Month: September 2015

Let me take you back to roughly 2+ years ago, when a good friend hired Darius Koopa aka Edgar D. Martinez to do a commission for him at Midwest Furfest. After handing over a $50 he received a business card and a receipt. Then never heard back from him again, he did send out his own letters to the address on the card, after hearing nothing back, He then contacted a lawyer friend, who did sent a letter on his behalf, but still like his own letters he heard nothing back at all. The same could be said about Darius Koopa’s FA page demanding answer only lead to becoming blocked.

So you might be asking yourself is this Darius Koopa aka Edgar D. Martinez really as bad as he sounds. In fact it is the worse I ever seen in my lifetime. It seems according to Artists Beware http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/608294.html that Darius Koopa aka Edgar D. Martinez has a long track record extending all the way back to 2012 of taking money for commissions and never delivering. In fact I heard this same thing again and again, no matter which site I was on. One post on FA even made an allegation
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2058149/dmk/fleecingbydmk.pdf he was invloved in a cancer scam. After all the complaint is 53 pages long, and there has to be something to it. But the biggest news actually came from this same friend, later confirmed by me that he was banned from the dealers area at Midwest Furfest. Due to an excessive number of complaints.

Speaking of which I been to both his FA and Sofurry pages and have seen these same complaints taken down on a daily basis.

It was only during recent at a furry bowling event, I learned from another good friend of 2 things. #1 Darius Koopa aka Edgar D. Martinez was at MFF last year #2 Fully confessed that he wasn’t a artist. In fact all of his works are stolen. A fact which you will see in the following conversations I had with him he never denies.

So I began the hunt for Darius Koopa aka Edgar D. Martinez which was fairly easy. I used Google, I also found out this man has a patreon page, as well as being on Sofurry, Facebook as well as FA. I also found a HUGE number of complaints against him, and charges of Petty Theft made over and over again. A simple Google search revealed that much. So that is when I decided to go on the attack on his profile page on Sofurry.

This was the intial message he sent me. He assumed I was my friend. I continued that deception with full consent of my friend in order to get his money back..

I fully admit the reason he contacted me was that I was calling him a crook on his profile page, he quickly gave in.

After nothing arrived at the address I sent him, I sent another threat. This time by Private Message. He quickly caved in again and sent me proof that he actually sent it.

I admit saying he had Warrants Out for his Arrest was something I was unsure about, as I did hear plenty of rumors, most of them from the staff at MFF. I wondered how could someone have warrants when all they are guilty of is petty theft.

In this message to me he responds to 2 things I mentioned. 1 was a post made my a member of the Midwest Furfest Board on their Facebook page, and of how this crook ripped them off for 100s.

The other is the name I blacked out, is another one of his victims, Who I know personally and that victim does have the same worthless receipt. But yet he denies knowledge of that victim.

To see the Pure Arrogance of this man you just have to see the last message he sent me. Then compare it to the very 1st. Darius Koopa aka Edgar D. Martinez is the worse kind of crook out there. One who can’t believe they are in the wrong.

The outright lies are rampant in that post. As previous stated he is not wanted at MFF for any reason. In fact no one would ask a man who is banned from the dealers area, a fact I invite you to check out for yourself. Besides why would they ask someone to volunteer a con where they has a chance of being arrested.

In fact my friend, even though he has his money back still plans on pressing charges against Edgar D. Matinez if he sees him there at MFF. The same could be said of at least 30 of his victims who all told me the very same thing.

Besides if he was as honest as he says, why did it take until Sept. 21 before the check finally arrived.

On a personal note: No one should have anything to do with this man. As I continue to find victims everywhere. I believe it is only a matter of time Edgar D. Martinez pays for his crimes.

Tomorrow I expose the biggest crook in the furry fandom, I hide nothing from my readers by showing you the conversation that took place on Sofurry. After which I hope you agree with me. This man should be exposed for the arrogant bastard that he is.

as originally posted on dogpatch press

Now comes sad news that Oklacon is canceled permanently. The reason appears to involve a tangle of prejudice and bad faith, coinciding with a misbehavior incident. It came to my attention via Reddit. More info went out in a final statement that replaces the front page of the con’s official website. I have heard statements from attendees that lead me to share the story, and report their anger and frustration about it. (Editorial comments here don’t speak for the con.)

Here are points and open questions that stood out to me.

