Norms within the werecommunity
This is a quite old essay with old thoughts. I'd almost take it down seeing the low-quality of its content, but I find amusing to read back and see how much I've changed and how naive I used to be. ;)
I know some people still argue about whether or not the term "community" can be applied. I personally think it might fit in a certain way, as we - therianthropes on the Internet - are a set of people, a group, who have common points (share elements) and interact with each other.
Last September, after I read a book about sociology, I started thinking about norms within the online therian community - and with "community", I don't only mean all the therian boards as a whole, but also animal people who know about the concept of therianthropy and know about the community, but aren't involved in any sub-community (forums, chats, ...). Obviously, the norms may differ a little outside boards and chats, whether is is because some people doesn't fit with them and stay apart, because they don't like norms or the "boards community" and stay apart, or because of other reasons. I am not a sociologist, I simply make statements made of common sense, from my experiences and observations. This is an attempt of listing traits that are considered as the "norm" and also what is "out of the norm" in the werecommunity. By doing so, I am not listing what you must be to be a therianthrope, if such a list could exist; I am only specifying what is common, accepted, or rejected from the community.
As the concept of therianthropy was born in an English-speaking community, and spread first among the English-speaking side of the Internet (that probably is the most important as well), most of therianthropes are English-speaker and most of websites about therianthropy are in English. That means animal people who aren't at ease with English and don't read English-speaking websites have less chances to find any information about therianthropy and possibly join the community. I know it would have been the case for me, and I know a few French-speaking animal people who wouldn't have found the term "therianthropy" to put on their experiences if they hadn't been able to read English well enough or find someone who can read English and tell them about the community. I can't say if the fact the community is mostly English-speaking has any influence of it, but that might be the case.
Obviously, being an animal inside and having an animal-like behavior/attitude (howling, mewing, ...) is considered as normal. Outside the community (ie. IRL) it is not. Within the community we expect others to understand and accept us as they are experiencing something similar, whereas we expect most of non-therians, especially those who tend to be more conservatives, to reject us, deny the concept of therianthropy, and possibly think we are crazy freaks. Also, accepting otherkins and vampires as people experiencing something real and valid is common, or at least more common than outside the community, where they would have more chances to be considered as deviants or eccentric people as well.
The community tends or seems to be more accepting towards unusual beliefs, ways of life, and such as. We could say that therianthropes seem to be more liberal than conservative, although this might be because conservative people don't express themselves much in the community because of the liberal ones - or other reasons. Faiths like shamanic beliefs and paganism are much more common among therians than in their real life environment; people claiming to follow a pagan/shamanic path won't be pointed out, whereas outside the community, they may. Same goes for other types of sexuality or sexual lifestyles (homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, transgendered people and such as): they appear to be numerous within the community, but they may be more than it seems outside the community and simply don't express anything about their sexuality/lifestyle for fear of being rejected/persecuted. As a side note, it seems that zoophilia is real taboo inside the community too and isn't discussed; few are the therian essays dealing with zoophilia.
Shifting can be considered as a norm within the community. Indeed, it seems that most of people do experience shifts, and many therianthropes still consider shifting as the second "feature" of therianthropy after being an animal inside, whereas shifting isn't necessary to be a therianthrope. Contherians (or other possible types of therianthropy) are often misunderstood and forgotten in the various existing definitions of therianthropy. As a result it regulary happens that newcomers don't know they don't have to experience shifts to be animal people.
Having one animal side is still considered as the norm. The more sides someone has, the more out of the norm the person is, and the less serious this person will be considered as. Therianthropes with two animal sides are much more accepted than they were years ago, but due to posers, confused people and "pokemorphs" who "collect" or switch phenotypes regulary, polyweres and hybrids are, in a general manner, considered as more suspect. As a side note, it has appeared a few times that people tended to unconsciously consider a tiger/wolf therianthrope as less "wolf" or "tiger" than a wolf therianthrope and a tiger therianthrope. The experience of those who don't have another phenotype might be considered as "more valid" than the experience of people who have several phenotypes, as if having several phenotypes would make each of their animal side less "true" or ... "pure" (sounds like racism doesn't it?). People sometimes seem to not pay as much attention and give as much trust to - serious - polywere's experiences than other therianthrope's experiences. However, this is controversial and the issue isn't so common nor discussed much.
Animal side speaking, mammal predators (especially canines and felines) are the norm. Mustelids and bears aren't too uncommon; avians, cetaceans, reptiles and herbiweres (such as ungulates) can be uncommon. Rodent, fish and especially insect therians would be considered as really unusual. Topics about "why are wolves more common" are often discussed in the community, with many valid or less valid hypothesis (from scientific to spiritual). Part of wolves could be posers influenced by tales and hollywoodesque movies about werewolves, they could as well be confused weres who identify better with wolves because of the influence of the wolf legends/archetype on our subconscious and it would be harder to identify with something else; thos aren't the only possibilities ... It is possible that some therianthropes feel some sort of "pressure" that unconsciously force them to fit in to the "wolf" mold rather than another specie, especially if that specie isn't a predator and isn't supposed to be "big" and "magnificent" (which is sad since no specie is actually better than another, and such issue avoid any diversity in the community) so people may not find their true self. The explanation is very probably a mixture of various hypothesis.
Of course, that list isn't exhaustive, and I can't explore every possibility since each of us has a limited point of view. I hope that can still help people to ponder about norms and their attitude towards them, and possibly make them think some more about what they are.
~Akhila
December 2004