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The animation business joins the #metoo movement, a campaign for awareness of sexual harassment that started with powerful people in Hollywood.

John Kricfalusi, creator of the Ren & Stimpy show that gained a cult and influenced many 1990’s TV cartoons, is subject of a report about grooming and sexual abuse of young girls. They were taken under his wing as aspiring artists.

These aren’t just allegations; when he was around 40 he had an underage girlfriend, as mentioned in a book about him, and his attorney admits it was true.

Ren & Stimpy played at the Spike & Mike Animation fest in the 1990’s. I remember getting my mind blown when the fest toured to my town. It inspired me to do indie stuff (like this news site.) There’s more of a furry connection than just fandom, though.

There’s a general industry connection. Since the #metoo campaign came out in October 2017, I’ve been holding on to an animation story by request due to sensitivity about the climate (nothing more than that). Pro talk on a furry site can be a bit tricky because of general stigma.

There’s a personal story too. I didn’t expect this in 2018, because I hadn’t thought about John K. in a while – but I’m not surprised. In the early 2000’s, I saw blog commenters joke about him being a Svengali to pretty young girl artists (I had no idea about the underage part). 15 years ago, give or take, I went to a party at his house in Ontario and saw something myself there.

Oh, we’re arguing today because the guy who made Ren & Stimpy groomed minors and had a 16 year old live-in girlfriend when he was in his 40’s, despite the fact the age of consent in California has been 18 since 1970?

...What exactly are we arguing about here?

— Boozy Badger (@BoozyBadger) March 30, 2018

Does 2 Gryphon know it's the lawyers job to defend people? What does he know about John K, whose lawyer confirmed he had a 16 year old girlfriend in his 40s. Calling foul isnt the same as court guilt, there are times to both-sides it but this isn't one. https://t.co/tOmMczokh4

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) March 30, 2018

There are actual furry artists in this community who have worked for John K, saw this first hand, and mentioned seeing it while it was happening. Even without his lawyer saying so, we know this is true, I met witnesses at Further Confusion who were -there-.

— Chakat Slamfire (@ChakatSlamfire) March 31, 2018

back in 2007—ELEVEN DANG YEARS AGO—i wrote a humor column AS John K. to make fun of him. it's incredibly fucked up that the allegations against him are so much more extreme than my actual jokes pic.twitter.com/OC7Fw74Bqw

— Wow, Bob Mackey! (@bobservo) March 30, 2018

Trashy! My original fursona is a punk pack rat.

Background to my story: in 2003 I was in Canada, in a sort of punk collective and the animation scene. (That’s how I knew the director of the Furry Force animation I was in for a second; he’s a great friend and we shared space at one point.) I was noncitizen, so I couldn’t take offers of animation studio jobs. That left me homeless and looking for a path while sleeping in boiler rooms, closets or on couches of people I was helping to start projects. Then there was crashing parties – (and sometimes dumpster diving clothes and even food, freegan-style, because sell-by dates aren’t use-by dates on good sealed stuff. But that’s another story!)

John K. was at an animation event I was at. I got his address for the afterparty. His house was 1960’s bachelor-pad style, with vintage kids toys, wrestling vids and a shag carpet party basement thing. I got fed, had some beers, looked at some stacks of intern art submissions, and watched girls get rounded up to a closed room where John was going to play ukelele for them. Only the girls, including hopeful young students. It was a bit odd.

Only in 15 year hindsight does it click into a pattern. Now I can suggest that what I saw is a supporting detail for info that just came out. In 2003, it appeared to be no more than “this stranger is weird”. I neither owned a computer, had a presence online, or was professionally or personally connected enough to follow up, so it was useless info without context.

Also, talking to police was dangerous. I’d been caught in a cop’s spotlight after midnight, diving in a dumpster and retrieving bagged day-old bakery stuff. (Call me if you ever need garbology for investigative journalism.) The cop took my business card for ID, trusted my talk and let me go – unaware that my student visa was expired and I could have been deported across a border and away from people I relied on. That was a scary feeling, and a very small clue about challenges for reporting things.