Prejudice and bad faith: Oklacon says that they had a history of cold treatment by park staff. They report experiences like same-sex couples being asked to stop holding hands. It sounds like the park was looking for an excuse to cancel the con. If this does involve prejudice at state parks, what about fairness and right to access for taxpayers? It’s hard to repair that with a direct appeal, because prejudiced people may never be pleased. It could call for public complaint, and bringing it to the awareness of other authorities.
Misbehavior: The final cancelation is blamed on an incident of alleged public sex between three intoxicated people. While admittedly bad, does misbehavior never happen among “normal” people at a campout? (Read the initial news blog link to see exactly what that means.) The con appears to have made appropriate response that offers mitigation because it was first-time, out-of-state members who were banned. Is it fair to punish everyone else by banning the con itself, too?
Charges: Oklacon says that the involved people intoxicated themselves (plural). It also says that “women cannot consent” under the influence. That’s only half true. Don’t they mean “nobody” can?
I’m suspicious that this didn’t happen with only one intoxicated person, and as parties usually go, they were all drinking together. There’s no proof, but support comes from talk that a “victim” didn’t want the other participants to be charged – and all were banned, not one held innocent. (Imagine the outcry if that wasn’t deserved!) So, if they were all drunk, were they all “raping” each other?

How does that make sense? If the supposed victim considered it no personal violation and this is only about a legal standard… it raises the topic of overbearing prosecution. There’s unreasonable puritanism in that. It’s bigoted to men, and paternalistically sexist to women. It’s almost as silly as charging a drunk person for raping themselves by masturbating. (People have been prosecuted for exploiting themselves, getting a lot of press about absurd abuse of power.) Everyone’s a criminal with shit like that. It would call for a debate about laws, and in this case, a downgrade to no more than public lewdness.

Undermining: After Oklacon had to leave their original location, they found an alternate (Sequoyah park). The story indicates that a con attendee with a grudge decided to intervene, and called Sequoyah, leading to a statewide ban from parks and no more con. Seems like they just couldn’t get a fair break – it was one thing after another with haters. I’m sure a lot of people are curious to know who ratted and why. That person would probably be Fursona Non Grata in fandom if their name becomes known.
UPDATE: At Flayrah, crossafliction has a story about the con cancelation. Comments reinforce the absurdity of the “consent” issue, and correct a false impression about the “rat”. There was no grudge, just an innocent mistake. Strike the fourth bullet point.

I’ll leave questions open, because I’m not involved with the con or their local community. Let’s pass the mike to someone who is.

Reddit user BalooUriza on the misbehavior incident:

“Mitigating factors being: it was in a privately reserved area, and despite being fairly centrally located within the privately reserved con space, the late night hour and the fact almost everyone was engaged in other activities in other parts of the con space, and nobody except the rangers in attendance at the park outside of the event were aware.. means this was remarkably unseen by the majority…”

On the fallout to the community, and what to do about it:

“…The real victim, ultimately, is Watonga. The chamber of commerce there called it “bigger than Christmas”, amounting to 11% of that town’s annual economy. To put it in a population perspective to the significance of this in such a remote part of the country: If you scaled up Watonga to be the population of metro Pittsburgh, and Oklacon by the same ratio, the impact would be the same as if Anthrocon grew to an attendance an average 276,150 people, and a total reach of people who have attended at least once of around 1,341,300 people over 12 years.

Now, imagine the sudden-cancellation-of-tourism and subsequent black-balling spearheaded by the state’s tourism department. You can call the Oklahoma Department of Recreation and Tourism’s Executive Office 405-230-8303, and the direct line to Dick Dutton – Executive Director is 405-230-8414.”

I’d recommend a BRIEF, POLITE call. Say you’re sad because some people have felt prejudice, and an entire event shouldn’t be punished for a mistake that got appropriate response. Mention that you would appreciate better access to parks, and say that you would like to bring tourist money to Oklahoma, but the cancelation makes you choose other events in other states. Ask if the department can help find a new location, perhaps a private one?

BalooUriza shares more about his experience:

“The sudden cancellation after literally planning around Oklacon week for a year (including purchasing a vehicle… and having to cancel vacation plans with the office) has me pretty much livid right now. I’m holding off from picking up the phone until I have a day or two to calm down, regroup and organize my thoughts into an elevator pitch…

It was a memorable convention for all the right reasons, such as Bucktown spontaneously busting out Gangnam Style in fursuit or the giant 20 sided die hitting the one number Daxter didn’t want it to land on, 2×4 Jenga, the game Predator and Prey, the origins of the furry expansion to Cards Against Humanity… Dinners around the campfire, heck, even falling asleep by the campfire. Accidentally dropping expensive stuff in the dark and having it find it’s way back home the next day. Riding out the afterglow mapping the consite for the world. The geocaching contest. The fursuit parades that always somehow ended up in the hottest part of the day. That time I missed getting in the photo because I had to get out of suit before the group shot. Driving four hours through the night after working 12 hours straight, to my first convention since Conifur ended, and the epic sense of impending awesome that espoused. Meeting my boyfriend for the first time. Falling asleep in the sun on the porch (even though the resulting sunburn was not fun). Breakfasts watching Wheel of Fortune with the locals at the Hi Dee Ho Cafe and the head of the Watonga Chamber of Commerce at the Loves just down the street. Having said chamber member tell me that he hoped we never stopped coming to Watonga, how big of a part of the local economy we were, and that it’s bigger than the Watonga Cheese Festival and bigger than Christmas…

