uncomfortably cold and paranoid

Harpies. A birdfolk people living in the Izirid Empire in the east of Kaarum.

i do think that it is very telling how i see a lot of folks saying that they have "outgrown" the therian label and taken up holothere instead, saying that it feels more real and legitimate.

something about it wigs me out. and i think that it has to do with perceived seriousness and a bid for legitimacy. linguistic shift is normal and expected, it's not like this is really avoidable. but the difference between holothere and therian is not the same as therianthropy vs. therianism.

therianthropy vs. therianism is really just people using the wrong term. it's not intentional. it's what happens when "therianthrope" has been shortened so much that the original tenses and forms of the word are just forgotten. it's an arguably pretty normal linguistical shift. im a little annoyed by it, mind you. "therianthrope" and "therianthropy" are some kickass words that I think should be used more. but i can't really be shocked or even upset that it's happened.

holothere is different. while the coining of the word + the way many use it can be very genuine, there is undoubtedly a growing population that uses it because of its perceived to be more serious than therian. it's adopted as a way to been seen as a more legitimate identity. and i can't really be mad at that, either. to say that therian has lost some of its.... idk.... power? due to it being picked up by certain demographics is not wrong. like there is nothing in the reasoning or the desire that is bad or wrong with any of this.

but it does make me a bit squemish, I think? Because it introduces therianthropy as something lesser within the community. You have an internal conflict with legitimacy, here. And it's based off the label you use. In the past, the community has negotiated legitimacy through grilling. And I am not calling for a return to grilling, I don't think it was a great thing, but... it is something I'm noticing.

How we are changing the way we assert our identity's seriousness is now based off of the initial words we use, as opposed to the understanding of that word.

Physical identity has recently usurped spiritual identity as the "most real" in people's mental hierarchy, so there's a social pressure to say you have a physical identity even if you don't– and it's easy to use phantom shifts to justify that if you're coming from TikTok and don't know that most therians have them, or if you feel like you won't be taken seriously otherwise. It's watered down both therian and holothere/physical therian as terms because the difference between them has been reduced to Vibes when there is actually a very specific distinction (the "physical" part is literal).

"Language changes" was actually one of the biggest arguments KFFers used to justify their appropriation of the word "otherkin", and I'm not about to let people think that ceding a decades-old community to a social media trend is a reasonable and justified thing to do.

the assumption that i did not know what a slug was and needed to be informed, and

It's not that it does not have a point; it's that the point is to separate the genre of horror post Jordan Peele from any trenchant social critique so that conservative white people can enjoy this show with no sense of discomfort. None of the history touches on New England's true horrors of the 18th century--the wholesale destruction of the environment, the genocide against Native peoples, the Triangle Slave trade. It's all harmless generic myths of European settlers made quirky and cute. To compare it to Stephen King is a disservice to King who, in The Shining for example, shows how listening to the horrible whispers of the past at the Overlook Hotel turns Jack Torrance into a would-be family annihilator. By contrast, in Widow's Bay, the young mayor who objects to the misogyny of the island's myths and want to usher in progress is continuously mocked and shown up as misguided by the old white residents, who each happen to look like they would have been at the capitol one fateful Jan 6th. But guess what? Twist! They are right and he's wrong! How's that for comedy.

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.