Female Fursuiter Month (part 5)

Hello again furries and fuzzbutts! Welcome back to another part of Female Fursuiter Month! This by far has been one of my favorite blogs to work on because the responses to it have been amazing! So many wonderful ladies stepped up and were so excited to show themselves and their suits and be featured here…and some of them I got to actually stay and talk to online and learn so much more about them, and it really does put into perspective the range of people you will meet in this fandom!

This community has done so much good for so many people, and fursuiting has changed so many lives. So, doing this blog and getting to share those stories…it has all been amazing. So I am really glad that I get to do another part for you guys 😀

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• How it works:

—So, for those interested in being featured here for Female Fursuiter Month, all I ask is that you first send me a pic of yourself next to a pic of your fursuit. Then, in your own words, you can either say a little about yourself in your suit, or you can tell me how fursuiting has changed you or influenced you in any way (or both)! So, if this is something you want to do, just drop a comment down below with a link to your facebook, FA, or Twitter so that I might contact you for the details!

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#femalefursuitermonth

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KAT WATSON:

“Heres a selfie with my own suit. Cocoa the doggo
I got into suiting as i can be more open with confidence and be myself. Outta suit i feel insecure like im an outcast but when i go to my local meet and suit up i feel like ive found my missing family.”

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ALISYN O’LEARY:

“Myself on a normal basis, I love cosplay, and dressing up, but most days I’m at work at our local fabric store, or sewing at home. If I’m with friends, it’s out for hikes or watching horror movies In suit, I’m just as confident, but much more outgoing, my hippogryph Orion really shows who I am. Mystical and brave. And I’ve always known, if I where any animal… I’d need to be something with wings. In suit, I also have armour, as I know I’m a warrior and will always fight for what is right. (In suit or not) I’m usually more sassy in suit which makes a lot of people laugh. It’s my main goal in life honestly, to make others happy and smile. If that’s all I get done at the end of a day…. my day was well spent!”

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AMY LANGDON:

“My name is Amy, I am French and Tate is my fursona.
It reflects my personality, he likes to be a clown and have fun with people.
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Mon nom est amy, je suis française et Tate est mon fursona
Il reflète ma personnalité, il aime faire le clown et amuser les gens”

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TAYLOR WEBB:

“I’m not good with talking about myself but I’m a very sweet person and I try to help everyone and anyone as best as I can just too make them smile and I stand up for what’s right and if someone’s harassing my friend or loved one I will defend them. I’m a kindhearted person and would give the clothes off my back to help someone About my husky Shea she’s basically the same as me she loves too make people smile and spread love wherever she goes it does make her sad when she’s confused for a cat but she doesn’t mind as long as it isn’t hateful she loves to dance and be cute.”

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Furries are located all over the world…and one of the amazing things about the Community is knowing that no matter what, you are never truly alone. We have seen 2 people from France already, some people from the UK, and then people scattered all across the USA.

Another thing I have noticed is that a lot of people, once they are in a suit, all their shyness, their anxiety..it all seems to go away and these people can be more free, and can be more of the person they feel they should be. That is always a great thing too. It’s amazing to hear all these stories of why people love to fursuit and the lives they have touched by doing so. Also, in hearing the changes they brought on for themselves…it can be very inspiring – and all these ladies are lovely and so great!

So thank you all for tuning in and reading! More parts of this to come! I will be doing this for as long as submissions allow, and the submissions will remain open until the end of March! Thanks to all the wonderful ladies that sent in their entries to participate! You are all awesome!

And as always, I will see you all in the next blog 😉

Spokane girl Aiyanawolfe found SAFE

Yesterday it was finally reported that Kiera Inman (Aiyanawolfe) was found SAFE in Ohio.

REPORT: http://q13fox.com/2016/05/04/amber-alert-canceled-missing-spokane-girl-found-safe-in-ohio/
REPORT:  http://www.king5.com/news/missing-spokane-girl-found-in-ohio/169809938

Herself and Kelo had been spotted first in Idaho and then were tracked to a remote rest-stop where the two of them were found sleeping in the man’s car.
She is being returned to her family, and Kelo has been sent to jail possibly facing a first-degree kidnapping charge.

