Are any of you embarrassed of one (or more) of your theriotypes?

I actually have a second theriotype. It is a Eurasian stoat (or ermine when in winter fur), a small weasel mustelid. And I'm often sad that I am "lucky" to be such a critter...

I think it's because of my limited views (blurred by wereanimal ideas) and low self confidence, I find it really hard to overcome. It's engraved in my personality to worry on how I look in front of others (my low self esteem plays a part in this), so keep it in mind and sorry if my vent bothers you...

A bit of my story. I discovered modern therianthropy through werewolves (not the buff anthro monsters, but humans with a realistic wolf form). I was thinking: what if there were people like werewolves in real life, animals inside a human body, that would fit my animality I sensed in myself. And bingo - therians seemed like actual were'animals existing in our modern society, but mental, without fantasy body shapeshifting.

So I kinda look at it through prism of pop culture beast people, okay? And I love that history point, when early therians called themselves weres.

Wolves are the staple, wolves are the main animal to transform into in European/American cultures. Also there are bear-themed berserkers, Mesopotamia werejaguars, fox people from Asian countries, African lions, hyenas, leopards. and many more. All meaningful symbolic animals, important predators. In my language there's a single word for "werewolf", not for the other animals (and adding prefixes doesn't help here), so if you'd like to play and translate a wereotter for example, you'd get a type of "otter werewolf", ridiculous. That's how much wolves are prominent.

Plus we won't deny, a general person on all fours is about wolf-sized. So if physical shapeshifting existed, it would be easier to transform into a human-sized animal, rather than to shrink to a mouse or enlarge to an elephant. So maybe that's why we see no other creatures differing in sizes.

So I feel like every animal shapeshifter is of a big powerful animal, often an apex predator. The smallest animal I've seen, is a cat, and cats are always an interesting concept, so why not add them to change things a bit.

With the lion theriotype (I consider it to be the vacillant type, while stoat is regular shifting), it isn't conflicted much. Like with wolves and other common weres. Lions are bigger than humans, but it works better. Good build, good proportions, hands count as nice paws. Imagine a real lion (or any cat) standing on hind paws, and it will, at least partially, resemble human proportions somehow, but longer. A werelion, still somehow looks a natural shapeshifter, a fitting member to a were'team, not out of place.

What is the stoat? SMALL. Fits in two hands held together. LONG with short legs, so when I'm in a mental shift I can't move like I feel (not talking about quads specifically, you can resemble lots of animals with usual human movements). The only normal way is the "meerkat stand", the only move perfectly do-able.

I'm afraid it's a reason for the "big and mighty" therians to laugh at me when my stoat identity is stronger. After all it's just slightly bigger that a least weasel, the smallest carnivore on Earth. I'm also "big and mighty" when the lioness type is stronger, but still.

Weird, for a big creature (average human, still big in comparison to lots of animals) to identify as something this teeny-tiny.

A werestoat, even sounds funny, if we go to the old therian-were-calling times... Thanks to the one art from werecreature series (was done for a "small' day) I feel a bit more (normally) seen.

Yet I am this, I am a stoat, lots of experiences through my life (like instincts) lead me to this fact. And I'm so embarrassed of it, so in alterhuman spaces I try to introduce myself as a lioness therian first, so not to confuse them...

Me, a grown person, 24, with a stoat's mind, isn't it a good laugh? "A lion's mind" would sound respectable even for non-alterhumans, like a metaphor. But a stoat, ha! silly... Sometimes I wish I could be a more convincing? mustelid, like a wolverine, a marten, a badger or a ferret. No, I'm a tiny stoat... Are stoats even cool? People see them as either a material for royal gowns (you know these dotted white fur on royal robes?) or a bloodthirsty pest.

Those who are small animals, how do you deal with it?