Therian Positivity - Tumblr Posts

LOOK WHAT I MADE

making the therian/caution symbol was a pain in the ASS and i know it’s not properly positioned, i’ll fix it later 😭 but i should also have a transparent version of the symbol somewhere in case anyone wants to use it!

i was going to make this as a patch for my battle jacket too :3

so butiful<3

DEAR DISABLED THERIANS.

a short positivity post to remind you all that you are loved, important and valued in not only the therian / alterhuman community, but in life. take care of yourselves.

to the therians who use canes and wheelchairs, you are no less of a mobile creature for needing an aid. whether your theriotype is a fish, a domestic cat or a wild canid — mobility aids are found in most, if not all, species out there due to the help from humans. if you had been born in the right body, you would be given the same sort of aid. i promise. it isn't shameful.

you have carpal tunnel and feel left out because you're a wolf who was born to run and hunt elk? that's great!! i bet you'd be great friends with this guy :0}

to the blind and / or deaf therians who are told that their theriotype simply wouldn't survive due to their blindness — this simply isn't true. there have been many cases of blind or deaf animals surviving, look at this wolf as an example! and bare in mind MOST cases of blindness are partial, but this old gal is pretty much FULLY blind, and she's doing fine. why wouldn't you?

to the therians who have some sort of learning disability, it does NOT make you an idiot. i tend to see a lot of critters with stereotypically intelligent animals (think elephants, border collies, etc) as their theriotypes and feel worried due to their disability. you aren't dumb, you aren't "mentally not there", you aren't any of the mean things you've been called throughout your life. there ARE animals with learning disabilities, you would not die in the wild for having one just the same as you would not die in a domestic household for having one (or many)

and to those who have any other disabilities that i didn't mention in this short post, you are enough. you don't have to prove your therianthropy to anyone. if someone ever insists that you can't possibly be your theriotype because you are disabled? ignore them, they're lying and just trying to make you feel terrible about yourself. it's hard being disabled, it's hard waking up in pain and never not being NOT in pain, it's hard knowing that there are folks out there that'd demean you just for being disabled, it's hard needing mobility aids and not being able to afford them, it's hard when people think that you're stupid or less deserving of respect because they don't deem you "all there".

i love you all, those hardships are something that you shouldn't ever have to experience.

take good care of yourself if you can, and if you can't? get yourself that sweet treat you've been wanting, eat your favorite candy before a savory meal, give yourself a well deserved hug and watch your favorite show.

reminder that's okay to not have theriotype's animalistic behaviours and just identifying as certain animal because it feels right and feels like real you. It's okay because, how are you supposed to behave like your species, little creature, when nobody taught you to? Animals in the wild are learning from their parents and surroundings, not just from being one. We were raised by humans, taught human behaviour even if we aren't one.

little creature, maybe your instincts are deep inside of you because of your own safety? little creature, your identity is valid because it's you

shoutout to chronically ill therians who can't do a lot of things that other critters can even though they're the same creature.

shoutout to fat therians who struggle to do quads.

shoutout to mute therians who can't bark, meow, whinny, growl, yip or make any other sound to do with who they are.

shoutout to deaf therians with theriotypes that are known for their amazing hearing.

shoutout to aquatic therians that can't swim, whether it be due to a fear, disability, or anything else.

shoutout to therians that don't quite know which animal they are yet, it's okay. you have all the time in the world.

shoutout to therians who don't have friends or a pack to rely on. you'll find your folks.

shoutout to therians who aren't white and feel isolated in the community because of that.

shoutout to therians who don't have the time or resources to fully be themselves yet.

shoutout therians who struggle to accept themselves as their type just because they're not a "popular" animal to see around.

shoutout to therians who are the complete opposite to that last part, no matter how common or uncommon your type is, it's still okay. you're still you and that is lovely.

shoutout to ALL therians. you are all important and wonderful, if you don't believe it then i sure do. i love you all.

I love therians who are physically nonhuman due to delusions

I love therians who are physically nonhuman due to autism

I love therians who are physically nonhuman due to a personality disorder

I love therians who are physically nonhuman due to a physical disability

I love therians who are physically nonhuman due to trauma

I love all therians who are physically nonhuman for any reason whatsoever

Just because your experience of nonhumanity is less widely discussed or considered harmful or considered ‘problematic’ does not make your therianthropy less valid 🖤

I love being therian sm, for all the bad stuff there's like a million pros that outweigh the cons and its just a good time. I love u guys :3 /p

I think we need to normalize using "people" as a species neutral word.

Like idk in my brain the word people just doesn't automatically = human. To me it's just a way to signify intelligence and individuality, and to emphasize the need for respect towards another creature, not specific to any one species.

Dogs can be people, mice can be people, dragons can be people, humans can be people, birds can be people, elves can be people, robots can be people, and so on.

