Therian v Furry? I didn't start hearing Therian until my trans nephew started calling itself one, is there a meaningful difference?
There is a difference! Hear lemme help you out in understanding these terms!
Furry
A furry is someone who has an interest in anthropomorphic animals. Such as dogs that talk and walk on two feet.
Furries express themselves in a range of ways. Such as wearing fursuits (a costume based off a fursona- or a furry OC/persona), creating art of fursonas, watching furry media, or simply just admiring other furries works.
Theres no requirement to being a furry, except for just wanting to.
Being a furry is a hobby, its not an identity in the way being queer (for example) is, but an identity in the way being part of a fandom is.
Therian
Therians are folks who identify as animals on a spiritual, psychological or physical level (though physical also plays into being non-human, which is another identity.)
Therians are folks who find themselves not being only/fully human. Whether because they believe that they have a connection and bond to a previous life or because they find themselves mentally thinking like/seeing themselves as/being an animal.
Therianthropy can be a result of plenty of things such as Imprinting on an animal at a young age and then growing up identifying with/as one, a way to cope with trauma, a result of a delusion, a spiritual belief, a religious belief, etc.
Theres a wide variety of reasons for being a therian.
Therianthropy is a subgenre of Alterhumanity, which is an umbrella term for all the ‘not totally normally human’ kinda identities. Which are too complex to explain in this post, but if you feel like diving into it, feel free to ask for resources that can explain the complexities better than I can!
Therianthropy is an identity sort of in the way being queer is
Furry is an identity based off a fandom
At the end of the day both Therians and Furries still live their lives the same as everyone else, just with slightly altered experiences. Neither group would bark or snarl like a rabid dog at a random person because of their identities.
Wishing you and your nephew well! feel free to ask for any ways you can support it :3 We’d be glad to help!
(and if any fellow critters want to rephrase anything I said or add to this, feel free. Hopefully nothing I said is off, I just woke up lmao)
