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What We Like After Dark

NOTES NOTES NOTES

Content warning

This is literally about sex, interests, and kink

There are only words and graphs here

We're here to observe the data

Data is provided as-is

Additional warnings as needed

  • CWs
  • next Literally about sex/kink.
  • next Only words about data and graphs. No art, stories, etc.
  • next We'll be talking about a number of kinks today in terms of how often art depicts those acts. We're not here to pass judgment on the legality or morality of those kinks, but observe and understand how they exist within to the fandom as a whole
  • next We are using the data as-written on several sources, which includes slurs for genital configurations and unflattering shorthand for sex acts.
  • next Will provide add'l warnings when things come up.
  • If pressed: My goal: focus on the numbers, not the acts themselves/why they're problematic. I'll keep from passing judgment on anything one way or another, and gently steer any conversation back to the data. Those are valid conversations to be had, and perhaps we can have some after, but this is not the forum: need to keep focused/efficient, time limit, on topic.

Furries and sexuality

(It's complicated)

Furries and sexuality

It's complicated

"How important is sex in furry to yourself?"

"How important do you think sex in furry is to other furries?"

"How important do you think the public thinks sex is in furry?"

Furries and Sexuality

  • The thing is, we have as many hangups as anyone else
  • We get defensive, even for how open-minded we try to be
  • Not a bad thing, just part of being human a slice of society

The data we have

Those who have seen Exploring the Fandom Through Data will recognize some of this. Have a good amount of data and sources

Ourselves

Standard part 1 of my discussion of data: a ton of what we have to work with comes from introspection

Those around us

And part 2: we also have our social interactions to look at

wixxx

It's like F-list but more discoverable (this is probably by design)

  • wixxx - interest discovery tool on MUCKs
  • Like F-list
  • F-list isn't super discoverable, mostly by design, so it's hard to gather data. wixxx easier

Furry Survey

  • Two years of furry survey data including sexuality data
  • Questions relating to power dynamics and interests

Art sites

SoFurry

Inkbunny

Weasyl

FurAffinity

But mostly SoFurry for now

  • Big art sites like SoFurry, Inkbunny, Weasyl, Furaffinity
  • All come with challenges: none come with APIs, have to rely on scraping
  • Even then, challenging due to site dev or difficult-to-parse HTML
  • next Focus mostly on SoFurry for now thanks to Rob's scrape
  • And then...

e621

We'll get to you later, darling...

There's e621 next - we'll get to you later, darling.

Influences

Data doesn't appear on its own, comes from us, and we aren't solipsistic, we have influences

Media

  • Instance of the world influencing us
  • MLP, Zootopia...

Artists

Artists with specialties/interests

Open, closed, and personal species

  • Artists with specialties/interests
    • Ollie Canal and otters
    • CadmiumTea and diverse bodies
    • sicklyhypnos and watersports
    • Os and marijuana
  • Open, closed, and personal species
    • skiltaires (old, relatively little art)
    • angel dragons (relatively little art)
    • sergals
    • cruxes

Memes

  • Instance of us influencing each other based on single topic
  • E.g: draw your self in (twitter hoodie|keyhole turtleneck|virginkiller sweater|etc)
  • sometimes influences other subjects: bowsette : bowser

The data

What we say we like What we show we like
  • Data that follows is presented along a scale from "what we say we like" to "what we show we like".
  • First comes the informal "I like x kink" put out there when discussing with potential interested parties with wixxx flags
  • Then comes "I like x kink and here's how I participate" asked in the more formal setting of a disinterested survey with the Furry Survey
  • Then comes "I show the things I like by creating what I do and reading what I like" with data from SoFurry
  • Finally comes a deep dive into the things we create and consume as measured against the broader picture of the world around us with data from e621 and Google Trends

wixxx

Listing interests on MUCKs

Whitelisted wordcount

  • wixxx is a tool on MUCKs like taps, spr, furry
  • Lets you list what you're interested in so that people can find roleplay partners
  • uses a list of flags you can choose from, lets you specify one custom one (which may be a sentence, could throw wrench in admittedly stupid textual analysis)
  • Similar to F-list, which doesn't have a good API, though some scraping efforts are being made by Krinn

