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Conflicted about the furry fandom.
Hello there. Short time reader, one time poster. I've got some issues I'd like to discuss in a civil manner. I am not a furry, but I like some of the art and think the idea is cute. I'd like to address the things scaring me away from the fandom, because the majority of "unfavorable" furries have no idea that they're acting inappropriately. Allow me to enumerate:
Yiff. I don't care that this smut exists, and I would never judge someone for having a fetish that doesn't affect others. The problem is, porn should be something that you hide in a corner and discuss only in private among friends. The way it is now, platonic furry art and erotica is so intertwined that there's no way to be part of the art community without being connected to the porn community. Just flipping through a couple of pages of Furaffinity, Inkbunny, or deviantArt's anthro section will reveal that a significant portion of submissions are pornographic in nature. There is yiff for almost every furry webcomic out there. There is so much porn that it has its own lexicon. This is not how you want your group to appear to outsiders who want to get to know the fandom better. If you want this problem to go away, the community needs to make a concerted effort to separate the platonic from the sexual, be that by making separate websites entirely or simply a "disable mature images" option selected by default on popular websites.
Fursuiting. This one is an issue for people on a psychological level, and while it's great in the company of other furries, it gets very weird in public. From one perspective, a fursuiter is a giant, living teddy-bear for people to take pictures with. On the other hand, people wearing the suits tend to lose their sense of self rather quickly. It's just not healthy to hide behind a mask, if you wouldn't do something in public without the suit on, please don't do it in public. Ever. That said, I can't really find fault with fursuiting at conventions or with friends, playing make-believe is often lost with age, and I wish it wasn't.
Self-Criticism. I could probably write more about this issue than about the other two combined, but I'll keep it short. If you'd take a short trip over to r/furryartschool or r/furry_wordsmith, you might notice how sheepish (pun intended) the users are about giving criticism. I read some stories looking for constructive criticism on the wordsmith last night, and they were outright bad, but the commenters just skirted around the issues. This is endemic in the online art community in general, where many users are more concerned with making friends than improving their art. For issues 1 and 2 to be addressed, the community needs to grow some proverbial balls, take a long, hard look at itself, and be willing to take a stand on the issues brewing among members. It is never too late to make an ultimatum. In a recent success, the TVTropes admins recently demanded that all personal, pornographic, and pedophiliac pages be deleted or moved offsite, and in a week it was done. Now, the furry fandom is much larger than TVTropes, but that doesn't mean the same kind of results can't be turned out. It just takes some forcefulness on the part of the administrators.
That's all I have to say for now. I do like the fandom in general; and it's far less sexual and psychopathic than the media would have people believe, but it could be so much more. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to discussing this in an open environment.
submitted by rabiesfreesince1999[link] [26 comments]
New episodes of The Bedfellows start November 1
The Euro goes to BBF
Review: ‘Roar Vol. 4? part 5
A talented friend of mine is doing a contest for a free commission for people who pimp her FA!
TL;DR: Journal detailing the contest is here, and her gallery is here. Her art is awesome and you should watch her, regardless of the contest!
This is a self-post because I need to give you an example of how cool a person she is. A few weeks before AC this year, I commissioned this con badge from her, but, sadly, it didn't arrive in time for the con--or so I thought. A week after AC I find my badge. Cut in half and on the sidewalk a block down from my apartment. Yay mail theft. :/
I didn't want to break the news to her, since the destruction of something you've created can be heartbreaking to an artist, but I had to tell her the truth when she later asked me if it had ever arrived. Upon hearing what happened, she made an even bigger, better badge, and refused to let me pay for it, despite the previous badge's fate being 0% her fault.
