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Frequent guest Path Hyena joins the Wagz crew to talk about the problem of ghosting at cons and what conventions–and attendees–can do to keep it from becoming a problem. You don’t want to miss this one!

Metadata and Credits The Phantom of the Con

Runtime: 34:44m

Cast: Wolfin, Levi, Path, Pami

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. Podcast thumbnail by gabriel77 under the RGBStock license.

The Phantom of the Con - Frequent guest Path Hyena joins the Wagz crew to talk about the problem of ghosting at cons and what conventions--and attendees--can do to keep it from becoming a problem. You don't want to miss this one!

Frequent guest Path Hyena joins the Wagz crew to talk about the problem of ghosting at cons and what conventions–and attendees–can do to keep it from becoming a problem. You don’t want to miss this one!

Metadata and Credits The Phantom of the Con

Runtime: 34:44m

Cast: Wolfin, Levi, Path, Pami

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. Podcast thumbnail by gabriel77 under the RGBStock license.

The Phantom of the Con - Frequent guest Path Hyena joins the Wagz crew to talk about the problem of ghosting at cons and what conventions--and attendees--can do to keep it from becoming a problem. You don't want to miss this one!

Wrench is a new full-color comic series in development, created and written by JB Potter and illustrated by Jake Slingland. “The Iludi race have developed their planet Groc down to the very last inch to make one giant city. When daredevil mechanic Mala damages his antennae, he develops something rare on his world: A conscience.” You can keep up with the creative team’s progress over on the official Wreck Tumblr page.

image c. 2016 by Jake Slingland

Visualization of South East & East Asian Furry Conventions by Ralphie Raccoon.

(This visualization was updated on 16 April 2016 with thanks to our furry friends who provided missing information.)

click for full-sized version

1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?

My most recent published pieces as a short story in FANG.  Exploring themes of betrayal and especially betrayal of friends or loved ones, the action piece followed an agent for a covert intelligence agency that gets tricked into romance and betrayed by the secret object of his affections.  I was really thrilled to explore some of the aspects of betrayal in love.  While in a limited scope because of the length limits and requirements of the piece, I was most excited about digging in the surface of the concept of love by trickery and if it really can ever be a one-sided exercise.

2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?

I am definitely more of a pantser when I write.  While I like to have an idea in my head when it comes to the direction the story will go, I often enjoy the organic joy of discovering the twists and turns with my characters.  I feel this adds a sense of life and energy to the story that the characters are taking the reader on as well.

3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?

I enjoy writing urban paranormal/fantasy, romance and science fiction.  Often i find the most compelling stories include a mix of these genres.  As for the types of stories, I like stories with a dark side, betrayal, loss and elements of hopelessness go a long way to craft a story that the characters can overcome… or fall to, depending on the overall mood of the tale.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?

While there is not a specific character in my work that I relate to whole cloth, I tend to relate more to the characters that express a strong sense of self and often find themselves the underdog of my stories.  I find that characters that start the story strong have the furthest to fall and the most compelling build back up again which I enjoy.

5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

I take influence from a lot of authors both furry and non.  In the mainstream, Orson Scott Card, Jim Butcher, David Eddings, Ursula K. Le Guin, Alan Dean Foster and Anne McCaffrey are my tops!  Within the fandom I often find inspiration in the writings of Kyell Gold, Kevin Frane and Ryan Campbell.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?

A book by Alan Dean Foster called Quozl about a lapine-like race of aliens that come to earth on a generation ship to colonize it only to find that humans are already there!  The story is compelling, following a few generations of the colonists and looking into their unique culture shaped by their ultra-violent past.  A very interesting read!

7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

Truth be told, I’m a geek.  Most of my free time is taken up with tabletop board games and RPGs, Live Action Role Playing (and the crafting and costume work that goes with it), computer games, movies and socializing with friends!

8. Advice for other writers?

So cliche, but write!  In the end it doesn’t matter what, but write often and keep everything you write, even if you hide it in a shoe box and pull it out to marvel at your improvement, just do it!  Computer, pen and paper, anything, just write!

9. Where can readers find your work?

I post stories on SoFurry under Sorinkat, or you can check out some of my published works in the RainFurrest charity anthologies, FANG 7 and a few scattered convention books.

10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?

I love the general sense of acceptance that the fandom has.  It’s so refreshing to be part of a group of people that are willing to let people be who they are and are generally friendly about it!

 

Check out Sorin Kat’s member bio here!

Found these folks at WonderCon too: The Brothers Uber describe themselves as “… an independent, creative publishing company specializing in children’s books. Focusing on art as a gateway to another realm, we pride ourselves on finding the best illustrators and working with them to bring the best books to life.” To that end they have already published several books which you can find at their web site. Of immediate note to furry fans are two: The Dragon and the Princess (written by Erik Peterson and illustrated by Mina Sanwald) is a counting book that also tells the story of a magical friendship between, yes, a dragon and a princess. Then there’s Critters Fantastique, a coloring book by Dusty Catlett featuring a variety of legendary creatures and monsters.

image c. 2016 by Dusty Catlett

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

Forest Gods, by Ryan Campbell. Illustrated by Zhivago.
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, September 2015, trade paperback $19.95 (343 [+ 2] pages), Kindle $7.99.

This is the direct sequel to Campbell’s September 2013 God of Clay, and the middle novel in his The Fire Bearers trilogy.   As with all too many trilogies of this sort, The Fire Bearers is a single novel in three volumes more than a series of three novels.   If you have not started it yet, get and read God of Clay first, then immediately read Forest Gods. Be aware that it ends with a cliffhanger, and that it may be another two years until Book Three is published.

In a fantasy prehistoric Africa, the great Saharan savanna is drying up. Animals and human tribes migrate south and further south again to the forest-jungle as the new desert inexorably spreads after them. But the forest itself will not let them enter. The trees and vines come alive and kill any humans who venture among them. This is apparently because the forest gods – Kwaee, king of the gods who looks like an anthropomorphized leopard; Asubonten, the giant crocodile goddess of the rivers; Atetea, the little ant god; and many others – have turned against them. Most of the forest gods blame the humans for turning to Ogya, the powerful god of fire and destruction, and becoming his worshippers. But Kwaee, sulking on his forest throne, isn’t doing anything about it. Kwaee doesn’t even believe in the Fire Bringers (humans).

Doto, Kwaee’s son who also looks like an anthro leopard, worries that his father is abdicating his responsibility by ignoring the desert’s spread. When Doto begs Kwaee to Do Something, Kwaee angrily orders Doto to capture a Fire Bringer if they’re real.

The forest gods’ story is intermixed with that of two young human brothers whose tribe has slowly been pushed from the shrinking savanna to the edges of Africa’s forest-jungle. Clay and Laughing Dog, the second and third sons of their tribal ruler, hold different beliefs: Clay worships the tribe’s traditional animal gods, while Laughing Dog is an atheist. Clay is captured by Doto and dragged into the forest-jungle to be presented to Kwaee, who will almost certainly kill him.

Over the course of God of Clay, Clay convinces Doto that the humans still worship the animal gods; they have never heard of Ogya or the Fire Bearers. Doto, feeling responsible for having kidnapped Clay, worries about protecting him from Kwaee. The two youths gradually become homosexual lovers. Meanwhile, Laughing Dog is exiled from his tribe for his iconoclasm; and alone, he is easy prey for Ogya.

