lmao the idea that “preserving the definition of a word” aka linguistic prescriptivism aka gatekeeping, isnnnnn’t quiiiite respectability politics and is tooootally unobjectionableeee, is bullshit
and the idea that iding AS vs iding WITH is some clear thing, and that you must Involuntarily Identify As,
is totally the same born-this-way, damn you transtrenders, there is no choice in using a word whatsoever (???), this must be a Life Or Death Serious Identity, No Fun Allowed policing as ever.
like yawn. just bc my nonbinary identity is super fucking integral to everything about me, but somebody else’s nonbinary identity is kinda whimsical not-as-salient not-their-top-number-one-identity….. uh, that doesn’t mean they aren’t nonbinary
and ha, ha, ha, “it’s for their own good, long-term coping this way is Unhealthy (unless you’re Really one-of-us and then it’s…not coping, just coincidental that you’re both kin and nd/mentally ill)” how transparently ableist and dictating-how-to-Aim-for-Recovery-narrative can you get
i mean tbh this is why i don’t claim otherkin much at all, because all this shit is way too prevalent and Clear Divisions and “just use these other words, which were made up to put you over there away from us” (and never “hey maybe we should make our own new words or, even, learn to share”)
(plus “identify non-physically as” is that really the definition now, is the defensiveness against being seen as psychotic or ~crazy~ for asserting “hey i don’t have to id physically as human bc nah” gone that far? whatever y’all)
and anyways the entitlement to interrogating anyone as to How Deeply They’ve Thought About This (and are their reasons the Right ones, and are they properly Suffering, ad nauseum) is uh, yeah, policing, whichhh helps sustain respectability politics, even if that’s not your reason (but instead about the ~integrity~ of the word/identity itself)
shit’s linked and y’all still transparently suck no matter how nobly you dress up telling others they can’t be in your identity club.
I regret being asked to tackle this. This is…very cringe-inducing.
Okay, first off, I just wanna put something out there: you cannot choose to be transgender, it is not a voluntary thing. Fucking period. End of story. Arguably you are “born that way” as science does seem to support that hypothesis.
Identifying with vs. Identifying as was distinguished for a reason. Identifying as means you are that on some level. identifying with means that you relate to something. That’s…a big difference, and it’s kind of shitty to imply that the Otherhearted community exists only due to “No Fun Allowed policing.”
It’s not comparable to non-binary gender differences, since non-binary is an umbrella term all on its own covering dozens of different genders on top of being a gender all on its own…while otherkin and otherhearted are literally two separate terms, with different definitions. And you’re trying to compare how connected someone is to their gender identity to the difference between saying “that is literally me” and “oh, I relate to that.” This is a redundant and pointless and frankly ridiculous comparison. It’s nonsensical.
The “identify as non-physically” is in most definitions for a lot of reasons: A portion of it probably has to do with p-shifting scammers, con men, and wannabe cultists, if I had to guess; there’s also the fact that a lot of definitions sometimes just specify “spiritually or psychologically” and to just say “non-physically identify” is a lot faster and broader.
Yes, this excludes individuals who suffer from hallucinations and delusions which make them believe they are physically non-human animals (such as those rare individuals who actually do suffer from clinical lycanthropy) as saying they are otherkin due to the untrue beliefs they gain from experiencing those hallucinations and delusions, but, being fair, if someone is experiencing something like that…that’s pretty fucking serious, and they should be getting help for their problems. An incredibly large majority of the time, something like that’s pretty damn detrimental to them being able to function in everyday society, and is the symptom of a serious psychological disorder (or it could even be caused by a physical problem)–in other words, it’s typically something they should be working to stop to the best of their abilities. Most importantly, however, it should be noted that these people aren’t prevented from identifying as otherkin! They’re just prevented from saying that they are otherkin because they are biologically something other than human or similar, which is just not true.
And, despite you claiming that otherkin who defend the current definition are ableist and say that people are not otherkin due to psychology-related reasons, some otherkin do have internal non-human identities due to what they believe to be unconscious coping mechanisms. Psychological otherkin do exist, and copinglinks that claim to be kin because of their conscious created mechanisms give them a bad fucking name, in my opinion.
Questioning yourself and others has always been a part of the ‘kin community. Always. That’s not a bad thing, and can lead people to realizing that, hey, they’re not otherkin like they originally thought! And that that is perfectly okay! Maybe they’re actually otherhearted, or maybe they just really liked what they thought was their kintype. Maybe they based what they thought was their theriotype off of really average human reactions and skewed information. It’s not “entitled” to ask someone about something, and if someone is really that uncomfortable with talking about it, they can a) tell the person asking them that they would prefer not to answer any questions, or b) avoid otherkin forums/similar places where questions tend to be asked altogether.
Why would we abandon our community and its definition…when the people trying to change the definition so ridiculously drastically can just–wait for it–make their own. Seriously. People are trying to claim that you can choose whether or not you’re otherkin; that you can make and destroy kintypes; that you can change your identity with a flick of your wrist and a snap of your fingers. It’s been repeated over and over in the community that that is just not true. Not recently, either, this has basically been established for years and years…and is still held true by a very large majority of otherkin today.
