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Are online relationships and long distance relationships are REAL? Roo and Tugs are joined by Hobbes and Amy to pursue these questions. We explore these questions, then take a quick detour for the 50th anniversary of Space News!

 



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Show notes coming soon! S5 Episode 14: Online and Long Distance Relationships - Are online relationships and long distance relationships are REAL? Roo and Tugs are joined by Hobbes and Amy to pursue these questions. We explore these questions, then take a quick detour for the 50

If you haven’t caught the word, this May DC Comics and Hanna Barbera plan to take Scooby Doo and the gang in a very… different direction, with the premier of the new full-color comic book series Scooby Apocalypse. “Those meddling kids — Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and their dog, Scooby-Doo — get more ghost-debunking than they bargained for when faced with a fundamental change in their world. The apocalypse has happened. Old rules about logic no longer apply. The creatures of the night are among us, and the crew of the Magical Mystery Machine has to fight to survive—because in the apocalyptic badlands of the near-future, the horrors are real! This new monthly series takes Scooby and the gang to a whole new level and features character designs by comics superstar Jim Lee!” Plus writing by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, with regular art by Howard Porter. Read an interview with Mr. Giffen over at Newsarama.

image c. 2016 DC Comics

Dear Papabear,

I am a 16 year old youngfur who discovered his furry side not that long ago. I first told my brother I was a furry (I'm happy I can confide in him with private stuff). Anyway, as time went on, I finally managed to go through the trouble of telling my father that I'm as furry. He seemed to understand it, though he is a little cautious about the subject (I explained him it's not what he thought). But I eventually did bring up that there's a convention being held in grand rapids, and that I liked to maybe go. He says if I do, it would just be me and him. He has not told my mother yet, or my older sister (thank god), so that helps a little. Anyway my point is, in the chance I do get to go, I have been told bringing your parents to a furcon can help them better understand the fandom, I like to believe this but I'm not sure how exactly this is the case. Can you maybe explain how this might help him understand better, and maybe some tips on what I should do to help things be less awkward if we do go. 

I apologize for this long long paragraph of writing.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate what you do for us people and am looking forward to the furry book!

Sincerely,
Scar

* * *
 
Dear Scar,
 
Thanks for writing :-3 Yes, I have mentioned this before in earlier columns about taking one’s parents or guardians to a furry con. While there have been one or two exceptions, most parents have a great time and learn to understand better what a furry is.
 
I have not been to the Great Lakes Fur Con because it debuted in 2012 after I had already moved to California. But, checking on the website there, it looks to be like most furcons. I see there are forums, games, a fursuit competition, a charity, a guest of honor, and so on. This is all very typical of a furry convention.
 
The reason it will help your parents is that they get to meet furries in real life and see that we’re just people (oooh, shocking, I know). Mostly younger people, yes, but also some greymuzzles. We go to school, many have jobs, and we’re just trying to have some fun and maybe blow off a little steam by being with people who share our interests.
 
My suggestion to you is you approach it like any other convention, such as a comic book convention or a Star Trek convention. All of these have things like forums, guest speakers, and places to shop for things of interest, as well as people dressing up in fun costumes. Really, the only significant difference between a furcon and, say, a Star Trek convention is that the attendees are creating characters who are not part of a franchise owned by a huge corporation like Marvel or Disney. Therefore, there is a lot more freedom involved, and a lot more creativity and adventure.
 
Go. Take your parents. Have a blast. I hope y’all have a fun time!
 
Hugs,
Papabear

What makes a furry movie? Is it the subject mater, the creator, or something else? Join the WagzTail crew this week to talk about movies in general, but especially every furry’s favorite recent movie, Zootopia.

Metadata and Credits Is It a Furry Movie?

Runtime: 39:39m

Cast: Braniff, KZorroFuego, Levi

Editor: Levi

Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3 Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0. 

Is It a Furry Movie? - What makes a furry movie? Is it the subject mater, the creator, or something else? Join the WagzTail crew this week to talk about movies in general, but especially every furry's favorite recent movie, Zootopia.

What makes a furry movie? Is it the subject mater, the creator, or something else? Join the WagzTail crew this week to talk about movies in general, but especially every furry’s favorite recent movie, Zootopia.

Metadata and Credits Is It a Furry Movie?

Runtime: 39:39m

Cast: Braniff, KZorroFuego, Levi

Editor: Levi

Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3 Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0. 

Is It a Furry Movie? - What makes a furry movie? Is it the subject mater, the creator, or something else? Join the WagzTail crew this week to talk about movies in general, but especially every furry's favorite recent movie, Zootopia.

Brendan McCarthy is an artist and designer well known as one of the creators of 2015’s hit movie Mad Max: Fury Road. In the meantime he also created a full-color comic called Dream Gang, which was serialized in Dark Horse Presents. “A group of psychics project themselves into the dream worlds at night, exploring other people’s dreams. But they uncover a conspiracy to invade and enslave humanity from within by a malevolent force from the dark side of the mind.” As  you can see, anthropomorphic characters also play a role in the gang! Now Dark Horse have assembled the complete Dream Gang series into a single trade paperback graphic novel. Check out Dark Horse’s preview over at their web site, and look for Dream Gang this July.

image c. 2016 Dark Horse Comics

old episode that didn't transfer over for some reason, so re-uploading! ep. 37 - Masterbation Isn't Cheating - old episode that didn't transfer over for some re…

The moon hangs full and heavy over the clearing, and a bonfire crackles in the still night, sending up swirls of orange sparks as each log falls into ash and ember. Its smoke carries the fragrance of white sage and cedar, of sandalwood, of myrrh. Its light dances over the pattern of stripes, the white ruff, and at last the burning eyes, a wash of gold over emerald as the tigress’ gaze catches and holds.

Greetings, traveler, and welcome. You have the look of a seeker about you — how well I know that restless heart!

There are others of your kind here, ancient and modern, their songs dreaming, wondering, praising. Here, in their words, you might find a moment’s peace, or perhaps there will only be more questions. On a night like this, who can say? Those might be spirits gathered out there, beyond the reach of the flames — but then again, it may only be a trick of the light. That might be a drumbeat; it might be a heartbeat; it might only be your own.

The fire is lit. The smoke is rising. In the end, all questions become one:

Will you come and join the dance?

Faith

Feather swept incense
A shadowed trance
Invite the animal inside
Totem dancing, dream drumming.
Here now, here now, here now be.

–Frances Pauli

Axolotl

I was born inside a mountain with a feather on my tongue,
chanting anthems of ekphrastic static, empty as a drum.

The sun was my umbrella, all the stars: my lemonade:
The comets were my bossa nova bubble serenade.

As an infant, I was infinite.

I stretched across the cradle with an angel’s appetite,
Brighter than a quasar’s eyes, and strobing with delight.

I danced with lonely Ganymede, rode Cygnus to the moon,
played jacks with panthers, stoats and jackals, darts with a baboon.

As an infant, I was infinite.
As an infant, I was infinite.

In time, I grew beyond my measure, shed my astral vision,
Learned to view the day-to-day with clinical precision.

I built myself a cage of paper, silicon, and bone,
Crawled inside to hunker down, and reckoned it a home

Alone inside my brittle skin, as slick as any lie,
The rictus grin I glibly spin became my alibi.

Every thread of every life weaves death in its design–
But to die is to be born again: an endless pantomime,

And as an infant, I am infinite.

–Morris Astricannum Stegosaurus

Cernunnos

Your white-bone tips
Curl, from brown locks
And braided hair,
Gleaming with morning dew.
You come silent
Before the birdsong stirs.
I know many would cut
Those boughs free,
But you keep wild, ungroomed,
Tossing your head, to and fro,
Finding weight
Only from the golden torc
Clasped about your neck.
I wish to know what it is
To be unashamed,
Reborn from a sick half-beast,
That has no horns to shed in spring.
Every Fall I saw them off.

