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DISCUSSION: On the Sanctity of Fursonas
6 years ago
Hearken to me, my subjects!
(( OOC ))
I threatened a few weeks back that I would post my thoughts on this topic, and so here it is! I think that many of you already know what I am going to say here, since I've written about it in the past, but I feel like this is something important enough to deserve its own journal.
Fursonas are sacred: they are not just characters spit out by some big media giant. We put ourselves into them. But not just ourselves, but the best of ourselves: distilled, honed, and idealized. Our fursonas aren't just a piece of us, but the creature that we wish that we could be.
This is why I am so offended when I see character theft. It is different to steal and reuse someone's fursona than it is to pretend to be Krystal or PinkyPie. Its like stealing someone's face and going around pretending to be them - but it is even-worse. Since a fursona is an idealized form of that person, its more like stealing that someone's dream, or their soul.
Stealing a PinkyPie or Krystal, unethical as it may be, is less damaging. These are characters that everybody recognizes and so everybody knows that the thief is not-actually this character. The character's canon is defined elsewhere, and so they are untarnishable. But a fursona can be defiled because the canon is created by the owner, and you can't tell who is sitting at the keyboard on the other end of an interaction.
I also disapprove of "swap outs" in art. I've been offered, in the past, the option of replacing a character in another picture with Etheras because the artist and commissioner got into a fight. That offer was underhanded and wrong. Similarly: an artist has previously threatened to ink over art of my characters and sell it as another character... as-if there's nothing to a character but lines on a piece of paper. The attitude captured, the posture, the look, their activity - all the things that transform artwork from a picture into a character that feels like they have a life of their own - these things matter.
And so, I consider fursonas a sacred thing. We should all be more careful not to use a character's likeness if it doesn't belong to us, even in artwork (even in gift art! Are you sure the character's owner would be ok with this art? Are you sure? Maybe you should double-check.) And for artists: it is underhanded to simply replace one character with another as-if they're interchangeable. Let us be respectful of other people's cherished ideas, and imaginative creations.
( /soapbox )
Thanks for reading!
~ Lord Etheras
(( OOC ))
I threatened a few weeks back that I would post my thoughts on this topic, and so here it is! I think that many of you already know what I am going to say here, since I've written about it in the past, but I feel like this is something important enough to deserve its own journal.
Fursonas are sacred: they are not just characters spit out by some big media giant. We put ourselves into them. But not just ourselves, but the best of ourselves: distilled, honed, and idealized. Our fursonas aren't just a piece of us, but the creature that we wish that we could be.
This is why I am so offended when I see character theft. It is different to steal and reuse someone's fursona than it is to pretend to be Krystal or PinkyPie. Its like stealing someone's face and going around pretending to be them - but it is even-worse. Since a fursona is an idealized form of that person, its more like stealing that someone's dream, or their soul.
Stealing a PinkyPie or Krystal, unethical as it may be, is less damaging. These are characters that everybody recognizes and so everybody knows that the thief is not-actually this character. The character's canon is defined elsewhere, and so they are untarnishable. But a fursona can be defiled because the canon is created by the owner, and you can't tell who is sitting at the keyboard on the other end of an interaction.
I also disapprove of "swap outs" in art. I've been offered, in the past, the option of replacing a character in another picture with Etheras because the artist and commissioner got into a fight. That offer was underhanded and wrong. Similarly: an artist has previously threatened to ink over art of my characters and sell it as another character... as-if there's nothing to a character but lines on a piece of paper. The attitude captured, the posture, the look, their activity - all the things that transform artwork from a picture into a character that feels like they have a life of their own - these things matter.
And so, I consider fursonas a sacred thing. We should all be more careful not to use a character's likeness if it doesn't belong to us, even in artwork (even in gift art! Are you sure the character's owner would be ok with this art? Are you sure? Maybe you should double-check.) And for artists: it is underhanded to simply replace one character with another as-if they're interchangeable. Let us be respectful of other people's cherished ideas, and imaginative creations.
( /soapbox )
Thanks for reading!
~ Lord Etheras
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.”
Othello by William Shakespeare.
I think its not-okay, if the YCH is advertised as a one-off and customers bid on it, to then reuse the base image for other commissions. But in my mind, that's less about the sanctity of fursonas than like... false advertising. If it is implied that a YCH will be a one-off, there's something special about that, and it makes sense to bid higher. Implying that its a one-off, collecting the large bid-war fee, and then reselling the base image, just seems abusive IMHO.
What's your opinion on this?
Either way, this is a decision some dumb people will make thinking it won't matter. One time I even got asked to allow another person to use a character of mine because she looked so similar, from head to toe, to another's idea... dude.... just... just let me help you design one... of course I offered this after I said NO. The person didn't reply back or attempt to contact me again. Who knows, maybe I dodged a bullet.
When I got into the more flamboyant side of feminine male art, I explored options on how to make appealing femboys. It was hard to come up with 2 nice ones but I did finally, and I'm proud of them. I was new to it but with a bit of creativity we all can make something of our own :3 We can only hope more people get the message >_>
is obvious, based on your icon that's a fish
"Mr. Xx_DarkW0lf69_xX stole my fursona, as you can see in these images, he clearly used my weredeer taur with shitting dicknipples for RP purposes without my permission, I feel violated!"
These depraved people are "creative" enough to imagine there being gratification in such interests, why can't they also be creative enough to make their own characters to do it by?
Gift art, providing that it is privatly sent to the IP owner and approved is fine. Fan-art/fan-fiction/parodies is fine providing that the original owner is identified but not necessarily notified. with pastiches, the original owner should be identified and notified, just in case people confuse who the artist/author is.
Journals like these are exactly why I imagine art thieves indulge in this type of behavior, its hysterical.
Art by itself is subject and transformative. To think that you can escape people intention of parody or drawing inspiration from something is a bit fruitless.