# Help with School Paper?



## jmlukens (Oct 21, 2010)

I need academic "furry resources"...

I am writing my final paper for university this year and... let's face  it, it's on furries. Namely furries/cosplayers and costuming. I haven't  come up with my thesis yet, hopefully after my meeting with my tutor  today I'll have it.

Pretty much... all I've got is:
Furries and cosplayers are not going away any time soon, based on the convention statistics of increasing attendance.
Can I make a small yet successful business of supplying custom-made costumes and props for said fan-bases?

It's really hard to do papers on contemporary issues that are not  main-stream. If I wanted to write about recessions, it would be SO easy  to find literature of the current world recession and recessions in the  past. But it's proving very hard to find GOOD resources for marketing in  subcultures.

I've asked a friend for her paper she wrote to get her master's in  psych, but I don't know how much of that I could possibly use, since  it's based on the psychology of furry, and not the market.

I hate to make it sound so "I'm going to make a furry business  bwahahaha" but... it's what I want to do with my degree. I've learned  some skills here that can be used to create fantastical costumes and  fursuits and props. But I need to turn all of this into 4,000 words  (piece of cake for a final paper, god I love art school), with  illustrations (easy enough) and references. I'm really lacking in  references....


So far on the reading list I have Deviant Desires: Incredibly Strange Sex, which features a section on furries, but also apparently shows there is a line between fetish and fandom. I also will be going through the archives of "Down the Rabbit Hole" by Phil Geusz for the AnthroZine trying to pick out some useful things.

Anyway, any and all help would be much appreciated!


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## Aegis (Oct 21, 2010)

Why, by any stretch of the imagination, have you decided to do a paper on this? >_>


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## Taralack (Oct 21, 2010)

I think you might have better luck with help in The Den or the fursuiting forum.


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## jmlukens (Oct 21, 2010)

Aegis said:


> Why, by any stretch of the imagination, have you decided to do a paper on this? >_>


 
I am currently undergoing a degree for modelmaking. Through this, I have learned how to apply industry skills for all sorts of things. My final paper has to relate to the work I am doing this year (I am making a fursuit for a pantomime, an animal shaman or phooka costume/prosthetic, and CLAMP mechanical birds). After graduation I plan on opening a costuming/prop business. In order to write about all of this, I need some sort of proof that there is an industry.

To be really fair, I am not the first person to write about furry for educational purposes. At least I'm not some university figure plaguing the AC dealers room for statistics in the name of "SCIENCE"...


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## jmlukens (Oct 21, 2010)

As a side note, the paper is also about cosplay, which there is a TON of information about because it's more main-stream. The downside of cosplay is copyrights to characters and the fact that most cosplayers make their own outfits, because professionally made ones aren't always allowed to be judged.


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## Bir (Oct 21, 2010)

Personally, I would just ask some fursuiters to you interview them, and possibly use their things as examples. Demonstrate that there are conventions for many hobbies and fandoms, and that this one is growing. 

I dunno.

I never could write "technical" papers. Mine were always more... written for inner thoughts, even on something basic. 

xD


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## Foxfairy (Oct 21, 2010)

:/ you should try interviewing people, but I have to say, if you want to seriously pursue the academic analysis of furries, it might be better to start doing research and data analysis on your own. Hey, then you could get published and boast about the size of your academia-peen!


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