Michael Afton Draws Vanny’s FNAF Fursona,,

re: real tails in the therian community, where they came from, and why they're (usually) not a good thing

(before i start this post, i want to let you know that i am pro-hunting and pro-taxidermy. this is not a post just saying "tails are bad because they kill animals". if you are anti-hunting, please see yourself to the block button. this is not a post for you.)

i got my first introduction to the therian community through tiktok. i'm very recently awakened and also wasn't on tumblr when i was being awakened so my only real way to see other therians do therian things was through tiktok. but now that i'm in more therian spaces with people that have seen a lot more therian history than i have i realize that the "therians" i was seeing on tiktok were an entirely different breed than what therians have really been since the days of alt.horror.werewolves. 

in this post i'll be using the term "tiktok therian" to describe these people. though they are therians, i believe their culture (specifically regarding the importance of gear) is fundamentally different than the main therian community's and should therefore be categorized as something else. they are also often substantially younger than therians in other spaces (i don't recall where but i've seen therians as young as seven years old on tiktok) and often don't engage with therianthropy anywhere outside of tiktok (which is part of the problem, and will also be something i address in this post).

so let's talk tails.

a massive part of tiktok therian culture is gear. alongside quadrobics, wearing gear (masks and tails, typically) seems to be… pretty much all that the tiktok therian community focuses on. and from what i've seen on therian tiktok it seems like the more tails you have, the "cooler" you are. additionally, from what i've seen, yarn tails/faux tails are seen as a sort of "substandard" or "budget" option compared to real fur tails. this is…weird. it's a dichotomy that doesn't exist anywhere else on the therian scene and it seems to be completely manufactured by tiktok therians themselves. for some reason tiktok therians believe that real tails are superior to faux alternatives, and the more real tails one has, the better.

additionally, i do not believe all real fur tails are bad. if sourced from a local taxidermist that you Know is ethical, or if you source and tan yours yourself, they are completely fine. it is not the tails that are the problem- the problem lies in the tiktok therian culture that's created a need for more and more real tails, which often results in (particularly younger) therians seeking out the cheapest option to add to their hoard, and, when it comes to taxidermy, the "cheapest option" is also often the cruelest behind the scenes.

i also know it's not plausible for the average preteen tiktok therian to shell out 30 or 40 dollars for an ethical tail, or to go out and source and tan their own tail (whether that be from hunting or roadkill). some therians simply don't have the resources to own real, ethical fur tails.

and this is where i humbly suggest yarn tails as an alternative!

i don't work for the yarn industry i promise But yarn tails are everything that real tails are and more without the high price tag, the risk of cruelty, or the maintenance.  literally just go to michaels and buy a skein of acrylic yarn for like three dollars. if the tiktok therian community eliminated its collective bias towards real fur tails and actually started accepting yarn tails as Good Tails (which they are..) then the entire problem regarding cheap unethical tails would be gone. yarn tails require close to zero maintenance and, with practice, only take a couple hours and less than five dollars to make.

but you can't really talk about replacing real tails without talking about why real tails (and having so many of them) is a big thing on therian tiktok in the first place.

i believe most of the problem lies with tiktok itself. by nature, tiktok's short-form video format forces creators to upload content constantly to stay relevant. in the tiktok therian community, the content that gets the most clicks is- you guessed it- quads and gear. these therians on tiktok, typically not even in high school yet, are forced by their platform to continually purchase new tails and masks to stay relevant. i believe yarn tails are frowned upon simply because they require work to create. the work that goes into creating yarn tails is simply not compatible with the constant upload schedule that tiktok requires- being able to purchase a real tail from amazon and have it arrive ready to use at your doorstep the next day is much more accommodating to the schedule that tiktok forces from its users. 

(also when i say "force" i don't mean that tiktok is holding a gun to these therian kids' heads saying "Make More Content Or Else." i mean that tiktok's format has led to a dependence on social media for attention in these people and they must upload consistently to get the attention they crave. the harmful effects of tiktok on children's brains is a whole other post in and of itself…)

anyhow. i did not intend this post to become a critique of social media when i first conceptualized it but This Is What It Is Now. tiktok is a toxic, exploitative place for everyone on it- both creators and viewers, and especially younger people- and it should be blasted off the face of the earth./hj

also small point to add before i tie this up- people like Therian Territory pretending to know how to differentiate unethical vs. ethical fur farms are lying for attention and are doing nothing to fix the underlying problem with buying so many real tails (which, as stated above, comes from a dependence on social media for attention). Therian Territory knows nothing about leatherworking or taxidermy (and also defends zoophiles i mean huh what?) and it hurts my soul to see so many young therians using them as a source of information when they've been proven time and time again to be a dishonest slimeball.

so to conclude this, i don't believe that having one or two ethically sourced real fur tails is a problem. i don't believe that having any amount of real tails is a problem, actually. tiktok therians having dozens of real fur tails is only a symptom of the real underlying problem: tiktok's (and social media in general's) exploitative nature and the strict schedules it imposes on its users to stay relevant.

if you'd like to (respectfully) debate me on any point i've raised here, please go to my askbox- don't do it in the reblogs or comments of this post. id rather not clutter it up that way. thank you for reading and free palestine.

// fal h. fourpaws, professional canine opinion haver

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