Many old school furries like me object to the fandom being corrupted by people who insist this is a politically queer space. It has almost entirely been captured, sadly. This shouldn’t be the case.

This directly inspired this paper.

The furry fandom has been a battleground of an ideological war. There are those who see it as a hobby and those who see it as an environment to inspire political action. A current debate is concerning whether it is a place that is honestly a refuge from the world or a bunker to hide in while coordinating political action

Ideological Colonization

Reiterating fundamentals helps define what is at stake and demonstrates how my mindset is oriented going forward.

Every large group will eventually have an argument about what it stands for. Nations, religions, corporations, and more have suffered internal rifts. Power is always alluring and tempting to those with an agenda.

When any faction gains sustained influence over an organization they enjoy the capacity to dictate policy, allocate resources, frame all narratives, confer legitimacy, gatekeep to control access, standardize the culture, and set a long term trajectory.

This can be very tempting to external forces, especially when they see profound weaknesses that can be easily exploited to gain entry into the halls of power. The fandom was sorely unprepared for a coup of any type, (This is yet another future paper)

They allowed politically queer activists to invade.

Sierra Moore outlines what it means to be politically queer in her February, 26, 2022 article “Queer as a Personal Identity” for the website HER CAMPUS. https://www.hercampus.com/school/cwu/queer-as-a-political-identity/#:~:text=It%20was%20%E2%80%93%20and%20still%20is,no%20longer%20pay%20attention%20to.

Normalcy is considered a tool of oppression. It explicitly says that the goal is not assimilation but demolition and recreation.

The second paragraph outlines that Queer is an identity set apart from social norms, one that transcends almost everything about reality. The objective is to be marginalized and exist outside normal stable social structures and destroy them from the fringes. For the woke, the greatest sin is inequality. Power structures inherently create victims. Inequality and power are sin.The only angle the movement is concerned with is power and how power dynamics manifest themselves in any social order.

In his essay “Queer Theories Of Power” for The Encyclopedia Of Power, Keith Dowding outlines his take on being politically queer.

Fundamentally “The Queer Theory of Power” dictates that power assumptions are merely constructions and meant to be challenged. They exist as postmodern constructs and only people who are liberated from straight and heteronormative tyranny can be free.

Challenged in what way?

As is answered above it is by overcoming and overthrowing the established order. If everything is an artificial construct and just a performance then nothing is immutable. Everything can and will be changed. According to that, words can have any meaning, and even when defined may have hidden Gnostic readings.

Including history itself.

In an interview with Emily Colucci published on Them.us titled “How Curators Are Queering Art History”, Richard Meyer had this to say.

There is nothing that cannot be reinterpreted through a Queer lens.

An Immutable History Of The Furry Fandom.

As I have written before, the lineage of this fandom goes as far back as the 1970s when several Sci-Fi and Fantasy congoers realized they had an appreciation and admiration for what was called at the time “Funny Animal Comics.” They would exchange them at conventions and eventually hold private hotel room parties.

Those room parties were also a place where some of the first Anime to arrive in America were screened. It was a place where anyone could walk into and find a happy home, artists could share their work, performers could make music or act in costume, and just enjoy a place where they could be weird but in a different way than being politically queer.

It was an American style pluralist paradise. Nobody cared enough about politics to even consider it at all.

This was the flyer advertising the first furry con. That character, named Sydney Fischer, was created by one of the most important early figures in the fandom. Mark Merlino was the organizer of that get together. This was an experiment to gauge interest in a larger convention the next year.

Admittedly Merlino was gay and in a gay relationship.

I would argue there is almost nothing Queer about that flyer. It advocates for no agenda other than getting together.

This was amid the early stages of the debut of some critical theories. Michele Foucault’s The History of Sexuality had come out in 1976 in French but was first translated into English in 1978, The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader was out in 1989, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet was just barely on the shelves.

This is to say, there weren’t many sources that could have even put the act of Queering on the map, let alone make it a prominent voice in the early fandom. Yes there were people early on who were trying to make this a gay coded fandom. They were a different earlier generation though, one without our current postmodern influence.

In the ensuing decades since that event, the furry fandom grew. With growth came the need to build structures to govern and regulate behavoiur. The more people there are in a place the more rules there need to be. There has to be a hierarchy. When I joined it was minimal.

The Postmodern Queering Fandom.

Modern furries, mostly the ones who joined in the early 2000s have a radically different take than their 1970s counterparts. As is defined above people who are engaging in Political Queerness aren’t interested in anything but power structures and how they interact with people.

It is worth repeating if there is minor inequality in power they see it as sin. It doesn’t matter how small that inequality is, it just has to exist.

As is seen earlier, even history itself can be interrogated and read into. History itself is imposing a rigid truth instituted by people with power. It is symbolic of an intrinsic imbalance. Reinterpreting it is an act of restoring balance and equity. All that matters is the individual’s standpoint and their own personal relationship with the record.

This puts people at odds with the people who believe history is immutable and historical facts are facts. Those that believe that history is uncaring and that personal identity and impressions mean nothing to what has actually happened will naturally object to a postmodern reinvention.

This mainly goes along the expected open vs illiberal culture divide.

The Great Debate.

A majority of furries are actively engaged in political Queerness, but there are also a large number of mostly normal people who object to it.

Saying this rift resulted in a contentious debate is an understatement. They are directly at odds with those of us who were there before they were.

To illustrate that here are a few posts on X. The first is a video so I am providing a link. It is worth taking the time to watch.

Conclusion.

This fight is clearly between an original population of people who established their own fandom and an illiberal postmodern group of people trying to use political Queerness to colonize that space.

I really want to hammer this home so here is another example.

The fandom was originally very much like a Natural Park. Nobody cared where someone came from, it was open to all to enjoy, an escape from the outside world. Anyone was welcome to come in and explore.

The only issue is when people take escaping the world too far.

Here is something from a more “normal” society.

https://www.mapquest.com/travel/nudity-is-not-illegal-in-national-parks-but-dont-do-anything-weird.htm

There have been several examples of people hiking deep into the back country to enjoy quite a bit of privacy. What people can do without public scrutiny and the society’s gaze is only limited by their imagination. This same imagination inspires people to read the rules for what isn’t there. That same imagination reinterprets the spirit of the rules to appeal to their own biases.

Imagine a really open and progressive private invite only hiking club that embraces everyone. Now they come across some national park nudists and let them hike alongside them. As things progress more and more nudists show up and demand control of the group. The leaders see they are outnumbered and surrender control.

The rules at the park gate are still there, however, the rules everyone follows inside the gates are different. Those inside start judging those expecting the old rules. They start enforcing them differently and view their abhorrent behaviour as the ruling virtue. They then judge those who insist on wearing clothing and say they are making them feel weird and that the original people need to feel bad about that.

The park still looks the same and would still feature the same rules on the front gate though.

They can point to them when they need to in order to argue nothing has changed. But it has changed.

That is the fandom now. That is not what it was. Queering the rules won’t change that.

The short answer is, because we are. The longer answer is that some unique dynamics are at play that I don’t think exist in other fandoms.

The way groups develop can dictate their outcome. Demographics are sometimes destiny, but how a group establishes their core philosophy and values always is.

That can create a positive feedback loop and lead to positive results. The Founding Fathers created an environment that was dedicated toward mature and rational people governing themselves. They expected us to do the same by their example.

Even if the group falls morally short it can still function. That is if they have a productive and effective work ethic toward a shared goal that will unite and focus them.

If someone is in a band or on a film set, and is expected to perform and make money for the entire group, that will demand some focus. How many mainstream albums and films made are out there made by people completely high off their rocker?

Then there is a third state. People in a negative feedback loop with minimal goals other than just existing in a place can have no incentive to grow up. This is ultimately nihilistic. It is where some people in my fandom live.

After These Messages…We’ll Be Right Back.

Sometimes a piece of media will trigger a major bout of nostalgia. It can instantly bring someone back to a time when things were simpler.

Someone who was into westerns as a kid can begin to model the behaviours and mannerisms of a cowboy, If they are American they can gravitate toward buying a revolver, lever action rifle, or double barrel shotgun over modern types of firearms. They will probably listen to country music too.

Mystery novel fans can find themselves engrossed in true crime series and may collect the accoutrements of their favorite detective to return to that moment in their past.

Furries spend some of our time around the media we grew up with too.

Having a mature rated Furry cartoon is rather rare. Beastars is one of very few modern examples.

For the most part movies, TV shows, and video games with anthropomorphic animal people are marketed toward children. People who made these shows and games assumed they were being consumed mostly for kids. Due to that for the most part putting on Furry media can mean emotionally and mentally regressing back to childhoodFu.

A popular Twitch streamer who will go unnamed hosts a weekly Saturday morning cartoon stream. In those broadcasts his character is depicted wrapped in a blanket holding a bowl of cereal and sitting in front of an old CRT TV in a treehouse. The entire stream features him commenting on vintage cartoons like S.W.A.T Kats, Rupert the Bear, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more. He routinely has around 200 viewers who are desperate to relive that.

Movies and video games are treated the same way. Does anyone remember Robin Hood and Nintendo’s Starfox?

