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About BattleGoats: BattleGoats is a War-style card game where players alternate turns in card battle to determine a winner using the highest number value. Number values change as the game goes on. The person with the last card in play wins. Rules are easy to pick up and games play in as little as 5-30 minutes for groups of 2-6 players.

Funding Site: Kickstarter

Funding End Date: Sun, May 15 2016 11:15 PM CDT

Funds Needed: $3,000

Funds Raised as of posting: $4,312 (Funded)

Dear Papabear,

I'm currently making plans for coming out as homo-romantic to my mum. About a year ago, in possibly the most awkward car-conversation we've ever had, I told her about my asexuality, and she's okay with it. Not overjoyed, not disgusted, just along the lines of "I've never heard of it before, but it's nothing to be ashamed about".

I still consider myself ace, but I definitely seem to be finding I have a more romantic connection to men than I once thought, so I'm now making plans to come out as homo-romantic to her. She leads an extremely busy life with very little time to herself, so I'm going to wait until we have a calm moment together, completely by ourselves with no distractions, before telling her about it.

But here's the thing....

After a string of bad ex-husbands, she's always joked that she wants "a tall, dark, handsome, gay toy-boy who's a chef and has a fetish for feet". I'm average height, dark haired and skinned, the youngest of her kids, I work in a kitchen (albeit doing most of the non-cooking related jobs), and whilst I don't have an especially big thing for feet, I'm not that bad at massages.

Seeing as I match many of the qualities mum says she'd want in a man, I'm wondering if I should use this to help lighten the mood when I eventually come out to her. I don't really think of myself as a funny person, but I do think this is a very funny coincidence, and I'm thinking that using humour might help to make it easier for her to accept. I've tried googling to see whether or not this would be a good idea, but no answers there.

I'm about 90% sure she'll accept me liking men. Despite the fact she's had some bad experiences with LGBT folk who've abused her kindness (one gay man in particular who stole £100 worth of our stuff and never got caught), she does talk to an LGBT person if they approach her, and we also watch quite a few LGBT shows together (one of our favourites is a sitcom called Boy Meets Girl. about a cisgender man dating a transgender woman, whom of which is acted by a MFT transgender comedienne).

So, what do you think? Should I use a little bit of humour when I eventually tell her about my attraction for men? I know it's going to have to come out eventually, but I'd like to think I could make the experience a little less painless by making it a little more funny.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Anonymous

* * *

Dear Furiend,

No, I don't think it would be appropriate or very funny to suggest, even humorously, that you could be her gay boy toy chef. I think that would seriously make the conversation more uncomfortable for her. I know it would for me if I were her. The reason for this is that, quite frequently, humor isn't about untruths; it is about truth--often painful truths--being dealt with in a humorous way to ease tension. This is why masterful comedians and comediennes can talk about things like sex, racism, politics, and even violence in a humorous way that actually helps people get a new perspective on life. (There is also unsophisticated humor, such as slapstick and foul language, that appeals to children and dense people, but the best humorists are the type I mentioned earlier, with the most sophisticated humor being satire.) Therefore, the implication of your jest would be, subtextually, that you actually could fill that boy toy role.

Secondly, I don't think it's all that necessary to have a sit-down with your mom about being asexually, romantically attracted to men. First of all, and correct me if I'm wrong, you don't even have a serious relationship with a man on this level yet, do you? Secondly, it will probably be a long time until you do because there are not many men out there who want an asexual, romantic relationship, so why bring it up now? It's a non-issue for the time being. I think you're getting ahead of yourself here. You already had the asexual conversation with your hard-working mum, so give her more time to digest that and get comfortable with it before you spring the next thing on her.

Hugs,
Papabear

You’d be hard-pressed to think of more famous “ancient world” anthropomorphic stories than the fables of Aesop. Needless to say, they’ve had numerous illustrated presentations over the centuries! Well here’s a very recent take with a particular spin to it: Doug Hansen is a California native and an art instructor at California State University at Fresno. In his spare time he created a new hardcover illustrated book called Aesop in California. “Guess who just arrived in California? Aesop! Here among the plants, animals, and places of the Golden State, his timeless fables from ancient Greece take on a new vitality and immediacy. From blackberry-munching grizzlies to Hollywood house mice, this is a book to delight the eye, stimulate the imagination, and teach us some very important lessons.” Find out more about the book and the artist at the publisher’s web site. (Hot tip: He also created a book called Mother Goose in California!)

image c. 2016 Heyday Books

Just wanted to share this video produced by Furry for Life. Well said!