–Televassi

On Furred Knees

My eyes see not the colours of stained glass windows,
    in reflections of broken bottles in the street.
My paws follow the shifting shades of seasons past,
    in the leaves rustling around my feet.
My nose smells the ragged people picking through the refuse,
    seeking the lives they’ve lost.
My eyes, but they could weep at all that I have claimed,
    while ignoring greed’s cruel costs.

Gates of Heavens closed to me, against my fur and claws.
Bloody baptismal waters flow when thrice I wash my paws.
Shadow creatures feeding on sin and ever more demands.
I’m told this is religion, and I don’t need to understand.

My words are prayers; the fuzz of dandelions,
    plucked, puffed upon, lost to the mourning breeze.
My tail makes prayers unheard from here, outside the dome,
    though I kowtow, praying on my knees.
My words climb to the spire, there shattered, thrown down,
    to rain upon my grey fur. . . cruel, and sharp, and broken.
My ears hide beneath the kippah, for the words
    that can build bridges have yet to be spoken.

My teeth, my mane, my harem, my tail and my roar,
Chapel doors close to me, God’s child I am no more.
Life laid open. . . on my knees, thus The Book commands.
These are symbols of religion, I don’t need to understand.

My paws, a beggar’s bowl, held out for the answers
    to questions lost in the surging crowd.
My paw touches the word of God, graffiti,
    asking awful questions I dare not speak aloud.
My paws reaching from faith to faith,
    finding faded shadows of endless broken dreams.
My paws hold memories I use to flay myself,
    to hear Him heckling in my sobbing screams.

Genetic miracle of recreation within sacred vessels held,
Caretaker of animals failed, so man and animal meld.
“Mea culpa? Tua culpa! Four Horsemen your true children planned!”
There is no questioning Religion, I don’t need to understand.

‘Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, that a wretch I be.
Made by Him, like unto Him, so doth a fearful wretch be He?
Faiths beneath this stained shroud, as countless as the sands.
Finally comes the knowing. Let there be light!
At last I understand. . .

No more “Please”. . . for Truth I’ve found,
Hidden away from where I wept upon my knees. . .
No Divine to hear me. . . no Holy Host to hear me. . .
God chooses not to hear the changed ones. . .
Not even one of us, praying on furred knees.

-BanWynn Oakshadow

Little Bird

after Aleksandr Pushkin

The sickened earth, there I was born
To live the many lies forever;
To seek through sinful skies for home
So I could make my nest with thorns
Of painted gold that none would sever.

There came a day when I had roamed
Unto some bush of thorns all gold.
I flew into that bush; my beak
Was set to seize this glittered growth,
But I was snared within its’ hold.

My savior stopped along the street,
And pulled me free. I gave a tweet.

–Corvus

The Butterfly Effect

“Believe with all your abdomen,” they say,
“And flap along with every confidence
That you’re the reason night will follow day
Without a break: we stir the turbulence.

“Destruction dances where our tarsi flex;
Antennae twitching, we command the world!
Our duty? Both to comfort and perplex.
So fly your colors proud, your wings unfurled!”

I try. I do. I flit from bush to tree
Imagining the force that I exert
Has toppled walls and stilled the swelling sea,
That I dispense the pleasure and the hurt–

But really, all I want’s a little sip
Of nectar. You can keep dictatorship!

–Michael H. Payne

Muezza

A man washes, he’s heard the call to pray
In night’s vestige, before approaching day,
But once he’s done, with mild alarm he notes
His loved cat sleeps on the sleeve of his coat.

He wills she not wake, deftly quick is he,
A snip and a flick, his sole robe is free.
That morning, close amidst folk who believe,
Muhammad leads prayers with a missing sleeve.

Centuries pass. In a dream-laden nap,
I see my lost cat by Muhammad’s lap.
Climbing up, she settles and cutely purrs,
Secure in whatever scant thoughts are hers.

-Dwale

The Dogs Assure Me

The dogs assure me:
There are volumes of meaning –
Life and death –
And time;
Past, present, future –
In the scent of a rotting fish left after the flood,
Or a trace of scat,
Or the coyote, long passed,
But not everyone reads poetry.

I’m not so lucky, all told:
The rich scent of meaning –
Heady, intoxicating –
Rises only from words
And the way you rest your hands on the table.

–Makyo

Cave God

As you made fire,
so you made me.
From the skull of a bear you killed
not because she was attacking
or had attacked before
but because she might attack
From the skin of a sleeping lion
you tracked and speared and thanked
From these things, you made a god.
From nothing, you made the idea of god.
You named me as you name your children.
In me you pour your prayers
your fears
as you store meat in your clay pots.
I am your bear-lion-god.
I am dead things. Empty space. And power.
What do we make next?

–Huskyteer

Thanks once again to Renee Carter Hall (“Poetigress”), who is a writer and poet whose work has been published both inside and outside the furry fandom. She is the current president of the Furry Writers’ Guild and was Writer Guest of Honor at RainFurrest 2015.

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

Learning to Go, by Friday Donnelly.
Capalaba, Queensland, Australia, Jaffa Books, May 2015, trade paperback $15.00 ([2] + 191 pages), Kindle $5.00.

Learning to Go was published by Jaffa Books in Australia for FurDU 2015 in Gold Coast, Queensland on May 1-3. It is also sold by AnthroAquatic in the U.S; hence the price in U.S. dollars and the Amazon Kindle edition.

Readers had better consider Learning to Go to be R- or NC-17-rated. It is about two homosexual men and a male prostitute who are only thinly-disguised as anthropomorphic animals. There is considerable explicit sex description and talk.
Rufus Timberly is a young man (tiger) as the submissive in a dominator/submissive relationship with his boyfriend, Victor (lion). He is unhappy that Victor is turning out to be the dom in more than their bedroom trysts.

“Rufus wished now that he hadn’t switched jobs. He had been offered the position by his boyfriend, who claimed the office could use some competent people. That should have been a warning sign. In a remarkably short time, Victor stopped seeing him as competent and started seeing him as just as bad as everyone else.” (p. 5)

After a dinner date during which Vincent publicly berates him and walks out, leaving Rufus stuck with the cheque, Rufus turns to a commercial online gay prostitute for sexual release.

“He decided to bite the bullet and search the internet for, ‘Dom in Holton.” Searching for one didn’t commit him to hiring them, he figured. After such an exhausting day, his better judgment was too tired to convince him he shouldn’t.

The results surprised him. Hundreds of relevant hits appeared. Some were craigslist ads, others professional websites. The websites confused him at first; all billed themselves as ‘non-sexual.’ Rufus couldn’t understand why a non-sexual dom existed, and why anyone hired them. Then he realized through a bit more searching that it was a lie, so that the sites appeared strictly legal.” (p. 8)

Rufus picks the website of Bennett Augustine, a German shepherd dom. Bennett is businesslike and very satisfactory. Afterwards, Rufus pays him extra while the two just relax and talk.

“The dom gave him a cocky grin. ‘Lots of guys fall for escorts, prostitutes, doms, etc. Girls too, though that’s not a problem for me. Some people think sex equals love, or something. Or maybe they just want to get stuff for free rather than paying. Or most frequently, I think, they don’t know how to start a real relationship and try to pay for one. You’d think it would be good for business, but it’s not. It usually ends up with bad publicity, or worse, an arrest. I have to be careful about that kind of stuff, in this business.” (p. 14)

Not surprisingly, Victor blows up when Rufus tells him of the affair, pointing out that it was after Victor walked out on him. Victor accuses Rufus of consorting with a street whore. Both are casual players of the Japanese game of go, and Rufus considers their relationship in those terms.