This also counts for people whose media impression was earlier than those cartoons or later. This is inter-generational. It doesn’t matter if the furry grew up in the 60s or 00s, they will gravitate toward what they watched as a little boy or girl.

If not managed correctly it is a nostalgia trap. It can reinforce a need to revert to or never abandon a childlike state. This is far from universal but does happen.

As an aside, Phil Edwards just posted a video on the surprisingly robust economy of LEGO traders proving this is not just furries, though some furries are also LEGO collectors.

This does beg the question, is our modern society built on prolonged immaturity? That is the subject for a piece far in the future.

Fort Furry, No Normies Allowed.

The Furry Fandom is largely insular and regulates how the general public can interact with us. Whenever possible we will choose to interact with other furries. That can happen in many places.

This is far from uncommon. When looking for a roommate most Furries will start by advertising for one on a site like FurAffinity, X, or BlueSky trying to find a fellow fur. The objective is simple. It makes it way less awkward to share space with someone.

When this happens, people who have already withdrawn into the fandom lose another avenue of criticism and replace it with a network of sycophants. As long as the rent and utilities are paid it doesn’t matter. It becomes a Furry house, which then creates a social feedback loop.

I’m led to believe this is mostly a Furry phenomenon.

Childlessness

Children are crucial to ensuring cultural stability and longevity. Stable societies are built on the need to procreate and to rear children in an environment that passes down its cultural values.

In order to perform that task that requires parents that mature themselves. The task of childrearing has always demanded that. If a tribe doesn’t have offspring that can obey orders their kids can be a liability to the group at best.

This is where the fandom diverges from mainstream society.

It is very difficult to find any Furries with children of their own.The fandom can often be quite hostile to the idea of having kids at all.

Arguably the most important dynamic is that, as a mostly male fandom with a large percentage of gay and bisexual members. Furries for the most part have given up on or are uninterested in finding a mate of the opposite gender. They are resigned to the reality of living in a long term childless relationship.

Many straight furry couples also choose to go childfree. Some for personal reasons, others because they chose to marry later in life.

Without kids in the picture, there is less of an incentive to root oneself to any culture or society. Some of them just go to furcons and live in the moment. The present is all that matters.

Given that perception they abandon a normal life cycle and substitute an extended adolescence. The Furry Fandom has been compared to an adult high school. That isn’t far off from my own experience.

Those Furries who become parents can start to see some of the more extreme behaviours of their fellow Furries as a liability to their efforts to pass their own values down to their cubs (I had to throw that word in to amuse myself, sorry, not sorry). Many leave the fandom after and actively discourage them from active in the fandom after.

Conclusion

This is everything but these are the most important bullet points.

I will caution my readers to exercise the best discretion they have ever practiced in their lives. This is far from universal, but is a trajectory that individual furries can take. However, if they are immature I will assure you that at least one of these dynamics are at play.

The Beginning

This may seem very technical and too internally reflective, it is not. Knowing how the community functions will help to illustrate behavioral nuances later.

Alton Brown shares my approach. When he started making Good Eats, his ethos was to show his audience why and how the cooking process works. That is more important than just repeating a recipe.

The modern convention marketplace sprung out of sci-fi conventions that long predate the fandom. Before the internet this was where fans could mingle and take part in a huge market for original pieces of artwork, comic books, sculptures, imported toys, and photocopied Zines.

The, “Artist(’s) Alley,” as it is called, has always been a place for fans and creators to meet and discover each other. That is a conference room or large interior space where artists can book a small section of floor space with a table to sell their products to fellow conventiongoers.

This marketplace is also a place people can meet professional artists to shop their portfolios in hopes that they get hired to work in the industry. As an example Jim Lee got his start by having his portfolio reviewed at a New York based comic’s convention which led to him working at Marvel comics and eventually to being the Chief Creative Officer at DC, a role he now holds.

Furry conventions are the same. Furry artists can earn a large part of their annual income from setting up booths at conventions. Based on conversations with them, I have heard that it can be 20%, sometimes even higher.

For someone who makes their living as an artist, that is a significant boost. They commonly offer custom artwork done at the convention to be delivered to clients at the end of the con and other items like premade shirts and stickers.

https://bsky.app/profile/kategodart.bsky.social/post/3l3isyzjr6l2i​​

The Digital Frontier

The only thing that has changed is the presence of the internet. The vast majority of the huge furry art market is online.

Furries take part in this market every day, sometimes as observers, sometimes as customers.

We frequent sites like DeviantArt, Furaffinity, X, and Bluesky watching for people to upload art we like. We look for people who are proficient at drawing what we want. Cars are hard to draw for some, guitars for others. It is about finding someone who is the right fit.

Sometimes we want a specific result. Here is an example of a finished commission “[CM] Business Lion by RainbowFoxy for LayonTheHorn” of his character Vern the Lion.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37511145/

Art © RainbowFoxy

Vern Maccaster © LayonTheHorn

How Furries Begin Commissioning

Not all artists take commissions, some do it as a hobby, others treat it as another job, and some

have made a full career out of it.

Artists with an online presence will advertise if they are open for commissions or closed. Typically this is done on an X or BlueSky bio or their FurAffinity Profile.

If they are open for work the client will contact them via a DM on their social media profile, a private message on FurAffinity, or an email. The artist will often have a way they prefer to talk.

There are many popular artists who have too much demand. They have to institute a waiting list or selectively accept commissions based on what they want to draw.

This is called a price sheet. It is the primary way artists communicate what they offer and how much they charge for their work. Every artist is different and estimates what they have based on how much they value their time and effort. Sometimes something goes beyond what the artist advertises though. In that case the sheet can still stand as an initial point of negotiation.

They also include something called a Terms Of Service (ToS) breakdown. That is a document that informs future clients and commissioners what they are comfortable drawing, what they are not, how they work, what rights they retain, and how they want to get paid.

Lumins8ite has this on their website and this is a fantastic example of a ToS. (Note: There are a lot of very mature and adult subjects lower on the page. Take this as a content warning in case you are uncomfortable with that subject matter.)

https://lumens8ite.com/#termsofservice

Establishing Our Character.

The artist will commonly ask for a reference sheet (Ref sheet), that is a piece of technical artwork that the furry has previously commissioned. Artists refer to it in order to understand the unique distinctive design elements of each character. It is similar to a screenplay or blueprint.

Ref sheets are often very simple but creating them is an unexpectedly complicated process. This is where our online identity or identities are born. It is normally a very long drawn out process because it is where our online identity takes shape.

It is also the key to a world of cheap artwork.

The ref sheet will generally include a drawing of the character from the front and another of their back. It will often include a color palette breakdown that conveys the exact shade of colors the client wants, and sometimes some common accessories like tattoos or objects the person wants artists to pay attention to. These can reveal their own personal priorities, including political stances and sexuality.

Artwork © https://www.reddit.com/user/mildzelo/

Character © https://www.reddit.com/user/Stockveteran/

Firstly we start with a simple baseline. What species will the fursona be? This involves a lot of introspection and is often decided upon well ahead of time. For many participants, choosing a species is an important step in shaping how they want to be represented. We are looking for an animal that embodies the exact virtues we want. Even if we refuse to take our artwork seriously, the choice is always an extension of our personalities.

From that point things get a bit more fun and even more imaginative. The fursona can take on any form they want. Having normal and natural fur patterns is a good place to start. Others are looking for something more wild. Since this is already fantastic there is no reason to be bound by natural biology. Bright neon yellow, hot pink, or lime green fur are valid choices, nobody is stopping it. I have seen a lavender colored husky and some pink cats.

Structural choices are important as well, involving whether the furry wants digitigrate feed (Animal-like paws that walk mostly on the front of the foot, both previous characters have this style) or plantigrade (more human-like with the heel on the ground.) Hooved animals can be depicted with hands or hooves. All species can choose to include wings, even with species that don’t have them. Some will ask for scars and missing chunks out of their ears. Some ask for mechanical arms and/or legs.

Some reference sheets may include anatomical details, depending on the preferences of the artist and client, while others use simplified or neutral versions of the character

A ref sheet takes a long time to create and is integral to creating the symbol of ourselves to the fandom.

The Normal Commission Process

The process of commissioning normal art is similar to buying a ref sheet but is different in several key ways, namely the end result can be far more personal and expressive. The artwork is far more a result of the client’s desires.

Clients can suggest a dynamic pose, request including a reference piece of media we like, and/or connect ourselves to our real life identity. It can include a reference to sci-fi, fantasy, pulp detective stories, or westerns.

Firstly we have to choose what kind of commission it is. Some artists work with physical media, that is pencils, pens, and markers on real paper, but most work exclusively digitally, using a tablet and a computer.

Secondly we agree on the scope of the commission. It can be as small as a profile image to be used on our social media accounts, it could be a convention badge with our character’s name for us to wear, it could be a large full body piece, or it can be even more intricate and involve many characters.

Thirdly, We arrange for a payment method. Typically that goes over Paypal but can be sent over any payment processor.

