Production: By Europod, in co-production with Sphera Network.
EUobserver is proud to have an editorial partnership with Europod to co-publish the podcast series “Briefed” hosted by Léa Marchal. The podcast is available on all major platforms.
You can find the transcript here if you prefer reading:
In Spain, the Therian community — people who spiritually identify as animals — has been the subject of heated debates on social media and in the press.
Yet, the phenomenon exists primarily in the mouths of its detractors.
Why has such a minority movement received so much attention in recent days?
Last Saturday, on Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square, several hundred people gathered for a rally organised by the Therian community.
What is this about? Therians are young people who spiritually identify as animals, some of whom wear fox or wolf masks, for example.
But that day in Madrid, the curious were disappointed. According to several Spanish media outlets, the Therians didn’t really show up at the events.
The same was true in Salamanca, Seville, and even Barcelona.
At these gatherings, however, militants from the far-right Spanish party Vox proudly made their presence known.
In Barcelona, among the thousands of people present at the rally, the media mainly noted young onlookers curious to observe the Therian phenomenon, some dressed in sarcastic costumes, who did not identify with the targeted community at all.
So, why have Therians taken up so much space in the public debate?
According to Adrian Juste, an analyst specialising in disinformation, this phenomenon perfectly illustrates how algorithms and social networks can fabricate information out of thin air. In an article of Spanish daily El País, he explains that the Therian community is a relatively insignificant subculture that has already been overrepresented in several Latin American countries.
On the social network X, the hashtag #Therian indeed frequently appears in Latin American countries, particularly Argentina. I’ve come across countless aggressive political messages against this community. Critics share TikTok videos or photos of so-called Therians, some of which are generated by artificial intelligence. They are mocking these individuals, portraying them as a societal threat, and thus dominating the political space on a topic that, at its core, seems to stem from a playful activity.
In France, the subject has been picked up by a few organizations or media outlets, such as a hunting-focused website that published an article about Therians, primarily to mock them.
This phenomenon of polarisation is specific to spiritual beliefs like this one but also widely applies to LGBTQIA or feminist movements. No matter what their members say or do, they are constantly being laughed at on social media.
In France, when Green Member of Parliament Sandrine Rousseau drew a parallel between meat consumption and the cult of virility in a conference, she triggered an incredible wave of harassment. Many people, mostly from the right and far right, took her words out of context and accused her of attacking a pillar of French culture.
The vegan community regularly faces the same treatment from its most virulent opponents.
Yet, this kind of hyper-satirical, sensationalist content spreads extremely quickly on social media, unlike in-depth analyses of the various movements formed by vegans, feminists, or Therians.
In the end, it’s not so much the movement itself that matters, but what it represents in the public debate. Therians, like other subcultures or minority movements, become the perfect pretext for polarisation, creating buzz, and diverting attention from real political and social issues.
