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Hi, I'm taking 3 requests, first come first serve. Comment on here.

May do more later

Devart Gallary: http://hellsion.deviantart.com/gallery/

Thanks

submitted by Hellsion
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Canterlot Gardens is a My Little Pony convention being held the weekend of the 28th in Strongsville, Ohio. I realize that it's not anthro related, but it would be cool to meet up fellow furries.

submitted by Life_Wolf
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submitted by captainbozo
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Hello, r/furry. I am a longtime fur, but I have only been active in the fandom for the last six months or so. In that short period, I've come across tons of amazing artists who have inspired me with their work to learn to draw. However, I'm not sure if it's a little too late for me to learn. I'm only 23, but I have literally NO artistic background or ability. I've never even doodled really. I have no sense of perspective or three-dimensional space. I sort of drew a little as a kid but quickly lost interest when I discovered I preferred to write stories.

My question is this: is drawing a skill that can be developed later in life, or is it one of those things where you can only be proficient or "good" at it if you spent a lot of time doing it as a kid, like learning a second language? Additionally, has anyone had this experience? If so, how did you learn?

I'm afraid my brain might be wired in a way that would preclude me from learning to draw very well. I could use some advice or encouragement! Thanks!

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submitted by evilsibe
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submitted by ThatDiesel
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Hey there, Grubbs, 

My name is Troy, female and I am 17 and my mate will be turning 18 soon. He will be getting tattoos soon, and they all have great meanings! Anyway, that is besides the point,

My parents are kind of askew when it comes down to tattoos. As a family, we all watch tattoo shows and admire other people with tattoos, so it would seem alright for me to date someone who would have tattoos, right? 

I asked my dad if it would be okay if I dated someone with tattoos and he said that it was up to me, but then later said "you're only as good as the company you keep," and "All depends on who you want to be seen with." I get that society somewhat frowns upon tattoos, but I don't see how a piece of art permanently etched into someone's flesh separates them into a different category dating wise. 

I'm going to be blunt and say that I come from a fairly er..."high class" background, and I hate sounding prude, but that is the best way to describe it. 

I'm just ... I'm scared that my parents won't accept my boyfriend for having ink. They are fairly conservative, but it's just kind of odd that we all watch all of these tattoo shows? I would've assumed that they would've been okay with them. I personally don't plan to get any tattoos, since I am too young and I gotta think about em! I do think my boyfriend is A TAD young to get a tattoo, but meh, his choice really and he's been thinking about them for a while and ramble ramble ramble.

SO, real question is, is how to get my parents to look past my boyfriend's discreet ink to see who he really is? 

Thanks, hopefully I wrote this well enough for you to understand. I tend to rant on and on hah.

-Troy~

* * *

Hi, Troy!

Thank you for bringing up an interesting and different subject. Tattoos, as I’m sure you’re aware, have a rather dicey history dating back to the practices of pirates, rough-and-tumble sailors, and gang members. But they also have a tribal history, with many tribes from Africa to Polynesia making use of the tattoo arts for ceremonial, identification, and coming-of-age ceremonies. More recently, they have become a preferred form of expression for wealthy athletes and rock stars.

Because of this past, a lot of people look down on those with tattoos, especially those belonging to the upper crusty class, as you say you and your family do.

We should not, of course, judge people by their exteriors. Proper, PC people don’t judge those for the color of their skin or a disability or their gender. Tattoos are not something you are born with, however; they are something you choose to put on your body. For this reason, they can be viewed as a reflection upon the tattooed-person’s character.

Papabear considered having a tattoo for many years. The first tattoo I was thinking about getting consisted of my name and my bride’s name tattooed on my arm. Now, if I had done that years ago I’d be regretting it now, years after the divorce! More recently, I was thinking about some sort of bear-related tattoo to reflect on the outside who I am on the inside. But I eventually decided against it entirely because I concluded that I don’t need an illustration on my body to make me a bear. I already AM a bear!

