cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2733818

I know that therians are not furries but I’m looking for any input I can get.

I’ve read through some of the top posts for r/therian. I have a vague understanding of otherkin in general but hadn’t heard of therians in particular. If my kid said they were a furry, I’d be well within my comfort zone. I fuck with furries. But this seems like people who feel they are trans-species and talk about having species dysphoria. I just don’t know what to make of it but I’m also trying to not overreact or let my snap judgements alienate my kid. I assume they feel like they’ve just had to come out to me, which is something I’ve gone out of my way to not make necessary in terms of gender and sexuality stuff. Just didn’t see this coming.

If the worst thing that happens is they enjoy making animal noises and spend more time out in nature, I’m super down. If they start experiencing alienation from their own identity because of this, I’m not sure what I’ll do.

  • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    13·
    25 days ago

    they’re fine, high correlation with autism so being against therians is kind of an indicator of ableism a lot of the time.

    Edit: If you’re concerned they’ll have alienation from their own body; I don’t think thinking of oneself as a dog-kin or cat-kin or something is enough to do that by itself. They’re either alienated due to other social influences (usually ableism or some other form of bigotry) which make them feel alienated, or they’ve got genuine reason to identify as such (autistic people specifically have good reason for both, given the sheer lack of empathy they get and the difficulty understanding the motivation of most NT people, AKA a massive portion of humanity). I think as long as we treat autistic people as somehow separate due to not having the “baseline” human experience, therians will continue to exist. And probably even afterward; Never underestimate someone’s ability to just think an animal is really, really cool

    I’ve genuinely never heard of a therian doing self-harm due to species dysphoria so I don’t think it’s the slippery slope conservatives think it is. Once you reach the more abstract forms of dysphoria I feel like they start being expressions of more base forms represented in a way the sufferer can understand.