Welcome to the second episode that Vox got out late. Come on in and enjoy the show sans one bulldragon. Episode -41 - Whammy!

Welcome to the first of TWO late episodes for UnFurled. Pop on in and enjoy what the cast has tonight. Episode -42 - Double

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

Boston Globe: Furries are finally having their moment.

It was originally titled “Revenge of the furries.” The revenge is on haters who should accept Furry as something that’s always been around, and not exotic weirdness. “Finally” is a good word to see about one of the most genuinely loveable subcultures of the internet age.

At FWA- photo by Maura Friedman.

Furry Weekend Atlanta: Journalist gets it.

“I was fascinated to meet people who are so invested in a niche, often ostracized interest. It’s hard, emotional labor to love anything society labels uncool – teens everywhere can attest. But thousands of those people – fursuit fans – were coming together, and I got to be a respectful witness to their community.”

That’s beautiful.  Thanks, Maura Friedman.  And there’s also this: Furry Weekend Atlanta takes over Downtown.

Escapist Magazine: COSPLAY DOSSIER – Why I Love Furries.  A wonderfully positive piece – there’s a lot of those lately, and who’s complaining?

“Fan studies scholars” go to furry con.   Audio report here. Tip came thru Prof. Ann Jamison who taught furry fanfic at Princeton.

FM radio listeners pranked by pirate broadcast of yiff talk from Furcast.

A rasberry among all the praise! It may be “The Year of Furry” – and we may be “mainstream”(ish)… but nobody is being tamed.

Flayrah has all the details. Furcast had no idea that their NSFW podcast was being shared on the radio without anyone’s permission.  The radio equipment probably wasn’t really “hacked” though… Devices that connect to the internet (printers, etc) are “the internet of things”, often with shoddy or no security. Who to blame?  Look at 4Chan.

“Country music station broadcasts 90 minutes of full-on ‘furry’ sex after hackers strike.” It’s a tease of a story – I want to know how the country music station listeners felt.  I’m imagining them taking off cowboy hats, scratching their heads and asking “what’s yiffing?” I asked Furcast to comment, but they didn’t reply.

VICE: Furries Love Zootopia.

Positive article (I missed it last month.) Fred Patten talked to the author, and he says:

“Josephs gets a couple of details wrong.  Rowrbrazzle and Albedo: Anthropomorphics both started in 1984, not 1983.  Schirmeister, Cawley, Sanders, and Keller were all established professionals in the animation industry (animators, storyboard artists, character designers, writers) who dabbled in Rowrbrazzle when it came along.  Josephs implies that they learned to become amateur artists and animators in Rowrbrazzle before going on to work at Disney.  But on the whole it’s good.”

Culturally F’d Live!

The focus us on 2016: the year of furry.  And I really liked what Arrkay had to say at 8:20 about treating it like a business. Fan stuff can be just a hobby, but more rewarding than a job. If you can treat it like one, do it and get love back.

 

Nice idea: NIIC the Singing Dog offers furry song commissions.

This is a fabulous idea, and so reasonable!  $199 for an original song? That would be a wonderful treat for the work it takes. Kudos to NIIC for bringing genuine passion to what he does and offers. I haven’t seen song commissions before. Find out more at his website.  Love that furry creativity.

Stolen fursuit. Very sad.

STOLEN FURSUIT! Taken from my car in Irvine, CA along with my box. Any CL checking, RT's, or help very appreciated!! pic.twitter.com/8j1U6zTZvC

— Chance (@Thatfuckinotter) April 17, 2016

Somehow we missed this one, but we’re glad to find out about it now. Cartoonist Art Spiegelman (world-famous for his multi-award-winning comic Maus) has created Jack and the Box, a full-color story comic for entry-level readers. “Jack just got a new toy, and it’s full of surprises. Each time the box pops open, there’s a new and bigger surprise. Is it a silly toy, a scary toy… or something else entirely? With a limited vocabulary and unlimited imagination, Art Spiegelman applies his out-of-the-box thinking to a book that has all the surprise and bounce of a Jack-in-the-box.” Check it out over at the publisher, Toon Books. It’s available now at numerous sites, in trade paperback.

image c. 2016 Toon Books

Hello Everyone!

