Improved Anthropomorphics

Hello all.

First of all, I am pleased to see more members coming to this group.

I must start off with an apology. I have woefully neglected this group. Between my family, my job, and the web projects, I'm afraid I'd spread myself a bit thin. I need help. We need help. I ask anyone who has some spare time to please speak up. I have been actively recruiting people through my own IM contact lists to help out with the various web projects that have started up, and from the looks of it GamerFurs.net may see a good start soon, but more importantly Furry 101 should be more interviews with people who should be regarded as role models for the fandom at large. While I cannot predict the future... well... that's we're we come in.

If you have any spare time on your hands to either lend a hand to the various projects launched from me and/or this community, or can assist with maintaining the spirit of the community here and/or in real life, please speak up. Best way to reach me quickly is via IM (Twitter preferably) or via email.

That is all for now.

Clayton Hedgepath, aka Storm Gryphon, isn’t particularly comfortable with Gerbasi’s evaluation or any clean romanticization of Furries. It isn’t just fluff and tickles. There’s a thin, dark line, which he says Furries cross far too often.

“The Vanity Fair article, the Furs brought it on themselves,” the FBC promotions director says. “I don’t want you to think we run through fields. You gotta take some of the bullshit first. ”

The 19-year-old satellite technician in Chicago, who’s been a Furry since he was 13, prides himself on straight-talking, shit-talking and a radio voice that can pass as a 40-year-old’s.

Clayton found his fursona through a neo-mystical belief system called Otherkin, which involves an “awakening” to discover one’s inner mythological creature. He’s not a huge fan of the elitist Otherkin community, preferring instead the open-armed Furry fandom. That said, he loathes all the Furry slackers who live off social security. He can’t stand the self-pitying ones who emptily threaten suicide when life doesn’t go their way. And he’s sick and tired of all the public sex, aka “yiffing,” at conventions.

“In 2001-2002, people were yiffing in the hallways, having orgy rooms everywhere and over 80 percent of the artwork was dirty,” Clayton says. “Yiffing is awesome, I’m not opposed to yiffing. But in terms of going to a con, I don’t want some random guy trying to yiff me up in the hallway or two 400-pound men going at it when I open the elevator.”

The reason Furry fandom got so sexual, Clayton theorizes, is that back in the 1970s organizers were disappointed at the convention turnout, and started selling it as an alternative lifestyle to attract gays, sado-masochists and swingers to fill out their numbers.

“The problem with Fur, right now, is that because it started heading down this alternative lifestyle path, they started letting in all these socially retarded kids, who stayed at home, had problems, were glued to their TVs and their computers,” he vents. “Once they realize they’re accepted by Furries, they start crying more and more for that acceptance and getting yiffy all the time.”

In addition to music and news, these are the subjects Clayton rants about on his show, and to great success. Typically, he averages approximately 30 listeners, and he can list many of them by name.

One thing Furries don’t talk about is the dark-underside of the fandom— bestiality. Clayton says it’s not as rare as some Furries claim. Seven out of 10 of his friends, he estimates, are into animal porn. Of them, he suspects that two or three will one day act on their impulses.

“[Furries] are into it, but it’s just to what degree,” he says, matter-of-factly. “When it comes to bestiality, it’s still a major hush-hush, because it’s illegal. I’ll tell you many, many more Furs are into that stuff than what they’re willing to admit. They’ll tell when they get to know you.”

Nevertheless, he concedes that New Mexico Furs might be different, not just sexually, but in motivation and social skills as well. His opinions are only about the general fandom. But he’s a skeptic, and he warns to be wary. The New Mexico Furs, he says, might be faking it.