Cat Therian
So I asked my biology teacher who has multiple masters in the subject whether or not Otherkin or Blank Therians were possible. She laughed and said “from of scientific and genetic standpoint, its impossible”
Really? Cuz all the academic papers I’ve found have looked at it as a spiritual belief and had no issue with it. Yknow. Because it literally has nothing to do with believing you are physically not human. And therefor your information provided to your professor was incorrect and his opinion is therefor not applicable.
A few of the academic papers (some from the anthropological and some psychological field) out there about otherkin –
Johnston, Jay. “On Having
a Furry Soul: Transpecies Identity and Ontological Indeterminacy In Otherkin
Subcultures,” Animal Death, edited by Jay Johnston and Fiona Probyn-Rapsey,
293-306. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2013.Shane, Margaret. “Chapter 16:
Some People Aren’t People On The Inside.” In Educational, Psychological, and
Behavioral Considerations In Niche Online Communities, by Vivek Venkatesh,
260 – 271. Hershey: Information Science Reference, 2014.Grivell, Timothy, Helen Clegg
and Elizabeth C. Roxburgh. “An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of
Identity in the Therian Community.” Identity: An International Journal of
Theory and Research. Vol. 14, No. 2, (May 2014)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15283488.2014.891999?journalCode=hidn20#preview (accessed July 10 2014).Laycock, Joseph P. “We Are
Spirits of Another Sort: Ontological Rebellion and Religious Dimensions of the
Otherkin Community.” Nova Religio. Vol. 15, No. 3 (Feb., 2012): pp. 65-90
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65 (accessed November 24
2013).Robertson, Venetia Laura Delano. “The Beast
Within: Anthrozoomorphic Identity and Alternative Spirituality in the Online
Therianthropy Movement.” Nova Religio, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Feb 2013): pp. 7-30
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2013.16.3.7 (accessed November 24 2013).All these different academics (and there are many more) agree that otherkin are a thing and very possible. Of course, if some tries to explain otherkin from a biological standpoint (and especially depending upon what was told them…), one is going to get a “…what? No.” Response. Being otherkin is about identity meaning its a subject for the social sciences like the anthropology field and psychology field.