“They sat staring at each other for a great length of time. Rufus analyzed the situation. He needed to always stay one step ahead of Victor, figuring out his next attack, and readying a defense or counterattack, and then be ready for Victor’s response to that. It was like a game of go, only with the board and territories indistinct. Rufus played go well. But the problem lay in the fact that this wasn’t actually go, only something vaguely like it. And Victor was better at this other, indistinct game – and much smarter. Rufus believed that was the main reason Victor liked him so much; he was one of the few people who offered him a challenge in it. That, and Rufus never went for the throat. He always played defensively, and that meant every time he bested Victor, the lion could get up and try a different tactic. Rufus didn’t have that luxury. One misstep, and everything between them could be gone. While dangerous and exciting for Rufus, he got tired of it before Victor did. Rufus lost the game sometimes, but Victor always came back a day or two later.” (p. 27)

Victor eventually returns but their relationship continues to be considered in go terms by Rufus. Victor promises to see a therapist for his anger issues, but Rufus doubts that he really has.

“Rufus decided to launch right into things. ‘You didn’t go to your appointment.’

‘You were spying on me?’ Distraction, Rufus thought; ignore it. ‘You have a lot of nerve to not trust me after what you did.’ Attack. Victor was attacking another side of the board, trying to draw attention away from the important area Rufus was trying to contest and to a past failing. But it was back to a position they’d been in before, and Rufus couldn’t allow that.” (p. 46)

After several weeks, Bennett reenters the scene and immediately begins giving him conflicting advice. Rufus eventually realizes that Victor and Bennett are both doms and he is a sub. He needs to stop being influenced by whoever is the most recent to talk to him, and learn to stand up on his own.

In a major subplot, Rufus decides to become a more serious go player. He joins a club of expert go players, and eventually enters a go tournament with the advice of his player friend Mark (fox). Rufus considers that, metaphorically, he is the prize in a go game that Bennett and Victor are playing (cover by Peta Fenton).

Learning to Go is a funny-animal novel with no fantasy except the anthropomorphic-animal nature of the characters. It is a well-written story of an abusive m/m relationship, and of what the sub member in a dom/sub partnership decides to do about it. This is more of a true-life self-discovery novel than an anthropomorphic-animal fantasy. Read accordingly.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

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(This is the original interview conducted in English with Nuka, by Mike Retriever. If you wish to read the Spanish translation, you can do so here.)

 
Nuka (full name Dr. Courtney Plante) is a 29-year-old furry born in Canada who lives part-time in Iowa (Midwest USA), where he works as a post-doctoral researcher. Besides previous studies, he holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. He’s co-founder and member of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP), through which, with a team of highly qualified colleagues, has researched & published over 15 peer-reviewed papers about the furry fandom and related fandoms. Through this project he’s kept making, for years, scientifically sound psychological survey-studies, aiming to understand the demographic landscape, social connections, and behaviour, of individual furries and the fandom as a whole.

 
MR:  First of all Nuka, you look really cute in your fursuit with the doctoral garb! What was the reaction amongst university colleagues?

 
Nu:  Aww, thank you! Well, it didn’t really surprise any of my grad school colleagues – they’d all known me for a number of years, and I imagine they were pretty sure I’d throw on the suit for convocation. The much more interesting part was walking around campus with the suit and graduation garb on – I think I wound up on about 1,000 people’s Facebook pages the next day, because all the other graduating students wanted pictures with the Doctor Cat – I think a bunch of them figured I was a mascot or something.

 
MR:   You should have been! Nuka for mascot!

 
MR:  I’ve seen some evolving in your FA gallery, do you now identify yourself more with a pony rather than a cat?

 
Nu:   Nope, Nuka’s always been, and will always be, a cat. About the only evolving he’s done over the years has been to go from his original puke-green to Kool-aid blue (since I’m color-blind, I decided to make him blue, since I can actually see it!) The pony artwork on my FA gallery has more to do with my learning to doodle in recent years. I enjoy My Little Pony, and the style is relatively simple to pick up, so I figured it would be as good a place as any for me to learn to draw!

 
MR:  Oooohh! Well yes, the artwork of MLP is simple. Just out of curiosity, do you know what kind of color blindness do you have? Protanopia / Deuteranopia? [the most common]

 
Nu:  As a matter of fact, I do! Deuteranopia – it’s when the “red” and “green” cones in your eye are a bit warped, and have overlapping ranges of light wavelengths that they respond to. Sorry – I’ve taught courses in perceptual psychology, so I’m used to teaching / explaining color-blindness like this!

 
MR:  Foremost, I want to begin by talking about your current research, so furries get to know what it is and how they can contribute. It’s a longitudinal study. What does this mean? How is it different from previous surveys?

 
Nu:  Well, at any given time, we’ve got several different studies in preparation or on the go. But yes, our longest and still-ongoing study is the longitudinal study, and you can compare it to some of our previous studies, which are called cross-sectional studies. In a cross-sectional study, you take a “snapshot” of the fandom, so to speak. Basically, give a survey to a bunch of furries to get an idea what the fandom is like right now. The problem with cross-sectional studies, however, is that they can’t answer questions that have a “time” element to them. So, if we ask furries “how do you feel about animal rights?” and “do you identify with your fursona species?”, we may find that those two variables are correlated. However, we can’t say, in a cross-sectional study, which one came first: does the person’s caring about animal rights cause them to identify more with their fursona, or the other way around? A longitudinal study lets us do that: we survey the same people over and over again, once a year, giving them the same questions (and some different ones), to see how their answers change over time. This lets us figure out “oh, variable X changed and then, a year later, variable Y changed, so X must have caused Y!”

 
As for how to contribute – any furry over the age of 18 is welcome to participate! [Please, underage furries, don’t falsify scientific studies.] The easiest way is to send me an e-mail ( cplante (at) iastate.edu ) and let me know that you’re interested in participating. All we need is an e-mail address where you can be reached, and then, once a year, for the foreseeable future, we will send you a link to that year’s survey.

 
MR:  One of the things you want to research further through the longitudinal study is, from a general perspective, why do people leave the fandom. You’ve stated that furries, for the most part, don’t leave the fandom because of some sudden event, but they lose interest gradually. Also, we are bad at predicting when this might happen. What do you know so far?

 
Nu:  Funny enough, we still know very little about folks leaving the fandom as of yet! It may take another few years of the longitudinal study before we have enough people who leave to be able to provide some illuminating responses. At this point, all we’ve really got are theories. That said, they’re not theories we pulled out of nothing – many of them are based on well-established psychological principles. I, personally, believe that the biggest source of furries leaving the fandom is a combination of “the fandom isn’t what it used to be” (changing norms, shows, artists, etc… over time make it less familiar) and the fact that most furries end up developing a group of friends through the community and, over time, they can hang out with those friends without “needing” the furry side of things. They can just hang out outside of a convention or meet-up. But yes, that last point is true – people are notoriously bad at predicting their future feelings – there have been a number of psychological studies about that very thing, showing that we’re supremely confident that we know how we’ll feel about something… until it happens. And the evidence is there – the vast majority of furries believe that they’ll still be in the fandom 10 years from now [see graph]. But the data suggests otherwise!

"I wasn't a furry 10 years ago... I've gotten more furry since then.. and I will stay this furry for at least 10 more years."-->

 
MR:  You have, what I believe is, one of the coolest jobs on the planet. In your daily workplace & research, you get to do science, mixed with furry. You sometimes lecture students on what the furry fandom is, and they have to endure it. How has this made you who you are, or changed your life?

 
Nu:  Oooh, great question! I would definitely agree that I’m lucky enough to have one of the coolest jobs on the planet. I get to study furries, and video games – two of my favorite hobbies. And I get to do science, on top of it all, which is always mind-blowing to me. I can sit down, analyze some data, and say, at the end of the day, “I learned something today that, in all of the history of mankind, no one has ever known.” That’s really humbling, and it definitely beats the day-to-day grind of an office or routine job. And actually, I wouldn’t say that my students “endure” my lectures on furries at all – it’s almost always the lecture everyone talks about and looks forward to – so much so that the attendance in those classes shoots up dramatically, and other professors ask me to give the “furry lecture” to their classes!