God of Clay was the winner of the Furry Writers’ Guild’s first Cóyotl Award, for the Best Anthropomorphic Novel of 2013.

Forest Gods begins several weeks or months later, in the tribal village. Clay is assumed by all to be dead. Laughing Dog, now secretly possessed by Ogya, has returned to renounce his disbelief in the gods, and been readmitted to the tribe. But Ogya engineers the elderly tribal king’s death. His successor, Clay’s and Laughing Dog’s older brother Great Ram, becomes the new king. He swiftly falls under Laughing Dog’s (Ogya’s) influence, to the unease of old Cloud, the tribal healer and one of the old king’s advisors.

Meanwhile, Clay and Doto have left the forest-jungle and ventured into the now-thin savanna, in search of Lord Sarmu, the god of the savanna. This puts off their confrontation with Kwaee, but Doto is dismayed to discover that, without the spirit of the forest to draw upon, he has become even weaker than Clay.

Forest Gods is told in alternating chapters. One is centered upon Cloud as she watches, dismayed, as Laughing Dog destroys her former influence in the village and urges the tribe to burn the forest back.

[Cloud goes to the King’s tent to tend his pregnant wife.]

“‘Good morning, Grenadier, Broken Stump,’ she [Cloud] said, doing her best to sound pleasant and unworried. ‘Do you know if the King is about?’

‘He’s not here right now,’ Broken Stump said, holding up a hand. He was a short man, though still taller than her, his frame thin and angular. Though he had not yet seen thirty rains, his hair was already greying, but he was renowned for his wiry strength. He could throw a spear so fast and so far that it might have been an arrow and his body the bow.

“Doto, Clay, and Adanko, god of hares”. Art by Zhivago.

‘Only Hibiscus,’ Grenadier added.

‘That’s fine. It’s her that I want to see.’ Cloud made to enter the tent, but the two men stepped together, blocking her way. They stood stiff-backed, gripping their spears more tightly. What did they expect, that she would lunge at them like a lion?

Grenadier cleared his throat. ‘Sorry, Cloud, but you’re not to enter the King’s tent. And you’re not to see Hibiscus.’

She stared up at him. He stood head and shoulders above Broken Stump, but unlike the other man, was thick-fleshed and rounded in a way that befit his typically soft, gentle demeanor. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, puzzled. ‘I’m an elder of the people. I’m an advisor to the King, and the healer besides. You boys have no place to stop me.’

He rubbed at the back of his neck with a mitt that was more paw than hand. ‘Sorry, Cloud. Prince Laughing Dog says to stand guard and not let anyone in.’

So. It was Prince Laughing Dog now. She pressed her lips together.” (p. 85)

The other is centered upon Clay and Doto as they encounter unexpected dangers that take them far from their goal.

“‘Frogs!’ he [Doto] called. Clay could understand him, but the words were not the language of his people. If he considered any of them, they turned strange and meaningless in his mind. ‘I am Doto the mighty, god of the forest, god of Clay. I visit the land of Sarmu on urgent matters. Tell me, frogs, where is your savannah god? Where might I find Brother Sarmu?’

He waited. There was silence from the stream; the frogs had ceased their croaking with the sunrise. After a time with no reply, he called again. ‘Do you hear and understand me, frogs? Where is Sarmu? It is a god who addresses you. You must answer!’

Again, silence. The wind rustled in the rushes. Clay sat up in the grass, about to suggest that perhaps the frogs had all left, or were sleeping deep in the mud during the day. But then a low, mournful answer creaked from the stream. ‘Looooooost.’

It was joined by another voice, croaking in agreement. ‘Looooost.’” (p. 39)

The two stories are separate until about page 200, when Clay comes home to his village to urge his tribe to continue worshipping the forest gods; and Doto reenters the forest to urge Kwaee to stop the forest from attacking the humans. But Forest Gods still has 150 pages to go. What Clay and Doto do – and become – sets up the final volume to come.

Forest Gods – well, both Books of The Fire Bearers – are tremendously imaginative, with intelligent characters in a constantly suspenseful plot. And wait until you find out what Ogya, unmasked, materializes as! This is excellent fantasy. Both books have covers by Zhivago, who has ten interior illustrations here.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Sofawolf
• Buy on Amazon

Art by Zhivago

Cody Vrosh is a self-taught fantasy illustrator with at least two particular obsessions: Coffee… and teeth. Animals and fantasy creatures who grin. Wide. A lot. Hmm, with all that coffee, how do they manage to keep those teeth so white? Who knows! “His depictions of dark and whimsical companionships attempt to express the aspects of one’s personality that we typically hide from the world. With an emphasis on experimentation, his fine lines and chaotic ink patterns have graced such diverse surfaces as hand-cut burned wood and coffee-stained paper.” Cody’s web site has many examples of his watercolor works, both humanoid and anthropomorphic, as well as his various book titles.

image c. 2015 by Cody Vrosh

Hello Everyone!

This week we talk about Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). This is a long episode-- over three hours-- that is full of as much information that we could cram in. 

We go over the ways to mitigate against STIs by using safer sex practices like condoms, and then take a look into the most commonly transmitted STIs. We discuss the transmission routes, the symptoms, the treatments, and the ways you can mitigate specifically against each one. We discuss studies and reports and offer a lot of resources that you can find in our Show Notes for this episode-- it is highly recommended that you give them a look. You can also use this to skip to sections that interest you or perhaps you are curious about.

Unfortunately we are not able to cover every piece of information available in this episode, but we do recommend using this as a resource for having a discussion with your doctor about your sexual health. We also hope that this can serve as a resource to help correct some of the misinformation that is sometimes shared in Public Education Sexual Education classes. 

We also have a listener question about how to find a mate, especially if it has been some time since you were last in a 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 014 Safer Sex Practices and STIs - On this episode we discuss safer sex practices and the most common STIs that you might encounter

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

Over Time, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Rukis and Kenket.
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, January 2016, hardcover $39.95 (432 pages), trade paperback $19.95 ([5] + 376 [+ 2] pages), Kindle $9.99.

Over Time is a romance novel intended for an adult audience only and contains some explicit sexual scenes of a primarily Male/Male nature. It is not for sale to persons under the age of 18. (publisher’s advisory)

Over Time is the final volume in this series; Out of Position Book 5. It’s hard to write a meaningful review of this Book 5 alone without covering all the background. If you’re familiar with the first four novels – Out of Position (January 2009), Isolation Play (January 2011), Divisions (January 2013), and Uncovered (July 2014) – you’ve probably already gotten this Book 5. If you’re not, you’ll do better to read all five in the proper order. They’re all five worth it.

They’re also all very homoerotic, with explicit gay m/m sex scenes. They are about two young men (who happen to be a tiger and a red fox) falling in love and going through considerable lovemaking with all the erect penises and the sticky bodily fluids, as they go through life. Kyell Gold is a prize-winning, top-quality author, and these five novels are so well-written that you will be caught up in the lives of Devlin Miski (the tiger) and Wiley “Lee” Farrel (the fox), even if you don’t care for the gay sex scenes. Or even if you don’t care for football – there are also many scenes of explicit extended football action.

