Honestly as someone who also used to write essays n shit on alterhumanity until I got hundreds of followers, it scared the piss outta me. I got paranoid and angry about my followers and posting. I quit bc the stress was too much. x x So i dont blame you. Secret side accounts ftw honestly.

I came from the era where "wolfaboo" was thrown more at wolf therians and "sparkledog" was for scene/emo feral wolf art (c 2008-09), so its interesting to hear that sparkledog was used at therians earlier than that. I honestly adore the reclamation of it.

Oh yea, ive never heard the direct comparison but you got a point! Reclaiming rabies pride was pretty cool actually.

And thats not gatekeeping! Im literally not even saying "thats not therian" or dictating what is and isnt therian. Just saying like ... hey just because one label is popular rn, doesn't mean its always the one that fits the most. Making folks aware of other groups doesnt take away from therian.

Tracking your scent to your location now 🐾

We have multiple different and overlapping communities because not all nonhumanity is therian, or otherkin. Sometimes its Voidpunk, or other-hearted, or one of a bunch of other experiences we've named to help find each other. Nonhumanity is diverse, not every nonhuman feeling is a therian one.

this is what it means?" The rejection of humanity and reclamation of how oppression dehumanizes someone and alienates them from humanity is the core idea of voidpunk and I think is a lot more of what some folks are looking for. Therian only stretches so far when what one really wants is Voidpunk.

bumping for alterhuman feeds

I can also make this argument even if you presuppose the non-existence of god, because I think the actual existence of the divine is irrelevant to the multifaceted social and cultural functions of religion and how spirituality is a normal part of alter-/human existence.

Oh, the two overlapping circles with the key? I was there for the "vote" on the design on fictionkin dot com and frankly nobody liked any of the designs and nobody used it until someone picked it up in the mid-2010s for flag use. I like the inkwell symbol a lot more, even if its not perfect.

But then that clashes with those of us who have profoundly nonhuman experiences and who couldnt dream of experiencing it "casually." And then those casual folks are respected more while us dangerous freaks get labeled as insane and slowly pushed out of our own spaces. :x Its a struggle.

Like, therians began as a very insular, niche community. The way it changes as it becomes a broader demographic outside of community initiation through certain information and social checkpoints, the more I think we're gonna see "casually nonhuman" folks where there wasnt room for them before.

Oh absolutely, and i agree with you on the name. I just tend to make use of the scraps of "bad usage" of alterhuman terms as I find the use case, lol. I learned on 2015 tumblr that you cant fight semantic drift, only try to control where it drifts :P And fwiw i think this is growing pains too.

As irksome as it was at first for me, the idea of "therianism" as a movement where people are moving toward embracing speciesqueer identities is worth thinking about. But i would say that "therianism" is not the same as therianthropy, if that makes sense? Ive chewed on these thoughts a lot.

at the same time like. Furries, therians, and everyone in between is a coherent political target now. And we all have something to say about species and relation to it. But i do think human furries and nonhuman therians have very different needs. Idk, therianthropy is changing in interesting ways

I do think theres something to the "therian furry" label thats interesting though. It feels like a hybrid culture/experience that could be a lot like Postfurry if there was any more interest in developing identity beyond "being a skunk is cool" (good start, hopefully not the beginning and end of it)