@starkatt @indi @vagabondsun I was in ahww back in 1992-3, and I don't recall anyone using the word before Eternal September; it evolved later, when some people tried to distinguish "non-human identity" and "were means 'human' and I'm not" from "spiritual animal connection." Honestly, I think more people have heard of the word from the Furry Surveys than from original community source material.

@starkatt @indi @vagabondsun I don't think that word "belongs" to anyone, is what I'm getting at. It didn't evolve organically from within the old guard; it was a late introduction drawing a distinction most older community members didn't really see as relevant because "were" covered a broad range of identity-expressions. We'd already rejected Lion Templin's "contherianthropy" by then, f'rex. "Therian" wasn't our word for ourselves until after several schisms and subsumption into furry.

@literorrery @indi @vagabondsun It's less about belonging, and more like feeling like the word probably has connotation and baggage I'm not fully aware of.

@literorrery @indi @vagabondsun actually though, around these parts most of the time it's easiest for me to just say "yeah I'm actually a fox" and that's sufficient.

@starkatt @literorrery @indi @vagabondsun I suppose as a side observation, many Twitter age folks I see often describe themselves as "Actual/Literal [species]" as a pretty low key indicator. I can't say how effective it is because I Didn't Get It until coming out myself, then I did a big "OHHHH HECK THATS WHAT YOU MEAN"

@Oneironott @starkatt @literorrery @vagabondsun See I have a lot of hesitation with this because the "Actual X" construction is really commonly used for comedic overstatement reasons ("This pic has actually killed me with cuteness, I am literally dead") that they make me personally worry MORE about it being unclear.

@indi @starkatt @literorrery @vagabondsun Yeah, I have that same hesitation personally. it's more something I've observed over the years of my awakening ;P

@starkatt @literorrery @vagabondsun See I get the stuff about the baggage, and that's what gives me reclaiming feelings, though admittedly I'm going off of just having read a lovely dissection of how the mid 2000's communities really made a toxic hash of things.

@literorrery @starkatt @vagabondsun OMFG this is a FASCINATING wrinkle on the whole thing, and I REMEMBER that "but 'were' is human!" objection now and this is kinda blowing my mind in light of what the communities have become now (viz: a lot of "we all know we're ultimately human" respectability stances)

@starkatt @vagabondsun I am literally right now sorta engaged in a conversation with Emily right now about "hey can we just reclaim it" ;)

The thing is I was never really engaged in the communities either, one thing I maybe should've made more clear in my post is that like, when I look at those labels it's usually in terms of "would these resources or ideas be useful for me to try", and only secondarily considering what they communicate to others.

@indi @vagabondsun hmm. Just going ahead and claiming it as mine and letting context develop from there isn't a move I'd considered, and it's _really_ tempting.