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submitted by VentKazemaru
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Hello! Over on Fur Affinity I'm known as Mirepoix, and I am working on a pseudo fursuit for the character. She's an anthro dragon with a toony style. My biggest inspiration is rabbitinthem00n and her Bridget character. I really enjoy the freedom of expression through body movements and clothes that animegao kigurumi style allows.

I'm at a fork in the mask making road, and I would like some outside input on how I should continue. When I started, I was hoping I could blend kigurumi and "traditional" fursuit aesthetics and make a moving jaw mask covered in the same spandex I'm using for the bodysuit. During my experimenting, I'm finding that making that work is a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS, to the point I'm considering giving up.

BASICALLY WHAT I'M ASKING: Should I continue to work on trying to make a moving jaw work at the risk of being a little uncanny valley or lumpy, or should I focus more on making a static mask as pretty as possible? Moving jaw allows a lot more expression, but static jaw allows one to make something that looks pretty at every angle.

Picture of my mask pull with temporary eyes put in

Concept art, sorta

Pictures of my jaw prototype compared to blank Watch out for creepy soulless eyes and glasgow smile!

(I am posting this in r/furry rather than r/fursuit, as I was hoping to get a lot of input. Plus, this community is so danged small, I don't know why it was split in the first place.)

Edit: btw, thank you for the three people that gave me watches! I assume you're from here. I cleared my notifications before I could say thank you.

submitted by wambolicious
[link] [7 comments]

Hello again Papabear,

Writing you again for a different issue that I'm having. Though I'm pleased to report that I've been feeling better and haven't had as many thoughts of suicide. :)

On to my problem, I've noticed over the many years that I've been a part of this fandom (and the short time I've been in the brony fandom as well) that quite a few people are very active politically. This is great! I love that people in my age group (18-25) are taking politics seriously. However ... it did not take long to notice that most furries/bronies are at the opposite spectrum from me. 

Yes, I am a conservative and registered Republican. Though I consider my party affiliation/ideals to be more along the lines of a Libertarian, I usually vote Republican. 

This has caused ... rifts between me and the vast majority of furries when politics is brought up. While I consider myself very calm and tolerant of others beliefs/opinions, most furries who engage me spew a surprising amount of hatred my way just because of my party. 

I cannot begin to express how much this upsets me. I feel as though the majority of the fandom has decreed that I'm not allowed to have an opinion and if I say anything that goes against them, I'm the target of extreme hatred. 

At this juncture I'm at a loss for what to do, I was even hesitant to write to you as I know you also share a differing political views than I. It seems that whenever politics is brought up, I cannot respond, because doing so brings a torrent of angry people leaving nasty comments/DMs. I've tried to explain my position rationally and logically but no one wants to listen. They immediately pass judgment and lump me in with the crazed religious Right. Which couldn't be farther from the truth. I support gay marriage, I'm pro-choice, and yet they all seem to treat me like some vile scum unworthy of respect. It feels like I'm forced to listen to what they have to say but if I try to get in a word edgewise I'm immediately treated like garbage. 

Basically, what can I do? I just want other furries/bronies to show my views the same respect I show theirs, am I asking too much? 

-Towyn

* * *

Dear Towyn,

Thank you for a very interesting and germane letter in this political season. I’m flattered that you would write to me despite your fears that I might pass judgment on you on this topic. I hope the below will alleviate that fear (and everyone’s fear) that Papabear would do something like that about any subject, no matter how controversial.

As with many issues that Papabear addresses, I feel I can speak with some authority on this one because of my experience. It might surprise many of Papabear’s readers that he was once a registered Republican and voted for Ronald Reagan—twice. 

But while I believe in some of the values of the Republicans, such as less government control on states’ rights to manage how they spend their tax money (I used to live in a “donor state” of Michigan that gives the government more money than they receive in aid, and I believe California is the same way). The Republicans used to have “paws off” policies concerning people’s private lives, as well. For example, President Reagan believed that government should have nothing to do with abortion or other things we do in the bedroom.

But then the Christian Right and other conservative extremists took over the Republican Party, and it became the party against a woman’s right to choose and against gay marriage and other issues that are none of their business. Once that happened, they lost me as a supporter. Doubly so when I learned, much to my chagrin, that Republican presidents, despite averring that they were more fiscally responsible and conservative, actually spent MORE money and ran up the deficit MORE than Democrat administrations (Clinton, a Democrat, did the most to balance the budget of any 20th century president). There may be some argument about President Obama’s spending, but a lot of that was to shore up the egregious fiscal irresponsibility of the previous administration (Republican) and with being saddled with two wars (started by a Republican).