This is not to say that I object to other people having tattoos; it’s just not for me. I do think that many people get tattoos for the wrong reasons, the worst being to look cool, which makes about as much sense as smoking cigarettes.

In the case of your boyfriend, it sounds like he is getting tattoos with significant personal meanings for him. That’s cool. Papabear can understand that. I used to watch “Miami Ink” a lot and some of the customers getting tattoos had really touching stories, none more so than those who got tattoos of the faces of loved ones who had passed away. Others just have amazing body art that expresses who they are as they try to show themselves as individuals.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about the permanency of tattoos. Sure, you can get them lasered off, but only with a lot of pain and so-so results. So, you best be dang sure you want this marking on your body for the rest of your life. Hence, of course, your mentioning that you think he might be a little young at 18 for such a big decision. Papabear doesn’t know him personally, so he may or may not be mature enough.

The other issue is the artist you choose. Make sure that he or she runs an IMMACULATE shop (infections are a very real possibility, whether skin or blood, and that is a serious medical issue to be cautious about). Some states require licensing, some do not; if your state does, check to see if the artist is licensed. And, of course, pick a TALENTED artist. The best tattoos are works of art, not something taken off a wall or book of samples. It should be unique to you.

So, let’s get back to your parents. They have an evident fascination for tattoos, yet they have ambiguous feelings about having someone in their family, even extended family, who sports them. One of their concerns might have to do with employability. That is, people who are covered in a lot of tattoos and/or piercings, scarring, implants, and other body modifications are less likely to be hired by employers. There are a couple of reasons for this: 1) employers worry that if they have employees with tattoos that they will scare away customers; and 2) tattoos represent people who are risk takers and rebels when most employers want underlings who do as they are told and suck up to the boss. Oh, they might SAY they want risk takers and people who think outside the box, but most really don’t mean that because innovative employees represent a threat to their positions. Anyway, Papabear suspects this would be a main worry of your having a boyfriend with ink.

Since your mother and father have an interest in tattoos, that is a good sign they are at least a little open to it. You note that your boyfriend is going to have the tattoos in discreet locations, so that is a good thing, as well. Papabear suggests you talk with your parents about this, explaining that your boyfriend will be subtle about his body art. Also, all of you could get together and talk about the tattoos themselves, how this ink on his body has an important meaning to him and is something very special. He’s not trying to act like a thug or gang member; he is trying to express himself in an artistic way that is important to him.

Furthermore, it sounds like your father, in particular, needs to get to know your boyfriend as a person better, and not just as someone with tattoos. He is a person first, and always. Seeing your boyfriend as a good person will go a long way toward answering that quip about “you’re only as good as the company you keep.” A sentiment I, personally, have some disagreement with.

You can also talk to your boyfriend about your concerns that he is a little young and he might want to wait a little while to think about this important decision. Tell him you support him fully, but that he should think carefully about what exactly he will be doing, or even if he should. He might even decide, as I did, with considerably thought that he doesn’t want them after all.

After careful thought and discussion with all concerned, if your boyfriend gets those tattoos, I’m sure you will support and love him for what he is. With luck, your parents will too, but, in the end, he is your boyfriend, not theirs.

Good Luck!

Papabear

submitted by Bunny-chan
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So I am a furry and even have a fursuit, and lots of the people i know that find out I'm a furry automatically think I'm into fursuits sexually which is not true at all. I just find them cute! A lot of my furry friends have suits themselves and are not into them sexually as well.
So I'm just wondering, how many of you are into suits sexually, or is it really just a complete misconception about us?

submitted by Frostypawz
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submitted by WinterCame87
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submitted by BreakingBad86
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submitted by Rizesun
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Hello everyone, okay I don’t like doing these things but my VBlog of the Camp Feral 2012 trip might take some time so I wanted to post somethn’.