As for how it’s affected or changed me, well, I would say that it’s helped me to feel like I fit in someplace, both academically and in the fandom. When I first joined the fandom, I was nervous and overwhelmed – there were so many amazing artists, writers, performers, musicians, organizers, and very social people, and all I could think about was how I wanted to contribute to it somehow – I wanted to give something to the community! But I’m not much of an artist, or a musician, and I’m pretty shy! But I like science, and I’m pretty good with stats, so I found my own way to give something to the community that’s given me so much! And it’s helped me find my way in academia – I no longer feel that sense of floundering, of wondering “what can I study that’s new, that hasn’t been done before?”

 
MR:  It’s a very unique, useful and notable way to contribute!

 
MR:  In 2012 you were featured on a National Geographic episode of the series “Taboo”, Season 8, Episode 2: “Secret Lives” (link 01 ⇒) (link 02 ⇒). The furry section of the documentary was concise, not really very informative [they confuse furry fandom with therianthropy e.g.], but actually not unpleasant to watch. You appear calm, explaining your interest for furry as a means of self-expression. Also, you looked quite more hairy than nowadays. Was the experience of being filmed / interviewed satisfying?

 
Nu:  Ugh… To be honest, I was actually pretty unhappy with the whole thing. The whole experience was incredibly stressful. I’m a pretty shy and private person, so having video cameras around me for 8-10 hours a day for a few days at a time was a bit overwhelming. I don’t think the piece was in any way “bad”, but it was very disappointing, when I consider what it “could” have been. I was really hoping that my role on the show would be as an expert – as a person who could give statistics and numbers and really teach people “hey, here’s what furries are.” And in fact, there was over an hour of footage shot where I was giving all sorts of facts and figures about furries. Of course, none of that got used! Instead, they focused on the fact that I was a furry, which is a bit silly to me. I would consider myself interesting as an expert on furries, but as a furry myself, I’m actually pretty boring! I don’t really have any exciting stories to tell about myself, my fursona is pretty typical as far as furries go… I honestly suggested that they use me for the “boring data stuff”, and go out to find really interesting furries – furries who are amazing fursuit performers or who have really cool stories about things they’ve done or how they got into the fandom. But, instead, they focused on me – arguably one of the most boring furries on the planet! Like I said, it wasn’t bad or insulting or anything like that to the fandom. But it was a missed opportunity, I think.

 
MR:  This is a sentiment many other furries can agree with. No matter how much research and passion and cool stuff they put into giving to the media, ultimately they cut off anything that might be culturally significant, profound or interesting. In the best case scenario, it becomes watered down to the point of boring.

 
Nu:  And it goes beyond that too… You could tell that they had misconceptions about furries from the get-go. When they arrived, it was clear that we were not what they were expecting. They showed up, and a bunch of us were at my house, playing cards. They were like “okay… so when do you put on the suits and run around?” We were like “we don’t really do that outside of conventions or furry gatherings.” They honestly thought that I spent the day lying around the house in my fursuit or walking around everywhere in the suit. And, when they realized that wasn’t the case, it became clear to them that, as a group, furries don’t live up to all the hype we get from the media. We’re not really as “out there”, “wild”, and “freaky” when you get to know us. Of course, you can’t do a show about that, so they wheel out a bunch of fursuiters to catch everyone’s eye.

 
MR:  Last year a group of journalists contacted the furries here [Madrid], to record for one of their programmes about stuff that goes on in people’s lives. They had a set number of things they wanted to record with furries, including, in fursuit, going to a bowling alley, and eating at a restaurant. The people here said “We don’t do bowling, that’s something they sometimes do in America but not here. And why would we want to have dinner with the fursuit on, it’s impractical, and you might stain the fur.” “We just hang out & do regular stuff mostly.” So they looked for fursuiters somewhere else in another city. And what do you guess, some months later those show up on TV, bowling, and eating clumsily at a restaurant in their fursuits.

 
Nu:  And they can’t fathom it! They can’t imagine that, yeah, we don’t go out and do crazy stuff in the fursuits everyday (or, even more amazing to them- we don’t all have fursuits!). Eeeyup. All the footage they got of me in the fursuit was literally from my first week of ever wearing my fursuit (I’d happened to get it that week). I was trying to explain to them that I didn’t know what I was doing, that they were really better off finding a person with a professionally-made suit, and with a lot of experience suiting

 
MR:  Those furry fingers wiggling in the ‘documentary’ were super cute though.

 
MR:  The large majority of furries have a fursona that’s relatively fixed, and also personal. You’ve found that most of our fursonas are animal versions of ourselves, not designed on a whim but carefully chosen by what we feel represents us best: our personality, our passions, or other traits. But also, they reflect “better” versions of ourselves. You say we give our fursonas qualities we’d personally like to have: more friendliness, more optimism, extroversion, attractiveness, confidence… Would you say, therefore, that by acting through our fursonas (be it fursuiting, role-playing, interacting with the community…) we can improve ourselves, therapeutically?

 
Nu:  Hmm, I’d be a bit hesitant to use the word “therapeutically” there, but otherwise, you’ve got it right! There’s a body of research in psychology which suggests that we have multiple “selves” – two of which are our “ideal” selves – who we would be if we had the choice, and our “actual” selves – who we actually are. In general, this research shows that the closer our actual selves are to our ideal selves, the happier we tend to be. And I think, and have been working to try to test the hypothesis that, fursonas represent this “ideal” self for many furries. And, as an added bonus, we not only get to think about these ideal selves, but we get to actually spend time interacting with others as our ideal selves. In other words, if you’re a shy, quiet person, but would, ideally, be more outgoing and confident, spending time as an outgoing, confident version of yourself may actually change how you see yourself. Others will treat you as that outgoing, confident self, and, over time, you may realize that you’ve internalized, or become, that idealized version of you!

 
MR:  In the past you’ve encountered furries who went through psychologically troubling times, and their therapist / counselor advised them to forget the furry fandom. How do you feel about that?

 
Nu:  One of the most troubling things we were hearing from furries when we started doing one-on-one interviews was, as you said, that there were furries who weren’t getting the therapy that they needed because the therapist / counselor had no idea what a furry was. Furries, like anyone else, can suffer from psychological conditions like depression or anxiety disorders. But, where a non-furry would go in and receive help for the condition they’re suffering from, many furries would go into a psychologist’s office only to be told, after the first interview, that being a furry was the problem, not depression or anxiety. This is a real problem, because, for many furries, the fandom is a source of a lot of support – comfort, friendship, and even income in some cases. To be told that the fandom was the problem was not only heartbreaking, but incredibly frustrating for many furries, especially when the fandom was the only thing helping to keep them together. Thankfully, we’ve since published an article on this very subject which will hopefully reduce the problem, and give furries something they can show their therapist / counselor to explain that furry is, in most cases, probably not the problem.

 
MR:  Can you say which article it is, where was it published?

 
Nu:  Sure! The article is entitled “Clinical Interaction with Anthropomorphic Phenomenon: Notes for Health Professionals about Interacting with Clients Who Possess This Unusual Identity”, and it’s published in the journal ‘Health & Social Work’. The article’s abstract can be found here: (link⇒), and if you [the reader] want a full version of it, you can e-mail me ( cplante (at) iastate.edu ) to get a copy for yourself!

 
MR:  The playful way in which we ascribe common traits to certain animal species is one of the appeals of animal-anthropomorphic culture. So, going to some data you’ve collected, for example, we find that fursonas who are a wolf or a dog, are believed to be loyal. Dragons are believed to be strong. Cats, lazy. Foxes, sly, intelligent. Otters, very much fun. And rabbits shy, but also, very much sex-driven! In what ways have you studied how this may relate to actual personal traits?