As an Oklahoma taxpayer, I’m pissed that the department whose job it is to promote tourism is pushing away an event that has drawn people from at least three continents to a sleepy prairie town – two hours drive by car from the nearest airport with international service, and a two mile drive from the edge of reliable voice mobile phone service – to go camp with us. How else are you going to get people who otherwise might not even know that Oklahoma is a real place that exists, to come find out and experience our state the way we do – and what they’ve been missing out on all their life? Last year’s drama extravaganza aside, ODRP should consider the challenge of being the go-to venue-of-choice for such a large scale event – as a nice problem to have!”

This article released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license

as originally posted on adjectivespecies.com

Guest post by Howl. This piece appears in Furries Among Us, a collection of essays by several furry writers, recently published in paperback by Thurston Howl Publications. You can read the [adjective][species] review of Furries Among Us here.

The name’s Howl. I am a folf dog (fox-wolf-dog hybrid), and I’m here to talk to you about sex! (This sounds like the most nightmarish way to start a sex ed class in high school. For that matter, furries and sex ed should just never mix.) So, many of you may know the term “furry” can hardly be spoken in public without someone assuming you’re talking about a fetish. Furries are people who just like having sex in fursuits, right? I remember “coming out”[1] as a furry to a friend of mine, and he said, “Aren’t those the suits with the holes in the crotch area?” That was a major face-palm (or face-paw) moment for me. Furries definitely have an unwarranted sexualized stigma in today’s society. From my experience, the furry fandom has been about community, belonging, and just friends having a good time. However, there are certainly other aspects, such as art, fiction, music, fursuiting, conventions, and more. So, am I saying that sex is absolutely not a part of the fandom? Well, while sexuality is probably more important than sex in the fandom, I would (and do) argue that sex is a part of the fandom but not a separate aspect.

Let me start this by reiterating that the fandom’s greatest value is its reliance on inclusion and community. No matter what your hobbies are, your favorite films, sports, books, or alcoholic beverages[2], furries will accept you. This goes the same for sexual preferences. Whether you are gay, bi, straight, trans, pan, or anything outside and in-between, furries will be glad to have you around. As they are this accepting, they also are open[3]. Sex and sexuality are simply not taboo topics for furries. No, this doesn’t mean that furries meet at coffee shops and discuss their favorite sex toys, but it means that in private or online, most won’t shy away from making sex jokes, sharing sex stories with close friends, or asking each other questions that their conservative high school sex ed never covered. They even have some unique sexual terms that further separate sex from the realm of taboo. Instead of the colloquial “fuck,” furries say “yiff,” supposedly being the sound foxes make when they have intercourse. “Murr” is another common sexual term that is a general sound of pleasure. One might use it in response to getting a back rub or the like. Also, furries tend to call their significant others “mates” as opposed to “boyfriend,” “significant other,” or the ever-abhorrent “bae.” Note that none of these are terms for new ideas; they are simply animal variants of common sexual ideas. However, sex manifests itself in the furry fandom in more than just its lingo.

As Kyell Gold mentions in his article in this collection, furry literature does something that gay porn just doesn’t: it enables for sex to be integral to a meaningful LGBT relationship, whether it is for young or mature audiences. College-aged furries can read about coming-out and sexual intimacy in the same novel now, something that can be notably harder to find in mainstream fiction. As he also notes, many furry novels have an Adult rating on them even if they have just one adult scene, while many mainstream erotica novels do not have any kind of warning. With that said, one can see how sex, at least in furry literature, functions as an integral, or at least important, aspect of real-life relationships that mainstream literature usually does not capture in the same way[4]. Some sample authors of erotic furry fiction are Kyell Gold and Rukis. I feel no need to expound on furry erotica, as you could simply read Kyell Gold’s article elsewhere in this collection.

