This is a weird theory but I might argue that most anthro animals are highly symbolic - their forms are specifically neither animal nor human as an IDEALIZATION.
I think that's part of how ferals were a lot more popular in 90s fandom - ferals are more recognition and representation of human AS animal (or in the case of therians, a quadruped animal self image is very intentionally NOT an idealization), less very derived animal traits as a shorthand for idealized humans. If that one makes sense?
｜霜の狼｜人面獣心」
@Leucrotta Dang, I kinda wish we'd had 90s furry if they were less weird about ferals... then again it sounds like they were MORE weird about therians, so.
@Leucrotta But yeah, anthro forms seem VERY correlated with people-who-are-actually-human-just-pretending-to-be-"animal"-while-not-actually-being-animal.
@Leucrotta Also I'd say, beyond just "not an idealization", for therians being feral doesn't have anything to do with "being human" at ALL! 🐺
rambling a bit
@Leucrotta ...I do not get human furries, and don't think I ever will. The concept of "oh yeah I'm an animal haha what do you mean ACTUALLY an animal of course not, I'm human and just pretending (what do you mean you're actually a wolf and actually you not a character, ew WTF)" is so alien to us.
(Stacked with the whole "pretending to be a literal different person" thing (and getting weird if you treat them as a person in their own right!), which I don't think I'll ever get either and is even /more/ alien.)
re: rambling a bit
@Leucrotta ..so yeah, I feel pretty dang unwelcome in furry a lot of the time. >,,<
@Leucrotta huh, yunno
this whole "human as animal" thing is a /perfect/ example of Humans Humaning.
Even when they're presenting as animals, they still gotta go "but look see we're still HUMAN of course because HUMANITY is so IMPORTANT and fundamental to what it means to be a person".
humanity gripes
@Leucrotta Can't have people seeing them as actual nonhumans, that'd be Weird Bad and/or make no sense because Nonhumans Aren't People dontchaknow!
It seems a lot of humans are just fundamentally /unable to get the concept/ that "human" and "person" are not equivalent. It's just baffling.
@Leucrotta anyway I'm up to like, 8 posts now of rambles and you're not interacting right now so hopefully this isn't unwanted and I should probably stop.
@Leucrotta 🧡 yeah, I figured you'd just fallen asleep probably!