The five novels are narrated in the first person by Dev and Lee, in mostly alternating chapters. In the first book, Out of Position, Dev and Lee are adolescent seniors at Forester University. Dev is a cornerback on the university’s football team, and Lee is a gay activist. Dev has a one-night stand with what seems to be a sexy vixen who turns out to be Lee in drag. Dev realizes that his sexual orientation is gay and that he is in love with the male Lee, while Lee realizes that his practical joke on a football jock has led him to a real romance. After carrying on their romance in secrecy, the novel ends with Dev publicly “coming out of the closet”; the first football player to do so. (Out of Position was published several years before the first admittedly gay football player in real life.)

In the sequels, Dev and Lee deal with the results of their openly gay relationship on their families and Dev’s football teammates, and on their graduation and life after college. Dev wants to become a football pro and is picked by the Chevali Firebirds. Lee tries to become a football talent scout to stay with him, but the best team that will hire him is the Yerba Whalers, several hundred miles from Dev’s new team. Lee’s father accepts that he is gay, but his mother is violently opposed to his open homosexuality and joins Families United, a religious hate group, leading to Lee’s parents getting divorced. Lee learns that his mother’s hate group has just driven another gay adolescent to suicide, and he is torn between resuming his gay activism and continuing to support Dev and Dev’s new team. The parents of the boy who committed suicide sue Families United, and Lee and Dev learn that Dev’s brother Greg is on the FU legal team.

Sofawolf Press’ blurb for Over Time starts:

“Football season is over, and in the wake of a tumultuous year, Lee and Dev decide to take this quiet time to think about their relationship. But as their friends and family draw the couple into their own issues, the offseason becomes anything but quiet.”

One of Dev’s and Lee’s friends among Dev’s teammates, Fisher Kingston (another tiger), begins acting strangely after a football injury.

“We do call Fisher that afternoon, but Gena [his wife] answers and says he’s asleep. ‘At three in the afternoon?’ I hear Dev say into the phone, and then, ‘Uh-huh,’ and then he hands me the phone.

‘Gena. She wants to talk to you.’ He scratches his ear when I take the phone, looking puzzled, and then gets up from the couch. He hovers a little ways away while I lean against the couch arm.

‘Lee?’

The strain in Gena’s voice comes through loud and clear, and my ears go down over the phone, which has the unintentional consequence of making it harder for Dev to overhear. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘He hit Bradley [their teenage son],’ she says. ‘Not hard, and they’ve roughhoused before, but … it was different.’

‘Oh, boy.’

‘He said that he had a headache when he got home, […]” (p. 29)

Dev and Lee must deal with Fisher’s deteriorating mental condition. At the same time, Dev’s relationship with his brother becomes openly hostile after Greg publicly endorses Families United’s anti-gay position. Running through this is Dev’s and Lee’s relationship with each other. The m/m sex is fantastic, but how long-term is it? Is it just a casual romance – after three years – or can they count on it to continue lasting? Specifically, should they buy a house together?

To repeat what I said about the other books, “there is almost no fantasy, save for the characters being anthropomorphized animals. This is a realistic novel about two young homosexual lovers beginning life after college.” The wraparound cover is by Rukis & Kenket. Readers of the previous four novels will not be disappointed in this finale.

The difference in pagination is due to the hardcover containing a bonus short story, “Rest Stop”, that is not in the trade paperback or Kindle editions.

• Buy at Sofawolf
• Buy at Amazon

– Fred Patten

wraparound cover by Kenket.

For the longest time, culminating in these bizarre 2016 elections, I have operated under the assumption that what has mattered in the world on an international scale is the conflict between the rich and powerful vs. the poor and disenfranchised. I’ve even explored the whole New World Order/Illuminati/secret societies thing, the conspiracies about how “they” want to return to a world of rich royalty and serfs a la the Medieval Age. Such has been the history of mankind, a cycle of empire building, rebellions, empires falling again, new empires rising, over and over again. All orchestrated by the NWO?
 
Let’s assume there is a secret group of ultra-powerful plotters out there orchestrating wars, elections, and so on. Perhaps the goal isn’t actually to create a wealthy elite who hoard money and material goods. Powerful dynasties and rich families have, as noted above, risen and fallen in the past, and even if they did so again, the ultimate end would be a new rebellion and return to another equilibrium. Pointless.
 
What if the goal is actually to keep this cycle going? Keep a struggle between rich and poor, powerful and powerless going, up and down, back and forth, forever? The point? As long as humanity is preoccupied with material resources, armies, borders, wealth, power, etc., we are never going to evolve spiritually into new, enlightened beings.
 
A good example of how this works is religion. The best religions might actually start with good intentions, but they become corrupted once the true power elite discover what is going on, so that the new religion can become part of the cycle. Thus, Jesus becomes a prophet of truth, but when a sect known as the Gnostics teaches that one can have a direct connection to God and Jesus without a priestly elite, that sect is quickly destroyed to be replaced by an approved religion, Catholicism, with a hierarchy, power, and wealth. The Protestants break away from the Catholics, setting up more fighting, which is even better in the minds of those truly in control. Or, a prophet called Muhammad comes up with some nice ideas about God, only to have his followers fight over who his successor will be, creating Sunnis and Shiites who will be forever fighting each other and forgetting what the prophet originally meant. Or the Jews, the Chosen People, become obsessed with the idea that they need a political state and that real estate is all that really matters, thus setting up an endless war in the Middle East.
 
And while everyone is grabbing at real estate, or oil, or water, or money, or control over political systems, shadows lurk in the darkness and laugh at us, knowing we will not become a threat because we will remain animals instead of a new, spiritual species.

Without an NWO or some other power, then the pattern still remains, only we just have ourselves to blame for our lack of progress.

I, for one, refuse to play this game. I am going to focus on what really matters: my spirit and my love for others.

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

 
Keenora Fluffball is a 29-year-old furry from Germany. Best known in Spain for his latest appearance in Cuatro (Spanish TV channel) (link⇒), he’s a cheerful extrovert fursuiter, famous for his extreme sports & stunts in fursuit: bungee jumping, skydiving, or walking down a building wall Jackie Chan style! (‘House Running’.) He happily agrees to be interviewed.

 
MR:  Born in ’86, when did you start identifying as a furry, and why?

 
KF: Basically I found the furry fandom back in 1996, during my first days on the internet. I was using the IRC network for chatting, and ended up in a channel where they talked about some videos. I wasn’t sure what it actually was, but as I saw photos of it, I was very interested. It was someone wearing a fursuit, dancing on a stage. I really liked it and searched around the net some more. I found some websites with drawn pictures of werewolves and got into the whole topic.

 
Back in those days I also created the name “Keenora”, and thought about my appearance, how I look like, and so on. But I have to admit, till around 2001 I lost track a bit and didn’t do much. Around 2001 I got really into the topic, visiting my first convention in 2004, which was Eurofurence 10, and learned a lot about it.

 
The question why I’m a furry, or better said, why I identify myself as a furry, is a very good one. For me, the anthropomorphic world is really interesting. Mixing that up with my thirst for creativity, and of course its community and its strong connections to people from all around the world, pretty much describes me as a furry. The most important thing for me, is that I identify myself with Keenora. There is no Kee and Not-Kee in my life. Nothing I could just “throw away”, or so. For me, it’s important to be myself, and I think, as a furry, I am myself as much as possible

 
MR:  What’s the origin of your fursona? How did you come up with your fursona?