wixxx

The whitelist:

available, anything-goes, ageplay, alt-having, anal, avian-preferred, aquatic, bisexual, biting, blood, body-modification, bondage, bottom, breath-control, breeding, boots, castration, C&BT, chemical, chastity, cinfo, cunt-loving, cum-covered, cum-loving, cock-worshipping, consensual-only, crossdresser, cuckolding, cunt-worshiping, dominant, diapers, dirty-talk, disobedient, discipline, dyes, edible, electrical, emasculation, enema, exhibitionist, experienced, female-biased, fear, foot-fetish, F-List, feminization, fur-preferred, forcedshifting, fisting, food-fetish, fuckable, homosexual, gendershifting, group-sex, heterosexual, herm-biased, horny, humiliation, humor-and-comedy, hypnosis, inexperienced, Always-IC, inflation, in-heat, incest, infantilist, intelligence-biased, masturbating, lecherous, large, lactate, latex, leather, leashable, lesbian, loose, male-biased, macrophile, magic-sex, masochist, mated, microphile, mind-control, monogamous, muscle, mummification, non-morphic, nonconsensual, non-sexual, nipple-torture, nullification, objectification, orgasm-denial, Always-OOC, oral, oviposition, owned, owner-consent, pansexual, no-pages, pet, piercing, plants, plushophile, polyamorous, public-property, predator, pregnophile, private, prey, panty-fetish, public, rimming, romantic, rpwi, sadist, scat, shapeshifting, shaving, sheaths, shy, size-queen, slutty, slave, small, sex-machines, scentplay, snuff, scale-preferred, spanking, strapons, submissive, switch, sex-doll, tantric, tattoo(ing), teasing, tentacles, tickling, breast-loving, top, toys, trainable, transformation, unavailable, unbirthing, uppity, vampirism, vanilla, virgin, vorarephile, voyeur, watersports, wet-and-messy, no-whispers, xeno-preferred, yiffy, zoophile

  • Whitelist includes
  • available, anything-goes, ageplay, alt-having, anal, avian-preferred, aquatic, bisexual, biting, blood, body-modification, bondage, bottom...
  • Next slide

wixxx

(what I'm trying to say is that it's a lot)

(what I'm trying to say is that it's a lot)

wixxx

NOTES NOTES NOTES

The Furry Survey

Ran for two years

Power dynamics

Do you consider yourself dominant or submissive in...

  • Do you consider yourself dominant or submissive in...
    • ...sexual situations?
    • ...romantic situations?
    • ...social situations?
NOTES NOTES NOTES

Sexual interests

Kinks, in short

How would you describe your sexual interests?

  • Asked about kinks and sexual interests
  • How would you describe your sexual interests?
    • I consider myself interested in this
    • I consume media related to this
    • I participate in this online in roleplay
    • I participate in this offline in person
    • (and of course, no answer)
We asked about...
  • Furry
  • Zoophilia
  • Plushophilia
  • Transformation
  • Ageplay
  • Diapers
  • Bondage
  • Domination/submission
  • Sadomasochism
  • Fursuits
  • Fertility/Impregnation
  • Vore
  • Gender play (shifting, crossdressing, etc)
  • Exhibitionism
  • Footpaw worship
  • Watersports
  • Size play (macro or micro)
  • Inflation
  • Humiliation
  • Consensual non-consent
  • Finally starting to talk about interests/kinks. As mentioned at the beginning, going to be talking about several different ones, incl zoophilia, ageplay, diapers. No content, just numbers.
    • Furry
    • Zoophilia
    • Plushophilia
    • Transformation
    • Ageplay
    • Diapers
    • Bondage
    • Domination/submission
    • Sadomasochism
    • Fursuits
    • Fertility/Impregnation
    • Vore
    • Gender play (shifting, crossdressing, etc)
    • Exhibitionism
    • Footpaw worship
    • Watersports
    • Size play (macro or micro)
    • Inflation
    • Humiliation
    • Consensual non-consent
  • Method: guess and check. Thought of as many sexual interests as possible, and then checked their counts on e621 as barometer of how popular they might be.
  • Kinks on the left ordered most to least popular by interest

SoFurry

Furry writing and art site

  • SoFurry, née YiffStar
  • next Furry writing and art site, mostly known for writing
  • advantage over surveys is that there's less performativity: answering to meet expectations or to shock.
  • advantage over wixxx is thatthere's something concrete at stake rather than just "oh I like anal".