Now if you can imagine yourself in furry animal paws, think about being brown or a non English speaker in the USA, or underage with a story that’s hard to tell.

 

John K. was a boss and mentor to people speaking up now, including artists Katie Rice and Robyn Byrd. Cartoon Brew is one of the most active sources for insider news, and the founder (Amid Amidi) had worked with them and John K. In 2018, Amid is praising these women for speaking up. He says the reporting has many details he didn’t know. They’re also commenting on the story in their own words.

I wonder if this has anything to do with 2017 news that Ren & Stimpy were rejected from proposed movies? They cited poor reception for the 2003 “Adult Party Cartoon.” (It could be another furry topic, maybe, about stigma on adult stuff and whether or not abuse was in the equation at the time.)

This is a story about people who are popular and looked up to, and trusted when maybe they shouldn’t be. Fandom knows this well, or it should.

Another thing we know well is supporting others. Check out the art and comics of Katie Rice and Robyn Byrd.

Maybe it's perverse but for now I'm just going to keep lobbing the photo "receipts" at the universe. John's 16-year-old girlfriend was really a thing! It was me! (And at 17, 18, 19, 20, 21...) #johnk #JohnKricfalusi #MeToo pic.twitter.com/RQSY6fEN38

— Robyn Byrd (@TopographicFish) March 31, 2018

Deepest love and respect for @TopographicFish. We were brought together as girls with the same weird, funny ambitions. Instead of nurturing our friendship we were pitted against each other by an egotistical pervert. He's not in control anymore.

— Katie Rice (@katiejrice) March 31, 2018

Hey also, @arianelange of Buzzfeed deserves a huge shout out. For six months she's been doing countless interviews, scouring blogs and books, and wading through giant piles of emails and transcripts, all to corroborate our stories and keep us safe by making our case air-tight.

— Katie Rice (@katiejrice) April 1, 2018

Thanks @DogpatchPress for doing this writeup with followups from your perspective! https://t.co/DkFx2qiH26

— Robyn Byrd (@TopographicFish) April 4, 2018

pic.twitter.com/SXrXEetklz

— Sarah Andersen (@SarahCAndersen) March 31, 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.

This makes me want to check out some of the Canadian cons now.
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www.draggetshow.com Be sure to check our website for all Things Dragget Show! Podcasts, videos, merch and more! Also, don't forget we stream the D&D sessions Friday at 7pm Central on YouTube! YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow Patreon: www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow 193 - FIRECAST! - www.draggetshow.com Be sure to check our website…

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/LkCLDESOkkM Our Patreon w/ great new rewards! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow Dungeons & Draggets #10 - reminder that these stream FRIDAY @7pm on YouTube…

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Cold Clay: A Murder Mystery by Juneau Black.
Philadelphia, PA, Hammer & Birch, November 2017, trade paperback, $12.95 (198 {+ 1] pages), Kindle $4.99.

This sequel to Shady Hollow: A Murder Mystery, described as “a Murder, She Wrote with animals”, is a worthy followup to it. Again the cast is:

“Vera Vixen: This cunning, foxy reporter has a nose for trouble and a desire to find out the truth, no matter where the path leads.

Deputy Orville Braun: This large brown bear is the more hardworking half of the Shady Hollow constabulary. He works by the book. But his book has half the pages ripped out.

Joe Elkin: This genial giant of a moose runs the town coffee shop – the local gathering spot. If gossip is spoken, Joe has heard it, but this time, he is the gossip.”

And too many others to list here. Cold Clay takes place several months after the events in Shady Hollow.   The animal inhabitants of the village of Shady Hollow are settling back into their peaceful routine – newspaper reporter Vera Vixen might call it boring – when the rabbit farm workers of Cold Clay Orchards who are transplanting an apple tree find the skeleton of a moose buried beneath it.