 
KF: Well, a wolf was pretty much clear for me. We used to have, and still have, a dog at home, for as long as I can remember. And the “wilder” version is a wolf. So that was clear for me They’ve always fascinated me

 
His colours are my favourite colours. And the stripes, which all have a specific position, length and size, just add the personal touch to me The funny fact behind it is, that afterwards, I’ve noticed my idea with the stripes very often somewhere else. In my favourite anime, Digimon, Garurumon is a wolf with blue stripes It’s coincidence, but I found my favourite character very quickly, in the show

The name Keenora has no special meaning. But the way I came up with it is funny. Back in the ’90s I wanted to develop software very much. I started with QBasic and I built a program which could create random names, based on rules like… no “k” after a “v”, and so on. When I browsed through the results, I found “nora” and I liked the name. “Kee” just came up to me, and suddenly “Keenora” was born My English wasn’t that good back then, but later on I figured out what “keen” means

 
MR:  So you would say your fursona, personality-wise, is like yourself?

 
KF: Pretty much, yes. For me there is no difference between Keenora and me. It’s actually weird to talk from a third person perspective about myself Kee is me, and me is Kee

 
MR:  Would you say you’re a popufur?

 
KF: Short answer, no. I think there is a difference between the term “popufur” and “popular furry”. It might be, that my videos and my appearances in many conventions and gatherings, added the label “popufur” on me. But I think it’s nonsense. I think I have a lot of followers and subscribers because they like what I do. That’s it. I am just a normal furry as you and others and there is nothing “special” or “popular” about me.

Other than that, what would you call me?

 
MR: I don’t know? Each person might have different “popufurs” or “popular furs”, each person values different things. But it’s a good thing that whether you are popular or not, you keep being yourself.

 
MR:  What are the furry-related activities you enjoy doing the most, or that you do more often?

 
KF: Fursuiting, which is pretty obvious I love to be in fursuit and that is “my thing”, if you want to call it that. I don’t care if I’m home alone, or in a group or at a convention. Without fursuiting everything is a bit boring That’s why my fursuit is always with me, no matter where I am.

Besides the obvious thing, I love to just hang around with other furries. Visiting some regular meetings or such stuff. Actually, my whole life is “furry-related”, so no matter what I do, I’m always a furry

 
MR:  With all the exercise you do in fursuit, how do you keep your fursuit clean from sweat?

 
KF: Oh that is a good one! Well, first, I should say, everyone is different. Each person can handle some things better than others. That said, I can say, for sure, I do sweat. But I do many things to prevent it as much as possible.

 
I used to be way heavier in the past, and started doing workout only for fursuiting. So I am kind of trained Since I got my suit, I spend a lot of time in it. For example, I was in suit every day, at least once, throughout 2013. Taking selfies / photos all the time. It doesn’t matter if it’s just for an hour or for the whole day and night. You get used to it. Staying in suit for 24 hours is not a problem at all, and even twice as much is not a big deal. It’s just a bit difficult for me, due to my insulin pump, because I am diabetic. So when I am that long in suit, I need to drink enough and keep my blood sugar checked from time to time. The pump has a remote control, but I need to know how much insulin to push in The reservoir only lasts for about 2 or 3 days. I need a solution for that!

 
I tried those cooling vests once, but for me those don’t work at all. I was super freezing when the vest was cool, and when it got warm I began to sweat like a fountain. So yeah, the only thing under my fur is a Lycra suit, which keeps the temperature a bit lower when I am standing in the wind or in front of a fan. To all the people having problems with sweating in suit, I say: It’s just a matter of time. Don’t step back just because you sweat, everyone does. I figured out, the Asian fursuiters don’t sweat as much in general. Sadly, I’m European.

 
Keeping my fursuit clean is a very very important thing for me. After some suiting action I always wash him, when I’ve been sweating. I wash the feetpaws, handpaws, and the body. The head I wash in the bathtub with towels. I use a bit of detergent and softener. Not too much detergent, because small dirt runs off with just water already. I’ve gotten pretty good at getting stuff out of the fur. After concerts, when the feetpaws are almost fully soaked in beer and dirt, I get them super clean every time And I’ve had weird stuff on the fur, and in the fur: oil, make-up, food, blood, brake dust… [from cars, like the dust expelled in car drifting]

 
At conventions it’s a bit more difficult. I keep washing the armpits and the front and back with wet towels. Same with the head, using a tiny bit of detergent. Though, after a long week of suiting at a con, I have to wash it, of course, as soon as I get home

 
MR: So at home you submerge the body suit in water, and you cover the head with moist or wet towels, drying afterwards.

 
KF: No no, at home I use a washing machine! 800 RPM, 30ºC. I tried 1600 RPM in the past, but then I had to brush for a really long time.

 
MR:  Do you collect plushies?

 
KF: Hmm, I do have like 10 or so, but I stopped many years ago I have three plushies of Kee though. The smallest one is always with me when I’m traveling (50 cm / 20 inches tall), and the biggest one comes with me to some conventions, but lays in my bed otherwise (120 cm / 3 feet tall).

 
MR:  Aphinity (from VancouFur, Canada) argues that furries give the best hugs. Hugging as a greeting is a particular staple of furry fandom. How much do you like hugging / being hugged?

 
KF: Very much! Whenever I see friends, I do hug them, no matter if I’m in suit or not. Hugging shows, a bit, that you are “closer” to that person. I would never do that with my co-workers

 
MR:

 
MR:  Can you share some touching experience you’ve had that involved hugging someone?

 
KF: In suit, there are many of those moments. I have them often, when I hug very old people or young kids. Last year we were at an event, at an inner harbour. There was a nursing home around the corner, and some elderly women were in their wheelchairs together, with some nurses, enjoying the nice weather. When I walked to them and hugged them, they didn’t want to let me go! They were hugging me like a huge plushie and they were so very happy about it. Most of them had dementia, and probably weren’t able to remember later that evening. But for me, it was really touching, to be able to make those people happy, on maybe one of their last days on earth. With something as simple as wearing a costume, you’re able to make a big impact. A fact which is just stunning

 
I’ve had similar situations with children. Last year, at a village of refugees, with children having very bad injuries from wars and conflicts, with no legs, no arms, blind, scarred… Those kids, who have seen the worst things on the planet, and experienced so much hate and suffering, were very happy! I just hugged them and they were happy. Happy because of almost nothing! They cried out of joy! And trust me, when you are in a situation like that, seeing those kids… you begin to cry. I wasn’t able to hold myself back, the tears were running down my face inside my suit. I didn’t want to stop. Sadly, it began to rain afterwards so we weren’t able to do it for longer than 3 hours or so. But it was a very touching experience.

 
MR:  Maybe you’re familiar with a general rule of thumb for conventions called the 6-2-1 rule. The rule of thumb says, during cons, you should at least sleep 6 hours a day, have 2 meals a day, and shower once each day.

You’ve had diabetes for over ten years now. Is there some special guide or tip you follow, to keep an appropriate blood sugar level, during cons?

 
KF: I always turn that rule around… 1 hour sleep, 2 times food, 6 times showering

For diabetes, yes. I keep eating less at conventions, so I need to take care of that a bit. Stress + Activity – Eating means low sugar levels So yeah, I keep crashing into the fursuit lounge from time to time for water and some sweets. Basically neither diabetes, nor suiting, holds you back from cons.