It's also (in my opinion) just much easier than always saying "beings" or "individuals" when referring to varying assortments of creatures.

Your kintype is not stupid

I promise!

You know how many years I have wasted trying to convince myself that I was something more mainstream like a fox or a wolf?

All because I didn’t want to admit my actual kintype because I thought it was ugly at the time

I basically gaslit myself into falling under the ‘characteristics’ of a wolf because that was the majority of the community’s species

And when I didn’t shift or have the memories of a wolf I felt even worse about myself and thought I was doing something wrong

Don’t hide what your brain or feeling are trying to tell you! Wether you’re a bug, fish, plant, object, household pet, or anything else uncommon…

BE YOU!!!!

-sincerely a Bog Monster on a keyboard

Obsessed with the music group ‘Barbatuques’ For some reason I feel so in touch with my past when I listen to any of their songs

I always shift when I hear a single note, no mater where I am

And it’s got me wondering are there any other therians/otherkin that find certain music just connect to their soul?

Anyone else feel like they’re a different age when they shift?

Like I’m a Hundred and eighty and you can’t tell me otherwise!

Hoping I can read this all later but it is annoying when things are paywalled. Oh well, US healthcare info I guess

Therian Study Alert

The Jackal in the City: An Empirical Phenomenological Study of Embodied Experience Among Therians and Otherkin

The result of FurScience's interviews and focus groups with therians at Anthrocon since 2016 is finally out. Tens, possibly hundreds of therians were interviewed one-on-one in close to hour-long sessions, their responses recorded, transcribed, and later analyzed anonymously. The study was published in The Humanistic Psychologist and is 20 pages long, detailing the experiences of therians and otherkin, along with associated analyses and a suggested re-terming of what we call "mental shifts," at least in the context of psychology.

While most therians will already be familiar with the what this study will reveal, I'd consider this the closest thing to a "therapist's guide" to therianthropy/otherkin that currently exists. It's accessible for $20 through the APA website linked above. For those who would not like to pay for it, I will summarize below:

The study analyzes the experiences of many therians and otherkin and seeks to "destigmatize and depathologize" our experiences. They provide well-structured examples of what we experience, as well as its psychosocial connotations starting from early childhood and into adult life.

They define a therian as "an individual who believes that they are not human—or at least not completely human. Instead, they identify as a species of non-human animal that either currently exists or has existed and is now extinct," and an otherkin as a person identifying "as a nonhuman being that is typically considered mythical or fantasy-based (e.g., fairy, elf, unicorn)."

They apply Sara Ahmed's work on the ideas of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation to alterhumanity. They dive into our preference for natural environments over manmade ones, our disconnect from other humans and our own bodies, species dysphoria (which they describe but do not explicitly name), and reorientation by means of our own personal image, shifting, seeking out community, and "ontological doubling" - "living [a] human life with its human demands, alongside a pervasive feeling of being out of place."

They suggest the "re-terming" of what we call "mental shifts" and "phantom shifts" and the like as embodied shifts instead, seeing as they involve more than just a shift in consciousness and can include physical sensations (such as phantom limbs) and can occur in response to the environment, by one's own volition, or spontaneously. While some may be against outside individuals coining terms for us, these are professional psychologists and this likely has more to do with their own understanding of us. Per the study:

"Therianthropy and otherkinship are often experienced as an attunement and orientation toward, and a belonging with, nonhuman animals and to the natural world. In connection with their environment, therians and otherkin experience profound changes in which they are less likely to be mindful of their humanness; instead they experience heightened sensations (especially those sensations that are sharp for their theriotype/kintype), increased spatial awareness, phantom limbs (feeling limbs and body parts belonging to their theriotype/kintype), and personality changes (e.g., from passivity to aggressiveness or assertiveness, from anxiety to calmness, introversion to extraversion, etc.). These changes were conceptualized as mental shifts by Grivell et al. (2014), but due to how this experience involves not just a shift in thoughts and emotion, but in the body and their relationship to their environment and to others, we here use the term embodied shifts. By conceptualizing shifting as an embodied experience, we reaffirm that affective [for the uninitiated, "affect" in psychology regards one's physical expression of emotions - gestures, postures, vocalizations, etc.] and behavioral changes, alongside altered states of consciousness, are not experiences located within the individual, but take place in the intersubjective field (e.g., as a reaction to changes in the environment, feeling threatened at work, or experiencing comfort in isolated spaces or with groups of accepting people). Although these experiences can be orienting in terms of the therian’s or otherkin’s experiences of self, allowing them to become reoriented to their environment or situation, it can also be disorienting for them and their social interlocutors."

The conclusion to the paper encourages professionals (therapists and such) to understand us through a lens of cultural humility and provides some hope in that "(perhaps ironically) humanistic psychotherapy..." can provide therians and otherkin some sense of wellbeing.

Overall, this is really good for us. If you are in therapy, do consider forwarding this study to your therapist.