Recently, I heard some of the kids at the local school talking about furries in a disparaging, even quite viscious, way. At first, I was puzzled. I knew these same kids to be overall open minded, and accepting of other differences in their classmates. And yet here I was seeing such a lack of empathy or understanding.

From the beginning, it seemed clear to me why people might want to dress as, even identify as, animals. We're connected with animals. In fact, I personally believe we're one, connected with nature, other animals, and the universe. What's the problem (I thought) with feeling it, expressing it?

Plus, clearly it can become a friend group. A community, even. Something that's badly needed, and sorely missing, in our society. I remember how, back in the 80s, the Goths were generally scorned – but yet they had something the other kids didn't. Their 'tribe'.

I remember going to an event in my hometown with a deaf friend. Even though I couldn't really sign, it was amazing! Truly welcoming, warm, and wonderful. A community there, too.

And I recall there was a boy in my kid's nursery school who, every day, from the dressing up box, he got out his full animal costume and wore it all day. He was a lovely boy. The other, powerful, 'normal' boys were mean to him, just like they were to my (autistic) son.

Years have passed since then.

Until someone said to me, the other day, "You won't believe this, the furries want a litter box at school!" I answered (though I'd never heard anything like this before) that indeed I didn't believe it. It sounded like a cruel rumor. A ruse. Bullying.

Another child later told me that it actually wasn't the kids who started this rumor (much less the furries!). It was a teacher. The same teacher who's been teaching them about LGBTQ+. The teacher had added, "If anybody thinks they're a dog, they can get out of my classroom."

So why the cruelty? Why the vehemence? Isn't it a bit overkill? I mean, it doesn't seem to me they're harming anyone. I've thought about this for days. It seemed to me there was something in it. Something deeper; something important. Specifically, something to do with power.

I remembered how the biggest cruelties towards transgender people have tended to be towards trans women.

In our society, we don't think it is so odd if a member of a less powerful group wants to become part of a more powerful group. Indeed, it fits our general belief system rather nicely. Even while we avoid ever openly talking about inbuilt power differentials.

But we get terribly upset and pushed-off-balance when a member of a more powerful group (in this case, men or boys) wishes to become part of a less powerful group (girls, women). Yeouch. Now that is threatening, right? It's threatening to the whole paradigm. To the structure. You just pulled a stone out of its foundation! It's as if the slave owners' kid were to do a big finger-up to their family and supposedly 'respectable' society, and go and join the slaves on the plantation, in preference.

This sort of rebellion sparks outrage! And the machine – the power structure, our society – gears into destructive mode, to end it quickly. All weapons drawn. This usually works through individuals. Individual people who can quickly become mobs, all pumped full of hate. After all, it isn't very hard to convince people in a hierarchical society that they're hard-done-by... and then you point invitingly at the 'culprits'... who must, by definition, always be less powerful than them.

So, who has even less power than a woman, socially and historically? Well, animals are (like women, in the past and actually still now, to varying degrees depending on location and other factors), seen as a commodity, a resource. In my short article on factors that reduce people's empathy, I've talked about our capacity to switch off our empathy for whomever we see as a resource.

We live in a fundamentally exploitative (competitive) society. In such a hierarchical structure, anything or anyone can be dehumanized and exploited... if you can get away with it. Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am," unintentionally giving a carte blanche for the pillage of nature and all the other animals on this planet. And anybody who indulges in anthropomorphism, e.g. "Oh look, I stepped on my dog's paw and he yelped... do you think he might feel pain?" (okay, I'm exaggerating a little) is frowned upon. It's traditionally considered silly and 'womanish' to attribute feelings and thoughts to anyone who doesn't look like us or speak like us. Indeed, not so very long ago, newborn babies were operated on without anaesthetic. It was thought they couldn't feel pain, as they don't express it how we do.

Considering everything, I suppose I'm not so very surprised to see such hate, outrage, and derision, directed against our furries and therians. Even if when that only takes the form of, "Yeah, they are a bit weird, I don't get them at all," said with mistrust and a disdainful curl of the lip.

There are no laws in place protecting children, and adults, from the discrimination directed against them just because they dress and/or identify as animals. I wonder if thirty years ago that same teacher, ironically, wouldn't have been saying something derisive about being 'gay' or 'queer'?

And me? I stand with the therians. With the furries, too. If I were a bit younger and a bit more savvy on TikTok, I'd probably be making myself a beautiful mask. Meow.

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