 
MR:  You’ve been at this year’s Japan Meeting of Furries, in January. Japanese culture always strikes me as slightly weird, unfamiliar, though I suppose non-furries could say the same about the furry fandom. What would you say the Japanese convention has in common with other cons? And which things are different?

 
KF: Hehe, well, I can tell Japanese culture is different for sure. But it’s not as weird as the media would let you assume. The things I have seen are, for example, good spotters [fursuiter lackeys, people who act as helpers to a fursuiter or costumed individual], handling the suiters really really well. They keep holding paws with them and always support them. In the city, people’s reactions are basically the same as in Europe. They are just way more polite, and nicer

The cons are different. At least the JMoF is. The dancing only lasted two hours, for example. But the parties are the same, or actually better

 
The “dead dog” party was the biggest difference though. We assume that a dead dog party is a normal dance on the last day. But not in Japan. They hosted a dead dog party where you have to pay a bit more, and what you get is a huuuge party. With food for free, drinks for free, and alcohol for free! It was just intense

For me, it’s pretty clear JMoF is getting an annual regular visit from me

 
MR:  You’ve been a member of a Scouts group, or as known in German, a member of a Pfadfinders group. In what ways has this shaped who you are, if at all?

 
KF: Yes I was in the Scouts, but I was a little boy and that’s it. It didn’t influence me in a special way.

 
MR:  Do you still remember the Scouts oath? What did you think of [spoiler]  Nick Wilde in Zootopia when it turned out he was a Scout? 

 
KF: Hah, it was hilarious. Really cute scene Though, a Scout would never do such mean things to others!!!

Funny fact about the German Scouts: The first group you go into is called Wölflinge, which could be translated to “Young wolf cubs”

 
MR: Yes, that’s the case here as well. Though they later included, at least in my Scouts group (when I was there), an even smaller kids group, the Beavers. It went Castores, Lobatos, Tropa, Pioneros, Rutas; that’s “Beavers”, “Wolf cubs”, “Troops”, “Pioneers”, and “Routers”.

 
MR:  Can you tell us something about your performances for charity work?

 
KF: Oh yes! I love to do charity stuff! I found out getting cash together at an event is so easy in fursuit For example, last year we were at an animal shelter in another city for the first time. The owner is a friend of the leader of a local shelter here. So he said, [the one over here,] get them over there and you’ll see what will happen.

So when we went there, we got those little cans to collect money. It was actually really easy to get them full in a very short amount of time When I run around collecting money, I’m always a bit “mean”. So I do offer a hug, or some other cuddle, when someone throws money in the can. But after they did, I just kept hitting my paw on the can or running behind the person. Of course, only if they’re happy and like the fun So it gets full really fast!

 
For me, the whole “money” thing is a very sensitive topic though. I don’t want to earn money with fursuiting. Never. Once we went to an event in the Netherlands and they offered each of us 50 euros. And I didn’t take the money, because for me it’s just a no-go. A friend told me once: “A hobby is a hobby as long as you won’t get paid. When you get paid, it will become a job”.

 
MR:  You’ve worked with commercial media, as a furry & fursuiter, and have appeared on television on several occasions. How has your experience been with the media? Did they treat you fairly?

 
KF: I can clearly say, yes. They do, as long as you know their tricks I mean, it’s just their job to get the most out of it. Some of them leave scorched earth behind; yes, handling it is possible. Reporters always try to ask the same questions in different ways on different times and locations. When you film with them for like two days or even longer, it ends up like that. And they get annoyed, when they realize that you know how they ask and how they think.

Of course they have questions you don’t want to answer, or don’t like or don’t want to be asked. It has happened to me many times. I always answer but sometimes not their question, or not directly. It’s like Nick Wilde said it in Zootopia: answer their question with another question, and answer that one… It really works!

 
Some producers take a sentence, and try to cut it down to a fitting sentence they want, even if you have something to add. When that happens, I try to talk in a fluent sentence without letting too many gaps in between the parts. So they have no way to cut it down and if they do, it sounds chopped and not good enough for a report Before I do such a thing, I do check their format though. What have they aired before, what have they produced, how they do their work and research, etc. You need to be prepared!

But yeah, basically I can say, they do treat me fairly but with a bitter taste of professionalism

 
MR:  I believe you’re a software developer. Can you tell us a bit about your job?

 
KF: I work as a web developer. I’ve seen the internet grow all the time technically. That means it has many upcoming opportunities to work with it. I have two jobs, which are pretty much the same. On my main job I work in a company as the head of web developing, creating e-commerce platforms and interfaces between other systems and those platforms. My second job is my own company, in which I do the same. The main job is mainly to pay the bills, and my company I use for stuff I like to do, also traveling or other stuff. In my own company I work for normal customers, whereas in my main job I work for companies and not directly end-consumers. I also do web design and content management systems (CMS).

 
MR:  Do you play any videogames?

 
KF: I wish! I used to play MapleStory a few years back. But time is my problem. I mostly spend time during weekdays for work, work, work. I only have the weekends free, and I want to use them without a screen in front of my muzzle

 
MR:  And, to finish the interview, I have one last question. We’re having this furry convention here in Madrid, Spain, called Furrnion, which I don’t want to brag about (lie), but I can assure at least we’ll have awesome food, because Spanish food & wine is great. Will you be visiting Furrnion in 2017?

 
KF: Weeell That depends a bit Mostly on the date. It’s not like I haven’t checked flights already The first two weeks in January are blocked for Japan already, but if it’s after the 15th of January, then I will be there, pretty much. I’ve always wanted to see Spain

 
MR:  Well, thank you Keenora for attending the interview and answering the questions!

Keenora uses internet heavily, and is always approachable on social media, FurAffinity, and other websites. You can also find him at his own website, www.keenora.de .

 

The entry Interview with Keenora, Passionate Fursuiter appears first in FurryFandom.es.

Welcome! FurryFandom.es is a website which includes news, interviews, reports, or opinion pieces, that anyone can contribute, related to the furry world, its culture, its art and its people. It focuses on showing this in both Spanish and English, thus making it easier for non-English speakers to enter the world of furry. There are always things to discover, and interesting news to report! The publishing of new articles will also be notified through Twitter @FurryFandomEs . For those who want to contribute articles, you can read the rules for publication in the ‘Rules’ section; you can also find there the rules for commenting. We start the website with an extensive and personal interview with Keenora!

The entry Welcome to the Website! appears first in FurryFandom.es.

After years of studying fashion design, the artist Kieu Le currently works in the licensing department for Blizzard Entertainment (home of World of Warcraft and so much more). In her copious (?) spare time she also has a thriving business on her own designing cartoonish 2D art prints as well as cartoonish 3D plush animal toys.  All of which can be found on her personal web site, which besides examples of her work also includes links to various on-line stores where you can buy it all.

image c. 2016 by Kieu Le

 

Thousands of years after the fall of man, a young lion stalks the deserts of Chile…

Franko: Fables of The Last Earth

Kickstarter ending 4/28/16

[Note from the editor: Franko’s “Fables” is safe for work and none of the links in this post go directly anywhere that would raise an alarm, but they’re all one click away from some deep awkward.]