This brings up a nuance. Paypal doesn’t appreciate being used for furry art, namely adult artwork, and has shut down many accounts because of that. Artists actively caution every client not to mention what they are buying in the available description box. Several of them have moved to other types of online escrow brokers. Fellow fans want to preserve the opportunity for others to commission art in the future so we do everything possible to help. Also, Russian artists, in particular, are notorious for only taking cryptocurrency.

There is another important point here, this market is global. It is very common for furries to commission artwork across international borders. That is a major advantage of a digital marketplace.

I have commissioned artists in Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Singapore among other places. I have seen South Korean, Japanese, Chilean, Swedish, artists.

I have heard there is even at least one Iranian furry erotica artist (That example highlights how global and diverse the market has become, even in places where the work carries personal risk). There have been people taking commissions while living in the middle of an active warzone.

This can go both ways with American artists receiving commissions from overseas.

Fourthly, the artist will start drawing and send a line drawing or sketch to be approved based on what they prefer. They will ask the client for any changes and to approve a final sketch. The artist then goes ahead with the work, and delivers either the physical artwork or the digital files in an agreed upon format. This process can take months or years, and involve many changes though artists tend to start charging more after a few revisions.

Typically the artist claims copyright of the image and the commissioner claims copyright of their fursona.

Content Boundaries and Specialization

Artists vary widely in what content they will be willing to draw. Some of them are very happy to accept only general audience level commissions and keep it at that. Some accept mature themes. Others take on their own niche.

Whether an artist will decline or accept a commission is entirely dependent on professional goals, platform rules, or, most of all, professional values. Sometimes they charge a premium for specialized work.

Another common practice is accepting private commissions, that is, artworks meant to be private and off the internet. Because those aren’t meant to be seen by the public the artist can charge more as compensation for the lost promotional revenue.

Artists may ask to remain anonymous too, being willing to do the work but unwilling to sign their name to it in order to retain professional separation.

Even then there are some boundaries artists draw a hardline against. These are normally communicated to clients ahead of time.

There are practical reasons why the public at large isn’t aware of this. The platform FurAffinity institutes several control measures to preserve the privacy of its users. Many users lock down their pages and FA helps them by preventing web crawlers and search engines like Google from scrubbing their pages in their search results. The site also allows users to toggle mature content on and off for public browsing.

Similar patterns occur on sites like X and BlueSky. Sometimes artists will lock their profiles to private there and only accept followers who are above 18 years old, however most don’t rely on formal age verification.

These privacy tools shape how the community presents itself publicly and help explain why many of its internal practices remain unfamiliar to outsiders.

In Conclusion

This is not even close to every nuance. Wait until we talk about how AI has disrupted everything.

The size of this market is incomprehensible. There is too much art being produced by too many artists over too many platforms to see it all. I have been here for 20 years and things have only gotten bigger. These principles however, have remained stable. This is the largest market in the fandom by far.

This proliferation led to a mindblowing variety of styles and fursonas. It is very easy for us to find artists who can do exactly what we want. We fostered a visual arts culture and we got it. Oh boy, did we ever get it.

Othering MAGA A.K.A. Another Wave Of Radicalization.

The fandom itself hasn’t always been subversively political but sometime around the Iraq War things changed.

When Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert became popular the fandom itself echoed their attitude. The misplaced irreverence led to a profound sense of disrespect against conservatives, including those in the fandom. What came after only ensured near total insularity.

Programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report popularized a style of political humor that treated traditional displays of patriotism with skepticism or irony. That tone resonated with many online communities, including segments of the furry fandom.

For the most part things were ok but that sewed division and set the stage for what came next.

Many observers felt that the political strategy during the Obama era shifted away from traditional labor politics and toward coalition-building around identity and cultural issues. To some conservatives in the fandom, this felt less like inclusion and more like fragmentation along ideological lines.

That added to the feeling that patriotism was unwelcome in the fandom, tolerated, but unwelcome. Given that this is a global fan culture the sense was that the world’s barriers were gone. In their place was a new peaceful world, albeit under leftist control.

Conservative participants were often treated as peripheral. We were welcome to participate, but not fully representative of the community’s identity.

We were harmless and a relic of the past. Many of us started our own LiveJournal groups and stuck with conservative friends we found, building our own little enclave and inner society.

In many online spaces, there was a widespread confidence that demographic and cultural trends favored Democrats for the foreseeable future.

Then Donald Trump took an escalator ride and they felt it was all but determined. The Republicans were crazy to even let him try let alone nominate him. Hillary has this in the bag.

Then came the 2016 election.

The victory of Donald Trump challenged assumptions that the political trajectory of the country was settled. For many in online communities that had grown comfortable with a particular cultural direction, the result felt like a sudden disruption, proof that the broader public did not share the same consensus.

In 2017 blocklists started showing up. https://x.com/altfurryblocker

https://dogpatch.press/2017/09/15/altfurry-blocklist/

https://x.com/altfurryblocker

Then Twitter disabled the ability to mass block. Because the fandom is decentralized and driven by cults of personality, those with a following started coordinating in secret and excluding people en masse. It was largely arbitrary, people could have misspoken and found themselves blocked from any number of important accounts or singled out. I know several people who fell prey to an online mob.

When President Trump regained office the environment became much worse than in 2016. Here is an example of a BlueSky post from the week after he won in 2024.

They are apparently still sharing notes.

What makes it worse is sometimes they found accurate targets, people in the fandom who were actively antisemitic and really racist. There were enough of them to give them a sense that their cause was just and also to give other furry conservatives a bad reputation by association. I have personally met some and quickly disassociated myself from them.

(Kinda like what Tucker, Owens, Kelley, and Fuentes are trying to do, I have one humdinger of a series on this coming

In my previous paper on identity I talked in depth about how crucial a fursona is. https://blackstag.substack.com/p/fursona-as-identity?r=6ofbt3

An In-group/out-group dynamic is a constant looming threat to all furries who want to express unpopular opinions.

Withholding access to artwork is one of the most powerful tools in the radical furry toolbox. When used with intention it is meant to be a symbolic repudiation of the other person’s character and morals. Using control over someone’s ability to help express their online furry identity in art as leverage to force ideological conformity or secure membership in an inner circle is sadly common.

This also applies to fursuit makers. Due to the prestige they bring in the fandom, refusing to work with someone who wants to hire them to build them a costume is a way to refuse status.

This is not like when someone in a normal community refuses someone service in a way that can be shrugged off as just someone being a jerk.

This is an intentional act of exclusion but also a means to dictate the politics of the community. Anyone at any time could become the object of a cancel mob. They have the power to shut down dialogue and declare the debate over.

Even if someone has the right motives and right target, the wrong approach it is still wrong.

MAGA furries and conservative furries in general are unwelcome and liberal furries demand their followers treat them as such.

This is evidence of a radical purity spiral that I can attest has been a very powerful force that I have had to contend with for some time.

A Conclusion.

I know Gene Roddenberry wanted to inspire people to embody the principles of a better world and to come together. I know that the ability to trace the lineage of my fandom back to his is really important. What saddens me is that furries lost their way.

It makes sense in a way. If someone is offered an escape to a great future it would be different than having an escape from a mediocre reality. People who unite over a shared interest can do so for similar motives, others for different ones. Trekkies and furries share a need to express themselves and to go beyond.

I know that a wagon train to the stars offers almost the same thing as being a fake anthropomorphic animal person. There are several fans who are into both. For those, the furry aspect reflects a need for more variety.

In the fandom around Star Trek, status is primarily granted by shared knowledge of canon and public participation in conventions. In the furry fandom, status is often mediated through artists, commissions, and social networks. That difference changes how power is exercised and also what shared values exist.

We as furries though, abandoned the concept of a unifying principle at the exact wrong time in history to do so. That unifying principle was simple: creativity and friendship came before politics. I get sadder every day that it’s gone.

If you like my reporting thus far I would appreciate you restacking my posts, sharing them with your friends, and supporting me with a subscription here on Substack. I am working on some perks for members that I will drop in the future. Until then, thank you for reading!

@drunkenspyder posted this reply to my article on Reality’s Last Stand and I briefly added my own, however it also inspired me to address this in more detail. Thank you Greg. You couldn’t have picked a better place to start if you tried.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974) is actually a very good point to begin this conversation. Let me introduce you all to Lieutenant M’Ress. She is one of the original inspirations that spun the Furry Fandom off from other Sci-Fi conventions. Her feline race, Caitians, are actual Star Trek canon.

This is really a question about what a fan culture prioritizes.

Most members of both communities are ordinary people seeking friendship, creativity, and belonging. The differences emerge from structure, not character.

The main difference is, Star Trek has a shared story everyone recognizes as legitimate. The furry fandom has shared aesthetics, but not shared authority. Small communities rely on trust. Large communities rely on rules.

To The Stars

Star Trek is about a shared drive to improve the world. It is about a wide-eyed optimistic future.

One of the most famous Trekkies in conservative circles is Bill Whittle. The Republican media embraces his enthusiasm for Star Trek and sci-fi in general. Shows like The Big Bang Theory, proudly feature characters who are superfans. Being a Trekkie is a cultural shorthand for being authentically a geek or a nerd.

The American nature is to push forward into new land and explore.The saying “To boldly go where no man has gone before,” is fundamentally inspirational. The open frontier symbolized by the stars at the very beginning of the opening credits stood for something, a nearly infinite future to define as one wishes.

