i really wanna go back to the days when people were like “kin could mean a lot of things!
- like heavily seeing yourself as a character,
- or them being a character that you adapt as a part of your identity because you have a pd,
- or not feeling right within your own body,
- or having a sense of your past like and memories within it,
- a spiritual connection,
- an outlet for religious expression!
- or something complete on your own that you can define! its different for every person!”
like nowadays its like “you have to have felt wrong about the life you were living for a very long time and you have to have memories and you have to be literally this character in every aspect and you have to share all their mannerisms or youre a FAKE FAKEY FAKER!!!
like thanks!! way to show ur blatant ableism against ppl with pds that dont have a sense of identity and were trying to give themselves one!!
way to fucking show ur abelism against ppl with axiety + paranoia related disorders to were always afraid tht were making up being kin ur since our feelings arent exactly like the little manual for “how to be a REAL kin” says!!!
thank u for showing you actually are a huge fucking ableist!!!!!!!!
Thing is, “kin” has a specific definition, and has done for years. That definition is “to literally identify AS something”
Within that definition there are a lot of experiences. The kin community has narrowed them down to “coping”, “psychological” and “spiritual”. Coping to mean, identifying as something because it helps you. Psychological to mean, you simply are that thing psychologically. And spiritual to mean, you were literally that person or thing in a past life.
That has ALWAYS been the definition of kin and the “sub-definitions” (couldn’t think of a better term!) of kin. The KIn Thing has been going on for way longer than tumblr, and that has been the definition we’ve always stuck to. It’s tumblr that tried to change it into something else,something it was never even meant to be.
There are many people now who don’t subscribe to the kin beliefs/definitions, but who wish to identify with or as a fictional character. This is perfectly fine, but the label they’re using (kin), is incorrect if it doesn’t fall into the definitions I laid out. This doesn’t make them lesser or anything, but it does mean they’re using a language that was made for a specific kind of experience, and since their experience isn’t the same, they shouldn’t be using that language because it makes it harder for those whose experience works within the definition of “kin”.
I’ve seen people using the term “IDs” recently for those who are not kin but feel connected to characters for some of the reasons listed in the OP, and I think that’s the best compromise. Because the fictionkin community gave itself it’s name for a specific purpose, to find people whose experience was like theirs, and falling into this habit of calling ANTHING kin, makes it harder for those who are of the original definition to find people they can relate to. And you guys may think it’s silly, but it’s actually really important for us to be able to speak to people whose experiences are the same as ours. And THAT’S why we keep insisting on the pure definitions. Certainly not because we’re ableist, considering most of us are mentally ill =
