So @vagabondsun wrote some stuff and it make me want to write some stuff and all of a sudden I had my first Dreamwidth post in three years!
https://indicoyote.dreamwidth.org/5377.html
I call myself 'otherkin' a lot, because it feels like a broad term, easily encompassing experiences of being multispecies and synthetic and such. And yet, 'therian' is still a term that resonates for me, and one I still use in some contexts. Here's a stab at explaining why.
@indi @vagabondsun I really love the *texture* of the word Therian, but it feels like it's not mine to use since I've never actually been in any of those communities and am missing a lot of cultural context.
@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.
@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)