Its creator, Gene Roddenberry grew up in a world of profound progress and witnessed many political conflicts that had clear moral boundaries. His shows reflected a clear belief in right and wrong.

He saw WWII firsthand as a pilot in the Army Air Corps and flew 89 combat missions. He witnessed the creation of the United Nations, the popularization of television, winning battles for the expansion of civil rights, and the Apollo moon landings.

When Gene created Star Trek it resonated with a generation that had memories of the great depression and WWII. With The Cold War in the backdrop and the Iron Curtain looming against the west, it became a symbol of cooperation to rally around.

It was and is a much needed symbol of equality. A moment between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura was one of the first widely televised interracial kisses in history.

Those are symbols of optimism. Star Trek fundamentally reflects this. The fan culture is a good example of people actually getting the message, that humanity can solve humanity’s problems through cooperation.

To The Fans

One main difference is that Star Trek is a single continuity of moral vision disguised as a media property. The various TV shows and movies all take place in a shared universe. It also stays close to the spirit of its creator in a way few pieces of media do. The writers, directors, producers, and studios strictly adhere to the spirit of the original series and guard its legacy.

The fans do too, they are more unified and dedicated to maintaining a very positive and respectful fanbase.

Openness.

The Vulcan credo “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations” is the shared mantra that sees disagreement as healthy. Characters often argued and fought but always looked forward. The characters in the show acted out how many people can embrace how different they are but also work together on common ground.

Star Trek has an unwavering belief in the power of diplomacy. Most if not all episodes were about trying to talk and arrive at win-win solutions that did not result in casualties.

Taking that example to heart, Trekkies are open to debate, in fact, they are the first to start arguing about whether Kirk, Picard, or Janeway, was the better Captain. (I am leaving a lot out as I haven’t watched Star Trek in a long time).

They argue about whether Spock could beat Worf. They talk about how Geordi La Forge sees, whether Data actually feels emotion, and grin at the Commander Riker maneuver.

The conversations can be heated but civil. You will probably see that in the comments section and above the preview when someone restacks my post.

There is conflict without collapse.

Humans Solving Human Problems

Star Trek had the belief that humans could use technology to solve human problems.

There is more emphasis on the technical aspects of the spacecraft and technology. Because of that, fans also love to ask questions, and are often very insightful in doing so. They look forward to learning about new technology. Having actual concrete fantasy schematics keeps the conversations focused and imaginations running wild.

Some have become actual engineers and scientists because they were inspired by the promise of a better tomorrow. They have manifested technology from the series that has now become ubiquitous in the real world like cell phones, tablet computers, medical imaging methods, and voice interfaces.

NASA Scientists on the Apollo Missions were directly inspired by the show. The first Space Shuttle orbiter was named Enterprise.

Respect For Those On The Bridge

Because of the high visibility of known celebrities it is very tough to keep things private. The entire con space can’t hide when someone like William Shatner visits. Cameras will come out, they will follow him, and they will catch anything wrong.

Due to that, it has to be very disciplined. Any and all adult material is strictly banned from con space and that is very tightly enforced. No actor would like to incur a major reputation risk by being associated with anything unseemly or politically radical.

The cast genuinely cares about the fans. They show up to conventions repeatedly to personally meet and greet people whose lives have been changed by their performances. Having a personal connection that advocates for a strong, unified, positive fandom is a game changing dynamic.

Having actors who care, help keep the spirit alive, focus fans on shared values, and mediate drama is a crucial difference. Performers carry an air of authority about them. That is if they aren’t Wil Wheaton. If there is a major issue they can be the spokesperson to lower the temperature and advocate for a peaceful outcome..

This results in participants that actually care about the code of ethics and conduct.

These dynamics create a stable environment that allows families to pass down their love from generation to generation. They are willing to use hope as a self-disciplining credo.

How The Furry Fandom Is Different.

We actually branched out from the Star Trek fandom, then mutated into something different, an entirely different animal (Pun intended). It became an example of what happens when the “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations” mantra becomes deranged then abandoned altogether.

Fellow Trekkies realized they enjoyed cartoons with cartoon animals in them and started to have small room parties where they would watch series like the Animalympics and early imported Japanese anime. That quickly grew into my fandom. As new media came out, like Usagi Yojimbo, the fandom instantly embraced it.

It was founded by Baby Boomers and Gen X, refined by Millenials, and made popular by Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Each generation faced an increasingly worse and worse world. The rise of the internet made it easy to connect, but with the creation of social media it is readily apparent that isn’t all good.

The fandom matured amid the backdrop of the end of the Cold War. 90s optimism ensured that it roughly mirrored the spirit of the moment. So too did the furry internet message boards at the time.

Then 9/11 happened and the end of the era of good feelings increasingly changed things, making things more somber.

There are plenty of veterans of the War On Terror in my fandom. When they were on active duty and had access to the internet they would talk about it with others who faced that hellscape. They came home and commissioned artwork that reflected that reality to cope with the life they signed up for. Civilian furries saw this, saw their artwork and LiveJournal posts, and became disillusioned as well.

Then the 2008 housing crisis hit. They learned not to trust anything. There was a flood of Furaffinity journals about people losing housing and facing a vertical wall to find a job.

Because they were mostly leftist the rise of the Tea Party and election of Donald Trump in 2016 traumatized them and made them trust the world even less.

The leftists in the fandom were used to Reagan and Bush era leaders, had the confidence that Hillary Clinton was going to win, and that history was predictable for the first time in their lives. Then the rug was pulled out from under them. They already didn’t trust anything, and now there were MAGA furries who were celebrating what amounted to their existential nightmare.

Because of that, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit even harder, dooming any possibility for trust they had.

Each crisis reduced trust in institutions, and communities without formal leadership felt that loss of trust more intensely. They abandoned the unifying principle at the worst possible moment. That unifying principle was simple: creativity and friendship came before politics.

Star Trek, and many other older shows reflected a reality that seemed more and like being mocked, that success and optimism were parading a lie in front of them.

The world was against humanity, the world was there to destroy their fandom and their coping mechanism, and that was abundantly clear.

The Resulting Dynamics

Roddenberry’s vision assumed disagreement would be resolved through dialogue and shared institutions. Decentralized communities without those institutions often resolve conflict through social pressure instead.

Because we don’t feel beholden to a single universe we have different priorities. We are relying on it being complicated to afford us more anonymity.

Public visibility creates discipline. Anonymity creates flexibility.

I would like to share this comment and its reply to my debut article. Thank you, @kikir805750 and @as12647134.

Reality’s Last Stand

I’m a Furry. My Community Has a Violence Problem.

Read more

23 days ago · 121 likes · 22 comments · Black Stag

Most older furries, “Greymuzzles,” would describe the older iteration of the fandom as a tribe, not a cult. We felt camaraderie and enjoyed a much smaller community that was way easier to navigate. People who met each other online immediately felt connected. There were no barriers to overcome. We got along or we didn’t.

This iteration was very family friendly in the sense that everything suggestive was mostly bawdy. Parents would never have to worry about their children at most early furry conventions.

We mainly played at being their fursona species and, if anything, bonded over that considering the species their race. I happen to know of a black, asian, and caucasian person who play tigers and unite along those lines. It was fun and entirely unserious.

Then it became politicized and devolved into cults of personality.

I am going to have to take a step back to be able to move forward.

The Idol Carousel.

We tend to go through cycles focused on the latest piece of mainstream media to feature an anthropomorphic animal character. In recent memory that has been Zootopia, Aggretsuko, Beastars, The Bad Guys, Zootopia 2, The Bad Guys 2, and the video games Dispatch and Cult of the Lamb.

Being into a vague concept means there is no central defining ethos other than,”Be an animal person on screen.” Nick Wylde, Jody Hopps, Haida the Hyena, Legoshi the Wolf, Louis the Red Deer, Mr. Wolf, Death Wolf, and Echo the Bat became the “Famous Character(s)” of the moment. This meme reflects that.

@soapysoapster_

Soapy💖💫 on Instagram: "Can we nominate a Cat Furry this year?…

I show you this to make a point. Each has its own in-universe rules. Trying to find anything remotely unifying among them is a fool’s errand. The way characters behave in The Bad Guys would clash if transported into the world Puss In Boots: The Last Wish exists in. There is no possible way to create a shared fan ethos because it is impossible to point to a permanent example.

We have no anchor.

Guests Of Honor.

Star Trek conventions attract established public figures. Furries create their own internal celebrities.

Furries had little power to attract mainstream celebrities, with a well guarded public reputation, to our conventions. There are only a few instances where we got an actual celebrity to attend as a guest of honor. For the most part they have been voice actors, comic book writers, and animators who are less visible and important to the public at large or home grown within our own community.

As an example, here is a list of the guests of honor at Anthrocon.

https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Anthrocon

As such we made our own craftsmen, our own artists, and our own performers into our celebrities…well, the right word isn’t exactly celebrity.

The Rise of the Cults Of Personality.

In large institutions, reputation is regulated by rules. In decentralized communities, reputation is regulated by popularity.

