Southpaw
This is an assignment I wrote for my 'Newsroom Practice & Theory' class. A 1,000 word profile
A thumbs-up from Frank
When Frank walks into a crowded café, everyone stares. Some laugh. A woman glances into her cup and mutters, “I swear this is only coffee”. Out in the street, cars beep their horns and passers-by stop to take photos.
After all, it’s not every day that you see a 5 ½ foot tall white wolf named Frank, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and walking the streets of Launceston.
Most of the time, Frank is just Justin Ryan. Outwardly, Justin seems like any 20 year old apprentice mechanic: he dirt-bikes, water-skis, goes target shooting and plays computer games, and drives around his small home town in coastal Tasmania in his beat-up car.
But Justin is also a Furry. “Frank” is his fursona, the name Furries give their animal alter-egos.
Furries, more precisely the Furry Fandom, are a subculture of fans of anthropomorphic animal art and fiction - stories based on animal characters with human personalities and characteristics like walking on two legs, talking and wearing clothes. As such, Furries can claim roots as ancient as Aesop’s Fables, or the “Funny Animal” cartoons from the early 20th century. The fandom also includes such diverse works as the cartoons of Warner Bros and Disney, more literary material such as Richard Adams’ “Watership Down” (often cited as a Furry classic), the Talking Animals of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia books, and science fiction like Larry Niven’s Known Space books.
A typical Furry character, showing the fusion of science fiction and anthropomorphic characteristics
The Furry fandom is closely related to the much larger science fiction and anime fandoms, the term itself evolving from a 1980 science fiction convention. Indeed, Justin likens being a Furry to being a Trekker in their early years, when they were seen as a weird, fringe cult, whereas they’re accepted as reasonably normal - if nerdy - members of society. Even country music legend Slim Dusty outed himself as a Trekker with his 1997 song “Star Trucker”.
“That’s where our fandom sits about now,” says Justin. “About where the Trekkers were in the 60s and 70s. A bunch of real weirdos.”
Like many Furries, Justin had simply liked fiction featuring anthropomorphic characters all his life. He didn’t realise he was a Furry, he says, until he found a word for it, and stumbled across the fandom on the internet.
“Before then I was secretly enjoying fantasy novels, books, kids’ movies, Disney, all that sort of stuff. Now I have a name for all that, and I’m not the only weird one.”
In Tasmania, though, Frank is mostly a lone wolf. Other Furries are rare here, so Justin mostly connects with the fandom via the internet and its sprawling Furry subculture of forums, chat rooms, blogs and image boards. So he is looking forward to a real life “Furmeet” with some Melbourne Furries travelling to Tasmania later this year, which will also be his first chance to be out in public with other fursuiters. While nearly all Furries have a fursona, few actually go fursuiting. Justin, though, finds the experience “pure fun”.
“I’m not ‘Justin Ryan’ any more, I’m Frank.”
Justin’s friend Johnny agrees.
“When Justin puts on his outfit and becomes Frank, I treat them as separate people. The personalities are remarkably different; his mannerisms and all aspects of character transform into Frank.”
Many Furries remark on the sense of liberation that fursuiting gives them. As one female fursuiter says in a TV interview, “You’d be amazed how much boundaries between people disappear when you’re wearing one of these things: I bet you would let me give you a hug right now!”
“You can detach yourself from the restrictions of modern society and just have fun,” says Johnny. “When I have enough money to fashion myself a suit, I’m most certainly going suiting.”
Still, Justin often betrays a serious, thoughtful side that might seem at odds with the impish, self-described weirdo in the wolf costume. While he’s a big fan of pranks, he says, they have to be ones that don’t cause any harm. So while Frank loves nothing more than walking into Subway and startling the sandwich artists, he doesn’t go into shops whose owners might be concerned about shoplifting or concealing identity.
Similarly, while he is sure his father - a “practical man” like himself, he says - would take his son’s strange hobby in his stride, because the family lost their mother to cancer last year, he has so far kept Frank a secret. “I don’t need to bother him with anything strange like this,” Justin says. “Of course, if he asked, I’d have to tell him.”
Like most of the species, Justin is also sensitive to the negative perception of Furries that’s especially widespread on the internet, where sites like “God Hates Furries” and the “Anti-Fur Coalition” are common. He bristles at the perception of a group dominated by perversion, blaming negative media, and particularly a 2003 episode of the TV series “CSI” for what he sees as unfair exaggeration.
While there is certainly a strand of the fandom that deviates into pornographic art and stories and other sexual activities, Justin argues, they are very much a minority. Results of surveys conducted on the fandom agree with him, with only a small number of Furries rating sex as important (perhaps somewhat surprising, given that surveys also show the fandom as a kind of bachelor herd, dominated by young males).
Still, Justin is not surprised that the misconception persists. “Society always tends to dig up the dirtiest, nastiest little things they can. They’ll focus on a minority.”
“I mean, I can understand, well, yeah, we’re weird. One of my favourite quotes is from the movie ‘Cool Runnings’: ‘We different. People are always afraid of what’s different’.”
But that isn’t apparent when friendly-looking Frank walks the streets of Launceston.
Children are happy to run up to the big, cuddly white wolf with the permanent, happy smile, and give him a huge hug while their parents watch and laugh.
“Frank is well received by the public,” says Johnny. “People see him as exciting and funny.”
“I didn’t know whether to laugh, or what to do,” says one woman. “He was great, though. I feel like … well, like I’d like to try it, too!”
