Furries are from Mars, otherkin are from Venus

(2026-01-28 0:33)Zero Wrote:  Some interesting observations here Lopori. I think I can largely agree that they're true as far as generalizations go. They're tendencies, not absolute rules.

Agreed with @Zero as quoted above: Generalizations exist for a reason, but they don't describe everyone.

Otherkin/therians are small fraction of the size the furry space occupies, and there's also substantial overlap between the two. Of Othercon 2026's roughly 482 attendees, 335 identified as otherkin, 313 identified as therians, and 330 identified as furries; this means at least half of the otherkin/therians identified as furries.

The male/female trends in behavior are also something reinforced by different spaces/societies in different ways. @Wulfra highlights some trends I've seen in dragon spaces, though it seems they are more an exception in the broader spectrum of otherkin.

Your observations seem to be on-point for most folks in the space though, @Lopori .

I must say, it's incredibly disappointing to see people use AMAB/AFAB in this way. Some people are even buying into incredibly false "socialisation" theories that are used to bully trans people, particularly women, into believing they will never "escape" the way they started their lives. I highly encourage people to do some research into why this particular thing is completely inaccurate, as well as discourage people from the terms AFAB/AMAB unless absolutely, strictly necessary (a.k.a., discussions about being intersex specifically).

I believe what a good number of you are observing (along the lines of "women are more introspective/emotionally aware") is taught behaviour. You might be thinking, "didn't you just say socialisation isn't real?", but the reality is that there's a lot of nuance to the punishment/reinforcement cycle of gender roles and the socialisation argument tends to be made to deny or delegitimise a trans person's identity. But when someone transitions, they do tend to display more characteristics associated with their true gender than with what was (wrongly) assumed previously. Even before transition, this can very much be the case; often, this is what leads to someone understanding themselves as transgender. Additionally, there isn't actually any significant data that I'm aware of that states men's and women's brains are any different, and gender roles and expectations - therefore, behaviour - can change wildly depending on the individual, culture, generation, etc.

Based on my personal experience:

The people I've met in both communities have been a pretty even mix of men and women, primarily cisgender. However, the further you get into the ranks of popularity and authority, the less women there are and the more men there are. This is true in many other communities as well as careers/occupations. A good example I always give is in medicine; you'll often see a lot more female junior nurses, and a lot less female surgeons and specialised doctors. This sort of "filtering" occurs pretty much everywhere you look.

I do agree that certain organisms are assigned masculine/feminine. In my culture, cats are more "girly", dragons are definitely more "boyish". I was thinking about horses a bit ago, and it seems that their perception differs depending on the "seriousness" of their involvement in a given situation. For example, professional horse riders? A lot of men. But when we think of a child being interested in horses, we probably think of young girls. It makes me wonder if in other cultures aside from mine in Western Europe, there are unexpected associations that I'm not aware of.

I also agree that it's expected (at least in my culture) that women are more in touch with their emotions, a warped and more positive spin on "women are over-emotional" (which is entirely false). That may be part of the reason why there appear to be more women in the otherkin and therian communities. However, I don't think there is any one answer to this. Perhaps it's also worth considering how these communities first began and were built up, and by whom, if anyone with better knowledge of history could provide some insight!

Another thing that I wonder about: we're assuming an awful lot about people who may choose not to divulge the information that they are transgender. Have people been presuming that a woman who does not actively say she is trans is cis? What about the surveys? Even if they stated "sex" in these surveys (which many people falsely understand as "sex at birth"), some trans people may have put their current sex, no?

I do wonder how these surveys would look today, and how people would answer them.