I hope my mate doesn’t catch wind of me writing this. He’s a hyena. They have a thing about lions. But I had to write about this one, because…

Because Franko is really cute.

There are other reasons. It’s an appealing character with a nice design; the artist, Cristóbal Jofré, consistently brings me joy when I see his work on FurAffinity; if I see the graphic novel in translation maybe I’ll finally learn what that damned squiggle on Franko’s chest is about; Franko’s friend Shin is really, really hot; every three or four hours a different picture of Franko and Shin turns up on my monitor, and I remember that I promised I’d write this one. Because, again, Franko really is that cute.

So, what’s it about? Besides lions in statistically insignificant amounts of clothing?

Franko: Fables of the Last Earth, published originally in Spanish in 2013 (That recently? huh!) is the story—well, stories—of the young lion Franko, his friend Shin (about whom see above, or here, or here…), and the various people, demons, spirits, and other strange things they encounter in their distant-future Chilean wilderness. The stories are framed as fables, little mythologies with messages. This is a storytelling mode that reaches as far back in time as the stories do forward: a modern mythological journey.

Obligatory name-drop: Franko is the work of writer Ángel Bernier and artist Cristóbal Jofre. Thanks to a lifeline thrown me by Sofawolf, I can say that Bernier is a writer and editor, working with comics and fanzines since 2006 (“Tinta Negra,” “Informe Meteoro,” and others.)

Of the latter, Jofre has worked on several titles, including the fascinating but frequently NSFW virtual anthology comic “Blanco Experimental,” art-mag/comic “Solar Storm,” and some previous work for Sofawolf.  He’s been bopping around the fandom for quite some time, as Franko just celebrated his tenth birthday on FA (and here’s the original Franko! I love seeing how he’s evolved over the years!)

I’d love to know if there’s any common traits among the anthro artists in South America and Spain. Of course every artist has a unique style, but I’ve been so impressed by Juanjo Guarnido‘s stunning Blacksad, Oscar Martin’s dark Solo, and of course Jofre’s Franko…do they draw from a common well? Franko’s a different category, of course, charming rather than gritty.Helpfully, the upcoming translation of Franko will have some cultural notes to help unpack the story for its English readers.

(I’ve read that paragraph a few times now, and it just sounds worse each time I read it. Life goes on.)

Franko’s current Kickstarter and upcoming graphic novel in translation are both the work of the Kickstarter veterans at Sofawolf Press. They’ve had remarkable success with established product, with Vernon’s Digger and Bruton (et al)’s Dark Desires. Products which, interestingly, all incorporate some really powerful mythic elements. Does one of the happy canines at Sofawolf study Comparative Mythology? I hope so.

Sofawolf’s campaigns tend to be pretty generous on the physical reward front, and this one’s no exception. Plushies, a bandana-mask, stickers, and other oddments. Amazingly, there’s still a few pieces of original artwork left, for backers with only modestly deep pockets. There’s a chance that these aren’t moving as well as, say, the recent Anubis project did, since Jofre still occasionally takes commissions and is fairly approachable. And in fairness, it’s hard to compete with the combined star power of Dark Natasha, Bruton, Smith, Light, Miles, and Stein. (Whew!) But Franko’s absolutely delightful, and I’m so glad Sofawolf took a chance on him! Maybe we’ll see the second graphic novel,  “Stories in Glorious Black and White,” at an upcoming con.

As of this writing the title is about $2000 under it’s 8K goal. The team can easily close this distance in the two weeks remaining, but it looks like it’s been a slow road to success. Unfortunate, I’d love to see the hardcover book happen, but the softcover translation alone is going to be a treat.

There are several ways to follow the illustrator. A few months ago Jofre (AKA Negger) kicked off a Patreon, but it never really got much traction, and seems to be inactive at the moment. You can get regular art updates from him on Tumblr (right this second worksafe, unless you scroll down a lot), FA (not remotely worksafe, you have been warned), and DeviantArt (Slightly more worksafe than FA but really that’s not saying much). Log on, +watch, and show some lion love!

Follow @furstarter on twitter for the latest fur-friendly crowdfunding projects!

[Articolo di JM. Le note del traduttore sono tra parentesi quadre in corsivo.]

Il furry è un fenomeno internazionale, e l’inglese è il linguaggio predominante. Tutte le nostre convention più larghe, da Anthrocon, a Eurofurence, al Meeting of Furries in Giappone, a Russfurence, sono pensate per un pubblico inglese. Partecipate a qualunque di queste e troverete furry che usano l’inglese come seconda, terza o quarta lingua, che comunicano e si divertono in questo linguaggio comune.

Per chi è nato in paesi che usano questa lingua è facile non fare caso a quella parte del mondo furry che non lo parla. Ma quella parte esiste, e per quanto ne sappiamo, le due maggiori lingue furry dopo la nostra sono il russo e l’italiano.

Siamo molto orgogliosi di presentare qui, per la prima volta, i dati di un sondaggio furry italiano che è stato condotto tra 2012 e 2013. Il sondaggio era interamente in italiano, e fino ad adesso i risultati erano stati pubblicati solo in italiano. Grazie al nostro collaboratore MrMandolino (che è italiano), possiamo presentarle qui in inglese.

(ripubblicheremo anche i risultati, e una traduzione di questo articolo, in italiano). [che è quella che state leggendo, ndt. In italiano.]

Non è facile capire perché l’italiano sembri più comune nel furry di, per esempio, il francese. Francia e Italia hanno una popolazione simile (66 vs 60 milioni) e simili livelli di conoscenza del’inglese.

Il Furry Survey [la versione angloamericana, ndt] è disponibile solo in inglese, quindi non possiamo stimare direttamente la percentuale di altre lingue. Siamo però in grado di intuirla osservando la differenza tra risposte al Furry Survey e attività online.

Dal Furry Survey, possiamo vedere che meno dell’1% dei partecipanti vive in Italia:

Questi dati vengono dal Furry Survey 2013, che ha avuto 7159 risposte. Il numero di italiani era 23, cioè il 0.3%. Questo risultato è consistente coi risultati di tutti i sondaggi dal 2009 al 2015.

Prevedibilmente, il sondaggio è dominato da furry di paesi di lingua inglese.

Possiamo stimare la prevalenza di lingue non inglesi nel mondo furry guardando ai dati di Wikifur. Wikifur, come Wikipedia, supporta praticamente qualunque lingua riusciate a nominare:

La differenza tra il numero di italiani che hanno risposto al Furry Survey (in inglese) e il numero di pagine di Wikifur (in italiano) suggerisce che ci sia un significativo numero di parlanti italiani nel furry. (stiamo anche dando un’occhiata all’altro gruppo che spicca per numero, i russi).

Questa è solo un’ipotesi, ovviamente. Il fatto che un significativo gruppo di furry parlanti italiano esista è ancora tutto da provare, e mentre MrMandolino è in contatto con i furry italiani, le dimensioni della comunità stessa sono estremamente difficili da stabilire.

Il Sondaggio Furry Italiano è un lungo sondaggio con 37 domande, e potete leggerlo interamente qui (link). Sotto potete leggere i punti principali.