 
Nu:  Aha! You’re thinking exactly like a scientist! Because that’s exactly one of the things we’ll be studying at Anthrocon this year! That’s actually what I wanted to study last year – to test whether certain personalities matched up with certain stereotypical fursona species traits (because we’ve been asked about that in the past – are all people who choose species X like this or that?) I wanted to test it, but the first step was to figure out what the stereotypes were in the first place. Now that we know what the stereotypes are, we can test to see whether people who identify as wolves or cats or foxes would actually use those terms to describe themselves! So, I’ll have an answer to that question in a few months!

 
MR:  However, in the questionnaire, you have to ask in a way that’s not obvious to the reader so they don’t answer what they think they’re expected to answer.

 
Nu:  Oh yeah – we take that into account. We have a lot of practice doing this.

 
MR:  How much work is actually put in validating a questionnaire before printing?

 
Nu:  Well, it typically takes us about two to three months, start to finish, to go from our initial design to printing for a convention. Usually we start off with a big brainstorming session a few months in advance. We talk about past projects and how we’d like to advance them, and we also talk about new projects or collaborators we want to bring on board. Then, we have to go out and see whether anyone’s measured what we’re interested in measuring – it saves us a lot of time to be able to use a previously-validated scale, rather than re-inventing the wheel. If not, we have to invent a new scale. Everyone on the team puts together a big list of questions they want to ask, and they send it to me. It’s my job to take this list of 300-500 questions and chop it down to less than 200 questions. This can take a surprising amount of time to do, and usually involves considering trade-offs – where can we get the most bang for our buck, since we only have so much space on the survey. Once that’s done and gets a final review from our team, it goes off to ethics, who has to review it, recommend changes to it, and finally approve it. It can take a surprising amount of time, and constructing good questions is an art – it’s not as easy as just throwing some words on a page!

 
MR:  But if done right, it remains in the collective pool of useful human knowledge forever!

 
Nu:  That’s the hope!

 
MR:  You’ve delved a bit into therianthropy / otherkins. Furries are often misunderstood for therians; in media, or by people who are unfamiliar with the fandom. Therians are people who identify, intrinsically, as an animal; they believe they have the soul or spirit of a real animal, or identify strongly as one in some other way. The furry fandom isn’t therian, but a sizeable amount of furries are also therians, more so than in the general population. Would you say being therian (having a species identity different from one’s actual species) can be compared to being transgender (having a gender identity different from one’s sex)?

 
Nu:  This is a surprisingly tough question to answer. In a way, my colleague Dr. Kathy Gerbasi made this analogy a few years go, and ruffled a few feathers for it. I would agree that you could use a transgender identity as an analogue for what therians describe their experience as being like, but I would definitely say that the phenomena are not the same thing – they likely have different underlying mechanisms, manifest in different ways, and I certainly don’t want to say that they’re the same thing – I imagine there are plenty of therians and transgender people alike who would take issue with the suggestion that these phenomena are the same. Interestingly, however, we do find that, compared to furries, therians are more likely to identify as transgender.

 
MR:  This is one of the questions you ask in your surveys. Given the opportunity, through some mystical process, to become a real animal, would you choose to stop being human?

 
Nu:  I’m rather fond of being human, to be honest! While I think cats are absolutely adorable, and I definitely admire their ability to be so content with a simple life of eating and napping in a sunbeam, I’m pretty happy as a person, and wouldn’t want to change it!

 
MR:  In regards to sex and gender, why do you think the fandom is, compared to the general population, distinctly non-heterosexual and diverse? There’s more of everything: more homosexuals, more bisexuals, more gender bending, more transgender people, more polyamorous and open relationships, and more asexuals.

 
Nu:  I think the fandom’s more diverse with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity for three reasons.

1) Historically, the fandom has many of its roots in such communities – San Francisco and Toronto are home to some of the first furry groups, both of which have a fairly prominent gay population.

2) The fandom is an open and accepting place, where people are invited to come as they are – something that’s particularly inviting, I would imagine, for people who belong to stigmatized minority groups.

3) The fandom provides a safe and comfortable place for people to explore aspects of themselves. It may be the case, for example, that rates of homosexuality would be much higher if the stigma were removed from it and people were given the opportunity / encouraged to explore their sexuality more openly. In that regard, the furry fandom may help people who are questioning, curious, or who have been thinking about these aspects of themselves to “try it on” and see how it fits.

 
MR:  A graph by [adjective][species] shows furries being increasingly homosexual as they stay in the fandom. Without questioning their methodology, would you be surprised if that was the case?

 
Nu:  Actually, I know the folks over at [a][s] quite well, and am well aware of that particular finding (though, I’ve lost track, at this point, of whether the hypothesis was first put forward by them or by myself!) This question is a fantastic example of the type of question that requires a longitudinal study to answer! Because, at the moment, with cross-sectional data, the only way to infer that homosexuality increases with time in the fandom is to ask people how long they’ve been in the fandom and to ask them about their sexual orientation. But there’s no way to know which caused which to happen. However, our longitudinal study will hopefully answer this exact question by looking at the same furries over time and seeing how their sexual orientation may change as they spend time in the fandom! I would certainly not be surprised to see that this is the case, as it’s been my hypothesis for a number of years now!

 
MR:  Well it’s always been a popular thought here… Furry’s a field of turnips. Whoever comes straight turns into ‘fabulous’. (Turnips being a phallic reference.)

 
Nu:   I’ve never heard that expression before!

 
MR:  It’s probably a Spanish idiom.

 
MR:  Where would you put yourself in the Kinsey scale? [A scale from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to 6, meaning exclusively homosexual.]

 
Nu:  I’d actually prefer to play that one close to the chest I’ve found, in the past, that people find it relatively hard to gauge where I stand in that regard, and I suppose I’d prefer to keep it that way

(Though you’re welcome to guess )

 
MR:  I have no clue! I mean, you look in some way effeminate, but that’s not necessarily a homosexual trait. More and more people in the media appear effeminate, but also they’re straight. [“Being campy / mannered is not only an asset for the queer” – Mario Vaquerizo.] In a couple of decades I don’t think behaving effeminately and being actually gay will even be thought of as related.

 
Nu:  It always surprises me to see that I give off mixed signals!

 
MR:  You are also a brony, a fan of My Little Pony (MLP). There is some overlap between furry fandom and brony fandom, but you’ve found there isn’t a consensus on how to approach this. Different people feel differently about MLP fans. What can you say about this?

 
Nu:  When it comes to bronies, the fandom’s pretty mixed in how they feel: about 1/3 of the fandom really hates them, 1/3 of the fandom likes them, and 1/3 of the fandom is ambivalent about them. In general, it’s the furries who are bronies (about 25% of furries self-identify as a brony) who tend to feel positively about bronies. As for the ones who are vehemently opposed to bronies, I suspect it stems, in part, from a belief that bronies are “invading the fandom” – that is, many artists have taken to drawing pony-themed art, and it was a major topic of conversation in the fandom for quite some time (though, it seems that in recent years it’s begun to decline in popularity). I would argue that these feelings are certainly not unique to bronies as a subculture within the furry fandom – similar observations can be found in peoples’ comments about Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon, and Disney movies like The Lion King in the past decade or two. And, with the popularity of Zootopia and the influx of furries it may yield, I imagine we’ll be having this same conversation about Zootopia in a year or two!

 
MR:  Except Zootopia is awesome so everyone will love it just as much as I do!

 
Nu:   It’s always amusing to me, that people who are fans of Pokémon or Sonic can say “ugh, bronies”, without realizing that, a decade earlier, furries were saying “ugh, Pokémon fans”. The times, they are a-changin’!

 
MR:  You’ve recently discovered that furries are much more likely to be the older child of the family, and this is also my case. Do you dare speculate why this is so?