Furries hate the word “Popufur” but it is far more accurate than most are comfortable with. That is a portmanteau of the words, “popular” and “furry.”

“Popular” in this context does not mean famous in the Hollywood sense. It means having enough visibility and social influence inside a niche community that people copy your behavior, defend your reputation, and seek your approval.

Someone can be the popufur of the moment, and 5 years later be anonymous. However, while they have the position they wield considerable influence.

They are ultimately who has held the power. They can make a star out of a fursuiter or direct a mob against someone.

Think of this like a small town pastor. People in the community get used to listening to them on Sunday and see them as a nice friendly voice. They can run into them at the local grocery store or gas station and have a quick chat. They show up in parades and are invited to host many important ceremonies. The more famous ones end up preaching at megachurches.

They are not, however, true celebrities

Unlike pastors, popufurs rarely have to be concerned with scandals. If they get caught, they can just swap fursonas and start over again. Their acolytes will stay with them. The only unifying principles are power and popularity.

Because they have such a smaller fanbase than a normal celebrity, it is easier for many of them to develop a more familiar relationship with their fans. The fans, too, have more of an opportunity to interact with their favorite artists because it is not a one-way connection. Furries can talk with them one to one.

They can commission custom artwork from them. They can pay to draw their fursona and attach themselves to their favorite artist’s reputation and cultural capital. Sometimes the artist will offer to add their characters into the artwork with the commissioner’s fursona. That makes the interaction considerably more personal.

But that leads to the main issue. If the celeb/artist or celeb/performer is apolitical, that can just be a friendship.

If they aren’t, and are radicalized against some agendas and for others, they have the power to be a gatekeeper and withhold access. In that case, a parasocial relationship can become pathologized and more sociopathic. They can choose to court whatever reputation they want with very little pushback, if any.

Access control is the ability to grant or deny participation in a community resource that people value. In the furry fandom, artwork and fursuits function as status symbols and identity markers. Denying access to those resources can therefore function as a form of social punishment.

In this community, artwork and costumes are not just products. They are visible signals of belonging, reputation, and identity. Losing access to them can feel like losing membership in the community itself.

We used to say that this was like an adult version of high school social dynamics. That is not entirely wrong but ignores another dynamic, one I am going to start to address on Wednesday then finish on Friday.

Dr. James Lindsay has this mantra. “Know them by how they circle their wagons.” It is time to show you how they have circled their wagons.

Step into the marketplace that actually sustains the fandom; the convention dealer’s den, and the scene changes dramatically. What you find is not a collectivist experiment, but a remarkably traditional economic model: independent artists, small owner-operated businesses, voluntary exchange, and a strong cultural expectation that people support creators directly rather than buying mass-produced imports.

I have spent years inside this world as an attendee, artist, vendor, convention staffer, and organizer. From that vantage point, one thing becomes immediately clear: for a community that loudly identifies with socialist politics, the furry fandom operates an economy that looks suspiciously conservative.

The Dealer’s Den Economy

The heart of most conventions is the Dealer’s Den, a vendor hall where artists and small businesses sell directly to attendees. Nearly everything in this space is created and sold by the same people; design, production, and marketing handled end-to-end by the owner. It is, in other words, a one-person capitalist dream.

Transactions in the Den run on unusually high levels of trust. Buyers and sellers interact face-to-face, often developing ongoing relationships. Reputation travels fast, and those who try to exploit others rarely remain anonymous for long.

The community’s attitude toward mass-produced imports is equally revealing. Vendors attempting to resell cheap merchandise from overseas are often met with suspicion or outright hostility. The prevailing expectation is simple: a table should belong to someone who creates something, not someone flipping factory goods for a quick buck.

For a community whose online discourse is saturated with critiques of capitalism, the marketplace is almost comically traditional: decentralized, built on independent producers, and sustained by voluntary exchange between creators and customers who know each other by name.

The Consumer Contradiction

So why does a community obsessed with anti-capitalist rhetoric support a conservative-style marketplace?

The answer is simple: talk and action often diverge. Publicly, supporting artists is the fandom’s moral anthem. Online discourse brims with reminders to “support creators,” condemn exploitative labor, and reject mass-produced goods.

In practice, price often wins. Online marketplaces teem with inexpensive imported merchandise, selling briskly despite the same buyers proclaiming the moral necessity of supporting independent creators.

The result is a curious duality. At conventions, social pressure encourages support for artists. Online, where accountability weakens, behavior reverts to a familiar pattern: buy what’s cheapest and most convenient, such as inexpensive reprints from an online marketplace instead of original art.

The fandom is hardly unique in this regard. Consumers everywhere claim to value craftsmanship and ethical production; but, when it comes down to dollars, few make their idealism count.

Ideological Policing Meets Economic Reality

While the marketplace may be conservative, the surrounding culture is less conventional. Public call-outs, moral denunciations, and accusations of political impurity are frequent. Artists and vendors are scrutinized for their work, beliefs, and sometimes the faintest “vibe” of dissidence.

Extreme cases see activists pressuring conventions to exclude particular vendors. Actual convention bans for political reasons are rare, but the threat looms large because conventions often represent a substantial portion of a vendor’s annual income; anywhere from twenty percent to almost the entire year’s revenue.

Consequently, many vendors adopt a simple approach: stay quiet. Political opinions outside the community norm are best kept private; not out of fear of debate, but because controversy can threaten livelihoods.

The internet is filled with examples of ideological dogpiling. The YouTuber Wendigoon, a Christian content creator, faced waves of criticism driven almost entirely by speculation about his beliefs. While only tangentially related to the fandom, his example illustrates the environment artists navigate: one where the wrong opinion online can attract serious attention.

Yet even in this climate, economic reality imposes limits. Fans may argue endlessly, but conventions still need vendors to fill their dealer’s dens. Artists still need customers. Markets do not pause for outrage.

When Call-Outs Meet the Market

Attempts to punish artists economically often fail because the market does not always cooperate. Call-outs follow a familiar pattern: accusations circulate, boycotts are encouraged, conventions pressured.

But many fans ignore the controversy and continue buying from artists they enjoy. Sometimes, the attention generated even increases an artist’s visibility, introducing their work to audiences who might not have encountered it otherwise.

Ideological enforcement assumes the community will collectively withdraw economic support. In practice, decentralized decision-making and personal taste often undermine this expectation. When livelihoods depend on voluntary exchange, ideology becomes a background noise, not a controlling force.

A High-Trust Economy

Part of what made this system work was its informal nature. Early fandom economies were remarkably casual: many artists operated like hobbyists. Transactions occurred in cash or via simple peer-to-peer payments. Licenses, bookkeeping, and tax reporting were inconsistent.

It worked because the community was small, socially interconnected, and repeat interactions built accountability. Reputation traveled fast, and most participants were more interested in sharing artwork than exploiting each other.

As the fandom grew, however, this informal structure began to strain under the weight of new participants. Scams appeared. Theft from cash boxes, unpaid commissions, and opportunistic newcomers became increasingly common.

The market responded practically: formal registrations, written terms for commissions, and legal safeguards gradually replaced the informal trust network. What started as a hobbyist economy evolved into a functioning marketplace with rules to sustain it.

The Artist Protection Network

Artists also self-regulate. Private professional channels; forums, group chats, and specialized networks, allow vendors to share information about clients who fail to pay or attempt to exploit the system. Public “artist beware” posts exist but have limited reach.

These networks function as a market enforcement mechanism. Clients learn which vendors are trustworthy. Misbehavior carries consequences, regardless of ideology. Politics barely matters; trust and reliability matter more.

The market punishes failure, not dissent. Over time, these networks reinforce the conservative-leaning economic structure of the fandom, ensuring the marketplace continues functioning even amid ideological disputes.

Conclusion: Markets Outlast Ideology

The furry fandom’s politics lean heavily socialist, but its economy tells a very different story. Independent creators want customers. Vendors want stable markets. Conventions depend on thriving dealer’s dens filled with small businesses willing to take risks.

For conservatives navigating culturally hostile spaces, the lesson is simple: influence is not won through argument alone. It is won by showing up, participating, building businesses, supporting one another, and becoming part of the economic fabric of the community itself.

Ideology dominates conversation; markets determine behavior. And in the end, economic reality is far less forgiving than any online outrage.

I want to help the public understand the Furry Fandom. In order to do so I need to explain some concepts, the first of which is how a sense of identity works in the fandom.

Pop Culture Roots

Taking another name is common. Plenty of entertainers and authors have done it.

Gordon Sumner took the name Sting, it stuck to such an extent that his own mother called him Sting.

Donald Eugune Lytle’s name was changed to Johnny Paycheck by record execs who wanted to vaguely follow Johnny Cash and create a similar brand. Johnny Paycheck is on his tombstone.

When Brian Hugh Warner changed his name his own father insisted he be referred to as Marilyn Manson.

Larry The Cable Guy, Rob Zombie, Zakk Wylde, Dimebag Darell, Alice Cooper, Snoop Dogg, and Bono from U2 are also some really good examples.

