The small yet loud narcissism and stage addiction problem in furry fandom

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Recently an opinion piece was published here by Cassidy Civet about alleged fraud in the fandom and its infestation of furry spaces. I feel many would believe that it is beneath this platform to have released it to the general public as it is “obvious” that its intention was not to foster improvements within the community, but instead to act as a platform for the author herself in order to rant about the situation she finds herself in when it comes to her desired musical career in the fandom. Which we'll cover is mostly true. However, I do think allowing such a piece to publish can act as a springboard for a larger conversation on situations that actually has come up in the fandom from time to time.

This is where someone with a stage addiction gets caught up in the euphoria and gets poisoned by narcissism and typically guises it as altruism and virtue.

This may seem harsh as a counter statement to Civet’s article, especially since sprinkled in there are genuine concerns that other furries do hold. But the way in which they are presented leads to her own words countering herself in such a way where when all of them are put together, all that truly remains is a rant about our convention boards having agency on those they are allowing to have a stage and what can appear to be purely sour grapes towards those that are getting it.

So let’s take these issues from another angle to try and separate the chaff from the wheat.

Fraud as a problem

To start off, yes, fraud is a problem in furry. It’s also a problem outside the fandom. Personally, I have been defrauded both inside and outside the fandom, and outside the fandom certainly has furries beat when it comes to me. In the words of a caged elephant, there ain’t no rest for the wicked. I’m in good company on that though, Mark Twain famously wasn’t all that good with money in general and got fooled out of quite a bit of it, so using his quote on being fooled when it comes to fraud is quite the irony.

Niic the Singing Dog

Kickstarter is noted as a highlight of a few of Cassidy's noted scams, particularly when it comes to Niic the singing dog’s campaign that raised $11,558 of the $10,000 in order to get an album published. It has been seven years since that campaign was held. Rauken has noted in a comment on another article about the singing dog that there was an update in December 2024, available only to backers, that the album release was going to be this year (2025). But this year is half way over and there hasn’t been any word on a release date since. I can agree this is a good one to bring up.

Ironically while Niic being made a Guest of Honor may have put a pit in the Civet’s stomach, she may find some compensation that he was a guest of honor at Garden State Fur Con 2025. This furry convention found itself in the throes of controversy due to 2024 staff having videos of them pod casting with Furry Raiders. As a result attendance declined by half in 2025, being “replaced” by another convention, which seemed to be created in protest of the Garden State gathering.

Called “Furgeddaboutit”, this New Jersey furry convention had twice the attendees as GSFC that weekend. And to add more salt to the wound, Furggedaboutit had one of the 2024 GSFC Guest of Honors, Coopertom, in attendance— meowch.

It’s sort of like that Brony thing Cassidy mentioned in her article where they created a competing gathering in protest. That thing she noted she had not seen in the fandom that she wished would happen in the furry fandom. Guess it did happen, just had to look harder and beyond just who was put on a pedestal to see the motions of those common furfolk. Though, I do take some blame for that because I didn’t do a proper article on the situation, just a video.

Trio Menagerie

As far as the Trio Menagerie, calling it fraud isn’t really true, as in her own words they did produce their first album and completed their first project. Also they did ask their backers if they were fine with them starting a second project backing concurrently while they finished their first. They have basically completed 2 of 3 albums they produced via these campaigns, and are slated to complete the third at some point this month according to their latest update.

Sure, they’re not as prolific as Pepper at closing Kickstarter projects, to be fair Pepper had made the fandom his full time job during those campaigns, but that doesn’t mean Menagerie aren’t finishing what they start and stealing money from people. If we were to make a rule that only those that have no active projects on Kickstarter can be Guests of Honor, then that would also mean Pepper can’t in the few months he has one open, yes? So no, it’s not a good rule. You would need to take in more metrics than just that.

When it comes to Kickstarter, I personally wouldn’t put money toward it, as the site says in its accountability page, it really has no accountability. You can easily throw your money at a project and not get anything in return. Any refund requests have to be made through the project creator themselves. Instead, I would recommend to the shrewd purchaser looking to support creators to instead compensate or buy for the items already created. Celebrating what is is a better way to ensure there may be a future opportunity to celebrate what will be.

