#shapeshifterkin

“but there’s no systematic oppression against alterhumans!” See but there is. It’s saneism. Saneism may not outwardly appear to target alterhumans but can you see how it does? Can you see how alterhumans are consistently labeled as “crazy”, “delusional”, even dangerous?

Your paws are tired, little beast. Rest your legs.

Your claws have put in their work for today. Let them be idle if they must.

Your wings have carried you far, flying friend. They need to recharge.

Your teeth have brought you through tough times. Rest your jaws, as their job is never over.

Your eyes have shown you the world and beyond. Show them solace if just for a few minutes.

Step One: First, you need Pinterest (or a similar app, even Google can work). You type in anything you generally like or feel comforted by. This can be a color, an animal, the sky, a character, literally anything.

Step Two: You're gonna scroll around until you find something that hits you in the heart, even just a little bit. A really beautiful sky picture or maybe a drawing you cannot scroll away from for seemingly no reason. You put that picture into a new folder (mine is just titled "me").

Step Three: Look through the similar pictures below the one you saved. If you can't find smth that hits, either pick the next best one and continue from there, or search for something else. Repeat Steps One and Two until you have a nicely filled folder.

Step Four: Go through your new folder. Look at every picture and feel it out. What about it feels like you? Does the whole picture hit? Or maybe just a singular claw on a random animal? Is the time of day just perfect? Maybe a color scheme you resonate with?

Step Five: Do whatever you want with the results. Make a collage of the itty bitties of pictures you liked. Write down how you felt about each one in a short sentence. Try and draw them out (if you can) and see how it feels. Just whatever works for you.

A lot of therians tend to be neurodivergent, lots of therians are therians because of neurodivergence and trauma. Expressing nonhumanity is a way of coping for so many people. From childhood I’ve always been someone who communicates through animalistic body language and sounds, it’s how I interact with my environment and how I regulate myself. Before I could communicate properly and when I struggle with communication now it’s how I establish boundaries and show love or discomfort.

I’ve always felt this way, being autistic means I think differently, I feel differently, I frame myself and the world in an entirely new lens. When you know this then you know that it is entirely possible for someone to have the mind of a nonhuman entity.

Neurodivergence is not the only reason for nonhumanity, but it is a large part of it for a lot of people. Often times anti therians will have no good reason for hating therians besides “ew it’s weird” or “they’re crazy theres something wrong with them” which is both deeply rooted in ableist views.

When people dismiss therianthropy as “just kids doing things” it reminds me a lot of how the identities of autistic people are seen as insignificant or childish, something that we are expected to grow out of.