 
Nu:  I wish I had a better answer for you – but, to be honest, that’s one of the weird quirks that we have absolutely no answer for! There’s been a little bit of research in psychology looking at birth order and the things that it predicts, but nothing, as far as I’m aware of, would predict the numbers that we found. Of course, it’s entirely possible that it was a statistical fluke, and in a future survey I definitely want to test it again, to see whether that was the case. However, if it’s not, and it really is the case that furries are far more likely to be the older sibling (as it is in my case as well), we’ll be scratching our heads to figure out why, that’s for sure! But that’s what makes science so much fun! Mysteries like this!

 
MR:  May I hypothesize? The older child usually has more responsibility, or has a more rough terrain to go through in life than a younger child. So furry fandom might be a way to channel the desire for a world of fluffy bunnies and cutsie stuff.

 
Nu:  It’s entirely possible! But here’s the problem with what’s called “armchair”, or “speculative” psychology. I could come up with an equally plausible alternative explanation: Research has shown that younger children are more likely to be “the artistic ones”, in rebellion of older children (who, because of stricter parents or more attention given to them when it was just them, may do better in school). So, because of this preference for “artistic” endeavours, they may be more drawn to the furry fandom!

Ultimately, as I always say, “it’s an empirical question” – they’re both plausible explanations, so we’d have to test it with a study to see which of our explanations is wrong, right, better, or worse! Let the data do the talking!

 
MR:  Anyhow, your data shows the number one reason why people become furries is because of the internet. Doesn’t it prove this other hypothesis?

 
Nu:  That picture is absolutely fantastic, and I think I may have to use it in an upcoming presentation. And yes, it would certainly provide evidence in support of that particular model!

 
MR:  Amongst the things furries really like there’s sci-fi, videogames, cartoons, webcomics, and artwork. Amongst the things they’re more or less into there’s anime, MUCKs / role-playing, and tabletop gaming. A thing furries hate is sports. Why do you think furries don’t like local teams moving a ball to some place in a field, in order to score more points against rival teams?

 
Nu:  I don’t think furries have an intrinsic hate of the idea of spherical projectiles on athletic fields, in and of itself! I think many furries are averse to sports for two reasons.

1) Sports represent an accepted, mainstream fandom. It’s socially acceptable for a person to be a sport fan, and there are many sport fans. In contrast, many furries are forced, because of stigma and other factors, to keep their interests relatively secret or, at very least, to not be as brazen and outgoing about them. It could certainly create some animosity toward sport fans, especially if you consider that many furries also identify as geeks, which are a relatively well-known counter-culture.

2) Many furries also report a history of having been bullied in their childhood / formative years. As such, they may develop a bit of dislike toward those who are more popular (e.g., preps, jocks), who may well have been the ones doing the bullying.

These explanations, as well as others, make more sense, especially when you consider how many furries have fursona species that like to chase balls (dogs, cats, etc…)!

 
MR:  I recall a recording of a group of greymuzzles [including Fred Patten] discussing the furry fandom in a convention in the 90s. One of the things they talked about, was “Do you think furry fandom will keep its appeal if it becomes popular?” And they answered, no. They thought many people would leave the fandom if it becomes mainstream one day. We aren’t mainstream yet, but the fandom has grown a lot since then.

 
Nu:  True! But we’re still a long way from “mainstream!” Although, it raises another interesting possibility: Groups don’t really “disintegrate”, especially not groups as cohesive as the furry fandom is. Instead, as they grow, they tend to “fragment”, so to speak. In fact, in a way, that’s how the furry fandom came into existence! As a group grows larger and more unwieldy, people begin to split off and specialize. As the science fiction fandom grew and grew, it allowed for more people interested in stories about “funny animals”, about planets of walking, talking cat-people together. Eventually, a critical mass of them grew and decided that there were enough of them to split off and have their own con. I suspect, if the fandom continues to grow, that sort of fragmentation and splitting off will happen.

It may well be the case that, as furry conventions and furry art websites continue to grow, more meaningful subgroups will form and split off from the group. Perhaps, in ten years, fursuiters will form their own community. Or perhaps there will be enough furry writers to form their own fandom specific to writing stories about furries, without any interest in fursuiting, music, or graphical arts. Or it may split based on content – perhaps furries interested in more feral style content will split off from furries who prefer more anthro content!

But it wouldn’t have to be a bad thing, of course! Not like a furry civil war or anything like that. More of a “specialization”. You can see something similar happen in regional furry groups. If there’s only, say, 10 furries in an area, they’ll all hang out together, despite likely having very different interests. Two of them may be artists, three of them may be gamers, one may be a writer, and so on. But, in a large regional group of, say, 300 furries, the furry writers will tend to congregate together, because they have more in common, and the furry gamers will do the same thing. They become their own subgroup within the larger, broader group.

 
MR:  Another aspect you’ve studied within the fandom is the relationship between artists and commissioners. Artists believe commissioners are very demanding and self-entitled, meanwhile commissioners believe they’re patient and flexible. What would you say to each group?

 
Nu:  I’ve been interested in this topic for a few years now, with the hope of being able to do exactly as you’re suggesting: to be able to give advice to both artists and commissioners.

To artists, I would recommend gently reminding them that for every bad customer or horrible review they get, there are dozens of people out there who love their work and will happily commission them. To recognize that they are biased to remember the bad ones, and to practice letting go of those bad commissioners. I’d also recommend to artists that they take time to work on pieces that they want to work on every so often, to make sure that they rejuvenate their passion for their craft, so it doesn’t become “just a job” for them.

As for commissioners, I’d recommend that they keep in mind that artists are people. They often have school or work outside of the commission work that they do, and they’re also people, just like anyone else, who get tired, need a break, stress out, and have personal problems that can interfere with their work.

I think both sides would also benefit from clear expectations that are agreed upon from the get-go, and from clear lines of communication – letting artists know what’s expected and that you’re able to pay on-time, and letting commissioners have an honest estimate regarding timelines and progress, and being honest about the ability to deliver on expectations. That would get rid of 80% of the problems that artists and commissioners frequently encounter.

 
MR:  Are you aware of monetary issues that come up now and then? Like artists wanting the money upfront but then not delivering. Or someone wanting a refund when the money has been spent already. Or having a commission drawn but the artist not actually getting paid. I don’t think it happens very often but sometimes it does. Do you know anything about this?

 
Nu:  Hmm, we’re only just getting started in our research on artists / commissioners, so, at the moment, no, I can’t say we have any data specifically about these sorts of issues. I am planning, sometime in the next year, to do an artists / commissioner specific survey though, which will hopefully address these very issues!

 
MR:  You’ve found that, in comparison to other fandoms, furries are the least likely to tell others about their interest for animal-anthropomorphic culture, not unlike homosexuals “staying in the closet”. People are generally multifaceted, have different interests. While I may have an interest in bioethics, it’s not something I would talk about generally with furries, nor would I talk about furry with co-workers unless prompted. Though, in an ideal world, we’d like to talk to anyone about our passions in life. How important for our well-being is it to be open about furry?

 
Nu:  We’ve actually published an article in the journal Leisure/Loisir a few years ago on this very topic, entitled “Deeper leisure involvement as a coping resource in a stigmatized leisure context”. The gist of the paper is that it’s not so important that furries be able to be outgoing about being furry so much as it’s important that furries not have to “keep it to themselves” or “hide it”. In other words, parading the fact that you’re a furry doesn’t really do much for your well-being one way or another. But being forced to conceal or hide the fact that you’re furry is actually really bad for you – because a similar thing has been found in gay people. When people have to hide their identity, it’s stressful – you have to be constantly vigilant about what you say to other people, and self-monitor to make sure you don’t accidentally “give it way” or “out yourself”. It also causes constant anxiety – what if your parents found out? Your partner? Your boss? That sort of stress is really bad for a person, especially when it’s chronic. Humans aren’t designed to be constantly under stress, and it takes a toll on your immune system and your physical health, in addition to your psychological well-being.