The inconsistency in utilization of sexuality and gender as a boogie man in her critiques

There is a line in Cassidy’s article about how the furry is composed of 85% cis-male gay white men and that has led to some of the resistance that she as a performer has to fight to make tracks within such a fandom. However, when she discusses people as individuals she had negative things to say about were not the cisgendered gay men she lambasted other than Niic perhaps, but mostly instead transfolks, people of color, and women. These included the following:

Chise

Civet’s article indicates the failure to launch Harvest Moon Howl as a major reason that Chise should not be made to be a Guest of Honor and evidence of the fandom’s “fraud fetish”. However, most people in the fandom recognize Chise not for the work she does within the furry fandom, but the works she does outside of it. She was a leading source of information on vaccinations during the Covid pandemic of 2020, at a time where misinformation and disinformation were rampant.

For that work, she has been recognized as a person worthy of honor. Chise also happens to be a black woman, and her dedication to the sciences has literally saved lives and sanity during a time that we here were fortunate enough to see the other side of that millions did not. Because there was so much on the line, Chise, along with other furries in the medical fields such as Doc Wolverine, faced what seemed an unending battle day in and day out for over a year. Racing against time to try and create the tool needed to fight the virus.

So, that is the thing missed by Civet’s article. Cassidy expected that under this backdrop that Chise was expected to also successfully launch a furry convention. Now I will take some responsibility for probably not being more pointed myself in stating this obvious challenge when it comes to Harvest Moon’s failure to launch was partly due to the pandemic in this way, but I do tend to overestimate the sense in people.

You had the leader of the pending convention having to work non-stop in her main job to help save the lives of millions, and clearly there was a lack of reliable succession when it came to Harvest Moon. The better question to ask is, who did Chise delegate the convention responsibilities to as her workload became untenable?

If that person becomes a Guest of Honor, then I’d be a bit more worried. While we may not directly know who it is as the general public, I’m sure Chise has informed people (particularly fandom decision makers in convention spaces) in private on who that person was in order for them to not be given responsibilities like that in the future. But discretion is sometimes taken under threat of defamation or slander so that one doesn't want to divulge such details publicly online or inform someone who is known as a bean spiller.

I’m sure Chise’s not proud of what had occurred, I’m sure it’s a failure that weighs on her mind. But in the end, working on a vaccine for the virus was far more important than trying to ensure another furry convention was able to get off the ground. It isn’t the first con to fail to launch, and it wasn’t the last. The latest was just recent, with Furry Weekend LA recently having to cancel its proposed June gathering due to lack of hotel space being filled

Compensation for failed premiere conventions, like with Kickstarter backings, should be left up to those who paid to seek out compensation for the failure to launch if they choose to do so, not the journalist to demand it on their behalf. It would perhaps be better served to post an article on how to go about acquiring such refunds in these cases so that people who choose to do so will be able to more easily act on the decision, lowering resistance and thus making it easier to not have the one losing out to just “let it go”. Untested services and conventions come with some element of risk, and it’s important to be aware of those risks.

Who stole the Harvest Moon funds was an open question that Cassidy asked in her article as well, but interestingly outside of Flayrah’s walls on social media she was more pointed in who she claims was involved in the robbery.

It's pretty straightforward:
- Harvest Moon Howl Fest raised thousands
- Remy & Scales took over the con, looted to donations and shut it down
- Gave that money to Ash Coyote to make a fandom revisionist history documentary about hip hop in the fandom.

Pretty egregious to me. - Cassidy March 7th 2025

So if that’s who she believes it to be and it is straight forward, it would have been better to post that in the article directly, along with that evidence, would it have not? If she doesn’t have that evidence, and she is unsure, why post such an accusation unless it was just to harm Ash’s character?

Ash Coyote

So Cassidy doesn’t go after Ash by name, in her article at least, but she certainly goes after her concepts of furry fandom in her penultimate paragraphs about trying to make furries mainstream, particularly going after the phrase of “Keep Furry Weird”. “Keep Furry Weird” is a sentiment that can find its origins with the trans coyote who created such non fiction works such as The Fandom documentary. It is certainly a theme of her videos online.

