Therian Guide: Forums

It's hard to ignore that this issue came up just a few days after I mentioned Native American practices as an inspiration for solving issues present in the therian community.

My guess would be someone didn't really understand my post and decided to make an issue out of it. And because they all play a game of telephone, this is now presented as that Therianthropy itself is cultural appropriation.

*sigh*

LP,
Dusty

Cultural appropriation isn't part of me despite having Cherokee bloodlines. My beasts were with me and known by me long before I knew of my human genealogy. While I find my human history interesting, it has no bearing on my therianthropy. My beasts are not influenced by culture. They are wild animals.

While acquiring positive elements from cultures around me to include as part of improving my human self so I can function, feel at peace, be healthier, etc., they do not influence the wild side that behaves truly as they are.

A friend of mine once said, "Who are we to tell the spirits who to be involved with?" I take it as therianthropy is involuntary, so how can it be appropriative?

I can understand to an extent when there are kids using native American things as an aesthetic to their identity without knowing what these items mean. I myself am part Cherokee and I find some of these things to be rather offensive, but I don't usually say anything about it to avoid a fight and because they're kids. Therianthropy in of itself is not culture appropriation but some things within the community could be, but that's an individual thing, not a whole.

Is Therianthropy appropriative? No. Next question.

Is the Therian aesthetic appropriative? Well...in some aspects, yeah. This is my own personal experience.

I am defining appropriation as the stealing of ideas, customs, and culture of a minority group (race, ethnicity, religion, etc) without equal exchange from a majority group, thus making whatever is stolen seen as good when done by the majority group but bad when done by the minority group. Vague language, I know, with "good" meaning things like "authentic", "ethnic", "exotic", "unique", "hippie", "boho", etc while "bad" meaning things like "dirty", "unkempt", "gangster", "low class", "disruptive", etc. A good example is dreadlocks, how someone like Kim Kardashian can wear dreads and it is seen as stylish but when a black girl wears dreads she is seen as unkempt and out of dress code.

I was introduced to the Therian community through Youtube, then sequentially the Therian Guide then Tumblr, from there I got onto Kinmunity then the Instagram Otherkin scene, then back to here. So, I've been around. I often see the Therian "aesthetic" divided into a few aesthetics that revolve around the earth, forests, beasts, and animals (especially wolves and ravens). The stereotypical wolf tail and the wolf fanart. One aesthetic I have seen and still sometimes do see is "Native". This is where I see the appropriation lines crossed; and, honestly, also the stereotypical and racist lines as well.

Now, what do I mean by Native American aesthetic? I mean dreamcatchers bought from white outlet stores, white sage from the New Age tourist trap, headdresses from Spirit Halloween, all things I've seen white and non-Native Therians wearing and using in the community to make themselves seem more "animalistic"; which is, well, kinda (read: very) racist. However, the first thing that really comes to mind is art like this:






















Stereotypical and inaccurate photos of Native Americans which are oftentimes used by white or non-Native Therians to make themselves appear more "authentic" and, again, "animalistic" or in touch with the earth and stuff like that to make themselves look cooler. I think that is where the "Therians are appropriating Natives" misconception comes from, a small minority using Native stereotypes for their own aesthetic.