Cosplay In Other Fandoms

There is an essential difference between this fandom and others like ComiCon. People who cosplay as superheroes or Anime characters do so to attach themselves to that image and cultural capital of that character. Someone cosplaying as Batman will react to being called Bruce Wayne or Terry McGinnis in exactly the way you would expect. If someone is playing Vash the Stampede from Trigun, they have an innate connection to that character. They want to embody them.

There are rules within those universes and predictable reactions to those rules. A Joker and Batman will always play to the dynamic of their Comic Book, TV show, or Movie counterparts.

It isn’t common for people who like westerns to show up at a mystery novel convention.The Man With No Name can’t all of a sudden appear at a Sherlock Holmes meetup in costume. That wouldn’t make any sense. Their fandoms are too radically different.

How The Dynamics Are Different In The Furry Fandom

We like anthropomorphic animal people. That is a wide open sandbox with no other stipulations. We are not bound by anything else but that.

The rules are as we make them and as we want them to be. If we want to be a feline neurosurgeon next to a goat steam locomotive engineer, so be it. There are no boundaries and nothing to prevent people from just doing it.

There are cowboys, knights, detectives, futuristic cyborg warriors, Roman soldiers, video game characters, 1970’s NASCAR drivers, and so much more.

We will spend thousands of dollars on art that embodies that part of ourselves to live in that universe, to free what we identify as us. To express our sorrow, happiness, achievements, hobbies, adventures, vacations, erotic fantasies, non-erotic fantasies, and just for fun.

In his May 2020 paper entitled Fursonas: Furries, Community, and Identity Online, Ben Silverman has this to say about the sense of identity among those in the fandom

I have been a furry for more than 20 years. This is accurate.

The most important point is first person perspective. Silverman is correct. It is not universal. He is right that there are a lot of people here who do not refer to their fursona as “I.”

However, I know my experience has been different. For the most part, all my interactions are based in first person when referring to my own fursona. He and I seem mentally the same. When I talk to other people I use the second person when referring to their fursonas.

In day to day interaction with other furs, we refer to each other by our fursona name. We treat the avatar as the real person. When we invest in an art commission with another furry, it’s mostly “We look good in this piece,” not, “Our characters look good in this piece.

When you see artwork of our characters you aren’t seeing something insignificant. That is us, that is as much our identity as our human form. For some, that is what we go home to be.

We don’t want to be the animal, we want to be the fursona. We love that form factor, being bipedal and using opposably thumbs.

Interpersonal Dynamics

The way we talk to each other is also different in a few key ways. When we talk about introducing another furry to us, we need to know what species they play. We roleplay being in a rivalry, sometimes fighting like cats and dogs. We look forward to talking to people who understand our inner world because they have one like it. We sometimes refer to each other by our species as a greeting, like, “Hey puppy!” or, “Derg! (Dragon)”

We are looking to find common ground and talk about video games, cartoons, weightlifting, cooking, artwork, music, and current events with people who won’t judge us for liking Zootopia and who share our brand of creativity.

When you see an art commission online of someone’s character with an item like a motorcycle, it may be something that particular furry owns in real life.

If they buy a new car, guitar, firearm, or item they are proud of, they may commission an artist to draw our fursonas with it, to connect that part of ourselves to our real life.

When you see one of them SCUBA diving that may be art commissioned to celebrate a diving trip. If you see furries engaged in any sport that is an indication they want their fursona to like what they like.

I know I like it when my fursona does things I like to do.

Our fursonas have meaning to us. When we change our fursona it is a sign we are leaving behind an era in our lives. Just like people, our characters change.

Social Dynamics

When we go to conventions we wear convention badges, but they don’t have our face on them, they have our fursona, and we call each other by that name. We also refer to each other by our respective species. The need to be physically connected to that abstract idea is very strong.

For some, those who take it seriously, It is not superficial, it is a profound external component to our identity. We get no credit or recognition for it in our normal lives. It brings us value, and brings us great joy to counteract otherwise negative parts of our lives. We are desperate for a connection with others who share common ground. We are scared we will be judged because we have been judged.

Furries are always on the bleeding edge of social movements. Getting there first allows us to define every new development. Because we invite mockery, we need this. We need to set up and define our spaces before others do it for us.

Many of us came here because we feel a lack of personal agency and less social control than we wanted. We create a piece of media for an audience of one, and invite others to take part in it, bringing the version of themselves they created for themselves along to play.

Societal Rejection

While the trash talk shows and episodes of shows like CSI saw good ratings and easy targets, we see an uncaring and capricious world that rejects us. We see a world that brutally and specifically rejects us. They do not understand that they are mocking something we see as an extension of ourselves.

Personal Growth And Social Support Within The Community

It helps people who are neurodivergent, have extreme anxiety, and other issues to exit themselves and cope with life. It helps people who are very shy. It helps people who have all sorts of social burdens.

I have seen veterans come back from combat and gain a lot of control over their PTSD by creating a fake animal version of themselves. It gave them a sense of power over their destiny and helped them interact with a world they hardly recognized. I have seen furry vets meet other vets and enjoy another dynamic to their warrior bond.

When the rich online fantasy becomes so important the cat is out of the bag. The fandom is not going away and this dynamic will always exist. When conventions have to cap attendance because they can’t handle more than 16,000 attendees, when a group photo of around 25% of the attendees who perform in fursuits becomes impossible to take due to how many there are, then you have something too large to erase.

How Deeply Ingrained This Is to My Own Identity.

When I created my fursona, and this new one, it was a watershed moment in my life that I couldn’t share with my family.

Almost no furries share anything about their furry life with their family. It is a deeply private thing.

I did something different, I opened up to my family about it, showed them my fursuit, explained how fun it is to play my character. They accepted it but didn’t totally understand.

This is the mask I created for myself. I love the agency I have to change it, to place it into an environment or scenario I imagine. Arriving here gave me a sense that I was in control of something that was mine and mine alone. Others feel the same way.

I can reach out to an artist and say I want my character to be drawn next to an automobile I want, in the old west, the American Revolution, or in the 1970s. I was never there, I can’t afford the car, and can’t travel through time, but my surrogate, my alter-ego can.

I can talk to other furries and we can agree to get art of our characters together, despite it being almost or totally impossible for us to meet in real life. It is not like a photograph, it is deeper than that. It is an opportunity to find a connection in a way nobody else can.

Conflicted Ideas

I half believe this next part and half think it is an indication this is my conning myself intro justifying why I am taking part in cultlike behavior.

I feel as if the general public, those that have no idea how or why this works are missing out, and I pity them. In a few ways I feel sad on their behalf, who are too conventional to even entertain this idea. They will live an entire life scared to embrace radical creativity and even see that as a threat to their own existence. In a lot of ways I understand. This is a wild concept, and one that may never resonate with them.

By being a furry I know I have more control over a specific domain than the general public. They have more resources to engage in other hobbies, but I can relatively cheaply split off a persona/fursona and by doing that it can feel like I am pulling a fast one on reality. It may be and probably is a delusion. The comfort it gives me more than compensates for the self-awareness that this is fake.

I feel sad that normal people haven’t had the liberating feeling of watching something they create and embody take on a life of its own. I feel sad that they are so scared and live such controlled lives down a narrow, centered and straight path and never feel the call to adventure and allow themselves the luxury to be silly.

I feel sad that they spend the limited time on this planet passively consuming media slop rather than finding an outlet to push their own boundaries.

(This does create a unique to the fandom attack vector I will write an opinion piece on later.)

It’s a common belief in my fandom that, just because there is a straight and narrow road ahead doesn’t also mean that it has to be level. It can be a fun roller coaster. It can be a way someone can control rather than letting life imagine it for them. It is a delusion of control, yes, but it is an amount.

We live like nobody outside the fandom can take it from us.

Ask a furry on Bluesky or X if they think that their fursona is their identity, if that is their public face. I contest that most of the time they will skittishly say yes.

Given what I have told you, Why else would one think that we would use our fursona’s art and name on our public social media? Why would we use that to interact with the general public rather than our face and civilian name?

More in Part 2 where I discuss the dynamics in our art market.

My Patreon Subscribers can read that 48 hours before the general public.

That can be found here https://www.patreon.com/cw/BlackStag.

Insiders will tell you Furry Cons are a trainwreck, at least the honest ones. They can be relied on to incubate profound failures, I am going to profile all alleged instances of stupidity, abuse, and potential illegality as things develop. This is the last of a series of short essays I will be publishing to call attention to what happened at Midwest Furfest 2025.

It ended up being a relatively quiet convention with very few major incidents but there were a few.

https://x.com/Kalesy11/status/1996801944212385955?t=7xVYpgZRBgIh4N2ZxfOXMA&s=19

It wouldn’t be a convention without at least one ambulance call, I cannot speak to what happened but it is worth noting. Such calls are so common that there is a dedicated X account to track how often it happens. It isn’t unheard of for a larger convention to need nearly 10 calls over 3 days.

https://x.com/mffambulance

https://x.com/plastickfox/status/1997042879814938804?s=20

Some attendees were really shitty.

Like, really shitty.

This really drove the point home. A third pile of shit on the floor.

https://x.com/Ma1neMoon/status/1997452004038492615?s=20

As it foretold by prophesy the hotel TVs greeted guests in their own language.

https://x.com/LittleAlphaPup/status/1997378893636866058?s=20

And to cap things off another visit from first responders.

