http://shadethewox.deviantart.com/

No wolves humping, but she takes commissions, so maybe if you ask nicely...?

That makes me so angry.

Oh it's people who can't spell "etc."

Therians are a subgrouping of Otherkin; like all Otherkin, they believe they are not truly human, but therians are usually "real" animals (i.e. wolves, rather than dragons or CardCaptor Sakuras) and for most therians the term carries an additional veneer of religious/spiritualist legitimacy, citing ancient shamanistic beliefs as precedent.

The terms therian and Otherkin are not always clearly delineated and are sometimes used interchangeably, although anecdotally I've encountered more furries who identify as therian and more non-furries who identify as 'kin. HOWEVER, as I am now discovering, there is apparently a lot of bad blood between the furry and the therian community at this point: checking various sources, like Wikipedia and Otherkin Wiki, it seems that people have made it a point to insert numerous official disclaimers distancing therians from furries and vice versa.

* Actually, I have only physically met *one* therion - a batle buddy of mine who served in the Army with me. He was a furry and a fox therian, and it was notable because he actually got official recognition for his faith - generally, soldiers are not allowed to wear jewellery while in uniform unless the jewellery is religious in nature (e.g. a gold cross or whatever), and this soldier was given clearance to wear both an Otherkin seven-pointed star necklace, a small crystal, AND a rather swag pewter fox medallion, much to the consternation of some of the Christians, who were only allowed one piece of jewellery.

I have, however, also run across many internet people who identify as furries and therians, much like my battle did. So I stand by my observations re: the furry-therian connection, even if there does appear to be a growing schism between the two communities.

I had a class with a vampire in it one term in college.

Sanguinary, or psychic? I've know at least four people who claimed to be psy-vampires FOR REELS, but never any who *literally* believed they were the blood-drinking sort of vampire.

Of course, there are plenty of goth kids who like dressing up as vampires and engaing in sexual vampire blood-play, but that's different from being an outright vampire therian/kin. I know those people exist, somewhere, but hell if I can find them.

Now that I think about it, I believe my friend Jimmy the Vampire, who worked as a pin-setter at the bowling alley and owned at least twenty sets of finger armour, claimed on one Cosmic Bowling night long, long ago to be an actual, honest-to-god vampire, but I think he was just trying to impress a group of underage girls.

I don't know, she was just pale and skinny and anemic looking and said she was a vampire once to me. My girlfriend at the time knew her from someplace else and independently mentioned that she thought she was a vampire, too, but I never really talked to her about it in any detail.
She wasn't particularly goth and was a little manic if anything, not grimdark and brooding at all, if that makes a difference.

Just guessing, but the army must be kind of a hard place to pretend to be a gay fox.

The mic overload makes it pretty ruff to listen to.

She might not have seen the political side of the fandom competition. There are admins who want to take Furry in a more corporate direction, so Furry's been seeded with the idea that it's not right to believe you're a another animal, it might make Furry look unappealing, and scary to parents.

Of course, fandoms have always been like tribes I guess, so they fight. The walls are always closing in, Fur higher ups have had issues with other fetishes, oversexualization, adult babies and diapers, Zoophiles, Bronies and other groups over the years.

When I joined Furry in 1997, the tension was between Furry fiction writers, and a growing body of Furs who thought it could mean something more, taken as a personal identity and learning from the characteristics of your animal, like a totem would be used.

The group of fiction writers (really it was just a few high profile comicspeople and their believers) thought the name 'Furry' should only apply to the stories, comics and art, not to a growing Furry lifestyle movement.

With that, I guess there's some precedent to Furry being about consuming produced materials rather than identity, but I think that as a scene grows, it's only natural to take it as more of a lifestyle.

Boomer

Hi Boomer! I love you.

From what I know of it, it seems pretty cool, it's folks thinking differently and considering that they might be other animals.

I've written e-mails with a few Therians this year, and barked to one who called on the phone, so I've learned things from that. The problem is that Therians are more underground than other animal groups it seems, so it's hard to find good references or a decent TV show or documentary on the group.

One I watched is 'What? I Think I'm An Animal' that aired on Logo, though that's been cut down as not being particularly authentic, even by its own participants.

When I got on line, the animal people I knew about were just Furries, Weres and Zoos, and I believe that Therianism is an extension of Were, the deep seated feeling of being a different animal.

Were is the more general feeling, and it doesn't need a lot of extensions or definition to make it what it is, like religion, vampires, or even a social group to belong to. I feel it's a more singular, personal feeling, maybe coming from a Were's life pre-internet, where you'd be dealing with these feelings all alone.

I barked to Weres in the late 1990s, and at the time some weren't happy with what Were was coming to mean, with lots of kids into Werewolves coming in. I suspect that older-line Weres started to look for meaning elsewhere, in therianthropy and Otherkin.

Boomer

She's cute! A bit too boyish for my taste, but the ears and the sexy Rainbow Dash voice really help tie things together.

She's got a bit of a Kara Thrace smile going on, too, but it's most apparent in this video - some of the relateds are not as flattering.

I was reminded of myself somewhat and assumed this was a boy.

I'm pretty sure Simillion's right.

Since I never really had much of a gender myself, I think it's cool that we can't tell for sure. It's kind of like an optical illusion, is the cone pointing toward you or away from you, and when you try you can see it either way, it's as cool as that.

Boomer

From what I've heard, Furs call the goggle wearing, Steampunk.

So you're telling me gender is a property outside of biology? Does my calculator have a gender? This rock?