Il Sondaggio Italiano è durato da fine 2012 a inizio 2013, ed ha ricevuto 103 risposte. Non è tantissimo, ma abbastanza da poter avere una buona idea delle demografiche del gruppo. Come per il Furry Survey, è impossibile controllare persone che non hanno risposto al sondaggio, quindi non possiamo misurare l’eventuale effetto di selezione [selection bias, ndt].

Per compararlo, ho inserito il risultato del Furry Survey (inglese) del 2013, che ha avuto 7159 risposte.

Sesso

Il Sondaggio Italiano chiedeva il sesso, ma non il genere [gender – identità sessuale differente dal sesso biologico o dall’orientamento sessuale, ndt]. I risultati suggeriscono che il gruppo italiano è (ancora) più dominato da maschi di quello inglese.

Il Sondaggio Italiano era stato condiviso su forum online, un medium che non è sempre rinomato per essere accogliente verso le donne. È possibile che questo influisca sui dati riguardanti il sesso. Altre demografiche mostrano forti similarità con il sondaggio inglese, come vedremo.

Età

Il gruppo italiano e quello inglese hanno una distribuzione di età molto simile.

La natura “saltellante” della distribuzione italiana è dovuta al campione ridotto di risposte. È facile vedere come campioni di piccole dimensioni abbiano larghi livelli di incertezza: un piccolo numero di (esempio) persone di 36 anni può creare un’eccezione che sembra (ma non è) significativa.

Come regola generale non pubblichiamo variazioni di incertezza [uncertainty range, ndt] qui ad [a][s]. Preferiamo semplicemente mostrare dati grezzi, per lasciare le cose semplici (per un lettore non specializzato) ed evitare di oscurare i dati stessi. Per tutti questi risultati, vi prego di tenere a mente che i dati italiani sono soggetti a molta più incertezza di quelli inglesi.

Studenti

La percentuale di studenti nel furry, di nuovo, è simile tra I due gruppi (statisticamente, questi due risultati possono essere definiti “identici”). L’età è ovviamente un fattore fondamentale.

Orientamento sessuale

È notevole osservare come il gruppo furry inglese e italiano mostrino simili distribuzioni di orientamento sessuale. Questo pattern – in cui gruppi etero, gay e bisessuali sono presenti in proporzioni quasi identiche – è insolito.

È un risultato sorprendente perché ci sono significative differenze nell’atteggiamento culturale verso l’omosessualità tra i due gruppi. Più dell’80% degli italiani sono cattolici, e al momento in cui scrivo quest’articolo è l’unico paese in Europa occidentale che non riconosce unioni civili o uguaglianza di matrimonio. [come cambia in fretta il mondo! ndt]

Il fatto che il gruppo italiano mostri le stesse demografiche di orientamento sessuale di quello inglese suggerisce che ci sia qualcosa riguardante il mondo furry che attrae un simile gruppo. È molto difficile arrivare a una qualche conclusione definitiva sul furry, perché siamo un gruppo vario e decentralizzato. Questi risultati suggeriscono che la nostra relazione col sesso e la sessualità sia importante per comprendere interamente il furry.

Ci sono molti, molti risultati affascinanti da esplorare nel Sondaggio Furry Italiano. Potete leggere l’intero sondaggio, che include discussione e commento, qui.

Questo articolo e il Sondaggio Furry Italiano sono anche disponibili in inglese.

Furry is an international phenomenon, and English is our predominant language. All our large conventions, from Anthrocon to Eurofurence to Japan Meeting of Furries to Russfurence, cater to English speakers. Attend any of these and you’ll find furries with English as their second or third or fourth language, communicating and participating in our lingua franca.

For a native English speaker, it’s easy to overlook non-English-speaking furry. But it exists, and as best we can tell, the next two biggest furry languages are Russian and Italian.

We are really pleased to be able to present here, for the first time, data from an Italian furry survey (Sondaggio Furry Italiano), that was open over 2012/13. The survey was entirely in Italian, and the results to date have only been published in Italian. Thanks to [a][s] contributor MrMandolino (who is Italian), we can present them here in English. (We’re also republishing the results, and a translation of this article, in Italian.)

It’s not easy to understand why Italian appears more common among furry than, say, French. Italy and France have a similar population (60 vs 66 million) and similar levels of English-speaking (ref).

The Furry Survey is published in English only, so we’re not able to estimate the proportion of other languages directly. However we can infer by looking at the difference between responses to the Furry Survey and activity online.

From the Furry Survey, we can see that less than 1% of the respondents live in Italy:

This data is from the 2013 Furry Survey, which had 7159 responses. The number of Italians was 23, which is 0.3%. This result is consistent with results from all surveys from 2009 to 2015.

Not surprisingly, the survey is dominated by furries from English-speaking countries.

We can guess at the prevalence of non-English languages within furry by looking at Wikifur metrics. Wikifur, like Wikipedia, supports pretty much any language you care to name:

The disparity between the number of Italians responding to the Furry Survey (in English) and the number of Wikifur pages (in Italian) suggests that there might be a significant Italian-speaking furry group. (We’re also looking at the other obviously large group, the Russians.)

This is just guesswork of course. The evidence is far from definitive that a significant Italian-speaking furry group exists, and while Mando is in touch with the Italian furs, the size of the community itself is extremely hard to judge.

The Sondaggio Furry Italiano is a long survey with 37 questions, and you can read them in full, in English, here. Highlights are given below.

The Sondaggio Italiano ran from late 2012 to early 2013, and received 103 responses. That’s not a lot, but it is enough to get a good feel for the demographics of the group. As with the Furry Survey, it’s impossible to poll people who don’t fill in the survey, so we can’t measure any inherent selection bias.

I’ve provided the (English) Furry Survey results from 2013 for comparison, which had 7159 responses.

Sex

The Sondaggio Italiano asks for sex, but not gender. The results suggest that the Italian group is (even) more male-dominated than the English-speaking group.

The Sondaggio Italiano was shared on online forums, a medium not always known for being welcoming towards women. It’s possible that this informs the sex breakdown. Other demographics show strong similarities with the English Furry Survey, as we shall see.

Age

The Italian- and English-speaking groups have a very similar age distribution.

The “jumpy” nature of the Italian distribution is due to the smaller sample size. It’s easy to see here why small sample sizes have larger uncertainty ranges: a small number of (say) 36 year-olds can create an outlier that looks (but isn’t) significant.

As a general rule we don’t publish uncertainty ranges when we present data here on [a][s]. We prefer to simply show raw data, to keep things simple (for a lay reader) and to avoid obscuring the data itself. For all these results, please keep in mind that the Italian data is subject to a lot more uncertainty than the English data.

Students

The proportion of students in furry, again, is similar between the two groups (statistically, these two results are said to be “identical”). Age is obviously a contributing factor here.

Sexual Orientation

Remarkably, the Italian and English furry groups show a very similar distribution of sexual orientation. This pattern—where straight, gay, and bisexual groups are in mostly equal proportion—is unusual.

This is a surprising result because there are significant differences in cultural attitudes towards homosexuality between the two groups. More than 80% of Italians are Catholic, and at the time of writing is the only major country in Western Europe that does not recognise either civil unions or equal marriage.

For the Italian-speaking group to show the same sexual orientation demographics as the English-speaking group suggests that there is something about furry that attracts such a group. It’s very difficult to draw any definitive conclusions about furry, because we are such a diverse and decentralized group. This result suggests that our relationship to sex and sexuality is important to understanding furry as a whole.

