Nope. I'm in touch with some interested scholarly types. It's only a matter of time.

As to being accepted, I'm accepted in Selma and I make no secret of being a Werewolf. The acceptance runs the gamut from, "He's an eccentric" to "He's a Werewolf - I don't know what that means but it means something."

As to the complications of people's personal perceptions of their own therianthropy. That's a minor issue. The beginning will be sociological and anthropological studies to pin down the phenomenon or therianthropy as a real factor in modern society. Then the question of what causes it will develop. Then they'll get to the details. That's many years down the road. As to what theriotypes a person has, if that turns out to be something related to personality type, it won't be a problem at all. Just look at how complicated personality types are.

That would be an interesting and enlightening project for a senior thesis........

Last edited by Vindicator (2009-06-21 10:47:52)

I, personally, haven't told anyone about being a therian. I'm by no means afraid of being persecuted, as I tend to run with pretty open-minded folk. I just don't have an urge to tell anyone. If I ever do find myself wanting to, I will. I feel that there were times in my past that had I explained it to someone close (ex-girlfriends), I may have saved the relationship. But, that's water under the bridge.

So, even if the community came "forward" (I don't see why this is necessary, and don't really feel it's very underground to begin with), I doubt I would personally. For me, being a therian is a very personal thing. I'm not a social animal, and don't need to share all of me with everyone I come into contact with.

WolfVanZandt wrote:

Very little - as a public phenomenon we're only about 15 years old. That's not much time for people to become interested and for things to get published. There's been four documentaries to mention us - two were stinkers (evidently - I only saw one of them), two were reasonable. We were mentioned in passing in Brad Steiger's Werewolf Book and he connected us with role players, so I'm not real fond of that resource. Then there's Ms. Greene's book on shapeshifting - I haven't heard many positive reviews from the Therian community on that one and I didn't like it.

Funny story, but true - I ordered the book via InterLibrary Loan to check out and, my library knowing my reputation as a werewolf wanted to do something nice for me so they actually ordered the book for their stacks. I hated smiling and thanking them but not too many people do nice things for me so I did. Made my face hurt......

I'm really interested in the documentaries, as I haven't heard anything about them. Do you remember the names of any of them? I'll start digging around, but any help on this would be great.

Brad Steiger's Werewolf Book is a bit of a joke all in all. I wish I had my copy here so I could pick out specifics about it, but it's at my brother's place in storage until I get a new apartment.

Same thing with "The Magic of Shapeshifting" by Rosalyn Greene. I bought a copy of it back in 2001, and it really helped me to define what I was. Prior to that book, I didn't know there was any type of term for it. I just new I was part feline. But, the book itself is pretty damn ridiculous. The best part of the entire thing was the reference pages in the back. She had a ton of websites listed that I went to for further research (mainly because I felt like the book was really hokey). Those sites were of considerable help, and so I have to give that book credit. It told me what a therian was, and helped me find some answers (though, not in the actual book).

Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for all of us, the community has grown considerably since then. Her book, at this stage, is completely unnecessary. Any information about therianthropy is readily available on the internet, and is way more on base than 99% of her book.