To struggle with the “furry” bullying

Where have you been? BTW whatever you do don’t google: Rainbow Dildo Monkey

Well that's a bit of a stretch! Animated educative shows for children can not be compared with "identifying as therians". Now, no one said this is the case in OP s child but you can not ignore the possible influencing a inocent child into something with so many layers. If the child enjoys plays pretend let her play, but don't associate this play with "identifying as".
Those friends, where are they from, where do they live and how come your child plays with them? Not criticising, just asking how your 9 year old autistic homeschooled child came across these children. Are they older, same age, younger? I would worry tbh that your child might have been targeted on purpose due to her innocence. Why don't you play with her these games, together as a family or taking her to zoos if she is fascinated by it? This way you encourage her creativity and passion without turning it into something weird.

some of you need to get off the fucking internet and stop believing everything you read... and stop attaching adult fetish behaviour to childrens cosplay/pretend dress up.

i've met hundreds of furries over the last 10 years and i can assure you NONE of them were wearing buttplug tails in public, they're all attached to their trousers via a beltloop.

Fuck me I never said she was I’m saying they exist. The poster I was responding to wasn’t even talking about your child

Look, OP, you cant stop people from judging. Bullying, yes.
But what I think in my own head about 13-yr-olds wearing tails is my own business.

I don’t think anyone starts with buttplugs. That’s what people are trying to to warn you. HTH

Thank you. The fact that the poster is so poorly informed about the subculture her daughter is involved in is very telling.

It’s not ‘where’ others clip their tails, it’s HOW they attach them.

I simply don’t accept that any 13 year old is streetwise enough to escape grooming. Not speaking to strangers won’t protect her from that. Hundreds of thousands of teenage girls have been groomed up and down the country by men who were strangers, who turned into friends, who turned into rapists. I was a teenage girl once and I was a bloody idiot, despite being happy, healthy and intelligent. I was naive and your daughter will be naive but there’s no excuse for you being naive.

You might have to explain that plug too. I only found out what it was in my fifties from reading Fifty Shades of Grey ….

there are some yes.. but for the record most of them have belt loops that you run your normal trouser belt through.

the kids wearing them are NOT wearing buttplug tails ffs.

jfc.

The tails are attached to buttplugs, not clipped on elsewhere. Thats what the other poster was very politely alluding to.

i'd also like to point out that if your child is obsessed with stuff like Bluey, Peppa Pig..etc, that is anthropomorphic content. Animals with human speech, and emotions. Most of the disney talking animals is too.

It is normalised in childhood, yet some of you find it weird that the interest in it carries on into adulthood for some people?

I am wondering if I should google clip on tails and fursona.
Bloody hell, parenting is complicated these days.

Who are these friends who identify as Therians OP? Are they older?

She is a very streetwise 13 year old and yes she has known not to speak to strangers since she was 4 years old 🙄 children showing interest in her tail is fine for her but she wouldn’t engage with anyone older.

I couldn’t care less where others clip their tails, my only interest is my daughter who is happy, healthy and intelligent and enjoys wearing a tail from time to time

probably going to regret this.. but i'm very furry adjacent, i do convention volunteering for places like comic con..etc, so i know a lot of furries, and therians as they attend in their suits.

The reason your DD is being bullied by teenagers is a there is a VERY long, VERY boring history behind there being a Gamer vs Furry thing on the internet.

If those teens are 'gamers' they've likely come across it so they are going to be horrible to anyone they view as 'furry'

its juvenile, but very much a thing.

Furry in and of itself is to do with an interest in Anthropomorphic art/content.. so stuff like disneys Robin Hood, books like the Redwall series, or Wind in the Willows is generally where it starts.

Therianism also isn't new, when i started on the internet 100 years ago (feels like it) the buzz term was 'Otherkin'.. people who believed they were the souls of dragons, fae, elves, aliens..etc reborn into human bodies in error.. it was also riddled with people who were autistic as they had a feeling of being 'other' than the body they were in. Therian back then were simply the 'animal' souled people.

In more recent years Otherkin has fallen off, and the Therian aspect has come forward.

All that aside, it isn't helped by the free access to this kind of stuff on the internet, and the use of 'identify as' when kids come out with 'mama i think i'm a cat' rather than accepting and just pretending they are.

Language has side effects.

Lol at MN " being the most toxic place on the internet".
There are men out there threatening to rape and murder women daily, but this is the most toxic place.🙄

Quadrobics ? Ffs 😂

You clearly say in your op that she has friends 'who identify as therians'. Posters are just pointing out that identifying as therians is very different to playing and pretending to be an animal. How old are these friends? Why do they identify as something? What is influencing them, and is your daughter potentially going to be exposed to those influences?

I have actually! Thanks for the compliment!!!

You honestly, really think that someone dressing as a Disney princess for work is the same as someone dressing up in a fursuit and fucking on camera?

you’re not helping your “community” here. I’m even more firmly convinced it’s weird now.

At 13 your daughter will be a lot more independent and if she’s going out dressed as a furry then she will attract the attention of people who are into the scene and, no matter how innocent her interest in the culture, not everyone she meets will be harmless. Have you spoken to her about grooming (and not the animal kind)?
Just for info - are you aware that not every furry uses clips to attach their tails to their backsides? If you’re not, then you should be.

There was more than one child.