Quite frankly I'm tired of sitting here and watching the plight of "Anthro". DD's and News features are all fine and dandy, but I feel that real action needs to be taken if "Anthro" is to be taken seriously on dA. It's been nearly nine months since the "Anthro" gallery was created (a move which I still feel was short-sighted and I still disagree with, but that's for another time), and since then there hasn't been any semblance of order, unity, or community.

Part of the reason for that is because "Anthro" cannot be defined. The current criteria for pieces of art in "Anthro" rely mostly on the dictionary definition of "anthropomorphic", and under those conditions I would estimate a good 50% of the non-photography visual art deviations would fall under that category. To me, it appears as if dA wants to separate "furries", and anything that could be confused as a "furry", into its own separate gallery, based solely on appearance and without regard for the intent of the artist.

(I can't define "furry" either, since there doesn't seem to be any set criteria for it. Anthroporphic animals, you say? What about Scooby Doo or Brian from Family Guy? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? There seems to be some sort of "invisible line" between "furry" and non-"furry".)

Another contributing factor is the bad rap that "Anthro" gets on the Internet. Nowadays "Anthro" carries connotations of bestiality, along with the stereotype that "Anthro artists" are all perverts and outcasts. That being the case, I can see why many artists are hesitant to upload work to the "Anthro" gallery and want nothing to do with it.

If the expectation is that "Anthro artists" will just suddenly come together and form an "Anthro community" then those people are sadly mistaken. (What exactly is an "Anthro artist" anyway? Am I a "Dwarf artist" because I draw a lot of dwarves?) I already explained the "baggage" that comes with the term "Anthro", not to mention the chan board raids and fursecutioners that something like that would bring. Any sort of "Anthro community" would need meticulous upkeep and moderation, something that would require quite a bit of staff support.

Please try to understand where I'm coming from. Manga/Anime and Cartoons & Comics have received the support and the help that those galleries need ( I use those as examples simply because they were created at the same time Anthro was) while "Anthro" has been in limbo almost since the beginning. I'm just expressing my frustration over the situation.

Thanks for your time.