I must give many thanks to the people who have read the previous blog about the alert and have helped to spread the word and find the girl. But, while the community really pulled through…a lot of people in the fandom left me severely disappointed with how they handled the situation.

The goal was to get Kiera home safe and sound…but instead, it turned into a debate on who was right and who was wrong. Was Aiyana the one in the wrong? Or was it Kelo?
As mentioned before…Kelo is 28, and Aiyana is 16 with the mental age of an 11-year-old due to her disability. While some claim 16 is the age of consent…because of her disability, she is not considered to be able to give consent, thus placing Kelo in the wrong for taking her. Even if she did have him convinced that she was 19…once he heard the Amber  Alert…he should have turned her into authorities and pleaded his case. But, to continue driving on, avoiding authorities, and then posting online to get medication for her liver issues (since she only left home with a blanket and teddy)…puts him in the wrong. There were many instances the man could have saved himself, and did not. Still, what’s done is done.

But…people were arguing whether or not she was even with the man to begin with, and again, even if he was innocent, he should have turned himself into authorities and proved he did not have the girl to clear his name…either way it was not possible because she was found with him, in his vehicle, on their way to his home state in Virginia. Were they in love? They might have been…but it doesn’t matter. Two years is not a long time to wait for love…I myself have been in a purely online relationship before that was 5 years. So, to be so impulsive and then ruin your lover’s life by putting them in jail…it’s not fair to the man, BUT, he should have been smarter as well being as old as he is.

Another thing that disappointed me was that people wanted to point out that he was being spotlighted as a Furry. Both Kelo and Aiyana are furries…both play their part in the fandom. And, of course the media would jump on the opportunity to use a term that will draw people’s attention. People in the fandom need to get it through their heads that this fandom will always stick out like a sore thumb. People will always hate and fear on something that they do not understand…and yes, Kelo’s actions reflect badly on us all, same as those that use Murrsuits reflect on us all as having the same fetish, same as the porn that is drawn in the fandom reflects on us all and puts us under the general category of all being “sex crazed” even though that isn’t true. I would have rather seen everyone pulling together to find the girl rather than picking out the smaller issue which was the fact that this man was making “furries look bad”.

Still, despite that disappointment…for those that did ban together, that made posters, that shared via Facebook, FA, and all other forms of social media to get people on the lookout for the two of them: THANK YOU!!!
You are all amazing, and Kiera is now back home where she belongs because of your efforts. You are all awesome!!!! 😀

More blogs coming tomorrow.
Fursuit Friday will be featured as it usually is. Thank you all for tuning in, and, as always…I will see you all in the next one 😉

Zootopia Discussion

• Is Zootopia good or bad for the Furry community?
• Was it even made for Furries?

So I finally jumped on the hype train and was treated to see Zootopia by my mate. I will write a review later, but, today I am focusing on a question I see often in groups which is: “Is Zootopia good or bad for the Furry Community?” and “Was the movie made for Furries?”

I remember seeing the trailer for Zootopia, and naturally, the Furry fandom blew up with excitement! They finally thought that they were being recognized as a community, that Disney had finally decided to make a Furry movie…but is this true?

Well…hate to break your heart, but, no. Much as I will admit that the Furry Community has grown and become more mainstream over the years, Disney is not beyond making anthro animal movies, and so, this in no way was meant to be about furries and make people “understand” us.

In fact…people outside of the fandom were groaning thinking it WAS a Furry movie, thinking it was meant to recruit young people into the fandom…but alas, it is just another animal movie, with another moral lesson to teach, it’s Disney, and it’s amazingly adorable and fun to watch.

Granted…it did pose a good question about being equal. In the movie (no spoilers I promise), the premise of it was prey versus predator, and whether they are really all that different. It covered stereo-types really well…so naturally, people assumed that it was about accepting Furries…when really it was about people just accepting other people. Accepting people no matter their race, no matter their gender…Furry, LGBTQ, it is all about acceptance and loving each other.

