk and euphemisms – the group’s purpose supported a whole channel for hate speech. Here’s some more of what was in it from “Legofreak”, who appears to be Jeremiah Maier, age 19, a Californian living in east Oakland. His Youtube channel was actually started at age 12 for sharing Legos.  (That means Casey, a 30-something year old man, is encouraging teens into Holocaust denialism.)

This hate group keeps spinning their wheels, never accomplishing anything, always looking backwards at bad, dead old beliefs, with jealousy for the truly positive and creative majority of fandom they can’t be part of. There’s a saying that the best revenge is living a good life, so ignoring them is good…  but then they’re targeting kids.  So keep making sure everyone knows it’s the wrong path that will always end in being pariahs, until they grow up and leave 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.

The Trailer dropped for Unicorn Wars, a dark and strange film from Alberto Vazquez [1]'. The NSFW was mostly for language. [1] https://www.cartoonbrew.com/awards/meet-spains-hottest-animator-alberto-vazquez-swept-goya-animation-categories-tonight-148282.html
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Imagine if every Google search was measured in sweat. In the 90’s, dead-tree newspapers were the place for movie listings, job ads and more. Delivering them was my first job. The Sunday paper was the size of a log, and it hurt to climb hills on a bike with a sack full of them in the middle of a blizzard or blazing heat. Relaxing afterwards with the comics was a treat, and there used to be a lot of good strips. Calvin and Hobbes was my favorite.

Furry has had zines, newsletters, comic books, strips, and webcomics. But I’m not aware of any fandom news publication with a regular comics or art feature adding to commentary. Dogpatch Press Patreon subscriptions are almost at the goal for that. It asks why furries don’t use the political cartoon format – (Wikifur says it had “some of the earliest anthropomorphic or funny animal art.”) Maybe they need a news source to host it? Doesn’t it seem like a worthy match?

That’s why the site is going to start commissioning an artist a month for a site banner. It will link to a headline post promoting the artist. Eventually regular comics might be added, but just a banner is OK to start.

TO APPLY – submit to banners@dogpatch.press:

• Your page link, one favorite piece, and a one-paragraph bio.
• Your price for a banner for the top of this site.
• (Optional) – Price for one comic with artistic freedom (any format; panel, strip, or page)
• Price for a six month/six comic contract.

Preference goes to pro quality artists with an interesting style, message or story, who might be underexposed. Examples:

• A unique or lesser seen art style like “Toon Grotesque“.
• Nonfiction or political comics (true life stories, or single panel satire.)
• Someone outside of the US or representing a community (Latin American artists have done previous banners.)
• If you do a running comic, go ahead and use existing characters. Self-promoting in the art is great!

This isn’t a popularity contest to commission eye candy from the most-followed artists. Also, a lot of popular stuff is about sex – sex sells, and there’s no problem with that, but this is meant to promote stuff that doesn’t rely on it (that stuff already does well on it’s own). It helps to be worthy for other reasons. This is to showcase fandom potential and artists that deserve a boost.

Here’s some pieces that have previously appeared.

by Jib Kodi

For artists – about the site.

“Furry news” is DIY alternative reporting from a fandom perspective. It’s a direct line to the furry world. There’s barely any “professional journalism” about furries because you can’t get that outside and there is no “objectivity” inside. For example, I write about events I also organize because nobody else will. That isn’t just news, it IS fandom, but it still counts as news the same as zines, columnists, magazine-style commentary, or “gonzo” first-person literary reporting. It can include jokes, satire, rough edges like a band’s bedroom album, RP, and a voice like yours. The concept is “Be The Media”, and it’s for love like artists do their thing.

So go wild!

Speaking of pay and making a professional platform: some writers chatted with me about starting a market-rate-paying furry publishing outlet apart from the Big Three publishers (Rabbit Valley, Sofawolf, Furplanet). Something with a periodical magazine concept. A top furry fiction author (no name, but you know it) confided to me that fandom just isn’t ready – it’s still a small niche that only supports handfuls of “pro fans” (like career fursuit makers) so far. It’s a shoestring budget deal, but fandom is growing, so let’s see where it leads.

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.