So, to make this short and sweet I will keep to the point. I got in 2 days early thru “Mega Bus” which BTW was late and caused issues with my pick-up friend “Keagan Raccoon” . Got into Keagan’s, Bastion’s, and Raven’s house around 11pm. I was up for about 13 hours at this point but decided to fursuit with Bastion to get some pics by Cyron. Sleep was pretty good on the air mattress.

We had a full day so we all gathered up beach stuff Myself, Bastion, Keagan, Sage, Cyron, NeverWolf and Dex went into Toronto to get some sun on the nude beach of Lake Ontario. We meet up with BerryFox, Blooski , and

two other furs whom I forgot their name, sorry. What’s nice about here is you can walk really far out in the water on the sand and it’s only waist-high. Also the nude-ness makes your penis feel all good! Sunburn a little YAY!Pics be had, but they are not nude sorry.

Next morning we head out to Feral up a little north of Ontario. FireStorm drives myself, Keagan, Bastion and Sage. The others got to have fun on the school bus up there, so I need pics from that please!!! Of course when we get there it’s so much fun, the cabin was amazing right by the water too. We got to do all those Feral activities like, Rock climb, Poem Workshop, Leather Workshop, and of course the Canoe/Kayak . There is much more I leave out like Pred/Pray, you’ll need to come up next year to see.  I went out everyday on the Kayak which got me into great shape and sun tan. I DID fursuit which was amazing at night because it kept me warm. I managed not to get anything F’d up because I knew the paths, so YES fursuit can happen.Of course the famous AtlWolf and Kenyan were by my side in the cabin sleeping in the bunk beds beside me. Atl had his wolf fur suit which made things so much easier because I was not alone when walking around. I have to say it was tricky when it came to not having the head on because “headless lounge” doesn’t really happen often. Only on the last night did we have an amazing headless area.

On the last day of Feral I wanted to get a shower before the Cabin Skits (where your cabin mates get together and comes up with a short skit to do in front of everyone) (we won 38-a&b !!! Better believeeeee that’s a paddlen’) . I was walking up to the showers and BAM!! I get stung by a hornet! After the electrical pain in my left elbow and somewhat nasty venom effects down my throat I lived. So-much-so about 4-5 hours later I got into suit and danced the last dance until 3am. I came out and it felt like snow time because, my suit was sweat wet from the hours of having it on. Tis’ a wonderful night and I met so many new people. I danced with so many wonderful other and drank so much I hope those people remember me because I may have a mind slip.

When I got back I got one last day to go with Hawk, Cyron, Sage, Bastion, Dex, Neverwolf and Keagan in Toronto. We went to the market which was AMAZING (hard to wow the NYC’er) it has meats, fish and so much more. I do have pics and I believe I blogged some of it. We then swung over to “Smokes Poutine” which serves … yep… Poutine. This food is a national past time of Canada like Hotdogs are to America. Poutine (or fries with cheese and gravy) was AMAZINGGGGG mine had BBQ meat and sauce it husky mouth-watering! This is somethn’ I wish we had here in New York or New Jersey.

We had a small cookout with the stuff from the market. Sleepy time then was had before my long trip home which went VERY perfectly on time. When I got home let me tell you, it’s the worse PCD you’ll have from a con, because Feral is full of things to do. This is not just a con where you sit in a lobby and say, “what am I going to do now? go up the room?go outside? should I sit back in the lobby?” .  This is a FUN great time full of actives which will make all your days complete. Thanks to Roo the chairman and his many good people for the trip like every year.The views at night and the sunrise from the lake will be missed greatly.  My all time favorite thing had to be when I was ontop the rock overseeing all of the camp and forest area for miles. Anyone who has pics from the top of the rock on the boat trip I want to see them please!!

I will post the Vblog soon stay tuned here for the video. Sorry I missed many other pics because I was in suit, but I promise FireStorm was my other hand at that and took tons of pics you can see HERE .

submitted by orbweavr
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submitted by Chigaru
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I seem to be drilling down with this (very spread out) series.  I started out with a general overview of participation mystique in the fandom, narrowed it to some specific uses of words, and now I’m focusing specifically on pronouns.  I can’t say that I have any plans for a fourth iteration, but I’m assuming that it will start going into syllables.  Arf, bark, and the like.  Pretty good syllables, if you ask me.

