Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel. See their tag on Dogpatch Press for more.
It’s #FursuitFriday which means twitter floods with pictures of our fluffy creations. It’s also the time for us at Culturally F’d and Dogpatch to look back at some Fursuit History. Make sure to catch up on Part 1: Masks and start your own exploration of animal costume performance with Culturally F’d.
Patch here, with Part 2 of the story submitted by guest writer Duncan R. Piasecki.
In Part 1, we mentioned the theatrical nature of anthropomorphism: how fursuiting is related to a world-wide love for humans performing as animals. In the mainstream, it’s in musicals like the stage version of The Lion King or Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. Then, as we discovered, there was even a small, overlooked chapter of fandom history with not one, but at least two musicals focusing on the furry subculture.
One of these unique projects was Yiff!/<furReality>, which was fading from memory until we rescued documentation from the director. It can make you wonder… while the mainstream celebrates anthropomorphic performance, why haven’t such ambitions carried forward as fandom has grown?
Perhaps the ideas may get tried again, with bigger and better resources, stages and audiences this time. Looking into that may get you excited for a certain con in 2018. More on that at the end. (-Patch)
Duncan R. Piasecki continues with the story of the other musical:
Friday, May 05, 2017. 8PM – 1AM.
SF Citadel, 181 Eddy St., San Francisco.
Cost: $25. Dress code: Animal-themed, fetish, creative, etc.
Visit the Fetlife event page for info. Many volunteer positions available.
WILD THINGS is an 18+ party for furries, petplayers, pups, primals, littles, and everyone who accepts them, but the furry community is the heart of it. The first event was in 2014 (see WILD THINGS tag.) In 2016 it became quarterly by support of the SF Citadel club.
For March’s Mardi Gras event, organizer Mark explained:
Wild Things wants to be inclusive to anyone who is new, making them feel welcome, unpressured, and free to learn and explore at their own pace, if they wish. We advocate tolerance and respect for others, so people can live and let live, and let adults be adults however they choose to do so… come without judgements and see for yourselves.
What’s happening this time? Perhaps sexy party games and pinatas, human/furry pinata suspensions, wrestling/Lucha masks… all that and a taco bar! Previous features continue:
– Music by DJ’s AuralIncarnation (Bent) and Gretchen Weeners (Death Guild, House of Nox)
– Suspensions by Naturalturn (Naughty Knotty)
– Vacuum bed & waxplay demos by Spottacus
– Petplay, puppyplay, and furry demos
– Fursuit gear demos
– The cuddle zone
– Petplay / puppyplay romp!
Greetings, Dogpatch Press readers. We hope you’ve been enjoying the run of What’s Yiffin’? on this website; it’s time for April’s edition! One thing you’ll realize over the course of watching our show is sometimes events happen so close to production time that we can’t include them in the show and they are delegated to next month’s release. The firestorm surrounding RMFC is an example of one such event. Literally a day or two after we wrapped up this episode that whole mess happened, sort of like how the story about 2 Gryphon was pushed back to this month for the same reason. Speaking of 2, here’s the news that’s fit to print!
More details and some additional insight from the show’s writers:
Remember when Seinfeld was one of the biggest TV shows, and co-star Michael Richards derailed his career with a racist meltdown on stage? It happened at a comedy show, but it wasn’t part of the act. He apologized, and news said “It is actually one of the most honest apologies that a celebrity has ever given for bad behavior.”
It’s rare to see a career implode like that. Now let’s look at a furry happening that’s not so drastic, but more of a slow burn. A prominent performer in the fandom is being examined for poorly representing it, and found unworthy of support by its premiere convention. Bad behavior has been in plain view for years with no apologies. It took this long to accumulate wider attention. Many members say it’s long overdue, and some find it discouraging that it took so long.
“2 The Ranting Gryphon” has a problem.
His George Carlin-styled comedy has earned 24,000 follows on Youtube and audiences of 1000+ at Anthrocon. I’ve seen and laughed at his show there. But they declined to host him this year. His fans are very upset (almost as if he’s a tenured “house comedian of fandom”?) 2 himself appears to be the info source, claiming to be a victim of invalid attacks by over-offended “SJW’s”. There’s only a vague official statement citing declining attendance, so pointing blame is untrustworthy. A con can pick whoever they want, and they just chose not to pick him; friends and fame aren’t supposed to overrule quality or board decisions for approval. (Free speech doesn’t apply because it’s not between citizen and government – the host is a private organization. He isn’t “banned” and can attend the con. )
The most original creations of furry fandom.
Here’s a fun feature about the future. But first, let me make a bold claim about fursuiting.
Mascots and costuming have been around forever. But furries are doing something new. They don’t just play with generic icons from myths and media. They add original fursonas and custom craft for everyone. It makes a subculture with personal expression beyond anything else.