That is a class act, so go! Watch her on FA! Commission her for great art! Put on a purple thing and dance around!
submitted by chaos386[link] [comment]
Review: ‘Francis Goes to Washington’, by David Stern
I'm opening request slots for sketching practice
I need practice with my tablet, so I figured this would be a good place to offer sketches. However, I need specific things to try, so for round one I'm opening 2 slots:
-1. Inked sketch, might add color
A relatively simple canine
-2. Rough sketch, might be inked [closed]
One of the lesser populated species; not a feline or a canine
Post here with a ref sheet if you're interested, please be aware that I'm a beginner, and these are not going to be super high quality.
submitted by Life_Wolf[link] [11 comments]
‘Kamlu …Happy Happy’, another Indian animated feature
$15 Halloween Portraits
I'm opening for halloween commissions~ (More information here )
Either message me here, comment below, or note me on FA :3
I only accept Paypal.
-Lexi
submitted by Sasukesis247[link] [2 comments]
Three comic book reviews: Pull List #3 (‘Avengers Academy’, ‘TMNT’ and ‘X-Men Legacy’)
Any popular furry news sites out there?
Are there any popular furry-related news websites/blogs or other pages out there (asides /r/furry ;) )? I've been looking for them a bit but I can't seem to find too many. What are your suggestions?
submitted by ThePiachu[link] [4 comments]
For those posting nsfw links here...
Post them at www.reddit.com/r/yiff the collection could always use more
submitted by _Ahri_[link] [3 comments]
Friends Are Ignoring Him
I have a question, but I'm not sure what to think about it, I live in a small town in the mountains, and my friends live in a large city, now, they are only an hours drive away from me, which isn't that bad, a two hour drive to visit friends sounds like a good thing. But lately I’ve started to notice things aren't the same anymore. We used to hang out all the time, every weekend and have some fun, sometimes I would stay the whole weekend too.
A little info on my friends, both of them are fairly new to the furry fandom so I helped them out a little bit, introducing them to sites like FA and even Second Life cause I knew there were more furs online and they could make more friends, I thought that was good for them. But now they are both online most of the time talking to these friends in other states more then me, and I never see them anymore. When I do they are both on their computers in their house. I want to say they are roommates as well.
It got even worse after they both got their fursuits (I don't have one) and now they go out of their way to drive for hours to go to a party or pick someone they met online up for some fun. I am starting to feel a little neglected now.
I guess my question is, what should I do, am I being paranoid about my friends, should I be happy they are getting so many new friends, or should I just kiss this friendship good bye?
Sam
* * *
Hi, Sam,
It was nice of you to introduce your friends to aspects of the fandom, such as the online communities out there. Papabear suspects that what has happened here is that your friends got caught up in SecondLife, fursuiting, and all that stuff. I know from experience that when you first discover these things you go, “Oh, WOW! Cool!” and you get really excited about them and they can take hold of your life. When I first found out about SL, I was totally carried away by it. I would wake up in the morning at 4am just so I could go on it for a few hours before work. I could be a bear there and party in furry communities, and for a while it was really awesome. After about a year of that, though, the novelty wore off a bit and I returned to the real world.
Same thing with the fursuits. I’m sure they were both very excited to have them and have gotten carried away. My bear instinct tells me they don’t mean to snub you. They have simply gotten self-involved by all this new, fun furry stuff and you have slipped their minds. This is not to excuse their behavior, which is selfish and rude, but neither do I think you should immediately drop them as friends.
Papabear suspects they do not realize how insensitive they are being to you. Have you talked to them about this? You don’t say that you have, so that would be the first thing to do: tell them you feel a bit ignored and you want to be included more in what they are doing. You don’t have to own a fursuit, for example, to accompany them on their furry outings.
Don’t give up on them yet. First, try and snap them out of their furry coma and wake up to the fact they have an IRL friend right there in the same room with them.
Good luck!
Papabear
24 in 24
Review: ‘Alligator Alley’, by Mink Mole & Dr. Adder
I cannot find a species to stick with. Any suggestions?
I have been a furry for about 6 years now. Since then I have been nearly every species under the sun. You name it I have probably been it at some point or another. My question is, how should I deal with this problem? I cant get any commissions of my character done, because I know I will probably just change in another week or so.
submitted by Fireaze[link] [13 comments]