The problem in our country today is that both parties still have some good ideas to offer BUT THEY WON’T LISTEN TO EACH OTHER and they won’t compromise. It has all become about political agendas, what to do to stay in power, which is something the great George Orwell correctly predicted, RATHER than helping the PEOPLE of this country! Grrrrr!

*Pant pant* LOL. Okay, Towyn, maybe you see the ol’ bear’s point that politics is a very hot issue. Just as with religion, people have strong opinions and are often unwilling to listen. Papabear is guilty of that sometimes. I have a very VERY conservative uncle in Texas who kept sending me anti-Obama emails. Finally, I got sick of it and stopped reading. I have a furry friend who is a horse who is quite conservative. It’s actually interesting to chat with him, and although I only agree with him once in a while, sometimes he points out things I haven’t thought about and has persuaded me occasionally.

What many in the furry community need to practice is tolerance on this topic. It is interesting that we seem to be cool with other religions, races, sexual identities, etc., but you are correct, Towyn, that on politics we seem to be less tolerant.

It is wrong for other furries to get mad at you just because you have some conservative views, just as it would be wrong for conservative furries to get angry at those who are liberals. Papabear thinks you are running into this problem a lot because you are probably chiming in on various social network discussions rather haphazardly with your opinions. Because there are a LOT of liberal furries out there, you are setting yourself up for an attack.

My suggestion would be that you refrain from such open discussions and, instead, keep such conversations where they are more apt to be listened to and debated intelligently, such as the Political Furs group on Furry4Life: http://furry4life.org/group/politicalfurs.  You can also form your own group. You could create a Libertarian Furries group on FB, for instance, and welcome those with more conservative views. OR, you can start a No Drama Political Views group or something like that, where both sides are encouraged to debate intelligently without the fear of being banned because of their views.

I hope your previous experience with political flaming won’t turn you off the fandom and that, instead, you will proceed constructively as suggested above.

Good luck! And big HUGS from a gay liberal bear LOL!

Papabear 

submitted by duku6
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submitted by redfoxriver
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submitted by StrawburryMiwk
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submitted by Dark_Essence
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submitted by evilsibe
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submitted by kaguilar92
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Well tonight I went along to the weekly meetup at South Bank, Brisbane, and it was lots of fun to meet other furries! A couple had fursuits and one of them was being really adorable, it was so cute. It was great and I'd encourage other furries to look for a local meetup if they haven't yet, because it's worth going.

submitted by Ashtalon
[link] [5 comments]

FurAffinity downtime, join us today for talk about the infamously unstable site followed by a masterfully executed derailment to gasoline. We discuss various furry art websites, and more interesting perspectives about how FA plays a major role in the furry community.

Stuff we talked about this show:

• InkBunny and SoFurry as FurAffinity alternatives.
• Ethanol fuels and perspective on their negative impacts.

Hosts: Levi, Wolfin
Podcast image by greenchartreuse. Used with permission.

Daily Show: September 18, 2012 - FurAffinity downtime, join us today for talk about the infamously unstable site followed by a masterfully executed derailment to gasoline. We discuss various furry art websites, and more interesting perspectives about how FA plays a major role in the f...

I haven't been active in furry fandom until very recently. I got myself a FurAffinity account and have been trying to become more active and make myself some furry friends. (Drawing and writing are my fortes.)

One thing I've always wanted to do but haven't tried a lot of is roleplaying. RPG in general is cool and I've noticed that there are some really popular feral roleplays which I suppose are okay too (Warrior Cats is incredibly popular. Sweet jesus.) but I would really like to find some roleplaying forums geared towards furries.

So what are some good furry roleplaying forums/sites/clients? The more populated and active, the better.

submitted by osssumpossum
[link] [11 comments]

I agree with Uncle Kage on this being the best con report possibly ever.  The maker drgnalexia did a GREAT job and a comic like footage from eurofurance which represented the trip with friends to Germany. I hope there will be a part 2 !! CHECK IT HERE!

submitted by captainbozo
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submitted by digivolve8
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submitted by chelzeelee
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I'm not into fursuits. They're just too unrealistic to me. Maybe I'm creepy or something, but I'd really like to see people dressed up (and dress up myself) with body paint, make-up, furry dresses, etc. Kinda like a Halloween costume, but with a lot of effort to actually look like a furry drawing, not just "heehee I'm a sexy kitty," if that makes sense. Is this frowned upon by the furry community? I'm going to my first FurryCon in March and I was hoping I could dress up as my fursona like how I just described. :)

submitted by jaylikesdominos
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submitted by DranerFox
[link] [25 comments]