This week we lead off with a clip of our Second Opinion segment from Episode 495 of the Savage Lovecast, "Furries and Cheeseheads." Thanks again to Dan Savage and his producer Nancy Hartunian for the gracious invitation as well as granting permission to share the clip in full. 

Our main topic is about trust, which is all too often misunderstood. Trust is the other side of Integrity, and both serve as the foundation on which a relationship either stands firm or crumbles. We discuss what exactly trust is as well as how to develop and maintain trust in yourself and others. We also discuss how to handle breaches of trust and what you can do to recover trust once it has been broken. Spoiler: sometimes that just isn't possible. 

We also take a listener question about how to handle feelings of jealousy in an open relationship that you realized, after the fact, you wished was a closed relationship. 

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 015 Lovecast Appearance and Trust - On tonight's episode we discuss our appearance on the Savage Lovecast as well as Trust.

This year 2016 is, what some call in the fandom, the Year of the Furry. Disney aims, covertly, their film Zootopia / Zootropolis to the furries demographic (link⇒). And why not? After about eighty years of what is almost a monopoly in the world of Western animation on the big screen (until computer animation revolutionized the sector), they have the sales from children and families assured. So, without leaving them aside, making an attempt to increase its audience is an economically sound idea. Not to say, an awesome one!

Disney’s creative staff is familiar with furry, or even furries themselves (link⇒), although that’s probably not something they want to discuss openly, at least not using the word “furry”. Byron Howard (co-director of Zootopia) is an unconditional fan of Robin Hood (1973), a character in which he based Nick Wilde (fox co-star of Zootopia). When he pitched the idea of the film in 2013 to Disney’s chief of creative staff John Lasseter, John was so excited, he enthusiastically hugged him, and lifted him into the air Simba-style (link 01 ⇒) (link 02 ⇒). It has also shown to be immensely loved by furries, who organized events to watch it together in groups in movie theaters around the world. Up to this day, Zootopia is the third film with more submissions on FurAffinity, above Balto (1995), How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and Kung Fu Panda (2008).
 

But the list goes on. The Jungle Book, released April 15th, receives overwhelmingly good reviews. Critics and fans call it “The best adaptation of the book that has been done to date” (link⇒). Dreamwork’s Kung Fu Panda 3 also gets good reviews, which is unusual for a sequel. And there are still more: Finding Dory; a sequel to the recent adaptation of the Ninja Turtles; another Ice Age film; The Secret Life of Pets; another adaptation of Disney similar to the Mowgli one called Pete’s Dragon (remake of the animated original from 1977); Storks, produced by Warner Bros.; and more (link⇒).
 

It’s also worth mentioning, this same year, what for many Spanish furries is a major event. The first Spanish fully-fledged furry convention is announced, Furrnion (link⇒), to be held in Madrid in January 2017. Attendee registration / ticket sales are estimated to begin next month (May). There will be international attendees, and the official languages of the convention will be both English and Spanish. The board of the convention is headed by greymuzzle Salmy, the technophile Tronchy, and artist Sierra the Cheetah (which Google’s search leads inexplicably to aircraft models (link⇒)) (hint: he’s a pilot).
 

On another subject, the group of furries from Vermont, USA (VermontFurs), protest in fursuit against a local law imposed in the 60s forbidding being masked on the streets. The law originally was intended to deter demonstrations from the masked racist organization KKK. After discussions with the media and local councilors, they managed to change the law to forbid only being masked with criminal intent, thus allowing fursuiting. They announced their victory on FA (link⇒) and Twitter (link⇒), and they celebrated with a furmeet.
 

Meanwhile, last March, Canadians celebrate their VancouFur convention. At the same time, a group of Syrian refugees were staying in their same hotel. Although, initially, the organizers suggested being cautious and distant, Syrian children and families loved the cultural exchange, and the hotel was filled with hugs from children and fursuiters, news that filled newspapers around the world (link 01 ⇒) (link 02 ⇒).
 