The news soon spreads, and all thoughts turn to the popular moose proprietor of Joe’s Mug, Shady Hollow’s coffee shop. Joe’s wife Julia disappeared eleven years ago. She was flighty and hadn’t wanted to stay in what she considered a nowheresville, so when she vanished, leaving Joe with their baby son, everyone assumed that she had walked out on them. But a moose’s skeleton, which is soon determined to be the missing Julia’s, and that she was murdered, sets all Shady Hollow talking again. There’s not really any evidence against Joe, but there isn’t against anyone else, either.

“Orville gestured for Vera to come to his desk. He handed her a copy of the arrest report, and said, ‘The orders from Chief Meade [another bear] are clear. In light of the evidence of a troubled marriage and Julia’s disappearance eleven years ago, and the recovery of the body this week, we arrested Joe Elkin on the charge of murder.’

‘Oh, Orville,’ Vera said, unable to hide her disappointment.

He bent his head, saying in a much lower voice, ‘You can’t print this, Vera. Meade insisted I arrest somebody, and Joe is the only suspect. He wants it to be understood that the police are on top of the matter.’

‘But you don’t think Joe did it!’ Vera guessed.

‘If he’s innocent, he’ll be fine.’ Orville’s expression was one of extreme doubt.” (pgs. 91-92)

Vera, an investigative reporter, is determined to discover who really did it since the police aren’t looking for anyone else. But where are there clues to an unsuspected murder eleven years earlier? And Vera is forcibly sidetracked when Octavia Grey, a haughty silver-furred mink, moves to Shady Hollow, starts a school of etiquette, and takes out a full-page ad for it in Vera’s newspaper. Vera’s skunk editor, who doesn’t want to offend a major advertiser, orders Vera to enroll in Ms. Grey’s school and spend all her time writing puff pieces on it.

Vera senses something suspicious about the aristocratic Ms. Grey almost immediately. But she suspects some kind of con artist at worst. How could a newcomer to Shady Hollow be connected to a murder eleven years in the past?

Cold Clay is full of the animal inhabitants of Shady Hollow. There’s Vera’s friend Lenore Lee, the raven proprietor of the village’s bookshop. There are Edith Von Beaverpelt and her daughter Anastasia, snobs who don’t want to be interviewed by a lowly reporter, and Howard Chitters, Mrs. Von Beaverpelt’s mouse manager of the local sawmill. There are Gladys Honeysuckle, the town gossip (a professional; she writes a gossip column for the Shady Hollow Herald), and Sun Li, the panda owner of The Bamboo Patch, an Oriental vegetarian restaurant. Professor Ambrosius Heidegger, the owl philosopher, seems too stuffy to be a serious suspect.

“‘Hmpf.’ Lenore ruffled her feathers. She wasnot the most cheerful of birds. ‘So what’s she like, then? This new mink?’

‘She’s very classy,’ Vera said. ‘But nice as well. Shesounds like she’s had an interesting life. Born into a family of aristocrats and has all sorts of stories about meeting royalty and such.’

Lenore gave a skeptical-sounding squawk. ‘Oh, indeed? And she gave it all up for Shady Hollow?’

‘There’s nothing wrong with Shady Hollow,’ Vera said defensively.

‘Course there is! No place is perfect, and we have bones out in the orchard, don’t we?’” (p. 62)

Cold Clay (cover by James T. Egan) is a second witty “cozy” murder mystery by “Juneau Black” (Jocelyn Koehler and Sharon Nagel). With animals. The characters are mostly funny animals (although Lenore Lee, a raven, does fly looking for clues from the air), but if this doesn’t bother you, it’s an enjoyable light read.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Publisher’s site

Quick: What’s the difference between a car driven into a crowd by a terrorist, and a swimming pool? That’s a question about the video below from 2 Gryphon.

So, I've never responded to a video made about me before. Let's have some fun!