So, I wouldn’t say that furries should go to the rooftops and yell out that they’re a furry for all to hear. But yes, in general, it’s better for furries if they’re in a situation where they have people they can confide in and where they don’t have to constantly stress about what would happen if people found out they were a furry.

 
MR:  There are many variables that can predict the level of well-being of a person: physical activity, sleep quality, healthy / non-healthy diet, smoking / non-smoking, employment, education… One of the best predictors of well-being you describe is having a social support network, friends, relationships. “Having people who are there for you when life gets hard, is one of the best predictors of well-being, and the fandom provides that for people.” How can the furry fandom make someone’s life more fulfilling?

 
Nu:  Well, the furry fandom does provide a lot of people with a sense of identity and a sense of purpose – both things that can help make people’s lives more meaningful and fulfilling. When you feel like you’re part of something bigger than you, and when you feel like you’ve got a distinct identity, it’s good for self-esteem and overall life satisfaction. And, perhaps most important, the fandom provides people with that social support you mentioned. Social support is resilience – it’s resources that you can draw upon when life gets hard – whether it’s trying to cope with psychological trauma or loss, or simply with practical issues, like being short on rent or needing a place to sleep for a few days. The fandom provides people with that social support, which can, in some cases, even be life-saving. So, insofar as the fandom provides people with an identity, with a group to belong to, with a sense of meaning, and helps bolster their resilience against the struggles and hardships in life, it can absolutely improve the quality of life for furries.

 
MR:  Taking into account everything you’ve learned from the furry fandom through the years, how would you describe it? How would you describe the furry community?

 
Nu:  The fandom is a community, first and foremost. It’s more than just people sharing a common interest occupying the same spaces online or in-person. It’s people with a passion, with creativity and openness to new ideas sharing those ideas and openly seeking out new experiences and new friendships with others. And it’s genuine friendships and relationships that are formed through the fandom – people who may start to interact with one another because of a shared interest, but who form deep and meaningful bonds with one another over time. I think that’s the structure that underlies the fandom, when you strip away all the furry content. It’s relationships and community.

 
“Furries are people. They’re people who share an interest,
an interest that’s central to who they are and the group that they belong to.”

“This is what the media gets wrong about the furry fandom.
They show pictures like this, hundreds of fursuits.”

“That’s wrong, that’s not how furries look like. This is what furries look like.”

“Furries are people, hanging out with other furries.
And that’s what makes this fandom so special.
That’s why we love to study this fandom. Because of these relationships.”

– Nuka
 

 
MR:  Picking up and finishing the interview, I only have two small questions. First, have you finally seen Zootopia? Or do I have to call the furry police?

 
Nu:   I have seen Zootopia, and I absolutely adored it! Funny enough, my favorite scene, the scene I could watch over and over again, is when Judy is on the train, arriving in Zootopia for the very first time. The animation, the music, the sense of wonder it created. If the film doesn’t receive a ton of Academy Awards next year for that scene alone, it will be a travesty!

 
MR:  Yeeeeeeey! Another convinced Zootopian!!
 

 
 
MR:  And, can we expect to see you in this year’s Eurofurence (August 2016)?

 
Nu:  As much as I would absolutely love the chance to, I don’t think it’s in the cards this year – I’ve already added two new cons to my regular circulation – Further Confusion and Midwest Furfest. However… I’ve not ruled out the possibility of Eurofurence next year

 
MR:  Yeeey! Funded by the Government of Canada? For science?!

 
Nu:   We’re currently not funded right now (we ran out); so we’re applying for more, at the moment. So, at the moment, I have to make it out to cons out of my own pocket! But I love what I do, and I don’t mind paying for my own science.

 
MR:  It’s been a real pleasure talking to you Nuka. And it’s been a long interview. Thanks for bearing with me!

 
Nu:  Oh, not a problem! Thank you for taking the time to be well-informed beforehand

 
MR:  You can find Nuka at FurAffinity (Nuka-Kitty), and at the IARP website (link⇒). He remains approachable and is happy to assist in anything regarding his studies. Please consider taking part in his online surveys, or filling his questionnaires whenever you get the chance to see him at a convention.

The entry Interview with Nuka, the Furry Social Psychologist appears first in FurryFandom.es.

We are joined via Skype by PepperCoyote this week, discussing his upcoming collaborative album with Fox Amoore, his Anthrocon plans, and more furry musician stuff. We talk a bit about HavenCon too, but don't actually hit any emails since it was 10:30 by the time we wrapped up with Pepper. Whoops. Next week: THREE weeks of asks and emails. :x We do have a Patreon and you'd be a cool person if you'd consider supporting it. www.patreon.com/knotcast Episode 312 - Hashtag Furries

Hello Everyone!

This week we lead off with a discussion about a recent study showing that DNA may influence your sex life. Check out the Show Notes for a link to the study.

Our main topic is about communication. What different styles are there and what are the pros and cons of each? Healthy communication in a relationship is what nourishes the love that grows. Developing communication skills and habits can be incredibly difficult, especially if you grew up in an environment that did not foster such growth. We discuss all of this, as well as how to identify and avoid the pitfalls of communication styles and how to work with your partner to ensure that there are fewer misunderstandings in your relationship. 

We also have a listener question about what to do if you are involuntarily celibate. This can have a long-lasting impact on the health and well being of an individual and, for some, it is a real struggle. 

For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 016 Communication Styles - How can you improve your communication skills to better yourself and your relationships?

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

The Forges of Dawn, by E. M. Kinsey
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, September 2014, trade paperback $18.50 ([3] + 480 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $9.99.

“In a world where lions evolved and man did not… An epic adventure begins” (blurb)

“The stories are focused around the felines of our world, but mostly around Lyons of Afriik. It takes place on an alternate world where humans have been hunted to extinction, allowing other animals to thrive and grow after they learn how to master and create fire.” (The Iron Lyons Wiki)

The Forges of Dawn, Book 1 of the “Iron Lyons” series, is the first novel in this series. But E. M. Kinsey has been developing the world of Afriik and its Lyons for a long time. Her Wiki cites both this novel and several other short stories and comic stories such as “Escape”, “Unbroken”, “The Lady of Snow”, “Vicious Circle”, and others. Some are published on DeviantArt, some on Patreon, and some are still unpublished. Her Patreon page describes the forthcoming The Road to Ruin: An Iron Lyons Novella Collection; three novellas still to be written.

Briefly, there are many tribes of Lyons in Afriik, but two main groupings; the Refugees including the deep red Barbari Lyons, spread across what would be North Africa in our world, and the Pale Ones, ruling most of the rest of the continent. (The southern tip of Afriik is the Hynar or hyena Territories.)

The Forges of Dawn begins with a Glossary and a six-page prologue in almost religious prose of the background of this novel. It’s important, but if you’re really interested, you can get that in greater depth on The Iron Lyons Wiki, described above. The protagonist is Uhuru (later Uru), the Red Queen of the deep red Barbari Lyons. The antagonists are the Pale Ones, white Lyons led by cruel Lord Vireka.

Chapter One wallows in bleakness and despair. The cruel Pale Ones are closing in on the last Lyon leaders, or rather the matriarchal Lyonesses. Their pregnant Red Queen, Mjane, sees her mate Sahibu sacrifice himself to temporarily draw their pursuers away. Realizing that the Pale Ones will never stop searching until they have her corpse, she gives birth to a son and then has her followers take the cub to safely while she remains behind to be slaughtered – or worse.