Pronouns are already short enough as it is, usually only one syllable.  They’re some of the most common words that we use, and for good reason: they help us keep our speech and writing concise and varied by letting us use a placeholder instead of a name or a noun.  They carry a lot of weight for their relatively small size, however. Weight that, I think, can tell us quite a bit about how some people interact with the fandom, or even identify with their personal characters.

A good place to start here, then, is how a pronoun works behind the scenes.  If you were to say: “OtterFace is a river otter.  He enjoys wiggling, fish, and his enormous tail,” you have stated the subject of the statement as ‘OtterFace’, and then referred to him twice using ‘he’ and ‘his’.  I’ve mentioned before that one of the ways to look at how language works is by recognizing that the words we use are signs used to convey meaning.  When we talk about OtterFace or his glorious tail, we’re using signs – that is, words on a screen, sounds coming from our mouths, etc. – to refer to two things that really, truly exist (or so we assume).

The job of the pronouns specifically is to be set up as a temporary sign that refers back to something earlier in the statement: ‘he’ and ‘his’ refer back to ‘OtterFace’ in the previous example.  They’re a sort of sign on top of a sign, in one sense; pronouns refer back to a noun that was already used, which in turn refers to the subject.  They do have a tendency to wear out over time, however.  If I talk about ‘him’ here, you might understand that I refer to our wiggly otter friend, but once a new paragraph starts, it’s usually about time to restate the subject, because him has lost some of its power in referring back to OtterFace.

This is all well and good, really; it helps us keep things flowing in the language that we use.  As I said, though, pronouns in many languages do carry a lot of additional weight beyond just being placeholders for a subject.  The prime example of this, and the one I want to focus on, is the fact that you now know that OtterFace is male, solely based on my pronoun choice. (pronouns also carry a portion of identity with them).  This is part of the burden carried by pronouns: I didn’t have to specify that OtterFace was male beyond choosing and using the proper pronouns.  Pronouns carry great importance, at least in English, by specifying the gender of the sign they replace, helping us to form a better mental picture of what is being described in words.

And here’s where things get a little tricky.

One usually discusses gender with pronouns, but to be honest, “gender” in this case is divided into at least two distinct areas: gender identity and biological sex (three, if you count gender expression).  However, asking a transgender person about pronouns will get you an explanation about all the ways in which that relationship between pronoun and gender is fraught.  There are a lot of connotations that not everyone is comfortable with when it comes to having some things specified by so short a word, and having the wrong pronoun used when one is dealing with gender identity disorder is just one of those terribly uncomfortable things.  The upside, at least in some places in furry, is that you present as your character, which can be of whatever sex you wish, making pronouns all the easier to chose, for those interacting with you.

In fact, due to the fantastical nature of the fandom (that is, of a fantasy nature, though we are fantastic as well), non-binary gender identities have flourished and make up a sizable portion of the population in some locations, far above the 1% of births that show some sort of sexual ambiguity*.  These range through the whole gamut of male and female primary and secondary sexual characteristics, from primarily female to primarily male and everything in between, and various pronouns have been more or less popular in describing various areas on that spectrum.

This article on io9 goes into some of the issues on describing hermaphrodites in terms of male and female, including with pronouns; very much recommended reading.  While some who present as a hermaphrodite with their character in the fandom use masculine or feminine pronouns (“male herms”, those who present as primarily male, with both sets of reproductive genitalia, or “c-boys”, males with a vulva and vagina but no penis, both tend to use masculine pronouns, for example), several use either a gender neutral pronoun set, or one that’s specific to hermaphrodites. One of the more common sets, ‘shi/hir/hirs/hirself’, seems to be fairly unique to the fandom, even, and indeed would likely only be able to flourish in a primarily written environment, due to the relative similarity of the words when spoken to ‘she/her/hers/herself’**.  Others choose pronouns that have shown up elsewhere offline, such as the ‘zie/zir/zirs/zirself’ or other such gender neutral pronouns to represent someone of non-binary gender.

