I have a feeling that if therianthropy wasn't so stigmatised, a lot more people would identify with it. I consider myself one (psychological), yet I never tell anyone about it. Instead I just share cool pics of my theriotype. I don't care for the culture of quads or masks, or go out of my way to engage with others like myself, yet I have nothing against it, of course. I'm just shy. I do feel a deep connection to badgers and other mustelids, as well as a lesser connection to alligators and bears. All of these are based on my physical characteristics of stubby, fat and big-nosed.

I refer to myself as a badger and imagine myself as one scampering in the field as I go on my outings, yet somehow it seems that as long as it stays without the label of therian, then it is alright. Somehow it seems that whenever primarily neurodivergent or female audiences enjoy something, it will immediately be made the butt of jokes. It was the same with equestrians and hobby horsers.

On many occasion I have witnessed people make disgusting sexual jokes about young equestrians and therians. ^{[tw: gross]} "Oh they must want to fuck their pet horse, they must want an excuse to have sex with animals!!" they say as they make pedophilic and zoophilic jokes about children who are simply having fun and finding community in something innocent. These are both real jokes I have seen made by deplorable people, and worse yet, there were thousands of likes on these posts. When the case is a neurotypical boys' hobby or interest, suddenly it is rad and cool, no matter how it may set them up for an alt-right pipeline in the future like with looksmaxxing or a peculiar obsession with WW2.

In a similar vein, I've noticed the bounce back from 2020 and 2021's radical acceptance. It was very much not perfect, and I much preferred the time around 2022 or maybe 2023, but now, it seems that people are going more and more right-leaning in their beliefs. There has been this air of ignorance, with people saying things to dismiss the furthering struggle of those in need, and the continued bad treatment of marginalised groups like bipoc and queer folk. "And the world kept spinning," "It's just a joke," "I'm not woke enough for this."

I still remember when people were raving on about neopronouns and how cool they were. Now, cyberbullying is far worse and even just toying with such concepts, one may get harrassed. Even when regarding things not considered "woke". People will tell you to just log off, yet the bullying isn't contained only within the internet as some think, obviously.

Well, no matter. For me, personally, I know for a fact that my connection to things not human is because of my autism and transgender identity. I feel othered by the world and find comfort in taking control of that otherness. It's not really a choice for me to feel so inhuman, but oh well. You can probably see this in how I never really connect to my humanoid personas, and how even my main fursona Saint lacks the common characteristics of a badger. He is kind of just a creature. Even as a child I became a furry early on because I felt so uncomfortable in my skin as a person. I often imagined myself as a creature of sorts, a dragon, anything else.

Somehow I do still relate to human characters, sometimes far more than my fursonas, yet it isn't typically a character made to be myself. Think Martin for example. He is no sona, yet he was created with a lot of my own characteristics. Not sure why this is, but it's interesting enough to put here, heh...