A century passes …

“A reddish blur moved across the grasses of the open plains, its shape gradually resolving into the form of a young Lyonesse coming into her full adulthood, her pelt done all over in a shade very much like that of blood. Her legs churned, pumping swiftly as she wove amongst the long golden blades around her, her breath coming in swift pants. She didn’t even slow for a partially rotted tree trunk that had fallen across the path she was taking; she simply leapt over it with a bunching of her powerful muscles and continued her run on the other side.” (p. 17)

“She was overgrown – too big for a Lyonesse, really – more like a male than a female in size, with large paws and more muscle than most of the boys she knew. She dwarfed most of them, now that she was settling into her full adult size, […]” (p. 18)

The Lyons and Lyonesses are four-legged, but not entirely unadorned:

“Her large paws ran over the gourds hanging around her throat, the water in one sloshing gently as it was jostled, and when she lifted it to sniff, she could tell the other still contained the couple strips of dried antelope she had stashed there. Check. Her right ear still had its bone piercing, and the bright blue feathers hadn’t come loose from their weavings in her thick neck fur. Check. Her light bark armor still held fast to the fronts of her legs, the plates still along her back. Check. And last, but not least, her grandfather’s loop of shiny swirled blue and white stones still clung to her left foreleg’s wrist. Check!” (p. 20)

I could spend pages quoting EMK’s detailed descriptions of each Lyon and Pale One. The Forges of Dawn is a rich and colorful novel.

The Lyonesse described above is Uhuru, the oldest child of their pride leader, Hotio. She is considered large and clumsy for a girl. Since she is only a girl, her father intends to marry her off and forget about her. The story is a little too obviously an adventure about a strong female refusing to conform to her pride’s male-centric traditions, overcoming all obstacles, and rising to leadership. But EMK never lets the message get in the way of a rousing story!

Those obstacles are often violent and bloody. These are Lyons:

“The great Pale One screeched as she sank teeth into the side of his head, sharp molars grinding into his ear while she reached around to his face with her frontal claws, and although they slid along the metal of his mask, one did manage to slip into the slits for his eyes. Uhuru took great satisfaction in the feeling of a single claw piercing that condescending and smug orb.” (pgs. 106-107)

And this hasn’t even reached the part in The Forges of Dawn (cover by Sophie “Wilhuna” Danko) where Uhuru becomes Uru. You won’t believe what happens! There are sentient raptors, evil magic that makes the user invisible (but not undetectable for a Lyonesse with a strong sense of scent), metal armor for the Pale Ones’ guards, silverback gorilla (Gora) forgemasters, and above all the seemingly all-powerful, all-evil Lord Vireka, who considers himself to be the ultimate god of all Lyons – all before the Tigrisians and the pirates enter the saga. As the blurb says:

“From the shores of the only land she has ever known to the steps of faraway empires and back again, Uhuru will face pirates, monsters, and heart-breaking loss to finally learn the greatest lesson of all: heroes are never really born. Like any weapon…HEROES MUST BE FORGED”

Be aware that “‘… the story is far from over yet.’” (p. 478) Wilhuna’s covers for the unfinished (but which are being written Even As We Speak) The Thousand Winters, Book 2 of the Iron Lyons saga, and The Road to Ruin, are already painted.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Support E. M. Kinsey on Patreon
• Learn more at the Iron Lyons wiki page

Watch out! We’re about to get flooded by announcements for new sampler comics coming out for Free Comic Book Day — in just a couple of weeks on May 7th. Bleeding Cool has several lists of the titles being released. As usual, there are several titles of furry interest in there if you look, including Awake, Sonic, Grumpy Cat, Sanjay & Craig, The Stuff of Legend, and more. Here’s one that caught our eye: The Pink Panther, released by American Mythology. “He’s been the coolest cat in all of cartoondom for over 50 years! The Pink Panther is back in brand new adventures to tickle your funny bone and test the sanity of The Little Man! Join all of Pink’s pals from the DePatie-Freleng stable including The Inspector and The Ant and The Aardvark, as we welcome The Pink Panther to 21st Century comic books in style! This special FCBD issue is chock-full of fun with new and classic Pink Panther adventures, including the hilarious antics of The Mighty Pan-Thor!” We’ll see, in a couple of weeks!

image c. 2016 American Mythology

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

Anubis: Dark Desire
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, September 2015, hardcover $59.95, softcover $39.95 (189 pages).

Anubis: Dark Desire is intended for an adult audience only and contains explicit sexual material. It will not be for sale to persons under the age of 18. (publisher’s advisory)

Anubis: Dark Desire began as an adults-only comic book published by Radio Comix under its Sin Factory label in June 2002. It contained stories and stand-alone pages featuring the anthropomorphic animals and gods of Egyptian mythology, mainly Anubis, the black-furred, jackal-headed god of the dead, having erotic encounters. The short comic-book stories were by many of the most prominent artists in furry fandom: Dark Natasha, Heather Bruton, Sara “Caribou” Palmer, Terrie Smith, Diana Harlan Stein, and Michele Light. The black-&-white comic book was extremely popular, running for four biannual issues to June 2008.

There was an immediate demand from the furry fandom for somebody, anybody, to publish a collection of the four issues. Sofawolf Press announced that it would, but not in a black-&-white comic-book format. Sofawolf would contact the artists to get their permissions, and their collaborations to produce a full-color, high-quality volume. It took over six years. On March 6, 2015 Sofawolf announced a Kickstarter campaign to raise $18,000 to produce such a book. It reached its goal by March 15. By the time the one-month Kickstarter ended on April 5, Sofawolf Press had $32,413 from 413 backers. The additional money was used to commission 17 new pages by Dark Natasha and Heather Bruton (plus appropriate bonuses that only the backers got such as stickers, lapel pins, shot glasses, and T- and bowling shirts).

Production of the book (cover by Dark Natasha and Blotch) was unexpectedly delayed when Sofawolf Press couldn’t find any North American offset printer that would accept such explicit material, even if it was fantasy art with consenting adult anthropomorphic animals. Sofawolf finally had it produced by a Chinese printer, leading to further shipping delays. Despite the announced September 2015 publication date, it wasn’t until November that the first copies went out.

But it’s here at last! “A Scroll in the Hay” by Sara Palmer. (She’s married and is Sara Miles now.) “God, What a Night!” by Diana Harlan Stein. “The Great Treasure of Anubis” by Dark Natasha. “Offerings” by Heather Bruton. And seventeen others, plus standalone pages and the four original comic-book covers.

The stories are about ten to a dozen pages each. There’s not a lot to say about them other than they are about anthropomorphic animal adults having explicit erotic fun. Some are set entirely in Egypt’s past. Some feature a modern animal drawn by Anubis into the past. The lovers are usually North African and African animals such as jackals, cheetahs, lionesses, jaguars, servals, wild dogs, hyenas, fennecs, gazelles, rabbits, elands – one story features Sobek the crocodile, and another shows Anubis with an Egyptian human woman – but “Virtual Reality – Here I Come” by Diana Harlan Stein, and “No Photography” by Heather Bruton introduce Anubis to a North American red fox and to a Dalmatian dog. (The latter is male; it’s one of only two homosexual trysts in the book.) Four stories by Sara “Caribou” Miles feature the jackal lovers Duamutef (a son of Horus in Egyptian mythology) and Khaybat.

It’s well-drawn anthropomorphic animals, many with ancient Egyptian face-painting, having sex, with lots of both male and female full-frontal nudity. But always in good taste. Remember, furry fandom is primarily composed of adults. If you like the fine art of Dark Natasha, Heather Bruton, et al., showing adult anthropomorphic erotic action, you can’t do better than this.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Sofawolf
• A Look at their campaign on Kickstarter

Welcome back to another evening with unfurled. Tonight we join the cast as they discuss an update to Boaty McBoatface, Filters that aren't sensitive and a man who gets a fish attached to strange places. Episode -40 - Scholngs!

We are joined this week by DalanTiger and Kirisis! Join us as we talk about ferals vs. anthros and other distracted topics!

Please mind the mild Star Wars spoilers at 1:06:16 to 1:07:42.

Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:

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Ep 65 – A Feral Scene - We are joined this week by DalanTiger and Kirisis! Join us as we talk about ferals vs. anthros and other distracted topics! Please mind the mild Star Wars spoilers at 1:06:16 to 1:07:42. Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints: [...]