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submitted by duku6
[link] [2 comments]

submitted by redfoxriver
[link] [4 comments]

submitted by StrawburryMiwk
[link] [5 comments]

submitted by Dark_Essence
[link] [7 comments]

submitted by evilsibe
[link] [9 comments]

submitted by kaguilar92
[link] [10 comments]

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
[link] [1 comment]

submitted by digivolve8
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submitted by chelzeelee
[link] [9 comments]

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
[link] [10 comments]

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?

Papabear,

I'm in a bit of a predicament. There is this gay guy (I'm a gay guy too) who I've had my eye on for quite a while. He and I are great friends and have known each other for over a year, but we're long-distance friends. Now when I first met him, I thought of him as just a friend, but then I started to feel more. As our friendship went on, I could tell he was flirting with me, so I flirted back. When I finally got the courage to ask him if he liked me to, I expected a “no.”. What I received was a "I don't know." I was crushed, but I still liked him and still stayed friends with him. He did reveal to me that he was "hurt" by someone else, and I understand that, and I've tried to tell him that the flirting needs to stop, but it never does. 

I decided to make a rash decision and just cut off my connection with him for days at a time, and when I do talk to him, he just keeps bringing up how he's not emotionally attracted to men and only physically. Now I should also bring up that I'm incredibly self-conscious about my weight and have said that to him. I just get really confused cause he used to ask me strange questions such as "What kind of wedding do you want?" or "Where do you want to go for your honeymoon?" and even mentioned that me having his last name sounds nice. My question for you is, I can't take this teasing anymore, should I just cut off all connections with him and not talk to him anymore?

Cedric

* * *

Hi, Cedric,

It would help Papabear some if you had mentioned your ages, but I will assume you are old enough to be married (or mated in spirit). Your friend is definitely sending you mixed signals. The references to weddings and such might just be an odd form of flirtation, but it is an emotionally manipulative one. 

It is time to stop the guessing game and instead sit this guy down, face-to-face, and ask him point blank what he wants. Tell him about the mixed signals he is giving (he might not be aware he is doing this) and that on one paw it sounds like he just wants to get physical (chub chaser, is he?) and on the other paw he’s hinted at more.

Ask him what he wants, and don’t stand for equivocation. Does he want more than just friendship? If yes, then work on that. If no, then tell him if he just wants to be friends that’s great but the flirting needs to stop. If he hems and haws and won’t go one way or the other no matter what you say, then, yes, time to drop him. Tell him you’re sorry, but you just are not up for a lot of emotional games. Wish him well, but tell him it is time the two of you parted company.

Communication, as always, is the key to resolving such issues.

Good luck! Hugs!

Papabear 

submitted by redfoxriver
[link] [15 comments]

Author: admin Fuzzy Logic, full of hammers and suffering! We start off with discussion time, going over such topics as the pre-order launch of the Nintendo Wii U, a person selling their character’s virginity for a tidy sum, the slithering spaghetti monster, a new album with an excellent title, FA taking a nosedive and gradually [...] Episode 58 – Spaghetti Monster