I'm looking not so much for a catch-all list of anything with anthro creatures in it. I could Wikipedia that. I'd like to know what readers are genuinely interested in watching. I'm starting a weekly stream of anthro/furry TV/movies/short films/anything else I can get on Sundays so I'd like to know what people are interested in. If anyone wants, I can list up a queue of what I have in stock so far. Thanks!

edit: list so far: http://pastebin.com/DUwzHcwg

consideration:

+Onmyou Taisenki

+Lion King

+The Fox and the Hound

+Fern Gully

+Cinderella

+Finding Nemo

+Fantastic Mr. Fox

submitted by goa5000
[link] [26 comments]

We furries, or at least most of us, have multiple identities.

Like everyone, we have our outward-facing human identity, named by our parents and constricted by whatever body it happens to be contained within. Our unique outward-facing identity is closely tied to our position in society and is tied to artificial constructs that crystallize our self into an acceptable bureaucratic package, such as our passports, our social security numbers, or our Google Plus accounts.

Furries usually also create one or more fictional identities. We name ourselves, select a combination of human and animal traits to create a new body, and often a new set of personality traits. Some furries, who create an avatar with interests (or physical dimensions) that do not easily gel with the real world, go further and create a fantasy universe.

Our furry identity is a personal creation, a kind of internal ghost accompanying the human that lurks around the real world. In situations where the real world is less intrusive, like corners of the internet or furry gatherings, our furry identities assert themselves and the human – with its arbitrary name, body, and bureaucratic accoutrements – is pushed to the background.

When the furry self is at the forefront, we experience the world in a different way. And, according to recently published data from the Anthropomorphic Research Project (based at the Niagara County Community College in the USA), we experience the world through the lens of an identity that is more mature, psychologically healthier, and happier than our human selves.

The ARP publishes results from two or three surveys each year. At this year’s Furry Fiesta they performed psychological profiles and summarized the results against the well-regarded “Big Five” personality traits. Cleverly, they asked the furries to answer the questions twice: once for themselves and once for their fursona.

The biggest personality different between ‘human’ and ‘furry’ identity is also the most predictable: the fursonas are much more extroverted. This is due to the well-understood mask effect, a phenomenon familiar to anyone who has spent time on the inside of a fursuit.

The mask effect describes how people change their behaviour when behind a mask: they become less self-aware. The best-known experiment in psychological circles is a much-cited 2003 study that has the subject wear a mask, or stand in front of a mirror, and asks questions related to identity (ref). Participants wearing the mask demonstrate depersonalization and deindividuation.

More directly relevant to furries are studies on cosplayers. Researchers believe that people who attend sci-fi conventions in costume are undergoing “self-administered mental health treatment”. (You can read more here on [adjective][species] here.)

The mask effect allows people who are normally reserved and risk-averse to trial outgoing and extroverted behaviour. While no studies have looked at furries specifically, the same behaviour can be observed in capering fursuiters. Psychologists believe that this helps shy people learn to feel more like their suited self: happy, generous, and more extroverted.

You can read more about research on cosplayers at the dedicated Psychology Today blog: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superheroes.

The mask effect has other benefits beyond helping people overcome shyness: it can also help us mature. The reduction in self-awareness while wearing a mask (or fursuit) allows us to ‘advance scout’ different personality traits. A fursuiter might, for example, act more flirtatious than the human inside would normally find comfortable, in a low-risk environment. This effect exists whether the mask is physical or virtual: we experience a similar drop in self-awareness when we socialize online in the guise of an alternate personality: our fursona.

Furries, through their fursona, experiment with many different personal traits. Most strikingly, many furries experiment with sexual identity or gender identity through their furry identity. For example, new furries joining the community notoriously tend to re-evaluate their sexual preference, starting heterosexual. There is strong evidence that this is true: data mining performed by [adjective][species] indicates that about half of heterosexual furries will change their sexual preference within their first five years in the community, usually to gay (Re-Evaluating Your Sexual Preference). We have no similar data for gender identity (numbers are too small for statistical analysis), however it is reasonable to assume that many transexuals experiment with a differently-gendered furry character as an important learning step toward eventual self-acceptance.

Aside from the mask effect, which explains why our fursonas are more extroverted than our human selves, the ARP data shows that our furry identities are different in other, more subtle ways.

