On The Venn Diagram that is Furry and Otherkinity

[flatwoodsdaemon]

 I read a post from Patricia Taxxon a while back that talked about the overlaps between therians and furries, and it's something I've been thinking about a lot, recently.

Both groups kind of oppose being compared to the other, and that makes sense. A lot of furries have already been burned by ill-meaning outsiders assuming that furries identify as the animals they dress up as, and therians don't like their personal, often spiritual, identity reduced to a cosplay or a fandom. But like... idk, I think it's pretty therian to commission a £4000 fursuit in order to look like your fursona. Some part of you has to find the image of yourself as an animal inherently desirable to do that, right? If fursuiting gives people a sense of euphoria, can that really be entirely divorced from therianthropy?

And like, yeah, there are people for whom fursuiting is entirely a hobby, and just an extension of their love for cosplay, but I think there are a lot more furries for whom being a furry and having a fursona goes a bit deeper than being a cosplay, I don't hear cosplayers talk about cosplay in the same way furries talk about furry. Because that's Them, that's their purest image of themselves, their ideal self, isn't that kind of therian?! But then again, you could also say that the fursona is a Persona in the same way a drag queen is, and drag queens aren't always women... but a lot of them do end up transitioning. 

I don't think Joe Schmoe who just thinks Lola Bunny is hot and doesn't have a fursona is a therian, but maybe Super Wolf 9000 whose mental image of himself IS his fursona probably is a bit therian. You don't even need to commission art or have a fursuit, the amount of money you spend isn't an indicator, but the space your fursona occupies in your mind definitely is. Maybe this sort of thing is even part of a conversation about becoming kin, maybe you weren't therian to begin with but your human self got so intertwined with an animal image of you that you became it, or maybe you realise that was you all along. I've always been a demon, but I don't think I've always been a hellhound - I made my fursona as a regular fursona just like anyone else in the fandom, making it a hellhound just as an extension of my demon identity, but the more I drew him (me), the more I fell in love with it as an image of myself, and I think somewhere along the line I went, yeah, I'd like to look like that. 

I think a lot of my feelings about alterhumanity is that it's exactly like being trans. And I can say that, I am trans, I think there's only an "issue" with comparing the two if you're under the impression that you're comparing something that's legitimate to something that's not, and as a trans person I think species dysphoria is very real. I would know, I experience it myself. But, just as it's my own personal view that gender euphoria is more of an indicator of being trans than the pain of gender dysphoria, I think experiencing species euphoria (perhaps via a fursuit?) is more than enough to make you therian even if you don't experience phantom limbs or mental shifts.

Maybe you just think you'd be happier as an anthropomorphic dog. I think that counts. 

Comments

[liondrakes]

Oh, I feel this wholeheartedly. I only recently got back into the swing of being a furry (since I originally left the fandom for personal reasons), but beforehand, I can absolutely see where those connections existed for me as a transspecies person. Since I couldn’t afford any suit pieces, much of my experience was expressed through drawing my fursona or following furry artists. Bara depictions of anthro characters captivated me from a gender standpoint and a species standpoint, as I really liked the beastman look of their character designs and wanted to emulate that for myself. Soon, this became less of a “This is really cool! I want to get better so I can draw that too!” mindset and more of a “Man, I really want to look like that!” mindset. This mindset exclusively applied to bara characters in the furry fandom, not human ones or heavyset/muscular men irl. Them being beastmen was very crucial to me.

Although the current ‘sona I have doesn’t come from a similar place, I did incorporate my equinehood into his design as it’s an experience I’m getting more in touch with. Despite struggling with understanding it for a while, being an equine is a big part of my animality, and it’s only fitting that I continue to express that as much as I do with my identity as a lion.

[flatwoodsdaemon]

Vex (my fursona) has been such a priceless vessel for gender and species euphoria. Like, I'm very proud of his design in that he can be cute or fierce, it just depends how I draw him and what features I choose to exaggerate. The image of a tall masculine demon who, nevertheless, is fluffy, shaves his fur and has a big long tail is incredibly appealing to me. Goals, as it were. Glad other people can relate!