SoFurry

Submission and tag data collected by Rob Baird

  • Submission and tag data collected by Rob
  • Have to access through scraping
  • Get a reasonable slice by using the "random stories" pool
    • Stories: 16,950
    • Authors: 6,529
    • Tags: 13,817
  • What we tag
    • Couplings
    • Species
    • Acts
    • Story aspects
    • Theme and genre
  • Tag popularity over the years
  • What tags show up with what other tags.

e621

  • e621 is incredibly popular
  • submission count over time
  • and its popularity continues to grow over time
  • uploads per day

e621

API exposing information about entities on the site

In particular, we're interested in:

  • For our purposes, it helpfully exposes a rich API
  • Posts
  • Tags
  • Sources
  • Artists

e621

Tagging on e621

  • How is tagging on e621 different from on SoFurry?
  • There are rules and guidelines for tagging
  • When restrictions are imposed, both makes art easier to find, and changes dynamic of what tags are used
  • Tag what you see, not what you want people to find
  • Also: tagging other people's work
  • what do we have to work with?
  • Lots, turns out.
  • go over numbers on dashboard
  • Should note that explore621 adds a few different types of tags spun from the general type

e621

The basics

A word on tags

  • Let's start with basics
  • next A word on tags first
  • As mentioned at the beginning, using data as-written, which includes slurs for genital configurations and unflattering shorthand for sex acts.
  • Sexes and bodily configurations
  • How do we combine these bodies together?
  • And what are these bodies doing?

e621

Media

  • How about media franchises?
  • My Little Pony
  • Can see how popular it is relative to the mean
  • Standard deviation click shows, in short, how far outside the norm it is.
  • You can see the standard deviation of the total population
  • This means you can see if something is way more or less popular if it's more than one standard deviation away from the mean
  • THIS SLIDE WILL BE BROKEN WITHOUT NETWORK
  • We are, of course, influenced from the outside.
  • But wait, foxes, what happened?!
  • When Zootopia came out, foxes and bunnies suddenly became way more popular.
  • zootopia
  • Can see that it is quite popular, often by several standard deviations.
  • First spike is the first teaser
  • Subsequent spikes are trailers and then debut
  • However, popularity often infects other tags
  • It also made the disney tag fantastically popular

e621

Memes

  • Of course, not everything has to come on high as canon
  • The internet, like furry, is without canon, and happily creates its own from moment to moment
  • Memes are an example of this. Something people agree on as a truth, even if only for a short time.
  • One meme that crops up in various formats time and again is the "Draw yourself in..." meme.
  • Takes the form of a - usually ridiculous - piece of clothing with the suggestion to draw yourself (or have someone draw you) wearing it
  • Here are a few examples
  • of course, it can get a bit out of hand
  • this one transcended furry, to an extent
  • note, though, how much it influenced bowser as a tag

e621

Find out more about e621 data, along with these charts and more on explore621.net

  • That's all I have for the e621 side of the presentation
  • Find more on explore621.net

Conclusion

  • So, we've seen a bit of what it is that we, as a loose amalgam of a subculture, like when it comes to sex, interests, and kinks.
  • We went through the gamut of self-identification, tagging of our own art, and tagging of others' art, three different levels of specificity
  • We saw some basics about what we like, as well as some popular interests
  • We saw some interesting little tidbits from the e621 data
  • Now, we get to see how we, as individuals, fit into all this. What do we like? How do we compare with what we see? Are we in line with it, or do we go against the grain?
  • That's all I have for my presentation, but I do have quite a bit of data on hand and, assuming I have network access, I have the entire e621 data set available. Feel free to ask me anything.

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