Totally respect to @Tantroo_McNally. I appreciate what his work and what he does, even though I may not agree. No hate!https://t.co/tK1ZHSEx1Y

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) March 25, 2018

He was reacting to a video criticizing his beliefs about hate groups. Like neo-nazi marchers who murdered a woman in 2017 by driving a Dodge Challenger into a crowd – (with participation by haters from the furry community, leading one to kill himself in March 2018.)

2 Gryphon claims to be respectful of the critic Tantroo McNally, AKA Sonious. a furry news writer and Youtuber. At the same time, his reaction was punching down on an easy target with 369 subscribers in front of his 28,000.  That’s unusual. Sonious doesn’t get other ratings like this, and it pushes down search results. With so much unbalance, it’s hard to get both sides. Everyone likes both sides, right? So let’s give a deeper look to what Sonious was criticizing. This was the source of it all:

Okay, I'll try. If the Nazi didn't hate, then they wouldn't have killed people. And if the people who hated Nazis for hating hadn't hated them, the wouldn't have killed them. Hate is never good. Violence is never good. If someone tells you violence is an answer, they're wrong. https://t.co/mJ7FBfuNJJ

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) February 15, 2018

To be accurate, Jews weren’t causing hate against Nazis when Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, started a war and exterminated them. In fact Jews were scapegoated with fraudulent conspiracy theories to make them seem malevolent. That’s a key ingredient of antisemitic hate speech, then and today – so it’s a real dick move to insinuate that opposing nazis is hate. This is the definition of false equivalence.

Sonious took issue with this, like any informed person would. He raised a subsequent tweet by 2 Gryphon:

The Southern Poverty Law Center tallied 1064 incidents of hate crime in 2017, relatively few ending in death.

3500 people on average are killed every year in swimming pools. Swimming pools are a larger threat than racists. Why aren't you going after them? https://t.co/zgw2WDbB5a

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) February 15, 2018

According to 2 Gryphon, more people die in pools than by hate crimes, so we should care more about pools than haters. That’s the implication of bringing it up, out of the blue, to move the goalposts of a discussion. Sonious did nothing to downplay other deaths, and of course we can care about pool safety AND stopping hate groups at the same time. There was no justification to change the subject.

2 Gryphon was doing Whataboutism:

Like 2 Gryphon, except funny

Remember when pools took over a country and rounded people up for genocide?  Actually, they’re inanimate, regulated for safety and not a growing threat. But hate groups are actively recruiting with an agenda that leads to murder. It’s like having regular pools vs. people working to poison the water. (Or use cars or whatever does the damage.) One sits there with a good use and the other doesn’t. That’s why there’s public advocacy against hate groups. Like from the Southern Poverty Law Center, who certainly aren’t approving misuse of their work for whataboutism.

2 Gryphon’s video shows another bad faith tactic. After saying something ignorant, he has a habit of denying he actually said, alluded, meant, implied, or insinuated anything like that, with extremely pedantic hairsplitting. (Pettifogging is a good word.) This helps him deflect responsibility to have things both ways – like punching down on a critic while calling it “respect”. (Two-faced is a good word too.)

"I hate Nazis" is a very bold statement for someone who said he would rather shake hands with a nazi than use a transgender individual's pronouns because they somehow inconvenience him, don't you think.

— Riley "Zydr8" Pascal (@puppyresidue) March 16, 2018

Splitting the hairs: He said “stare a Nazi armband in the face”, not shake hands. Gotcha!

2 Gryphon can claim misquoting to play victim, and use false equivalence to claim he cares about ALL hate. But he’s not doing anything to stop support for hate groups [1][2][3][4][5] any more than he’s saving lives in pools (like he brought up.)

He claims to want education for nazis, but instead, he just slams people who don’t like them. His response to Sonious was 20 minutes of acting like an out-of-control-Challenger at the truth. That’s a lot of effort to avoid owning a misinforming, inaccurate comment. Here’s another one:

What's the deal with denying the holocaust? Some people think we never landed on the moon. They're stupid... but it doesn't make them evil.

