Arizona GOP lawmaker asks Twitter what furry is, gets a Fursona from #RedforEd supporter

What started out as a Twitter debate over education ended Friday with an artist gifting Rep. Kelly Townsend with her own 'Fursona,' a cartoon-like anthropomorphic version of herself, courtesy of a freelancer familiar with the furry community.

But what's a furry? Well, let's give scientists a say.

The International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP), a team of social scientists, studies furries and their fandom. The group says furries are fans of media that features walking, talking animal characters. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions or intentions to non-human entities such as animals.

Furries' interest in anthropomorphized animals — like Cat in the Hat, Winnie the Pooh, Sonic the Hedgehog or Pokémon — often includes dressing up in animal costumes. Popular films with anthropomorphic animals include Zootopia, Madagascar and Robin Hood.

Now back to Townsend, furries and her own animal character. Here's what Mesa Republican Townsend's Fursona looks like:

Townsend shared her Fursona with the hashtag #FursuitFriday.

Furries proclivity for dressing up is sometimes misunderstood as a fetish. But IARP scientists say that furry fans are drawn to the practice because it creates a sense of community, provides recreation and offers "escape from the mundaneness of daily life, as well as its appreciation of anthropomorphic art and stories."

OK, but how did an Arizona GOP politician get a fursona?

In a Twitter exchange about #RedForEd, Townsend wrote that one of the leaders of the movement had granted an interview to a "Russian sanctioned propaganda station."

The month-old interview on "Loud and Clear" is described as a talk with "Noah Karvelis, a public educator in Phoenix who frequently publishes and speaks about public education and democracy in the United States."

Karvelis, 23, a music teacher and one of the leaders of Arizona Educators United, the grassroots group that helped organize the teacher walkout, did not immediately respond to The Arizona Republic's call for a comment. Karvelis is a second-year teacher in the Littleton Elementary School District from Pecatonica, Illinois — population 2,195. He has said that many teachers live paycheck to paycheck and called on Arizona lawmakers to restore education funding for students and schools.

The "Loud and Clear" show is aired through Radio Sputnik, which is funded by the Russian government. A 2017 Washington Post story said Sputnik's lineup included President Donald Trump supporter Lee Stranahan, a former Breitbart reporter.

Twitter user @peppercoyote, with a profile picture of an anthropomorphic cartoon fox, responded to Townsend's tweet, saying that "public education is a socialist concept and after a lifetime of trying to get it to work within capitalism, we'd rather give democratic socialism a shot."

Townsend replied with "And there it is."

User @andreuswolf, also donning a profile picture of a cartoon creature, responded to Townsend.

"Imagine going to all this trouble to get elected to the state legislature of Arizona only to get logically destroyed by a furry," the tweet said.

A furry? The peculiar word piqued Townsend's curiosity.

"Please educate me as to what a furry is," she wrote.

Uh oh. People braced for the lesson Townsend was about to get on Twitter.

But Townsend rolled with the tweet storm.

Throughout the exchange she learned about 'Fursonas,' which represent what one feels he or she would look like as a furry.

Soon Townsend was pitching a couple of her own characters for #FursuitFriday:

User @Meta_Artist decided to make Townsend a 'Fursona' artwork for free. He also tried to sway her opinion of Arizona's educators who participated in the walkout.

The artist only wanted his first name, Alex, published because of concerns that his furry creations would be seen as unprofessional given his current occupation in the medical field.

"Just remember the teachers are educational foundation for America's youth and they deserve better pay for their hard work," he wrote.

Alex said he initially didn't look into Townsend's stance on the #RedForEd movement, but he felt compelled to make original art for Townsend and send a message about education when she began pulling work from other artists to make her 'Fursona.'

"I think at that point, she was posting art that did not belong to her, and in the artist community that is a big no-no," Alex said. "I thought that she seems very sincere about asking for art, so I just decided to do it just for fun."

Alex said that the artwork is not an endorsement of Townsend or any political ideology.

Just before the Arizona Legislature on Thursday passed a budget that included nearly $273 million meant for giving teachers pay raises, Townsend pushed several amendments.

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One amendment would have outlawed school closures, another would have enabled complaints from lawmakers to spur an investigation into school districts by the attorney general, and the third would have prohibited teachers from disseminating political ideology in classrooms. All three were defeated.

Despite her stance on the #RedForEd movement, Townsend liked the artwork so much she asked to pay for her Fursona.

One Twitter use questioned whether Townsend would ever ask the Internet for help again.

"Best day in months," she replied.

Reach reporter Angel Mendoza at amendoza@gannett.com, or follow him on Twitter @angelnmendoza_ or on Facebook.

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