The ARP data showing Big Five personality traits for furries (ref) is as follows:

* Minor note: emotional stability data is usually reported as Neuroticism in Big Five personality studies.

This data suggests that, perhaps counter-intuitively, our fursonas are a normalizing influence on our personality. This is consistent with psychological theories on roleplaying, where people tend to create a fictional identity that is a positive rolemodel for themselves. This theory, key to some cognitive behavioural therapy methodologies, is usually applied to children roleplaying but also applies to superhero cosplay, and – it seems – to furries as well.

The ARP data also shows that the differences between our human and furry selves are similar to the differences between college age and middle adulthood. That is, our furry selves are also more mature.

Ref Costa & McRae 1992

There is some logic to this. Data shows that personality is in flux until about age 30. Furries are a young group, with a median age of 22 (ref) so collectively, our personalities are still developing.

Changes in personality during maturation occur largely as we become more self-accepting and less self-centred. It makes sense that our imaginary furry selves are less focussed on our own imperfections.

Personality changes as we age into 30-plus adulthood are also correlated with increased happiness and contentment (ref). There is a large body of research on the topic which shows that, as we mature, we learn to trust ourselves and empathize with other people. Between college age and middle adulthood (30-plus again) this translates into “increased well-being” (Mortimer 1928), “decreased alienation and social criticism” (Jessor 1983), as we become “less emotional and better socialized” (Hann 1986).

Our fursonas display many of these traits. They are forging a path of self-improvement: from them, we become more mature, less divergent from others around us, and – most importantly – happier.

The ARP’s website is here – https://sites.google.com/site/anthropomorphicresearch/home. Their most recent publication is a comprehensive analysis of data collected at Anthrocon 2012.

There are two ways in which life can improve: through a change in the outside world, or through personal change. As we mature, we become less self-centred, making it easier for us to self-analyse in a balanced fashion. As we explore our own personalities through our furry identity, we can learn to effect positive change.

It is a sign of maturity to look internally for ways to improve one’s life. We have control over our own actions and our interpretation of the world around us: we do not have control over much of the external world or the people in it.

To put it another way: when exposed to an enraging YouTube comment thread, we can either ignore the comments or engage with them. The more mature approach is to ignore the comments, which brings an immediate increase in happiness as we focus on something else. It is less mature (albeit completely normal) to try to correct the behaviour of the other commenters – as we all know, this is a dark path to frustration and unhappiness.

For another example, I have been exposed recently to a few articles and comic strips titled “How To Treat Your Introvert” (or similar). It’s usually linked by someone who considers themselves to be introverted, in the hope that people will read this advice and accordingly treat them with a greater understanding.

(Language note: this use of the term “introvert” is slightly different from that used by psychologists. It doesn’t easily relate to extroversion as a Big Five personality trait.)

Ref Sveidt on DeviantArt

Ref questionablylate.tumblr.com

In extremis, such advice depicts a pathologically shy person being harassed by a sociopath. This purports to represent the plight of the intovert: they feel victimized by the outside world, preferring to exist largely inside the safety of their own head.

The advice is doubly misleading. Firstly, everyone feels victimized by the outside world. We all find socializing stressful, and we are all haunted by memories of humiliating social experiences. The advice seems profound because everyone feels that way at least some of the time – horoscopes are designed to work in the same way. Secondly, the advice implies that introversion is innate; a fixed aspect of personality. It’s not.

It’s also terrible advice. The intent and spirit of the advice is good – it suggests ways in which we can care for people around us. It’s bad advice because the reader is supposed to identify with the introvert, the person portrayed as a powerless victim of the world around them. (Nobody identifies with sociopaths, not even actual sociopaths.) To hope that the world will change to meet the needs of our introvert is to hope to improve the discourse on a YouTube comments thread through sensible diplomacy.

People who feel introverted can improve their life by looking inwards, and considering things they can control. This is the more mature approach.

A better set of advice might be:

• Be empathetic. Spend more time listening to other people; they will relax if they feel their own social needs are being met.
• Socialize online via your fursona. You will feel less self-conscious.
• Stop hanging around with sociopaths.

Looking inwards to effect change will help our introvert find social experiences that are happy, rather than stressful. After all, that’s what our fursonas do.

Finding contentment in this world is an endless and difficult task. Happily, we can expect to improve as we mature. Even better, we furries have a happy, healthy rolemodel – our animal-person alter-ego – who can lead the way.

Just ask yourself: What Would a Furry Do?