In February, Sarah Dee, fursuit creator from Menagerie Workshops (link⇒), is interviewed in the British national newspaper The Guardian (link⇒). In the interview she explains she’s been working on the craft for years, having created more than 300 fursuits.
 

And we receive a movie from the fandom itself. The furry filmmaker Dominic Rodriguez, whose nickname is Video, directs a very special documentary called Fursonas, which focuses on the personal lives of some members of the fandom in his hometown, Pittsburgh. The documentary is projected at the Sundance Film Festival (Salt Lake City, Utah, US). It will be distributed later, on video-on-demand (movie streaming services) (link 01 ⇒) (link 02 ⇒).
 

With all these good news, we celebrate our website is finally 100% Spanish-English bilingual, and will remain so in the foreseeable future, to ease cultural exchange with the furry fandom world wide. We have juicy articles scheduled! Stay tuned to the first Spanish furry news website!
 

The entry News from the World (April 2016) appears first in FurryFandom.es.

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

Fursonas Documentary gets great press.

“Fursonas Takes On the Secretive World of Furries—and the Movement’s Furrious Fuhrer”. It’s sensational sounding, but some of the best furry news I’ve read!  The article’s thoroughly on point and the movie is the best kind of documentary. Don’t miss it on Video On Demand this summer.

Dandy Warhols and a bunch of furries featured in film noir music video, with a counterculture icon.

The Dandy Warhols and Joe Dallesandro – “You Are Killing Me” Video.  Joe Dallesandro is “Little Joe” named in Lou Reed’s song “Walk on the Wild Side,” about Andy Warhol’s Factory of the 1960’s.  He’s been in tons of movies.  His crotch is featured on the cover of the Rolling Stones album “Sticky Fingers”.

Now he’s made a video with the Dandy Warhols.  If you watch to the halfway point, you’ll see furries from the SF Bay Area.  This seems to be the work of Zantal, who was previously featured inside their album.  He’s a huge fan and got attention of the band by going to their shows in suit.

That’s a natural meeting.  I love that he got to be friends with the band by being so enthusiastic… and they’re putting some spirit of Warhol into their approach to celebrating furries in kind. (Tip: Spottacus.)

Retrospective news cameo with Spottacus, “Furry performance artist”.

5 Common Misconceptions People Have About Furries.  You probably saw this if people share furry articles any place you read.  Enough with studiously defending about “it’s not a fetish” with good intentions to the point of stifling. I’d rather see people speak for themselves.

Award winning documentary “Dolphin Lover” now free to see, NSFW.

Here’s a 180-degree swerve.  Yikes… I might be asking for drama by linking a documentary about interspecies romance. My hobbyist “journalism” typically leaves that completely separate from furries. (Except one investigation of a rumor.)  I hesitated about putting it here, but did because it’s something that Furries can be unfairly mocked about and occasionally linked with in sensational media attacks.

Speaking of attacks, here’s this week’s nasty furry crime story that associates one guy’s failures with a whole community.  (OMG he broke laws and he’s FAT and has a HOBBY too!)

“Dolphin Lover” provokes thoughts about relativity of viewpoint.  In contrast to attacking, the makers just let the subject speak with complete honesty for you to judge.  That honesty is worth seeing in the making of any documentary.

Tom Broadbent’s “At Home With The Furries” documentary photo project gets official gallery representation.

A guy with talent takes a step up. “Laura Noble, the photography gallery owner and curator has taken me on as one of her represented photographers at L A Noble Gallery. This is wonderful news for the furry project. “

From the series” At Home With The Furries”. tom@tombroadbent.com for licensing rights.

Huffington Post: Step Into This Feminist Artist’s X-Rated Zootopia.

Opinion: this article is pandering hype about a gallery exhibit that has little to do with its clickbaity title.  The amateurishly rendered art seems to expect it’s own hype to carry the weight.  The rest is just flimsy “critique” as cliched as the stuff it’s about:

“Subverting the visual trope of portraying females as eroticized subjects for the male spectator’s gaze her cat women are instead active participants.”

