coy {hiatus}

I pick up glass on almost every trail I hike. I find pieces in the dirt from old bottles some on top of the soil some you have to pull up from the dirt.

cause why did i see it the other day and it’s just plain wrong

no, a holothere is not just a physical therian. they are not the same. no, holotheres don’t all “recognize that their body is different to their theriotypes”. that’s… the whole point? no, they don’t all “believe they’re physically nonhuman because their mind is an animal”. that’s only including the metaphorical ‘i am an animal therefore my body is an animal’ perspective and erasing everyone else.

in fact. if you’re not physically and fundamentally nonhuman in every way, you’re not a holothere to begin with. because that’s… the definition of a holothere.

I do not even care for insane allegations of things like "cultism", and I wish to say it clearly: leave our spaces alone.

How much entitlement does one need to have in order to first whine about our mere existence, then infiltrate the spaces we create for ourselves after being shunned and berated by you and your community?

'clinical zoanthropy' is not a mere identity label one can use as they please. It is a term with a history of extreme ableism and violence towards those like me, and it is a term we are forced to use not only to protect ourselves, but also to identify each other among the crowd. It is not about a metaphorical sense of physical therianthropy, it is a medical term used to enact violence onto us by the psych community, humanity and society itself. It was never something one could use as they please, and I'm really sad that I have to be so harsh over this, but it has to be said.

"why do you use this term if you claim you are not delusional?" Because I am forced to. If I don't, I get thrown into hell itself and forced to endure years of treatment to yet again mold me into the perfect, mindless citizen, all because I say "I am animal"—which is the damn truth. I have to use this term in order to be taken seriously as a person, in order to live as a person with even the minimal rights I can be given, and to not immediately be clocked as a madman (and even that fails).

And on top of that, even among this, it is still a term that helps us find each other. That helps us find a community. Due to how uncommon, "niche" it is, we easily can find each other among the general community, therefore find support and comfort... So, when a word this unused, exclusive to a very particular sort of a group suddenly goes boom, becomes mainstream and no longer exclusive to just us—we become unable to really find each other again. Therefore, our only line of support gets cut short.

The therian community has to accept one thing—not everything is for you. Just like not every closed practice is meant to be shared, that too applies here. You do not have to use a stronger term to be taken seriously, you are not less valid because you are a therian rather than a "zoanthrope". Both describe different experiences, neither are less valid than the other. You have to accept this, and get over this goddamned inferiority complex.

specifically in the case of physical nonhumans, i see it following this pattern and slowly becoming unsafe for those who are actually literally physically nonhuman to use that term. because now those who aren’t, but who still claim to be physically nonhuman, are the ones going “ew, you ACTUALLY think you have the body of an animal?? that’s clinical lycanthropy, you’re just delusional!!” and “physical nonhumans don’t ACTUALLY think we have nonhuman bodies. we know we’re human!!”

like we’re being pushed out of our own spaces, our own terms.

don’t you see? history repeating itself? “therians don’t ACTUALLY think we’re animals, that’s clinical lycanthropy!! if you ACTUALLY identify as an animal, you’re delusional!!”