To add onto this, it doesn't take any amount of effort to bring in alt furries into the fold, despite how much leftist furries may complain.
And maybe it's because I've been hitting the sauce, but the political nature has cut into my own freelance funds, because even if you draw something for someone who may be alt-right, suddenly, you're the devil. I rely on furry commissions to fill in the gaps that freelancing for studios et all can't cover, the last thing I want is to be forced into any one "side" and if I fulfill a contract for either an alt-furry or an antifur, suddenly I am the enemy for drawing either.
Sorry that it's just a business, I like many artists, have bills to pay and it's fucking annoying that a secondary and formerly, a happy source of income (I mean, playing God with animal and human features is fun as hell) and one of the least appealing genres to be a part of.
So honestly asking, KF, as a long term lurker and a member of the community;
How can i draw and enjoy the fun depictions of animal people without being lumped into the greater furry fandom towards which I've developed a strong animosity towards?
It's a bit of a personal battle between what I enjoy drawing and telling stories with, and then "serious" professional art, like; for as long as it's happened and for the fuckups who are involved- I just want to have fun drawing animal people and not have it be a fetish or be a furry thing, like-
-why does every fucking thing have to be a fetish, hahaha.
This is invariably one of the biggest hurdles that the furry fandom has to get over in order to bring a social normalization to the community; not necessarily the politics, but the polarization being created by those using politics as a weapon.
Regardless of the politics of any particular furries, be it left, right, center, far-left, far-right, or whatever, at the end of the day, the OVERWHELMING majority of these people, no matter how in opposition their politics might be, are very much the same in most every other regard. They all go about their lives, go to work, pay their bills, hang out, tell jokes, have families, relationships, hobbies, interests, friends, and socialize like all the rest.
It's basically come down to a bunch of people saying "The peanut butter is better" and a bunch of others saying "the jelly is better" when both are talking about the same goddamn PB&J sandwich. It all meshes well together, it's all a complete concept, it's just some taking preference to a trivial facet of the whole and shitting on each other for not all thinking the same thing.
When it comes to trying to do commissioned work in the furry fandom right now, you really have only three options;
- Play it safe and only take commissions from the "leftist" side, so as to not rustle the jimmies of the spiteful and vocal minority of radicals like Deo, Chip, Junius, etc into trying to ruin your image and income.
- Say "screw the optics, i'm going in" and just do as you please without giving any care or credence to the busybodies and moralizers of either "side".
- Just stop taking commissions from furries completely, and forego the extra income in order to just draw whatever anthropomorphic themed content YOU want, at your leisure.
As long as petty, entitled, and deluded twits are running around inflaming polarization and hate because they think everyone who doesn't think like them is one of satan's own evil, steaming turds, then those are the options you and many others will have to choose from, and far as I can tell, those twits will be around stirring up trouble for a long while.