“Subverting”, like any artist-made porn that shows what artists want?  Real Furry porn (and furries in general) at least use talents honestly, without pretension.  From this gallery show, I’d much rather see more of the sculptural/found object art from the other non-headlined artist.  I see substance in the arrangement of it’s textures.  The people-with-cat-heads just look like decorative noodling that took “40 hours per drawing”.  If it’s fit for a gallery, why not draw a dick well?

Khloé Kardashian has bad opinion about furries. Last and least Newsdump item. Here’s a link, but you have better stuff to read, right?

Kyell and Fuzz talk about Furry Fiesta, fandom history, and of course Zootopia. Lots of Zootopia. Knotsheathed at Furry Fiesta 2016 - Kyell and Fuzzwolf sit down for a special Knotsheathed podcast.

Imagine a world with no domesticated dogs — only were-dogs. That’s what the artist known as Kez thought up for his largely monochrome on-line comic Until The Last Dog Dies. “Port Jude is a utopia… if you’re human. In a world split down the middle between humans and dog shapeshifters, there is little justice to be had when domesticated dogs have no rights, no citizenship and no life to call their own. Cage is a wild dog who has always seen himself as free, until he strikes a bargain with the devil in the form of a wealthy businessman named Dmitri Molokov. Now, he must risk his life with the cruelties of the illustrious dog fighting rings for his one shot at a better life for himself and his family.” The official web site has the continuing comic, as well as backstory and a link to an introduction video on YouTube.

image c. 2016 by Kez

Beware of costumed bandits.

I’d like to see a lurid midnight movie that crosses a criminal heist plot with a furry convention.  The bandits use fursuits to go under cover.  But their plans get messed up when they become accidental popufurs.

There would be unexpected coming-outs, geek tests and rave drugs, awkward costume switches, and a gauntlet of hugs and dance comps.

Is that an SPH, or is that how you keep a gun in a fursuit?  Who switched the bulletproof vest with the EZ-cooldown? Is that an undercover cop, or just an extremely amorous admirer?  What happened to the gold and why is the briefcase full of Bad Dragon toys?  There might be reluctant yiffing to avoid blowing their cover.

What would you put in the movie?

It would be key to have good research and references.  The lives of the criminal protagonists (who stand in for the normal viewer) should be more unhinged than their absurd surroundings.  It should laugh with us, not at us, and ask “what is normal?” That could avoid the heap of cheap parody attempts that aren’t funny, because they just look down on people.

Not that there’s anything wrong with good trash.

Good trash often has artfully twisted titles.  One awesome no-budget moviemaker I know is calling his movie “Death Hearse on Satan’s Titty Highway”. That’s a string of magical power words.  It’s been in the works for years, but I already think the world is a better place because that title exists.

I’ll toss out “Take The Bunny and Run”.  What would you call it?  What else would you put in the story?

artist

All of these make inspiration…

• Furry Force, my pick for good “fursploitation”.
• The “Furry Film Festival” idea.
• The chlorine attack at Midwest Furfest and national news stories about furries that followed.
• FBI investigation of threats to furry cons.
• A rumor I heard about a federal building beefing up security because there was a furry con across the street.
• This bear suit bank robbery.
• This Santa Claus bank robbery and the movie Bad Santa.
• The Teddy Bear bandit and “Bad Furries: FBI Seeks Help Locating the ‘Teddy Bear Bandit'”.
• This clever bank robber. He used a job ad for construction workers to put decoys on the scene, and escaped down a river in a getaway inner tube. (A furry heist could use a decoy ad on Pounced.)
• Saints Row 3 Furry mayhem.
• Woody Allen’s Small Time Crooks.  They plan a robbery and open a bakery to cover it, but their cookies get unexpectedly popular.

Furry secret identities.

A “furry gang” is a silly idea.  But it’s already a subculture, and there are secret ways for insiders.  When Furry friends talk in code among regular people, I call it “Furry fight club” (except it’s for hugs not fights.)

The difference is, anyone can be an insider if they want.  It’s a famously warm and welcoming group.  It has small dramas and scandals like communities everywhere, but it’s hard to send someone to the doghouse for being bad.  They’re already in it.