In essence when going after this concept of keeping things weird, Cassidy rants about over sexualization. I find in these circumstances the civet is performing toxic asexuality. This is when someone who is asexual wants to purge the act of sex from spaces and criticizes that other people engage in the activity too much. It’s very much like the line between someone who is a teetotaler themselves and someone who is a prohibitionist. The former is making a personal choice based on their preferences but does not judge or engage heavily with those who engage in the vice themselves. The latter is someone who says that others should stop engaging in the vice because if they don’t try to stop them then they will also be seen as a promoter of the vice if they don’t actively push against it.

And in essence that is why the “Keep Furry Weird” mantra has been a powerful one.
There are many in society that want to make choices for other people. The “mainstream” is definitely one of those groups that try to tailor content and behavior toward their interests rather than the abstract and weird. Something tells me a furry pushing for furs to go mainstream who then also calls furries a bunch of nymphomaniacs is not going to sway the weird ones that they are incorrect in that judgement.

I mean doesn’t it seem odd that an article that indicates that there are so many problems in this fandom also has the desire to take the fandom mainstream? Why would you want something that is filled to the gills of awful people in positions of power to go mainstream? Do we have a fraud fetish or not? And why should that be unleashed upon the world if we do? Wouldn’t it be easier to just ditch the fursuit pursuit and make mainstream works for a larger audience if that is the case? To free oneself of the fraud?

Wasn’t that article supposed to be talking about fraud in the fandom, not shame the conduct of consenting adults? To me this conclusion of Civet’s article reveals more than any part that the article being about fraud may be a fraud and is more an excuse to rant about the state of the fandom as the author alleges it to be in the moment and her desire to “save” it.

And also her apparent concerns from some unattributed quote about the fandom treating her worse than Foxler, which… we’re talking about fraud in the fandom, not how people allegedly feel about her? Aren’t we? Aren’t we? Aren’t we?

Sure, furry not being “weird” may make Cassidy’s dream of being a world famous pop star— and politician— and now apparently some kind of hard-hitting journalist easier. But is it really up to the whole of a community to make the extra-fandom ambitions of one of its own easier?

A brief interjection to note that this is not just as Cassidy issue, but can occur in others. A prime example can be found in the since-removed business leader from ArtworkTee, Neil Fox. In the early 2020s he had started updating his profiles to name himself the “Furry President” and also started a podcast to be a fandom journalist, while trying to sell merch outside of convention spaces while trying to use the convention’s names. Most of his profiles have since been deleted, so my hope is that he realized he needed to step back and take a moment.

I think this highlights a narcissistic trait of the belief that you can be everything. We all have limited time and resources, so that is very much an unrealistic goal. If you try to be everything, you’ll eventually be nothing. A President cannot be a good journalist, because people will not be genuine around people with decision making powers, and thus Presidents need good non-affiliated journalists to get a true temperature of sentiment. Likewise, a diva who tries to be a politician risks isolating her audience who hold different political beliefs. We can ask a different Coyote about that.

In speaking of which.

The one to receive praise: Pepper Coyote

If the above wasn’t ironic enough, there was really only one person she gave praise to in the article, and that was Pepper Coyote. Who is last I checked, a cis-gendered white guy who is at least a 4 on the Kinsey Scale. You know, the group that was allegedly holding her back. Guess he’s one of the good ones. Or perhaps individuals desperate to make themselves center stage usually use fear of some grand conspiracy amongst some perceived outside group to keep the masses that believe similar stories ensnared and dependent on their 'leadership'. Who knows.

Again, I don’t know what truly resides in a person’s heart, but if Cassidy's words about Pepper performing at Texas Furry Fiesta without fanfare is true, then I believe it shows that, when it comes to music performance, Pepper’s heart could be in the right place. It’s about the chance to perform, not having his name on a poster. He would use such an opportunity to put in the work to get back on the on-ramp and move forward.

The fact that Pepper not having his name on a poster was Civet’s primary concern of the TFF situation certainly highlights what Cassidy feels is the important outcome of a performance. It’s not enough that the audience got to enjoy the music, but that the performer has their name on the Monique. Clout and recognition are the most important things.

