This past month I learned a new word: Therian. The first time I heard it used was by our outgoing president, Rodrigo Chaves, who made the sardonic suggestion that a rival political party, the left wing Frente Amplio, was made up of therians. For those as out of the loop on the latest weird trends as I am, a therian is a person who identifies as a non-human animal.
They can be found on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, wearing elaborate masks and pinned-on tails, imitating the behavior of the animals with which they identify. I took the time to watch a few short clips so you won’t have to and saw an assortment of masked humans cavorting while vainly trying to imitate dogs, cats, wolves, and foxes. It was a little like Mardi Gras, except there was no good music, food, or drink.
The idea of human-animal transformation or the existence of hybrid beings is nothing new. These figures, such as the Greek Minotaur, depicted as a man with the head and tail of a bull in mythology, and the shape-shifting skinwalkers of Navajo folklore, have been around for centuries. More recently, in 1989, the rock band The Pixies recorded a song called Caribou that seems to portend the future therian movement. The first verse ends with the lines This human form / Where I was born / I now repent, followed by a howling chorus of the word Caribou repeated several times.
This bizarre movement has become popular among young people in Argentina and Mexico and has gained a bit of traction as well in Costa Rica. Reaction has been swift. A major San Jose area shopping mall has warned it will exercise its right of admission. Veterinarians and pet supply stores are on the lookout for groups that have allegedly been searching for pet food to be used for human consumption. Several municipalities also warned that they will take measures to maintain public order, given announcements and rumors of gatherings of therians in different parks.
AI adds to the confusion. I watched a recent video showing what was supposed to be a man who, through many surgeries, had transformed himself to look like a dog. Besides the fact that no plastic surgeon who wanted to keep a license would likely offer services to make such a drastic change, the video itself was clearly another in the long list of AI-generated nonsense currently clogging up cyberspace.
Like so many modern-day crazes, this is driven by the internet. Decades back, every town and every neighborhood had its handful of societal misfits. They had their own little private corners for acting out whatever unusual practices they were into, while the rest of us were blissfully unaware. Now they can all seek each other out and connect. Power to the weirdos.
Personally, I do not take it as seriously as some. We live in the cosplay era. There will always be politicians and public figures who thrive on fear of the weird and unusual. What they do not realize is that one constant over the years is the ability of younger generations to tweak older ones with behavior outside accepted norms.
From long hair on men to body piercings and modifications to mass acceptance of tattoos to putting on a dog mask and claiming that your inner Fido is trapped inside your boring human body, the kids will always be at the head of the nonconformist parade.
Read more of Don Mateo’s writing at donmateoinparadise.com.