Of course, many furs don’t have (or want) fursuits. But the ones who do make a photogenic face of fandom. Other groups do art and writing like this one, but I don’t think anyone else does costuming in such a specialized and devoted way. So there’s nothing wrong with the way the fursuiters stand out. Everything else is imagination – they bring it to life and help to define the tactile name of “furry”. And the quality is developing beyond anything you can buy commercially. Some dedicated makers now have careers by fans, for fans, leading a Furry Economy with an exciting future. Look forward to amazing things.
It’s another event from the WILD THINGS crew – producers of sexy, gutsy, creative happenings for boundary-breaking expression. There may be no other formal events in the world like this!
With their previous events, Dogpatch Press asked: is furry a “sex” thing? NO, but there’s overlap… nothing wrong with that. There are all kinds of other hobbies like that. If you read the naughty history of their events, don’t overlook the tags: BDSM, cat box cake, controversy, fetish, furries, kink, murrsuits, petplay, porn, sex… Wild Things!
Now here’s the new one everyone’s been waiting for. (NSFW poster below.)
From Cornbread’s photo gallery
Sports fans are notoriously devoted. Fursuits are incredibly photogenic. Mascots and fursuiting make a powerful crossover when they meet.
It happens at games when fursuiting fans get noticed for national TV. Sometimes a furry gets to be a mascot with the sweet moves and personalities that seem to spring naturally from our cons. There are even official, high-profile team characters commissioned from fursuit makers.
That’s all covered in the article series continued in the recent Q&A with Uncle Kage and Kodi of Midwest Furfest. It started with 1) The beginning of mascots and fursuiting, 2) Fursuiting crossover with pro sports, and 3) The National Mascot Hall of Fame.
Cornbread Wolf brings the voice of a true furry fan to this story. This isn’t about ordinary furmeets, or a safe way to support teams like everyone else. He stands out in the crowd in a super powerful way by following two passions to the same place. It’s a great example of my favorite thing, Street Fursuiting. Find him on Furaffinity, Facebook, and Twitter.
The National Mascot Hall of Fame is coming in 2017. This mainstream event might deserve furry attention. It’s a series here:
1) The beginning of mascots and fursuiting.
2) Fursuiting crossover with pro sports.
3) The National Mascot Hall of Fame.
Could a full time mascot-based tourist attraction include furries somehow? Maybe they will indirectly benefit. Imagine an exhibit dedicated to hobbyist costuming, and how it’s an institution in places like Pittsburgh. If that happened, Uncle Kage would surely be one of the first asked to help connect furries and pro mascots. And it’s interesting that the NMHOF is close to Midwest Furfest (imagine an exhibit coordinated with the con.)
I contacted Kage and MFF about this. Here’s followup to the stories above.
From Raymond Entertainment Group
Mascot Boot Camp is run by NMHOF founder Dave Raymond (the original “Philly Phanatic”). It’s in Kutztown PA- 3 days for $399. Fursuiters, check that out. And you can hire it to come to you (wouldn’t it be amazing to have such a workshop hosted by a con? Although cost per person would be huge.) Check Dave Raymond’s group of companies for a look at professional mascot building and more – Raymond Entertainment Group.
Furry sports fans on national TV – have you seen this going around as a popular meme? (Tip: Chakat Shorttail.)
Here’s headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.
Mascot Boot Camp in the Washington Post.
They sent a reporter to 
attend Mascot Boot Camp. It’s run by Dave Raymond. “Dave was the original Phillie Phanatic — the first to inhabit the green costume in 1978. In the mascot community, he is something of a founding father.”
Dave is also founder of The Mascot Hall of Fame. It’s scheduled to open in Indiana in 2017. They said that he has run the Mascot Boot Camp for more than 20 years and it will continue at their new venue. Here’s a video for the 2016 camp.
In 2015 I did a series about crossover of fursuiting and professional sports mascots. Look for update articles next week with a Q&A from Uncle Kage, an MFF organizer, and Cornbread Wolf (who fursuits for fun at sports games.)
Frog and Toad are a proto-furry relationship story.
The New Yorker covers the beloved classic children’s book series by Arnold Lobel. “During his career, he worked on dozens of children’s books, both as a writer and as an illustrator… His specialty was animals and their misadventures.”
According to his daughter:
“Adrianne suspects that there’s another dimension to the series’s sustained popularity. Frog and Toad are ‘of the same sex, and they love each other… It was quite ahead of its time in that respect.’ In 1974, four years after the first book in the series was published, Lobel came out to his family as gay. ‘I think ‘Frog and Toad’ really was the beginning of him coming out'”…
It’s interesting to look at how anthropomophism, character and sexuality came together in simple friendship stories. You don’t need to know about the author for the stories to be just as good, but the writing is very personal. These are mainstream children’s books, but I might dare to say that the hidden meaning gives them more in common with furry fan fic than anyone but us would understand.
“Furlesque” at Cincinnatti Fringe Fest.