They were there for a good reason.

https://x.com/plastickfox/status/1998042742736535911?s=20

All things considered, it was a quiet convention.

Understanding the furry art commissioning process is essential to move forward. Please bear with me.

Pieces of art that are purchased generally follow these steps or can take an alternative path.

Most furries have a reference sheet, which is a piece of art that shows a few angles, normally a front and back view, of their character. It is meant to serve as a tool for artists to use to accurately depict the desired fursona. They are colloquially called “Ref Sheets.” They can be tame and anodyne, featuring no anatomically correct components (Like a Ken doll), or fully illustrate all kinds of nudity.

Firstly, the furry goes online to a place like X, BlueSky, or Furaffinity and looks at art. As they are doing so they will inevitably find an artist whose style they like.

They will look to see if the artist is open for commissions.

When they find one they like and want to work with the artist will normally have a price sheet posted in a public facing post. It gives a rundown of how much each art commission costs (There are many types I will define in a later article)

Almost always a document containing the artist’s Terms Of Service will accompany it, which outlines several things. There will be a section talking about copyright possession and who owns the piece of art when it is done. There will be a section talking about how that artist handles the commission process, like at what point they will send a sketch for approval before proceeding, how many times they will change the sketch, and how many times they will send you updates of future intermediate steps. There will also be a section in which the artist will talk about what they are comfortable drawing and what they aren’t.

After they read these forms the furry commissioner will arrange payment, communicate what they want in the piece of art, send their ref sheet, and set the artist loose to draw.

Finally, they will receive the piece of art. If it is digital, they will get it in some form via an email or instant message. If it is drawn on real media they will receive it in the mail.

Artists can also offer premade pose pieces, which will be posted with vague character outlines and in a rough scene, in which they offer to draw the purchaser’s character in place of the model. They are called “Your Character Here” or YCH commissions. Often they are sold at a set price, but another frequent option is to auction them off

Sometimes the YCH commissions can be exclusive and the artist advertises they won’t replicate that pose or that concept again, as a one time deal.

Sometimes they involve a series of characters in different parts of a larger scene, with an option to select which place the furry wants their character to occupy.

Other times they market some that will be repeatedly recolored and reworked as a series, just changing the species and body coloring to match every customer’s characters, after sharing a ref sheet. Those are called Multi-Slot YCH’s.

Regardless of what type, when awarded the slot, they then pay and share their ref sheet with the artist who then proceeds with the work.

Too many of the examples are pornographic and I was unable to find examples to share that were not. I am opting not to publish porn on my Substack, at least yet. What follows is graphic, but must be seen

An artist by the name of Dolce @Dolceclaws recently allegedly offered a multi-slot commission run on X. I believe the screenshot will speak for itself.

There was enough pushback to make him delete the X post.

Note: I am redacting the names of the posters as an attempt to preserve the reputation of the critics.

Dolce got some interested buyers, sadly. Note: These next screenshots will be out of chronological order.

https://x.com/DolceClaws/status/1997099981870678252?s=20

Here he is boasting about it on his not so secret second account.

https://x.com/SecretDolceClaw/status/1996798960510640526?s=20

https://x.com/DolceClaws/status/1997335097763139630?s=20

Here is one proudly posted featuring one of the furries who took him up on the offer.

https://x.com/DolceClaws/status/1997107209289728407?s=20

Here is an earlier tweet.

https://x.com/DolceClaws/status/1996981831334277541?s=20

Yet these people claim the moral high ground. This is a huge component of the culture of violence that has been left to fester in the furry community.

I am leaving you with some questions:

What would make ragebaiters feel less comfortable and stunts like this feel unwelcome enough that they stop happening?

What can decent people do to combat this on social media?

Why aren’t normal people facing and combating this problem?

Why are they letting the Furry Fandom get away with this?

Why haven’t they seen this yet?

The one thing a Furry fears most is an informed and organized general public. I am writing these articles in the hope that normies (people outside the fandom) will understand new nuances they haven’t been privy to. That they will use what they learn to more effectively pressure the fandom to reform. and law enforcement to act.

Insiders will tell you furry cons are a trainwreck, at least the honest ones. They can be relied on to incubate profound failures, I am going to profile all alleged instances of stupidity, abuse, and potential criminality as things develop. This is the first of a series of short essays I will be publishing in real time to focus attention on the upcoming Midwest Furfest 2025 as it happens.

Covering this subject matter is normally the domain of trash publications who are only interested in sensationalist yellow journalism. A recent development proves this needs a different tact.

Zoophiles are turned on by sexual encounters with animals. Zoosadists are just that and driven by violence and turned on by it. They use coded messages like the lower case version of Zeta, “ζ,” in their profiles to self-identify and self-advertise their common interest. Some, though, say it outright, proudly boasting about their deviant proclivities. They also use flags to politicise and advocate for legalization.

https://zooresources.carrd.co/#flags

Via Zooresources

Despite this, Zoophilia thankfully remains illegal in 49 states.

They are unwelcome, attaching themselves like a parasite to the fandom. By and large, the fandom rejects all forms of animal abuse. The vast majority are disgusted by acts of sexual deviance and sadistic torture of animals.

Furries who roleplay as cartoon animals that represent deeply personal aspects of their personality would understandably be extremely angry and offended by someone taking pride in abusing that specific species.

There are a lot of outspoken people with canine and feline fursonas and those species are the most common real life victims.

However, Zoophiles often use their fursona choice as an avatar of the animal they are most sexually attracted to. The act of role playing as a fellow member of that species can further justify the psychological delusion.

The most complete data about this comes from this article on Wikifur. In this rundown anywhere from 2% to 18.4%, with a 47.6% outlier, express sexual attraction to animals.

https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Zoophilia

Midwest Fur Fest started in 2000 and has grown to be one of the largest gatherings of Furries, at 16,000+ attendees last year. Before the convention has even started there are already acts of alleged immorality and vile neglect of common decency.

Every convention has a dedicated space for vendors to come in and sell their work to the general public. For the most part it is populated by artists and craftspeople. They reserve and book spaces, for some this is a large component of their yearly income. The convention awards these booths and tables to people based on their own system.

This space often contains a cordoned off section for sex toys and paraphernalia. Minors have a special ID badge that purportedly prohibits their entry into this space.

There are many examples of cons that intentionally protect Zoophiles and keep their presence quiet. They enjoy the luxury of left wing toxic empathy, with complacent and sympathetic people on the MFF board and on security staff.

As evidence of that here is a post proving Midwest Fur Fest was allegedly allowing Zoophilic paraphernalia in conspace.

The two most poplar toy companies are called Zeta Creations and Exotic Erotics (Do not go to their websites, obviously this is a major content warning situation). Exotic-Erotics was vending at MFF but after a discussion with the convention, agreed not to attend. This does not absolve any party of any alleged wrongdoing.

https://x.com/_Hazardous_Wolf/status/1995321764197327035?s=20

However, given social media backlash MFF banned them from the convention and involved the authorities. They made this announcement on their official X account.

https://x.com/FurFest/status/1996379952003056109

It still bears a quick investigation.

Exotic-Erotics registered its web domain in 2009, filed for LLC status in Kentucky under the name Clydesdale Enterprises in 2010, and filed for reinstatement in 2014 and 2016. They are currently in good standing with the Secretary of State.

Allegedly as part of their business practices they knowingly and specifically use real animals to create molds or virtual 3d scans of their genitals. They then allegedly used the molds to produce life accurate representations for sale. Then allegedly used the realism of the ensuing products as an advertising enticement and selling point to cater to Zoos. In a reaction post on X they openly admit to 3d scanning animals however no concrete evidence has been shared. We can only speculate as to the veracity of their claims.

https://x.com/Exotic_Erotics/status/1995574199499596072?t=ScOVBCif8ccwhJf_pVNnfg&s=19

After some significant backlash they could have backed down, however a self-described employee from Exotic took to BlueSky to respond with posts doubling down.

Via a search of their X account they claim to have been selling in the dealer’s den as far back as 2014. This reply on X to a deleted post outright boasts about selling products there in 2014.

https://x.com/exotic_erotics/status/527668588107149312?s=46&t=evZG0KDb2ipOXg4Dp8hBpg

2014

https://x.com/Exotic_Erotics/status/1471876651327922182?s=20

2017

https://x.com/Exotic_Erotics/status/1201621085877391363?s=20

2019

https://x.com/Exotic_Erotics/status/1203400507273990146?s=20 (Content warning on that link. Click at your own risk)

2019

https://x.com/Exotic_Erotics/status/1466100038745178112?s=20

2021

https://x.com/Exotic_Erotics/status/1864443608629154035?s=20

2024

Based only on what I can confirm from their claims posted on X, Exotic Erotics sold products at MFF in 2014, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2024. According to the article on Wikipedia, attendance at those conventions was 4,571, 8,771, 11,019, 9,332, and 15,547.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest_FurFest

Via Wikipedia

Using the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive yielded mixed results, I could not confirm there that Exotic-Erotics attended but it did yield an interesting detail about 2021, a convention they claim to have attended. There were only 24 booths and 3 suites in the adult annex.