Being close knit helps to keep people getting along.  Even when they have unresolvable differences (like yes or no to yiff?) people don’t bring their claws out until outsiders get nosy. That’s when furries become protective.

Outsiders don’t know it, but everyone keeps secret identities.  That’s what makes the idea fun.

Okay, this is decidedly adult-oriented! There’s this comic called The Corporeals, “a web-comic featuring the pre-historical, often homosexual, always science-fictional citizens of Bakersfield, Earth”. Really. Here’s how creator Dave Quantic and artist Bill Ferenc describe it: “Howdy! My name’s Manny! I live with my husbear in prehistoric times. We’re members of an alien race from Jupiter called The Corporeals. Our leader, Kaa’laa brought us to Earth and created bodies for us so that we could experience physical pleasures like sex and cheese fries. Yummy! Bear and I live together in our cave. We have a great group of friends I can’t wait to introduce you to.  Like Jane and Eve, our lesbirific neighbors and Uni the Unicorn. He’s so silly.” So, check out their web site if you’re curious.

image c. 2016 by Quantic & Ferenc

​Dear Papabear,

Good day! I'm writing this letter to let out all my worries and anxieties to you:
 
(2015) When I was 13, I revealed to my parents that I am a furry, they were okay. But they are totally weirded out about the fursuit part, and they told my brother ( who is 17 now ). I'm not very close to my brother but it leaked to him and I was really uncomfortable. Having a sibling sure does suck.

(2015) There was once I bought upholstery foam to make a fursuit secretly in my bedroom, I always hide the head in my drawer and when my parents were away I would usually work on it. But then after a month or two my dad found out and told my mother about it. This is when I decided to throw out my head because I felt like I lost all my dignity from my parents. 

(2016) Since this year, I haven't been talking about furries with my families lately, so I was still quite secretive about it..(I don’t know why) I made hand paws and a small tail for my furry needs, and also kept it somewhere that nobody would care to see. But wow, my brother found out and told my mother about it, and they are now chatting amongst themselves about how weird I am. I am really stressed and worried that my parents and my brother would think of me differently and negatively, what should I do, Papabear?

Lots of love,
Anonymous (age 14)
 
* * *
 
Dear Young Cub,
 
One of the great difficulties of the human condition is that we are all biologically programmed to desire love and acceptance from our families, friends, and colleagues. We want this, especially, from our families because it is they who have nurtured us and who, ideally, offer us protection from the hazards of life. Therefore, when we feel rejected by them, we become frightened and insecure.
 
As you might imagine, Papabear’s inbox is full of emails from furries who are terrified of this sort of rejection. The main reasons why this comes about are: 1) parents want their kids to conform to society; 2) parents want their kids to be successful, and they define success as dependent upon money; or 3) parents want their kids to fulfill the dreams that they themselves failed to accomplish in their own lives.
 
I think you might agree that all three of these reasons are not very good ones. A gifted parent realizes that success is not defined by money but, rather, by happiness, and happiness comes from surrounding oneself with those who accept you for who you are and also from being allowed to be yourself and pursue those things in life that truly interest you, regardless of what society thinks. I, personally, reject the measuring stick society has created; if it were so great, the world would not be in the mess it’s in right now. A big reason furries make me smile is that we are iconoclasts (people who break the mold and follow their own paths).
 
You can see for yourself what happens when family members don’t support you for you: the result is you become secretive, distrustful, rejected, and unhappy. A wall is thus built between you and your parents and siblings, and this is never a good thing.
 
The first thing you must do, therefore, is rise above the idea that your mom and brother are right and that you are somehow a “bad person” who is indulging in something that is wrong and bad. Quite the opposite is true: your mother and brother are the ones being negative people who are hurting you. Do not be ashamed of yourself. The only bad people are those who deliberately hurt others. If you are doing no harm, do what you will.
 
If you are not ashamed, this alone will help your situation because when people feel ashamed about what they are doing, those around them pick that up, and they assume you are feeling ashamed because you know you are doing something immoral or sinful (when in actuality it is because you feel rejected). But! If you are unashamed and happy about being a furry, they might actually see it as a positive thing for you.
 