Furry art is likewise open. On April 26, 2015, I searched FurAffinity (the main art archive for furries) for the word “fox[5].” Including NSFW (Not Suitable/Safe For Work) images, there were 667,477 results. When I shifted the toggle to Only SFW (Suitable/Safe for Work) images, there were 489,470 results. That means that roughly 73% of all fox images have a General or lightly Mature audience rating. There are several archives for furry art, including FurAffinity, e621, SoFurry, and various tumblrs. I feel absurd for quoting “The Rules of the Internet” here from 4chan (2007). Rule 34 states, “If it exists, there is porn of it.” This is very true even for furries. From The Lion King erotic art to Mickey Mouse nude pictures, if you can name an anthropomorphic character, some artist has probably drawn it having sexual relations with another. However, from my experience, most furries look at this kind of art not as porn[6], but with erotic appreciation. I have looked at furry art with friends, and it becomes a game of who can find the “hottest” art; it’s not an intimate action. Many furries really do just admire the art. It is a sexually open fandom, and that openness plays into their art as well as their literature.

Now, let me address a myth I have definitely heard more than once. Myth #1: Furries like to have sex with animals. Absolutely not. The idea of furry is not “becoming an animal.” It is about a completely new physical idea, the hybridization of human and animal. If such a creature was to exist, would it be ethical to have relations with it? I will not pretend to have the answer, and I acknowledge that many would be against it, but I also know that many would be perfectly okay with it as long as the being possesses human intelligence. Comparing furry to bestiality is akin to comparing homosexuality to bestiality: it just doesn’t make sense. When a furry admires an erotic pose of a feline anthro character, they might say he has a cute tail. Maybe his human chest is very muscular. Maybe his clothes are so tight that they reveal all his muscles, all his curves…I don’t know if I was trying to be evocative just then, but I assure you I could do much better (and have done better, in my last furry work Where Carnivores Meet, #shamelessplug). While the furry fandom is sexually open, this doesn’t mean that everyone in it is sexual. Even if a furry does “paw off”[7] to an erotic art piece, that does not signify the person wants to go into a barn and have intercourse with a horse.

Myth #2: Furries have sex in fursuits. This one is almost laughable. When I hear this, I ask them how much they think a fursuit costs. Usually, they might say two or three hundred dollars. Then, I have the pleasure of telling them it can be upward of two or three thousand dollars. Most furries aren’t willing to cut holes in the fronts of their expensive suits for sex purposes. Fursuits are for social acting (see Keefur’s article). Yes, there are furries who have sex in fursuits, but probably not more than people who have sex in space suits. Yes, fetishes exist, but the furry fandom is not a fetish.

With all of this said, there are two further aspects of furry sexuality I would like to discuss. One is stereotypes. Despite the fact that furries do not rely on sexuality, furries do apply sexual stereotypes to some people based on their furry identity, or fursona. For example, if someone is a fox, they are typically considered to be submissive, hypersexual, teasing, and on the receiving end. Wolves are usually dominant sexually. Bears (as is similar to the LGBT term) are larger in weight and usually hairier. Sometimes, the sexual stereotype is loosely based on existing folklore and/or mythology. With foxes being more cunning in fables, and with “foxy” being a word to describe a lusting female, a fox furry is definitely considered more sexual than others. Other times, as with bears, the fursona describes the body type stereotypically. Note however that exceptions abound. I have seen foxes who are “tops,” bears who are skinny, and wolves who are submissive. Some furries actually get annoyed when they are labeled by their stereotypes, though this is usually a mild annoyance. I would argue that when choosing one’s fursona, it’s important to also understand the cultural connotations for those animals inside the furry fandom

For furries who are interested in anthropomorphic sex outside of art and actually wish they could explore anthropomorphic sex, there actually are options. There are fox tail butt plugs, werewolf dildos, and dragon penetrables. However, sites that sell these items usually label these products with names, such as “Rex the German Shepherd,” “Chance the Stallion,” and “Fenrir the Wolfdragon” (BadDragon website). These kinds of names personify the characters, separating them from animals, and bringing the toys back to “furry.”

Overall, it should be easy to see how sex does exist as an element of the furry fandom, though it is far from an exclusive one. It is tied loosely to different aspects of the fandom. Art and novels don’t require it; it is simply that the furry fandom is just so open with sexuality and sex that it is acceptable to discuss it freely.

[1] Since I’ve already come out of the closet as a gay man, can we call the furry’s coming out “coming out of the kennel?” I think this idea has great potential, and I now lay copyright to it.
[2] For some reason, I still get looks when I’m drinking a mojito, and my colleagues are drinking beer. Mojitos are manly drinks, right?
[3] To those particularly witty furries trying to make a dirty joke here, stop.
[4] To clarify on this, I find that most mainstream novels either entirely skip the sex scenes while alluding to them, such as, “He led me to his bedroom, and I flicked the lights off,” or more graphically describe the sex scene but through derogatory language, making it an unclean or taboo act.
[5] I chose to search for the word “fox” because foxes are simply awesome, and we’re not narcissistic at all.
[6] I say this, but I’m sure there are those laughing, saying, “Yes, we do!”
[7] The furry term for masturbation.

This article released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license