Via The Wayback Machine.

This year, according to the official map there are only 22 booths.

Even assuming that they sold at four conventions, three of which (2014, 2017, and 2021) were 29%, 56% and 60%, respectably, the size of 2024 with a very small adult toy sales floor, it would presumably seem far-fetched to assume any attendee who ventured into that space was able to ignore their presence let alone convention management.

There have been many articles written about the increasingly large canon of knowledge about Woke, Queer, and Marxist Revolutionary political movements. I know this is far afield of explaining the type of violence that has made the headlines in recent history.

I hope this will further illustrate the overall systemic rot that has been left to fester because of a disinterested or ill-informed public.

Because the Furry Fandom tends to circle the wagons and shun outsiders it has become a cesspool. It is a place that radical philosophies and extreme hedonism rule. Like universities, it incubates then implements alternative epistemologies. This is a concrete case of morality inversion. The sexual aspect ensures the results will be radically different from normal radicalization. This is another aspect and example of how Woke ideology appears when it is implemented.

MFF and law enforcement agencies have many questions to answer.

How much did MFF know about Exotic-Erotics?

Why have they vended for 5 years in such a small marketplace without special scrutiny?

Is MMF knowingly catering to Zoophiles? If so, why?

Are they engaged in an active cover up and using the excuse of law enforcement involvement to avoid answering any questions?

Are there Zoophiles on MFF con staff?

If so, is MFF trying to actionize and normalize political Zoophilia as part of the, “Queering,” movement?

Are service animals safe at their convention?

Is the service animal classification being used to act as a front to smuggle in and traffic non-human victims?

Have they provided training to convention security so they can correctly identify signs of animal abuse?

If Exotic-Erotics and Zoophiles crossed state lines to engage in Zoophilia, will Attorney General Pam Bondi pursue federal charges if they are applicable?

Will local and state level authorities in Kentucky be involved in the investigation into Exotic-Erotics and their business practices?

How aware are they of potentially illegal animal/human sexual acts and pro Zoo paraphanalia being distributed in and from their state?

This is far from the only theft that has occurred. In September the French Museum of Natural history fell victim to a coordinated theft of several native gold nuggets,

According to the BBC a Chinese born woman has been charged with that theft already. She was trying to unload a melted down nugget valued at $1.75 Million. Luckily she was caught in Barcelona, but that doesn’t undo what was done.

I know it has been said but I want to add my own take that may mirror or echo other pundit’s replies to this. I am upset, not by the monetary loss, not by my horror at the violation of French feelings of institutional security (albeit it is vicarious empathy), but what galls me the most is the disrespect for our shared human story.

From the depths of Africa, to the rainforests in South America, to the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona, to the high plains of Mongolia, and to the very heart of Paris, there are always remnants that testify to a story. It may not be a story created by the people looking upon it, but it is an artifact of a different time, it is a way to connect us to a past that, though greatly flawed, is important nonetheless. To divorce us from that is to deny us any capacity to communicate with the ghosts and the spirits that led us to where we are now.

Leaving people historically adrift is a major slight against all of us. Even if it is a myth, even if we are no more sophisticated than a cargo cult, we still deserve our own agency to preserve what we have to teach future generations what was important to our ancestors.

The United States Constitution is the best example of this. The founders oversaw the first ever use of the Amendment process. The 12th Amendment changed a key provision of how we elect leaders in the Executive Branch, namely President and Vice President. This was done in response to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson being elected together despite them being members of opposite parties.

The founders were not only still alive but they were actively involved in changing and fixing what the younger versions of themselves got wrong.

There is a key takeaway from this.

The founders could have erased the original text and could have washed their hands of it, They could have completely struck it from the record. They did not. They knew the words they wrote reflected an attitude, a choice, and the amendments did too. To strike the text would have prevented future Americans to learn from their mistakes and to have an informed discourse about their history.

We fundamentally and philosophically see ourselves as an idea, a vision, and a flawed one at that. Our main institutional and structural document contains artifacts of an era that no longer apply to modern life and are no longer applicable to advances made since. We have liberated slaves and made them our equal citizens, yet the text of the 3/5th compromise is left intact. We have given our American sisters the right to vote alongside our brothers, yet the text expressly limiting voting to landowning white men is still there.

We cannot and do not hide from our new epiphanies. They are logical breadcrumbs to allow our descendants to walk that pathway.

America has a venerable, albeit way younger, institution.

The Smithsonian has been called America’s Attic. There too is a repository of a shared history, a shared human story. Often it is detritus from a previous war, a reminder of a previous civil rights battle, a marker of a major technological achievement, or a remnant of a TV Show, Movie, Book, Play, or other artistic work. It can be all of those or none of them.

The most important thing is, we can know and will know about our past because the evidence is there in front of us. We can confront it, we can welcome it, we can look upon it with disgust or joy. We can be shocked and appalled by items present during the Tulsa Massacre, photos of long ago fought battles, pictures of scarred slave’s backs.

We too can communicate with our own childhoods, meeting items like Jim Henson’s puppets and the pirate shirt from Seinfeld.

I know someone who steals may do so out of personal desperation, I am empathetic toward that, but not to the destruction of our cultural connections. The jewels, the gold, that was stolen is valuable, but not because they are gold, silver, opal, or diamond, but because they are all we have that helps us connect with ourselves.

Everyone I talk to says they are long destroyed.

We thankfully still have the crown of Empress Eugenie, though it is damaged. It will be repaired, but maybe it shouldn’t be. Letting its damage stand is arguably for the best.

Fritz Koenig was commissioned to sculpt The Sphere to stand between the Two Towers, they were named the World Trade Center for a reason and the builders wanted to reflect that ambition.

The sculpture was damaged as a result of the attacks on 9/11. Afterward Koenig had this to say

“It now has a different beauty, one I could never imagine. It has its own life – different from the one I gave to it.”

It stands near its original location, its current form reflecting what happened to it in the past.

The crown, the only remaining artifact from this, maybe should enjoy a new purpose, one where it damns those who seek to strip us of our human identity. That is what incenses me the most.

Catch the thieves and let them atone for this.

It is high time for the GOP to get out of their gated foundational narrative bubble and to look elsewhere.

How many times do we need to vacuum out the interiors of our trucks before we address the need to wash the mud off the paint outside and change the oil? Why are we ignoring obvious problems outside and under the hood then claim because we treated the leather interior, we won?

The conservative inability to look beyond mockery and see true threats and the players that lie beneath dooms us. Every foray into media creation has been fundamentally unserious and dealt only in half measures. Leftist artists go all in on violence and deviance, conservatives, in fear of portraying that, scuttle all hope of portraying the hellish reality that is our world.

If the truly conservative or anti-communist right sees itself as the vessel of logic in a world of ignorance then it shouldn’t allow itself to hide behind an iron curtain of fear. There is no safety, even in an ideological bunker. Every philosophy has holes in it, and those invite attacks.

If we let the Lord be our shield, and instead use our righteous inheritance as a sword, we can make headway. We are not given a mandate to be ignorant, we are given a mandate to use our God given gifts to understand and to attack evil.

If Christ set the example of having faith enough to walk through Samaria, to set foot on a ship in a storm, and to face His own execution we should take His example. If God Himself ordered Abraham out of his tent and into calamity and danger we should take His commands and go forth knowing we are alongside Him when we go toward our own adventure. By being craven we are apart from Him, by being bold we are with Him.

Only a coward doesn’t trust Him.

Our nation is where it is because of cowards.

Our nation is where it is because good men did nothing, including me. I am now doing the right thing. I am no longer a coward.

The left is more guilty than the right, they deal in wickedness as a virtue, rather than viewing it as self-ruination.Most of them know what they are doing is wrong, revel in it, and have no qualms about throwing it back at us out of spite. This is the vast majority of subcultures on the edge of society.

To the pretenders in my fandom, who I will be profiling, those who have used it to radicalize right and left, I am using my pen name, my new fursona, Black Stag, to keep myself nice and anonymous. I have receipts, and I will be exposing lots of malfeasance in the furry fandom and in fringe subcultures.

Was I a buck before? Is this a species change? I am not saying or giving you one bit of a clue. I will say this, I am going to do everything in my power and use the nonviolent printed word to make you see antlers in your nightmares.

I am in the shadows, watching, I have a long memory, and a lot of patience. To those people I am planting my hooves against, I say good luck.

I also intend and reserve the right to cover non-furry and more mainstream news. The world is too interesting now to fixate on one subject, even though my intention is to blow the doors wide open on evil people. My bread and butter will be writing about furries and geeks in general, I know that is my lot in life now, but doing so will be boring. Man cannot live on bread and butter alone. I can do more, I will do more.

I care that my readers are informed, most of all, so I reserve every right to focus on what I want to.

I reserve every and all rights to make mistakes and learn my lessons from them.

I reserve the right to modify this manifesto as well.

I will hold myself to a standard where I put my apologies up front and address what I learned in the hope I can teach you, my reader, so you don’t have to endure the hard hit I took.

Time to venture forth. Howdy y’all.

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