It is, admittedly, very difficult to overcome other people’s prejudices. Too often, parents and siblings buy into the negative hype about furries and immediately assume all furries are sick in the head. The lazy parent then forbids everything wholesale, and, as mentioned above, drives a wedge between parent and child that is harmful to the relationship.
 
All of this will be explained in my upcoming The Furry Book, which will be a guide to both furries and the families who love them (or misunderstand them).
 
Cubby, Papabear can’t force your family to change their minds, and you can try to change them (check out the “Coming Out Furry” category on my website for more advice), but don’t be surprised if you fail. In the end, what is important is that you understand that learning who you are and what is important in life to achieve happiness is more important than anything else in the world, and that includes the approval of parents and brothers and sisters. If they can’t accept you, that is their problem and reflects badly on them, not you. I’m not saying this to mean you should be angry with them; rather, turn a sympathetic eye toward them and understand they are trapped in a mindset in which they are paralyzed by the fear that society will reject them (or you). Once you realize, though, that society is the thing that is broken and that fearing the opinion of a delusional and ignorant judge is irrational, you will have set your spirit free.
 
This is all a lot, I understand, for a 14 year old to understand. It’s pretty mature stuff, really, and philosophical, I suppose. So, take some time to try and digest what Papabear has written here and write me again sometime.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

Anthropomorphism is loaded with symbolism.  Foxes and lions from Aesop’s fables, and fauns and centaurs from old myths represent personalities, emotions and urges.  This influenced modern concepts of the subconscious by Freud and Jung.  In dream symbols, animals are very prevalent, appearing in as much as 50% of dreams of children.  It relates to the way animal symbols spread throughout prehistoric cave art, until today when media is full of animal cartoons.  Anthropomorphism has deep roots in the way people think.

You can read a lot more about this in Wikipedia’s page for Symbolic Culture and the study of symbolic language (semiotics.)  This broad background makes it interesting to look at symbols with very long traditions, perhaps as old as language.  Many furry articles could be written about different categories.

Fred Patten sent comments that lead to furry thoughts about Heraldry (royal coats of arms), Vexillology (flags) and Numismatics (money) – all closely related symbols of nations.

– Patch

Heraldry and Vexillology – thoughts from Fred Patten.

In a sense, all animals in heraldry are mythical since real animals would never pose as they are shown on coats of arms. Example: the two oryx supporters of the arms of the Republic of Namibia, in southern Africa.

The left-hand supporter on the royal arms of Cambodia is a lion with an elephant’s trunk. This wasn’t created just for those royal arms. The figure is a gajasimha or gajasingha; a lion with either an elephant’s trunk or a whole elephant’s head. Wikipedia has pictures of statues of gajashingas hundreds of years old.

Singapore is noted for its Merlion, combining a lion’s upper body with a fish’s lower body. This isn’t ancient. Singapore became independent in 1965, and the Merlion was specifically designed by Alec Fraser-Brunner for the logo of the Singapore Tourism Board. It quickly became so popular that the Merlion has come to be recognized for Singapore the same way that the bald eagle stands for the U.S. or the brown bear stands for Russia. There is an older, more generic sea-lion.

There are many fantasy or hybrid animals in civic heraldry. The coat of arms of the city of Inari, northern Finland, shows a fish with a reindeer’s antlers. Medway, Sweden’s arms’ supporters are a pair of seahorses. Basel, Switzerland’s arms include a basilisk. (Now you know where the city gets its name from. Ha-ha; no, it’s from “basileus”, the ancient Greek for king or emperor. Many heraldic coats of arms incorporate puns.)

Flags: Laos used to have a three-headed elephant on its flag. Wikipedia says, “From 1952 until the fall of the royal government in 1975 the country had a red flag, with a white three-headed elephant (the god Erawan) in the middle. On top of the elephant is a nine-folded umbrella, while the elephant itself stands on a five-level pedestal. The white elephant is a common royal symbol in Southeast Asia, the three heads referred to the three former kingdoms Vientiane, Luangprabang, and Champasak which made up the country.” Erawan or Airavata is a god in the Hindu religion, supposed to have either three or thirty-three heads. There are statues of him in Thailand as a three-headed elephant. (Apparently no artist was brave enough to draw or carve a thirty-three-headed elephant.)