So…is it only about Furries? No. Is it a Furry movie? No. Does it help teach acceptance towards Furries? Well…yes actually. It teaches acceptance and love in general. So yes.
But back to the other question…

So, is it good or bad?

Well…in truth, I see it as a little of both.

While I admit it is NOT a movie about Furries, I think it did put the spotlight on the Furry community and give us a little recognition in the right ways. Seeing furries talk about Zootopia and start more vidoes and write more blogs discussing what a furry is and what they hope for in the movie really brought us all together to hype about something. I think the community really came together for this movie and kinda set aside the general drama for a minute that drives us apart at times.

However…is the movie recruiting for Furries? Not literally…but it will bring in a new flux of younger furries and that spells bad news for me.

Allow me to explain before you come up in arms about me saying I am not liking the idea of younger furries…

I joined the fandom in 2008 (I was 17), and luckily I had someone to guide me about it…but, even that person did not tell me all the rules about the fandom. It wasn’t until I became super active in 2014 (now I was 23) that I started learning about crediting art, the rules of commissioning an artist, about art theft and what it entailed, and etc. Being a furry is a lot more mainstream than it used to be…and I see so many people ages 12, 13, 14…coming online and breaking rules left and right because they don’t know any better, and when they get corrected on their behavior by veterans in the community, they flip out!

I’m not even kidding…

A lot of “beware” posts are posted about teens that joined the fandom and thought they could trace a picture and earn a quick buck. I see kids blaming mental illness on their backlash to authoritative figures (Admins of groups mostly) in the community. Kids are usually the ones threatening to take their lives because they got in trouble, they are the ones deleting one Facebook Account and then creating another one a week later and starting drama. I will say now that this is NOT always the case though…there are adults that do this as well, but, it’s rare (actually the adults and generally the ones getting a beware for sexual harassment and more adult-themed reasons).

Zootopia is bound to bring in numbers because more kids will find out what Furry is via the movie (by looking up reviews, pictures, finding Furry fanart, reading furry articles about the movie, and then following the bread trail with this fandom)—they will see the fandom and think it’s a place where they can easily belong, and they will jump right in without even trying to figure out the rules. So many people will hop on Google, search up an animal picture (that belongs to someone else), they will join groups and then get called out for art theft…and it will be a mess.

So…while the movie has been good in bringing us together, and while the movie is good in the sense that it will bring us new members that will actually try to follow rules and be a positive influence, there will also be a huge flow of bad people coming into the fandom…trolls and kids that don’t want to play by the rules, and I am not ready to handle it. The older I get, the less tolerance I have when I see kids mate-begging or asking for art because of this woe-reason or that woe-reason…

I’m not looking forward to seeing more art thieves, tracers, and kids arguing with an Admin because they broke a rule that was very clearly posted at the top of a group but they are too cool to actually read something -_-

Call me bitter and negative, but, I see it all the time…and half of these kids that joined the fandom as a mainstream trend do not even intend to stay, and, given a few months they leave and quit because they weren’t instantly popular, did not make many friends, and probably made a bunch of enemies. I feel like this is the cycle with every fandom…but, because I’m in THIS fandom, this is why it’s so annoying to me.

So…Zootopia was good for furries that have been furries and it brought all of us dedicated members of the community together, the lesson of the movie was really good in that it not only talked about race (predator and prey), but it was hinted with things that could very easily mean to be accepting of all peoples (Furry, LGBTQ, etc). It’s bad for people thinking that being a Furry is cool in the sense that it will make them popular and they don’t even really know what being a furry is about…that they will come in thinking the fandom is one way, when really, it’s not the way they thought it at all…then they will leave after causing an uproar, and in all honesty, we need people that will help mend the community, not destroy it.

Sorry to end this on something of a bitter note…I know there will be that group of people that do not agree with me, but hey, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I do thank you for tuning in though, we have “would-you-rather wednesday” tomorrow, and then we will have another blog on Friday.

So, until then, I will see you in the next one 😉