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) May 9, 2014

How to fix stupidity? We could start with his. With total respect, of course!

To be respectful, comments about people being hateful to Nazis happen all the time. Often they come less from malice than from ignorance and failure to think critically. Especially with young people who don’t have a major personal stake in engaging the lessons of the past. Such comments need to have context of history and how they’re frequently deployed to justify bigotry and worse.

Since 2 Gryphon cited the Southern Poverty Law Center as a good source, I asked a journalist contact there for help to inform him. They sent me a quote about Holocaust denial – something I just showed happening in screenshots from altfurries.

From Memory, Myths, and Meanings. Why?: Explaining the Holocaust, by Peter Hayes (pp. 331–332):

A vocal group of deniers persists in asserting that gas chambers did not exist and genocide did not occur during the Third Reich, that the number of Jews who died in World War II was small and an incidental outcome of the fighting, that the evidence mentioned above consists of forgeries or coerced testimonies, and that Jews and communists contrived the “hoax” of the Holocaust after World War II in order to discredit Germany, extract money from it, and gain support for a Jewish state in Palestine. Calling themselves “revisionists,” these deniers drape themselves in the trappings of scholarship, but their strained arguments so clearly resemble the conspiracy theories that animated nineteenth-century antisemitism that their role as the real driving force behind denial shows through.

… Arguing with people who believe this nonsense is pointless, because the real source of their belief is not evidence or reasoning but incorrigible and circular fantasies about Jewish power and malevolence.”

The book by Peter Hayes, a world expert on the topic, explains how Nazis in hiding in South America essentially invented modern Holocaust denial. So by definition it’s not just a conspiracy theory, as 2 Gryphon suggests with his moon landing comparison – it’s honest-to-God Nazi propaganda. Countless scholars have concluded that the principle factor motivating Holocaust denial is not merely “stupidity,” but antisemitic hate.

What we can learn from 2 Gryphon’s reactionary stance:

• Nazis didn’t rise from being hated and aren’t just innocently stupid.
• Opposing them isn’t “hate,” it’s being an informed citizen.
• Enabling them by punching down on critics isn’t neutral, centrist, or informed advocacy.
• Presenting this as “free speech” vs “SJW’s” is a self serving, cooked-up controversy, not supported by sources who were cited.

While he’s spreading misinformation, can he be any more manipulative and self-serving? Yes. Watch him use a common trolling tactic (with explanation):

What the extreme left doesn't realize is that every time they send someone packing for not falling in line with their ideas, they come to me or someone like me for advice.

Not a good way to get people on your side.

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) March 31, 2018

Found this post while scrolling through the cesspit that is /pol/.
Reminds me of that one from @ContraPoints ‘ video on decrypting the right. pic.twitter.com/RmZXoTarsH

— Brad Savvy (@Brad_Savvy) March 29, 2018

It’s very corrupt for 2 Gryphon to tell people that correcting misinformation leads others to believe it, when he means “to believe me“. Don’t trust anyone who manipulates an argument to their advantage like that, or plays dumb on purpose.  (Like lying that they don’t know what nazis are).  Don’t be a tool.

This shows why he lost convention stages. Digging in with an incorrigible, circular claim isn’t very entertaining. He styles himself as a “shock jock” entertainer, but controversy with increasingly smaller targets and less honesty is a cheap high. It never gets as good as it used to be. At this point, the most shocking thing he could do is kick the habit and be funny and informative instead.

On a positive note, I want to close with something informative – Sonious’ World In Rooview channel. Here’s some more good stuff, including a previous video about 2 Gryphon. It’s likely that Sonious became a target for reaction because of it – (the same thing happened when I did a critical article, and 2 Gryphon avoided answering it but picked a different article to slam. It seems like a predictable play.)