The flag of Vnukovo, an administrative district of Moscow, Russia (site of Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport), shows a rampant Pegasus above a key to the country.

Money: Symbolism of American money – not furry (unless you count eagles) but a useful introduction.

Many banknotes of nations that had ancient pasts have shown the mythological creatures of their pre-modern religions. The former Iraq 10-dinar bill featured a statue of an Assyrian “flying man-bull”, more properly a lamassu, on the back. According to Wikipedia, “The lamassu is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian religion bearing a human head, bull’s body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull, and wings. It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art. The lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Babylonian people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, were placed as sentinels at the entrances.”

Most people today don’t know (this is one of those little facts of American history that they don’t teach in school today) that in the U.S. until 1866, individual states and banks as well as the federal government could print their own banknotes. Technically, only coins were “money”, and the federal government kept a monopoly on that. The paper currency were promissory notes redeemable in silver or gold. In 1866 Congress, which had started issuing its own paper currency in 1862 as legal tender, passed a law that only it could issue any money, coin or paper.

Here, from a rare paper money website, are a Michigan $3 bill and a New Jersey $10 bill.  Each were legal tender only in their own state. The reason that this may be pertinent is that it creates a fantasy of furry fandom printing its own paper money.  It wouldn’t be legal tender, but can you imagine paper money with a furry motif?  Bills designed by Roz Gibson, Kenket, Dark Natasha, Rukis, ShinigamiGirl, RedCoatCat, and the other top artists of furry fandom?

Maybe each artist could print their own, officially worthless but something to sell at their artists’ tables.  Fans could buy and collect sets of furry money from the artists drawing & printing them.  If they matched current real paper money, there are bills for $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.  Seven denominations, and there used to be $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills.  And there’s nothing to keep a furry artist from making up a $3 bill, a $7 bill, a $25 bill, or a $1,000,000 bill.

There have been s-f conventions that had their own currency, redeemable in their dealers’ rooms and for convention merchandise. There are already furry “cryptocurrencies”.

– Fred Patten

Dogecoin and Yiffcoin: reinventing yesterday’s currency (but it’s only worth as much as people use it.)

YIFFCOIN JOINED INTERNET CRYPTOCURRENCIES in 2014 – Announced  at Furcast subreddit by Techwolf (maybe it’s a non-“fixed” version of Dogecoin, “most-traded crypto-currency  in the world”.)  More discussion: “Furry fandom can benefit from adopting Bitcoin more than any other community!”

Are there any furry examples of flags, heraldry or money personally interesting to you?

– Patch

Kendra Minadeo is a freelance illustrator based out of Southern California, and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. As one can see on her web site, her specialty is watercolor paintings — with more than a splash of cuteness thrown in. Her Etsy store features many of her paintings in print form and on buttons. What’s more, she’s even been working on a series of art how-to videos for YouTube.

image c. 2016 by Kendra Minadeo

Roo and Tugs are joined by Marci McAdam via the internet as they discuss the world of badges. What do badges mean to many? What kind of impressions do they leave on others? What should be on a badge? What shouldn't be on a badge? What are the rules of etiquette for badge commissioning? We dive into the how and why, then the psychology of the world of furry badge art. We also have some EXTRA SPECIAL space news, a new episode of Get Psyched! with Dr. Nuka, 50 Sheds of Grey (The Furry Edition), and more!


NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Special Thanks

Marci McAdam-Charland, our guest! Buy art from her at furries.frithcat.com
The Winnipeg, MB furries and Dronon, for the ident!
Syd
Kuthra and Max
Anonymouse
Enoji Kengura
Anonymous, who lent us part of the featured image cover for this episode. Check out the Marci Badges tumblr blog for more!

Music

Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Get Psyched Music: Fredrik Miller – Universe, USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Some music was provided by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. We used the following pieces: Spy Glass, Quirky Dog . Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)

Next episode: Are long distance relationships easy? Are they "real" compared to in-person relationships? What tips and tricks do you have for those in a long distance relationship? Send your comments by April 22, 2016. S5 Episode 13 – First Impressions, Much? - Roo and Tugs are joined by Marci McAdam via the internet as they discuss the world of badges. What do badges mean to many? What kind of impressions do they leave on others? What should be on a badge? What shouldn