There are many, many more fascinating results to explore in the Sondaggio Furry Italiano results. You can read through the full set of results, which includes commentary and discussion (translated into English) here.

This article and the full Sondaggio Furry Italiano results are also available in Italian.

​Greetings, Papabear!
 
I hope you are doing well. I've been meaning to write you for a while, if nothing else but to check up on you. You have been in my thoughts and prayers and I haven't forgotten how kind you have always been to me in my letters. This next one has some positive vibes for a change! My parents have started to relent and are even going to anthrocon 2016 with me and three other friends whom I've swayed. The rest of this email is a little serious however, but there's no problem this time I promise.

I love the fandom, but could it get in the way of a potential career in the future? This coming fall I will be attending Iowa State University to pursue a degree in education. I am a bit antsy about college but definitely am ready for something new. With my future plans, there come some necessary questions. Since educators are one of the most trusted disciplines in the world aside from nursing, teachers are expected to possess that air of professionalism and have the record to prove it. Teachers are role models of the school district and the communities they work and live in. With all the scrutiny that will come from both my peers and the people around me, if the question somehow arises of me being one of those "furry people", could this be potentially problematic for me? I think this is a question that takes some consideration, given my chosen line of work. I believe myself perfectly capable of handling people with standard questioning of the fandom. You know, the kind we've all heard before. Heck if I were to mention being a furry right now at school, everybody would immediately send fifty text messages to everybody else and I'd get yiff thrust into my face with incredulous exclamations of "you're into this???" before I had even finished explaining what a furry was. To be clear, I don't plan to be openly furry. That business has no bearing in my work and doesn't belong there at all. If I have my way, nobody will even know. I don't intend to hide it, I just plan to be strictly business and being furry is part of my personal life that does not and should not influence my job. The potential problem I see however, is faculty or a parent googling me and raising some drama with what they find. We can assume anything they find is clean. There is no explicit content in my name or of my character and there never will be any that is of my knowledge. Because of this I do not fear serious repercussions, trying to terminate me on claims of my simple interests-especially one that is harmless and kept professional-causing loss of public trust could be borderline discriminatory and the school likely wouldn't use that against me. But all it takes is some gossiping for my name to get purposefully dragged through the dirt. Part of it could be people thinking they are more buddy buddy with me than they actually are. Part of it could be being rude for the sake of being rude because they don't get it. What do you think? Will I just have to watch myself, or should I consider looking at other options?

Thank you again for being yourself. If there is ever anything I can do for you, please hit me up and I would jump at the chance to give back and pay your kindness forward.

Your friend,

Zanda

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Hi, Zanda,
 
I’m glad that things are improving with your parents—good news! Thanks for sharing.
 
Okay, on to teaching…. Teaching is one of the noblest professions, and I think it’s wonderful that you wish to help others learn. I’m going to have to say some things that you might not like, however. It’s really not so much about being a furry as it is the state of our current educational system.
 
I have known several teachers in my life. All but one of them got so frustrated with the job that they quit or retired early. One was even a teacher-turned-principal. He was fired from a Catholic school when they found out he was gay (private school, so they can do that). Another teacher was white in an all-Hispanic school. In an interesting case of reverse discrimination, the administrator there made his life so absolutely miserable that he retired early for the sake of his sanity. A third teacher quit because he got so tired of parents running to the principal because he had given Little Johnny or Mary a bad grade, and then the teacher backing up the parent instead of him. He was a young teacher and quit the profession in two years. American teachers live in a system where the students are passed from grade to grade even though they fail the course, where they are forced to stick religiously to a teaching plan and actually berated by administrators if they, God forbid, teach something that is not explicitly allowed. The self-esteem of students takes precedence over actual learning. Learning methods are absurd to the point of being counterproductive (especially true in current math-teaching methods). Add to this restricted or diminished budgets that are so bad many teachers (except in rich districts) end up buying their students’ supplies, and the fact that some teachers have even been attacked or poisoned (in one case I know of personally, even murdered) by their own students, and you can kind of see why some teachers freak out and are caught on camera letting loose on a student (not forgivable, but understandable).
 
I want you to be aware of some of these things before you decide to go into teaching, because from what I’ve learned from those in the field, it is a thankless profession, at least in public schools. This might be different in private schools. I don’t know, although the case of my friend who worked at a Catholic school shows that it’s not a good situation there, either. Now, if you want to teach at the university level, that can be a bit more calm; however, my sister is a successful professor here in California and it is very frustrating for her, too. More and more, professors are taking on administrative tasks to the point that she and her colleagues joke that “teaching is something we do in our spare time.” She loves to teach, but, sadly, has little opportunity to do so. Add to this the bureaucracy (she was once in charge of a committee that spent two years compiling a report only to have the university president decide, when it was done, “Naah, I decided not to do that”; two years completed wasted) and she has also told me she would love to retire early.
 
I would not be a teacher if you offered to pay me double what I make now. It would not be worth my sanity.
 
But that’s just me. If you don’t care about any of the above because you have a burning passion in your heart to teach, then go for it, and God bless.
 
Okay, so let’s say you’ve gotten your degree and you’re now a teacher at PS 39 in Brooklyn, working at a lovely historic building. Super duper. I would keep my personal furry life completely separate from my professional life, if I were you. Do not associate your real name and real life in any way with furry, and you might get by. When you are a teacher, or cub scout master, or baseball coach, or any such job where you work with kids you are subjected to a standard different from that of the ordinary working world. My friend Tycho Aussie works in an office surrounded by adults and they accept his furry work and even enjoy it, no worries. But when you’re associated with the fandom and are around little kids, you will be subjected to incredible ignorance, fear, and suspicion from administrators, colleagues, and parents living in a hypersensitive world in which everyone believes that a pedophile lurks around every drinking fountain and teachers’ lounge. They won’t care if you keep your nose clean, because it will be guilt by association. To use an over-the-top example, it would be like someone who is in the KKK saying, “Well, I never burned any crosses.” Doesn’t matter, you’re in the KKK, and as far as many are concerned the fandom is a haven for pedophiles, perverts, and pagans (oh, my!) True? Of course not, but you’ll have a bear of a time convincing people otherwise once word is out, and once you are outed you can never go back.
 
I’m sorry, this is not a very upbeat reply, but I want you to be prepared for the worst. If you are, anything better will be happy news. This is also not to say that things can’t change. I’m hopeful my book will help clear things up, and I also know that there are others doing similar work, both in book and movie versions. As well, the fandom is growing by leaps and bounds all around the world, and I think that, as it does so, it will seem less and less like a clandestine, deviant society and more like something that is mainstream and out in the open, like comic book fans (this is why I strongly agree with those who say we should not ever talk to the media). The articles I’ve been reading of late that are published by mainstream presses are much more understanding and honest than they were in the 1990s and 2000s. And movies like Zootopia help, too, actually. It might be that, by the time you finish college, things could be very different from what they are now.
 
I can’t tell you what you should do with your life, nor would I want to, but it’s best to go into something with your eyes wide open and cleared of all naïve and idealistic notions of what you think it’s all about. If you can do that and forge ahead anyway because you love the idea of teaching a new generation about the world, then I am your sincere fan.
 
Blessed Be,
Papabear