Give Sonious a follow to encourage his good work and help everyone enjoy a better informed fandom.

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.

We stumbled across an interesting article about a new series of animated shorts coming to TV in South Africa. “NickToons in association with local animation studio, Sunrise Productions have proudly developed it’s first South African animation for the channel. Munki and Trunk is a dialogue-free 3D animated TV series for kids aged 4 to 7. Munki is a vine-swinging force of nature, hungry for bananas and adventure. Trunk is a big-hearted elephant who loves to nurture and play. These unlikely best friends explore their world together, facing fears and helping friends along the way. It’s the most fun you can have in the jungle.” The show is produced by Tim Keller, and it premiers this month. No word at all if anyone plans to distribute it to other parts of the world, unfortunately.

image c. 2018 Sunrise Productions

Another WonderCon discovery: Star Beasts is a science fiction funny animal comic written by Stephanie Young and illustrated by Allyson Lassiter. “The cosmic adventures of Star Beasts! Protectors of our planet, this secret order of creatures is sworn to guard our home. Keeping us safe from all Galactic Evil great and small. Want to know the real reason why Pluto isn’t a planet anymore? Find out in the first issue of Star Beasts, The Mighty Menace.” Well it’s nice to know that someone figured it out. Visit the Star Beasts home page or look for the creators at a comic convention near you.

image c. 2018 by Allyson Lassiter

It's Fursuit Friday and the people at Culturally F'd have added part two of their deep dive into fursuit history.
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Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel. See their tag on Dogpatch Press for more.

It’s #FursuitFriday which means twitter floods with pictures of our fluffy creations. It’s also the time for us at Culturally F’d and Dogpatch to look back at some Fursuit History. Make sure to catch up on Part 1: Masks and start your own exploration of animal costume performance with Culturally F’d.

Actual true fact: Fursuit History was inspired by a series of articles right here on Dogpatch! Below are the original posts about Pantomime Animals that Patch and Fred graciously let us adapt to script! Once we had that started, it had us thinking “why not a full history of animal costume?” Next thing you know it’s a whole planned multi-part series that we’ve been concocting since the release of these original posts:

If there was a Museum of Furry, theatrical “Panto-Animals” would be a major exhibit.

Theatrical Panto-animals, Part 2: Feedback, history and sources roundup.

Theatrical Panto-animals, Part 3: History book reviews by Fred Patten.

Additional research for the episode narrowed down 3 fursuit pioneers of the era: Charles Lauri, who sees a spotlight in the video, and also the heavily photographed Fred Conquest, and Fred Whittaker. Of course these are only the most photographed, there were many animal acrobats and actors at the time in a tradition of stage costume that continues today.

On the next Fursuit History we’ll be looking into the next logical media of animal performance: FILM! From sci-fi giants like Godzilla, to horror classics like The Wolf Man and Creature From the Black Lagoon to childhood fantasies like The Cowardly Lion, we look at the development of special effect makeup, prosthetics and the fursuits of the cinema!

 

Further Reading and References:

“Weird and Wonderful World of Panto-Animals” includes an excellent photo gallery.

It’s Behind You: Panto-Animals photo gallery – from Shakespeare to Mother Goose plays, 1909-1980’s.

It’s Behind You: Fact Sheets on classic Panto plays – including stories and photos.

Nigel Ellacott’s blog: Cat and Rat costumes

A History of Pantomime, by Maureen Hughes on Google books

Video Sources:

Monty Python pantomime horse sketch

Pantomime horse race in aid of CLIC Sargent

London Pantomime Horse Race 2017

The Pantomime Horse (Dance training)

Pantomime Elephant and Clown

And of course, used with permission Room 366 Prequel by EZ Wolf

Like this and want more? Buy Culturally F’d Merch, Support Culturally F’d on Patreon, and subscribe to the Newsletter.

Fursuit History 2: Skin Parts

Looks like penguins get to learn about free markets and Externalities.
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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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