This essay can also be found on my tumblr with additional reblogs containing interesting points.

Aka. Uh oh guys, Tiercel’s been thinking a little too much about nonhumanity.

If you've been active in the therian community for any amount of time, you may have noticed the prevalence of a few animals absolutely dominating discussion boards, video posts, and therian-centric sites. I am, of course, referencing the high number of wolves, domestic or large cats, and foxes. You may have also noticed that folks in (or outside) of the therian and broader alterhuman community claiming that a majority of people with these theriotypes 'must be faking' due to their (apparent) majority. I won't deny that certain theriotypes seem more 'popular' than others, but I don't personally believe that their prevalence actually has anything to do with 'faking therianthropy'.

I'll be breaking down why this might be into multiple sections to better organize my thoughts on the subject matter.

Easy Visibility

When a therian first awakens, discovers what the therian community is, or begins to question their therianthropy, they often reach out for help or search for resources to assist them in figuring out what their theriotype may be. Frequently they're told by other therians or the sites they look to to research animals that align with their instincts, shifts (if they experience them), and the environments they remember (if they believe the origin of their therianthropy to be a past life) and/or feel most comfortable in.

The primary issue with this advice is that animal behavior, while specific to each animal, can be generalized across clades and even across unrelated species. If the questioning therian searches for their theriotype based on their food-guarding tendencies, growling, and love of cold climates, they're equally likely to be a wolf, a marten, a wolverine, a fox, a bear, a lynx, or any other predatory cold-biome mammal. Which one of these animals do you think is going to pop up first when they're researching cold-climate predators that match their specifications.

A Wolf.

And because questioning therians are not frequently encouraged to search further than the first result, or are not sure how to fully determine if the animal is their theriotype, or is just one they feel a strong connection to, they go with the first animal that popped up.

This is the primary reason why 'popular' theriotypes happen. They're the first animal(s) in the search bar when questioning therians go looking, and they're often not informed enough about the process of discovering one's theriotype to look for other options. They may also feel pressured to have figured out their theriotype already, given that every other therian around them already seems to know.

Solving this issue is as simple as encouraging further search and not jumping headfirst into declaring an animal your theriotype. Reassure questioning therians that it's OK to not know their theriotype immediately, and it's OK to keep looking. It's also OK to find out you were wrong later on and 'change' (not actually change, but rather adjust the label of) your theriotype to your more accurate one.

Not A Theriotype

Perhaps controversially, the 'popular' theriotypes may not be theriotypes at all. When questioning therians are introduced to the community they're often unfamiliar with terms such as otherhearted, otherlink, copinglink, or archetrope. Because they're unfamiliar with these other words and definitions, they assume any sort of connection with an animal (extant, extinct, or mythical) is therianthropy.

The reason that 'popular theriotypes. may show up more often as hearttypes, links, or tropes (though this one is fairly nebulous) is because they're often easier on a fundamental level to relate to or project feeling, emotion, or connection onto. They're easier to identify with from a human perspective due to the human nature of anthropomorphizing nonhuman animals and due to humanity's familiarity and fondness towards them, and so they appear more often as hearttypes/links.

In the case of links especially, because it is a voluntary identity, more 'popular' animals are chosen specifically because there is an aspect of choice involved. 'Popular' animals do have a 'cool factor' to them that makes them more beloved by linkers and more likely to become links. And this isn't a bad thing in the slightest!

This particular issue can simply be resolved by further educating the alterhuman community on the terms used within it. I personally recommend the Alterhuman Dictionary as it has easy to understand and up-to-date definitions.

Not A Therian

We must be able to calmly confront the fact that, at the end of the day, some of these therians with popular theriotypes may not be therians, otherhearted, otherlinkers, or copinglinkers at all. However, that does not mean that they are faking, and it's harmful to assume so or claim that someone is.

Firstly, many of the therians with 'popular theriotypes' that other therians complain about are very young. 12-16 most of the time. Secondly, this age is when a lot of things about one's personal identity are in flux, and it's prime time to begin discovering who you are. Exploring one's identity is fundamentally nonharmful, and this can mean testing out labels and identifying as something you may turn out to not be at all. There's no shame in this. I myself thought I was some form of canine for many years before realizing that my ‘canine’ behaviors were not canine at all, they were draconic.

And ultimately, age does not factor into this as much as you’d think it does. Yes young therians are likely to be a little more tactless than adult therians on the internet, and are more prone to bullying, but anyone of any age is capable of exploring their identity and getting it wrong the first few (or few-hundred) times.

Therians In New Spaces

The real catalyst for the vast majority of this [extremely pointless] discourse is the fact that therians are in the public eye now more than ever. Videos of therians go viral on TikTok, the news (inaccurately and harmfully) reports on us occasionally, and bigots who scream about ‘identity politics’ and ‘blue hair and pronouns’ have latched onto us as a new target to bully and harass. This is nothing new, the community has weathered harassment before, but the widespread nature of it is what’s inflaming this discourse.

People make fun of ‘popular’ theriotypes because they want to distance themselves from ‘cringe therians’ (usually just vocal and proud younger therians), they want to avoid the bullying that easily targeted therians are facing so they join in, or because they feel like gatekeeping the community from supposed ‘fake’ therians is the only way to keep ‘true’ therians safe. The best way to mitigate this is to correct misinformation, educate, and if worse comes to worse, block. The block button is your best friend on the internet (where most of this discourse and bullying occurs), if someone is harassing you and won’t let up, or even if they just severely irritate you, blocking them does no harm and is ultimately better for your mental health and (sometimes) safety.

Conclusion

While perhaps more scrambled, I hope this essay has helped you understand the inane discourse around ‘popular’ theriotypes and what to do about it (if anything).

I’ll leave you on the reminder that you’re under zero obligation to educate those who won’t listen, your experience with alterhumanity is going to be different from everyone else’s even if there are similarities, and you do not have the knowledge or right to tell anyone you do or do not know that they’re faking an aspect of their identity. Leave people with ‘popular’ theriotypes alone. And by the fucking gods, please stop arguing about it. It does not matter.

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