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A Therian Is...
A therian is someone who feels they are in part or in whole, spiritually or psychologically a nonhuman animal.
A therian is someone who feels there's something physically wrong with the body they're in, but can't always explain what it is or why.
A therian is someone who comes to the realization that they don't feel right in a human body.
A therian is someone who spends months, often years, telling themselves what they're feeling is crazy. They can't possibly be an animal with a human body.
A therian is someone who represses their nonhuman feelings, despite how much pain it causes them, because society tells them they can't possibly be real.
A therian is someone who finally finds others like them, and slowly releases the suffocating grip they've had on themselves, trying to hide who they really are.
This therian is using her past experiences to advocate for her kind. That we don't need to accept our lot in life. That it's too short to spend it hiding ourselves away, and that we shouldn't have to.
To sem-quote a wonderful movie. "The status is not quo. This world is a mess" and we need to educate it.
And sometimes simply standing up and being yourself is enough.
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...of course this means those of us in the first couple generations are going to have to go through hell to make the future better for our communities, but I personally think it's worth it. The words of a famous salarian scientist come to mind. "Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong." ^^;
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I can't believe that anyone would think that we get respect by being silent. As long as we show that we are afraid to speak too loud, people know they can manipulate us.
It really frustrates me how the therian and otherkin communities always seem so self-hating... "oh, don't worry, we don't want anything big." "We don't need otherkin pride, that's a silly idea." "We're not oppressed! (And if you say you are, we'll hurt you!)" "Oh, one person was raped because they were otherkin? Well, I'm sure it's just a one-off thing..." Like we're too frightened to say, "hey, we matter! You can't just kick us and walk away, we're going to defend our selves!"
We talk like second class citizens, bowing our heads to every other group and acting like we don't need any help, trying to be the "model weird people" so that no one can get offended by us. When I was on Tumblr, I worked really hard to try to change that. I'm too tired to do it for ever, but I hope that everything I did, and everything I do in the future in different places, will start to change the flow of things.
To make people realise they're allow to speak for their selves. That's all I wanted.
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You really are the reason I stopped hiding and just shuffling along. There's so much truth in what you say, it's just harder than I'd realized getting other people to see it.
Especially with some remnants from the old community (early 80's and 90's) who cling to secrecy like being a nonhuman is like being part of a secret society and god forbid people know about us or the world might come to an end. :P
You'll be glad to hear Ordinarywish is being brilliant. Suave yet kickin' serious ass. I've seen no sign of Jarandhel in a long time, and he and I...animosity is too soft a word for it. Sareth's quieted down as well.
Hopefully with NaNo coming up I'll get more writing ideas, little things to spread awareness, informative essays to write, I really want to fallow in your footsteps. Keep the voices of reason on tumblr from being overwhelmed by stupid.