🎶but just like a vampire, I don't exist🎶

It is something that is quite often repeated in therian spaces is the abundance of wolves in particular. Rather than doing the methode where a bunch of species are listed I am curious how close the community on average is to wolf.

Please select the closest common clade. If you do not have a nonhuman identity, please select the bottom result if you wish to see the results to avoid skewing the information. If you have multiple types select the closest (or most significant depending on your desire). If your type is not classified such as theriomythics, please select the Other option. If the type classification is unclear (i.e. certain ediacaran or similar ancient life) select which you think best fits.

Examples: Minke Whale (balaenoptera acutorostrata) - Mammalia, African Wild Dog (lycaon pictus) - Canidae, Common Tern (sterna hirundo) - Chordata, Pegasus - Mythical: Other, Silver Elf - Non-Terran: Other

"Am I a Therian?" you ask with a quizzical expression.

"I like bathing in the sun. I hate taking baths. I'm highly active at 3am," you explain, and so you conclude, "I must be a cat therian!"

Why?

Don't humans also like sitting in warm sunlight? Don't some humans hate the sensation of baths? Aren't some humans more active at night than at day?

Aren't those normal human behaviors?

"I like to howl, bark, and growl! I like to dig in the dirt and play tug-a-war!" you shout excitedly, and so you conclude, "I must be a dog therian!"

Why?

Don't humans also like to be vocal; shouting, hollering, and yelping? Don't some humans love digging in the dirt to see what's beneath? Do you not see the kids playing tug-a-war? Aren't those normal human behaviors?

"But..." you pause and you think. You finally state, "I feel a call to Nature. I feel at home among the trees, when my bare feet touch the Earth. I feel a pain in my heart when looking at my body, like it doesn't feel right. Surely that means I'm a Therian."

Why?

Aren't there humans who feel a call to Nature? Who live by themselves in the woods? Aren't there humans who also feel like something is missing with themselves?

Aren't those normal human behaviors?

"Then how do I know if I'm a Therian?"

Why... are you asking me?

You clearly know yourself better than I do. You have already given so many reasons as to why you must be a Therian, right? So why ask me what you are?

"Cause you're a Therian, too, aren't you?" you ask.

"I am," comes the answer.

"So then tell me," you urge with impatience. "Am I a Therian?"

"I can not tell you," comes another answer. "Because I do not know. I do not know your identity. I do not know what bristles beneath your skin or echoes in your heart."

There are no set rules to define someone who is a Therian. There is no checklist to go through to determine who is a Therian. There are no guidelines to follow under to know who is a Therian.

"Are you an animal?" comes the question. "Are you, in any sense or form, an animal?"

You pause. And you think.

You already know the answer.

"I am an animal."

Then congratulations.

This is just my own personal take, but it feels weird to try to socialize with most folks in the community because most of the time its seen as "taking it too far" when you actually act as your species. (coughcough wolves are not friendly social creatures to strangers and can actually be quite shy, and growling is not always a form of aggression, on a similar note a wagging tail isn't always a sign of friendliness either)

The TikTok "therian" culture seems like it's largely to blame for this, but it's also a side effect of people moving from forums to public social media platforms. It isn't really possible to post on social media about genuinely "weird" experiences without the risk of bad actors seeing it and harassing you, so people (intentionally or not) downplay or cute-ify their experiences to make them more palatable for a public audience. It's part of the same trend as people self-censoring swears when there isn't actually any evidence that that has any effect– there's been an increasing push toward toning down anything someone might find objectionable, to the point where I don't think most people realize they're doing it. And people doing that leads to outsiders seeing "therian" stuff and going "that looks like fun! I want to do that!" because there aren't any immediately available resources to explain to them that therianthropy isn't a roleplaying trend– which is how we've ended up with people on TikTok saying stuff like "therians don't really think they're animals".

People co-opting community terms, toning them down, and calling the original community "taking it too far" happened already with fictionkin, and it seems like therians are next. The best thing we can do is to just hold the line, correct misinformation, and keep being loudly authentic.

The whole questioning process seems to have fallen by the wayside in a lot of places, so you get people who, for example, feel a canine-shaped tail or a connection to werewolves and immediately go "I'm a wolf!" without considering other options, and nobody encourages them to question that assumption because they're worried about coming across as gatekeeping– even though that person would be happier and more secure in their identity if they took the time to introspect and learn about other animals before settling on something.

"You can be whatever you want forever" is a mostly true statement, but self-discovery is a long and personal process, and I absolutely believe that other people asking you (polite, good-faith) questions like "so why do you think you're X and not Y?" is a helpful bordering on necessary part of that process. Helping people figure out what they are used to be half of what we socialized about in the community! It's how we shared experiences and bonded and welcomed people! But I feel like now, asking questions like "you seem to act a lot like a dog, so what lead you to identify as a wolf and not another type of canid?" is often seen as rude or as an attempt to invalidate that person's identity. And it shouldn't be! Answering questions like that is how other people learn about what therianthropy is like for you, and if you're secure in your identity being asked these things won't make you feel defensive or invalidated, they'll make you excited to talk about your experiences with others. "I express my wolf theriotype in a doglike way because I was raised by humans like dogs are" is a perfectly valid and interesting answer to that question, for example.

Tombstone national park, Yukon. Photo by Jef Wodniack

Northern Canada. Photo by George Gardner