That leads us to non-gendered and neuter pronouns.  The difference between those two terms was succinctly put when I asked a crowd online whether they preferred ‘it/it/its/itself’ or Spivak pronouns (‘e/em/eir/emself’, though the nominative is often replaced with ‘ey’, to prevent ambiguity when spoken with ‘he’).  When I asked this crowd of furs, there were the response was overwhelmingly ‘it/it/its/itself’.  When asked, the three furs who had their gender set to neuter and used ‘it’ for themselves explained succinctly, “I have some friends that use Spivak pronouns, but they identify more as ‘none’ than specifically ‘neuter’.  ‘Neuter’ is a gender, whereas ‘none’ is more of an answer to a question.”  The fandom certainly provides room for the neutrois and the ‘none’s, of course, and the means of interacting online provide a way for that to be expressed as a part of oneself.

So why is this all important to furry?  I think that a lot of it has to do with the ways in which we interact through avatars, our personal characters.   The ability to partake in gender without necessarily involving biological sex is a definite draw to many.  Disconnecting the two and, in some small way, totally presenting as who one feels one should present as in terms of gender is not that far away from presenting as what species one wishes to present as.  It’s no surprise, then, that expressing a different gender with a furry character is no surprise to so many; it’s not that far off from what we already do.  Additionally, it is a prime example of participation mystique: entangling concepts of gender with the fandom, for some, is another way in which we can base a portion of our existences on our membership to the fandom.

Of course, this isn’t something that necessarily holds true for everyone, or even a majority of furries.  It’s not even something that everyone accepts within the fandom.  I do think that it is a good example of one of the ways in which we connect with our subculture, and with each other.  Something as simple as a pronoun used during interaction with another fur can be a sign of how they have made the fandom part of themselves, just as for others the spiritual aspect, or the artistic aspect, or even the sexual aspect can provide a deeply meaningful tie to something as simple as a subculture with a shared interest in anthropomorphic animals.

* This according to the (now defunct) Intersex Society of North America, which defines the term “sexual ambiguity” to include genetic issues such as Klinefelter Syndrome which may or may not present beyond simple gynecomastia in many individuals, which hardly fits the furry herm stereotype; the number of births with truly ambiguous primary sexual characteristics is quoted as being much smaller: “Between 0.1% and 0.2% of live births are ambiguous enough to become the subject of specialist medical attention, including surgery to disguise their sexual ambiguity.” (source)

** A resourceful [a][s] reader contacted me several months ago with a brief analysis on how controversial ‘shi/hir/hirs/hirself’ can be.  Such pronouns can elicit quite violent responses from some individuals.

*** On Wikipedia, Gender-neutral pronouns is an exhaustive list pronouns that are neutral in gender in some way or another, and includes some pretty fascinating information and links besides.  English gets quite the table, even.

Further reading

• Meaning Within a Subculture - Further discussions on semiotics and linguistics.
• Boys, Girls, and the In-Betweens - An early article on non-binary gender.

Again, apologies for the slowness and shortness of articles on my end, and cheers to JM for keeping things running along!

submitted by MikomiK
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submitted by liaojaypooch
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submitted by smejo
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Author: actfuronair Our Mid-Season special on Family furs as well as prize give-always (extra mugs too). An alternative uses for the Mars Rover, Liquiglide Ketchup, The internet cat film festival and how Brisbane bus drivers can get your DNA. Enjoy the SUPER-EPIC HALF-WAY THERE Season 4 Episode~! Download Standard Podcasts http://actfuronair.podbean.com/mf/feed/vms36n/ActFur_S4_Ep6_FamilyFurs.mp3 Find the full article [...] ActFur OnAir: ActFur s4 ep6 – Family Furs