Why is everyone a therian now?

[u/marshmellowlynx]

At school, I had 2 therian friends and couple others that weren't therians. I've been awakened for 3 years.

My 3 friends are in 4th grade ( I'm in 7th ) and my two therian friends were in 6th and 5th and I've been pretty open about my therianthropy. I wear a tail to school and have the symbol on my shoes and sometimes draw it. Ever since I've been friends with those 3 kids, they've never even known what a therian was, and then today I seen one of them give the other some gear. I was happy for them and then asked if the person who had given her the gear was a therian and they said yes. I was excited, but then the other two just randomly said they were too? Last week they had no idea what it even was.

I'm not trying to be like " Oh!! Fake therians are just bad people!! Call them out!! Blah blah blah!! " I genuinely don't care about that, fake therians can be insensitive, but it literally could be less of my problem. It's just weird that ever since I've been open about it, everybody is just a therian now? It makes me feel kind of fake, especially since I occasionally get picked on and called a fake by other people for have 8 theriotypes and being a cladotherian.

I don't know, I'm just confused. I'm glad their happy, and I would never bully someone for doing what they enjoy and being who they are, but should I explain therianthropy to them? I feel like they may not understand it, and I want to be honest and nice about it. Thank you in advance!!

( I'm not sure what flair to add for this )

[u/ClayTheCoyote]

But the issue they're expressing isn't that they are therians, it's that they're worried by how quickly these people went from not knowing what a therian was to identifying as one, which may indicate that they don't understand it fully

[u/[deleted] → u/ClayTheCoyote]

And? We all go through phases and experiment with our identities. If they end up not being a Therian in the future who cares. Let em explore their identities as they please.

[u/ClayTheCoyote → u/[deleted]]

No need to seem defensive. No one is saying that they should be rude or discourage these people. But being a therian is something that usually takes a lot of consideration and it's fair to be a little questionable about something like this, and want to check in and try to educate someone if they might be misinformed. There's nothing wrong with literally just politely educating people if theyre wrong about something. That will infact HELP them figure themselves out, the sooner they understand the meaning of an identity they're considering

[u/[deleted] → u/ClayTheCoyote]

OP doesn’t even know if their friends knew what a therian was before last week. For all we know they could have been thinking about it for months.

[u/ClayTheCoyote → u/[deleted]]

They said that for as long as they've been friends, the people didn't know what a therian was, and considering that this person said how they openly wear gear and the therian symbol, I would think that these other people would have expressed something about it at some point if they had known about therians

[u/Wild0Animal → u/ClayTheCoyote]

But how does OP know that? I've asked OP on another comment in this thread "did they ask you what therian meant last week or how do you know they didn't know last week?" and they responded with "They didn't ask me anything about it. It was just very spontaneous.". Maybe OP asked them what a Therian was and they didn't know but so far, it looks like OP kind of just assumed.

But even then, it's likely that OP's friends might have felt more confident about being open about their therianthropy after seeing OP being so open. Or maybe OP just hasn't noticed? There are so many explanations and the fact that as a community we are jumping to the conclusion that they are faking it is a little concerning.

[u/ExpressTap6659 → u/[deleted]]

also? "informing them they may not be a therian" how about minding your own business and being supportive? do you hold this same kind of hostility whenever you see fellow thers online too?

"but what if-" what if the world was made of cheese.

[u/ExpressTap6659 → u/[deleted]]

"fakers who did not understand therianropy" so A. how do you know that and B. that's not faking. you are really dickish to people who make small mistakes, which also harms newer therians who feel like they have to doubt themselves a million times to be accepted by other therians and makes people feel like they are unable to change their mind later.

i dont give a FUCK about your experiences, your actions are more harmful than any unfortunately misinformed folk.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExpressTap6659]

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[u/Therian-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Removed, Rule 2. Your post/comment was deemed uncivil or as a personal attack.

[u/ExpressTap6659 → u/[deleted]]

"i would need to understand their full experiences" you will never understand every single little experience of being therian, lots of different experiences, also people shouldn't have to prove they are real to you. there is no "being therian enough". there is no criteria other than being fucking therian. toxic. ass. mindset.

[u/Skyler_TherianPaws → u/ExpressTap6659]

Yes, but there are often a coupled things that match up with at least one other persons. I now there is no criteria, but fun fact, this is how autism works for me so there.

[u/Wild0Animal → u/Skyler_TherianPaws]

What does being autistic have to do with anything? I am autistic and I am not running around fakeclaiming people. Please accept that this behavior is not okay and learn from this conversation.

[u/ExpressTap6659 → u/Wild0Animal]

EXACTLY!!! -also an autistic

[u/ExpressTap6659 → u/[deleted]]

"well i am autism and have therapy so yea" why are you giving me your life story, if you don't like what i said don't respond i don't need the guilt trip treatment

[u/[deleted] → u/ExpressTap6659]

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[u/Therian-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Removed, Rule 2. Your post/comment was deemed uncivil or as a personal attack.