When that is the currency, anyone else who gets such things as well is a threat and taking up the limited space for recognition that could go to them. And threats needs to be smeared. When someone becomes known to have a tendency to go after folks in this way on a whim, unfortunately when there is an actual problem, people are just going to see these allegations against those folks through that lens. A classic boy who cried wolf scenario. They’re writing this for themselves, the audience will believe, not for the improvement of others. It’s just sour grapes.

Because in the end does it really truly matter who the Guest of Honor is other than the one who wants to be a Guest of Honor themselves in this fandom?

”See no one cares”, Dennis Nedry - Jurassic Park

I mean sure, some of us dorks may care, but what about the “mainstream” audience in the fandom? I had a curiosity on what drove furries to actually attend a convention, so back in 2023 I posted a poll on the matter. In it I asked “What is the largest factor you consider when choosing a furry convention to attend?”

In the results, who the Guest of Honor is came dead last, tying with what is on the programming schedule. Which also makes sense because if you talk to furries on the ground at a convention, they’re usually not discussing who the GOH is, or if pressed they may not be able to tell you who they are at all. The more popular reasons to attend are the location of the convention, friends that will be in attendance, and costs.

Funnily enough there was another poll done all the way back in 2001 I wasn’t originally aware of about why people go to conventions on this site too. Like the more modern poll, meeting the Guest of Honor came in dead last as a reason people go to a convention. So there really is no change in 20 years in this regard.

At the end of the day, fraud is an important thing to discuss, but when the people who receive the title of Guest of Honor care more about the title than the people on the ground by such a large swath, it may be hard to convince them to read a dissertation on alleged fraud within the Guest of Honor spaces. The apathy of the audience on learning more about the honored guest is contagious and so not a lot of time or resources is probably spent in vetting them. Which in the long run can lead to more apathy.

They’re certainly not going to spend, in Civet’s words, “three years worth of research and personal trauma” to vet out a guest of honor.

A savvy convention that starts up and is not bound by tradition may find a good way to reduce expenses and drama to simply do away with the position entirely that is coveted by some, yet not sought by neither the attendees nor people who are in the fandom for honorable reasons. I guess a good example of this is Furality.

As someone who has done panels at conventions, it is something I’m aware of that most people are not there for me, we just happen to be a backdrop to fill time with while imparting our content, talents, or knowledge. It’s why running a panel is not my primary reason for going to a convention. So as a content creator, it can be healthy to have another “why” in mind than just the performance.

Conclusion

While some may say I’m doing too much of a kindness to Cassidy to allow her words to be published, I would argue the opposite. The best thing that could have happened for Civet in this case is for us at Flayrah to have left her words to go unpublished and not reveal herself through her own words.

If we left them unprinted it would have not allowed her obsession for and about power within the fandom to bubble to the surface. Her feelings on using fandom institutions as a stepping stone for herself and not as means to allow others to also express themselves would be far less obvious. Now the conversations around these feelings are going to cloud her time to focus on making music and to keep on improving herself. It could be argued that she secretly wants this hullabaloo that she vocally sings against. If so, it once again would show that her words are ingenuine.

You cannot force an institution to give you honor. Nor can you achieve honor by seeking to muckrake others as some means to free the way for you to be seen as most honorable in some sort of relativity game. You can only act with honor, and hope that society will continue to correctly recognize it. There are many out there who will create and never be heard. Our species's desire to create cannot be denied, and our wish to be recognized for those toils is also paramount, but it is never a guarantee.

If you don’t feel praised enough, that is not a sign of institutional fraud. It is just how life works out sometimes. So always try to have a secondary plan should your creative endeavors falter. I’ve seen too many furries burned by going all in, and then being left alone with debt and despair when the winds change. And musicians, of anyone, should all have been warned by their peers about the Hotel California, or leaving for Santa Monica or maybe even the Gossip that surrounds those who form such goals of fame. Perhaps once we recognize those toxic elements of Hollywood within ourselves we should use the ”tool” of an Ænema to deal with it and flush that desire to follow their ways away from our minds.