to think that children in your child's class don't identify as animals?

[wotnofurries]

inspired by the wearing a tail to school thread, I thought I'd see just how common or otherwise the whole furry/litter tray/identify as an animal thing really is.

Unreasonable = Yes, a child in my child's class does this.
Not Unreasonable = Don't be silly, never come across one in my life.

No there isn't a link between asd and trans other than the fact that people with asd are very literal and are often vulnerable to ideological coercesion.
When groups like mermaids and most asd charities come along and tell kids with asd that their not weird or different from other kids because of their asd but because they are trans and transing will cure their asd many will and do believe them. Add to all of that the fact that every child wants to fit in and those of us with asd find it even harder that nt teens then joining a group that praises you and elevates your social status and it's like catnip.
There is a big difference between causation and correlation that is lost on many people which is being exploited by TRAs and some very dodgy so called experts

Ah, thanks for the explanation. It does make sense that ASD kids could be more at risk of becoming seduced by trans/therian ideology. I am surprised schools allow not during school hours though, rather than encouraging the ASD kids to do it at home or at least to do it quietly and unobtrusively. Otherwise they may end up bullied as a result, which can be very damaging for them.

I've worked in a school for 12 years and I've never seen this.

I think that adults are currently centring children's "feelings" as if they are made of porcelain. Maybe it's some kind of guilt? Idk but people generally aren't good at risk assessment and the fact that news information comes at people 24/7 from a huge variety of sources makes that assessment even worse.

Then there's a sort of psychological blackmail that if you don't let children's feelings run unchecked then they will be forever psychologically damaged or worse

She is awesome @CollisionCourse and autistic, and very logical, has no time whatsoever for any nonsense 😁

I knew an autistic child who was situationally mute and would only communicate as a fox, in a fox voice (what she perceived to be a fox voice) and would only wear fox colour clothes. I dont think she identified as a fox. Like literally believing she was a fox. It was just a coping mechanism. She grew out of it.

My kids talk about others that they know as ‘furries’ with disgust. Primary and secondary school. But I think the costumes are reserved for after school as I’ve never seen them dressed up

Theres one at DD school, which is a large secondary. Apparently, wears a tail, and sometimes meows at people. child is probably 15 or 16, and attends the ASN base, but obviously I don't know what (if any) diagnosis she has.

There are 2 girls in DDs year (year 7) who are "furries" apparently. I've seen them wearing tails and headbands with ears before, but only outside of school.

Gen Zer here- I don't know anyone like this. I heard about furries when I was 13 & told a friend I was jealous of her cosy-looking furry hoodie. She told me not to use that word bc it might get misunderstood bc of 'weird people online'.
I've always loved animals, esp horses & cats. I'll happily read novels about them & have kept my collection of model horses bc I couldn't bear to get rid of them. When I was 5-6 I loved pretending to be a dog, cat or horse (wild horses didn't need to go to bed!) But I knew very well I wasn't one. My grandmother similarly wrote at 11 that she'd be a cat if she weren't herself.

I wonder if furry children have pets? Are they not allowed & it's a weird outlet? I still love anthro stuff but there's v little quality lit out there for older children or adults. I have no interest in weird sexual fanfics, which is what it basically seems to be. The animals all seem to be grotesquely sexualised from the images I've seen, & utterly separate from actual animals.
I want to be a novelist & I think there's a lot of good in having an active imaginative life, esp if you're into writing or acting, but also just for general escapism. But this furry subculture is not that. & children need to be kept away from it. The link w the trans issue is massive.

It's called dressing up and pretending

Why does no-one tell them that dressing up and pretending is for out of school hours?

And if they're truly claiming to believe they're an actual cat, why does no-one tell them cats don't go to school?

If they were my kids I'd be telling them they'd better snap out of it soon, or they'll get a flea collar and a plastic ball for Christmas and nothing else.

And while they're at it, they best remember cats don't get screen time, days out, soft play, sweets, cakes, or to choose the TV channel....

Yes it is. Fans of Madonba emulated her, were influenced by her. They were known as "wannabes".

They didn't think that they eere actually Madonna. And their teaxhers, parents and friends didn't encourage them to think so either.

I always think of a friends child who at 4/5 spent a year or more swearing he was an ice cream truck. We all enjoyed it and played along a bit. Noone actually thought he was going to remain an ice cream truck!

I think a lot of it might be alleviated w actual time in nature & w animals. Humans obvs aren't animals, but we are linked & originally used to live in close proximity. There would be lots of benefits to that : grounding people in physical reality, not depressing screens. When I thought about being a Warrior Cat, part of it was the fun of trying out different behaviour (in my Year 7 drama class, no one was a furry, but we all particularly enjoyed the 'pretend you're an animal' exercise. ) But also spending a lot of time outdoors in the forest. I also just found animals far more appealing in stories when v young, just like fantasy & historical stories were exciting. Exploring different things can be a healthy outlet, but not like this. It also seems strange bc most animal stuff is geared to young kids who are small & have less behavioural rules, like animals. I wonder if the urge not to grow up comes from oversexualised media. & ofc that means you're jumping to the frying pan of sexualised furrydom..

PDA is autistic spectrum and a feature of it is role playing. These kids don't know whovthey are - they "borrow" from others, from stereotypes, tv characters. I believe that being the opposite gender would work too.

I'm 35, my sisters friends little sister pretended to be a cat, to the point of only eating out of a bowl on the floor. This was a good 20-25 years ago, she was at least 10, possibly 12/13.

Where on earth do 7 year olds learn the words 'identifying as a therian'?
I've never heard such nonsense.

I find your post quite offensive. I have autism as do my children. Autism varies hugely. We aren’t all literal and don’t all want to join a group- and we’re not weird. 🤔

From unsupervised internet use or from other kids who have unsupervised internet access.

And you’re making up your own theories re the link between autism and gender dysphoria. The NAS sums it up well.

Gender dysphoria
People may experience discomfort or distress when their assigned sex is different from the gender they identify with – this is known as gender dysphoria (GD). There is some evidence to show a link between gender dysphoria and autism, and that autistic people may be more likely than other people to have gender dysphoria. However there is little evidence about the reason(s) why, and some recent research suggests the link between autism and gender dysphoria is not so clear. More research is needed. More research is also required to develop and test assessment tools, support and treatment for autistic people experiencing gender dysphoria.

At 7?

The litter tray thing is nonsense. In the US some schools in some states have a bag of litter in their active shooter kit. It soaks up blood and urine extremely effectively int he case of a lock down / injury event. There was a part spoof article about it - and it has been seized upon as ‘out of control woke schools letting children use litter trays.’

Nope. Just part of the set up you win by accepting school shootings as a normal part of life. Which I would argue is rather worse than children pretending to be cats / goths / raccoons

the very best thing we can do to shut it down is to have clear boundaries about school uniform etc - and otherwise totally ignore it. Teenage rebellion is only encouraged by pearl clutching outrage.

edited for better sense

If my 7 year old asked to be a cat and go to school as one, I'd laugh and then tell her to stop being ridiculous. The end. It blows my mind that there are parents who go 'ok then, I'll speak to the school and ask them to recognise you as a cat'. Jesus wept.

This can't be true!