A thumbs-up from Frank
When Frank walks into a crowded café, everyone stares. Some laugh. A woman glances into her cup and mutters, “I swear this is only coffee”. Out in the street, cars beep their horns and passers-by stop to take photos.
After all, it’s not every day that you see a 5 ½ foot tall white wolf named Frank, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and walking the streets of Launceston.
Most of the time, Frank is just Justin Ryan. Outwardly, Justin seems like any 20 year old apprentice mechanic: he dirt-bikes, water-skis, goes target shooting and plays computer games, and drives around his small home town in coastal Tasmania in his beat-up car.
But Justin is also a Furry. “Frank” is his fursona, the name Furries give their animal alter-egos.
Furries, more precisely the Furry Fandom, are a subculture of fans of anthropomorphic animal art and fiction - stories based on animal characters with human personalities and characteristics like walking on two legs, talking and wearing clothes. As such, Furries can claim roots as ancient as Aesop’s Fables, or the “Funny Animal” cartoons from the early 20th century. The fandom also includes such diverse works as the cartoons of Warner Bros and Disney, more literary material such as Richard Adams’ “Watership Down” (often cited as a Furry classic), the Talking Animals of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia books, and science fiction like Larry Niven’s Known Space books.
A typical Furry character, showing the fusion of science fiction and anthropomorphic characteristics
The Furry fandom is closely related to the much larger science fiction and anime fandoms, the term itself evolving from a 1980 science fiction convention. Indeed, Justin likens being a Furry to being a Trekker in their early years, when they were seen as a weird, fringe cult, whereas they’re accepted as reasonably normal - if nerdy - members of society. Even country music legend Slim Dusty outed himself as a Trekker with his 1997 song “Star Trucker”.
“That’s where our fandom sits about now,” says Justin. “About where the Trekkers were in the 60s and 70s. A bunch of real weirdos.”
Like many Furries, Justin had simply liked fiction featuring anthropomorphic characters all his life. He didn’t realise he was a Furry, he says, until he found a word for it, and stumbled across the fandom on the internet.
“Before then I was secretly enjoying fantasy novels, books, kids’ movies, Disney, all that sort of stuff. Now I have a name for all that, and I’m not the only weird one.”
In Tasmania, though, Frank is mostly a lone wolf. Other Furries are rare here, so Justin mostly connects with the fandom via the internet and its sprawling Furry subculture of forums, chat rooms, blogs and image boards. So he is looking forward to a real life “Furmeet” with some Melbourne Furries travelling to Tasmania later this year, which will also be his first chance to be out in public with other fursuiters. While nearly all Furries have a fursona, few actually go fursuiting. Justin, though, finds the experience “pure fun”.
“I’m not ‘Justin Ryan’ any more, I’m Frank.”
Justin’s friend Johnny agrees.
“When Justin puts on his outfit and becomes Frank, I treat them as separate people. The personalities are remarkably different; his mannerisms and all aspects of character transform into Frank.”
Many Furries remark on the sense of liberation that fursuiting gives them. As one female fursuiter says in a TV interview, “You’d be amazed how much boundaries between people disappear when you’re wearing one of these things: I bet you would let me give you a hug right now!”
“You can detach yourself from the restrictions of modern society and just have fun,” says Johnny. “When I have enough money to fashion myself a suit, I’m most certainly going suiting.”
Still, Justin often betrays a serious, thoughtful side that might seem at odds with the impish, self-described weirdo in the wolf costume. While he’s a big fan of pranks, he says, they have to be ones that don’t cause any harm. So while Frank loves nothing more than walking into Subway and startling the sandwich artists, he doesn’t go into shops whose owners might be concerned about shoplifting or concealing identity.
Similarly, while he is sure his father - a “practical man” like himself, he says - would take his son’s strange hobby in his stride, because the family lost their mother to cancer last year, he has so far kept Frank a secret. “I don’t need to bother him with anything strange like this,” Justin says. “Of course, if he asked, I’d have to tell him.”
Like most of the species, Justin is also sensitive to the negative perception of Furries that’s especially widespread on the internet, where sites like “God Hates Furries” and the “Anti-Fur Coalition” are common. He bristles at the perception of a group dominated by perversion, blaming negative media, and particularly a 2003 episode of the TV series “CSI” for what he sees as unfair exaggeration.
While there is certainly a strand of the fandom that deviates into pornographic art and stories and other sexual activities, Justin argues, they are very much a minority. Results of surveys conducted on the fandom agree with him, with only a small number of Furries rating sex as important (perhaps somewhat surprising, given that surveys also show the fandom as a kind of bachelor herd, dominated by young males).
Still, Justin is not surprised that the misconception persists. “Society always tends to dig up the dirtiest, nastiest little things they can. They’ll focus on a minority.”
“I mean, I can understand, well, yeah, we’re weird. One of my favourite quotes is from the movie ‘Cool Runnings’: ‘We different. People are always afraid of what’s different’.”
But that isn’t apparent when friendly-looking Frank walks the streets of Launceston.
Children are happy to run up to the big, cuddly white wolf with the permanent, happy smile, and give him a huge hug while their parents watch and laugh.
“Frank is well received by the public,” says Johnny. “People see him as exciting and funny.”
“I didn’t know whether to laugh, or what to do,” says one woman. “He was great, though. I feel like … well, like I’d like to try it, too!”