What with my health up to no good and needing to focus on that, I quit my 2nd job, so I’m back to my far more manageable 32 hours a week routine. That means the Fictionkind Dreamwidth community will be much more active again, also in thanks to @tanadin, who was the only brave soul to offer to help administrate the place.
I haven’t advertised here in a minute and this was as good a time as any to do that. So, for anyone who hasn’t seen it - or saw it before and forgot to jump on it then - Fictionkind is a Dreamwidth community that exists for all fictionally identified individuals and systems. Not just ‘kin and 'kind, but fictives, fictionhearted, soulbonds and their hosts, fictherians, fictionflickerers- really, you name it. If a fictional species, person, or world has significantly impacted or altered your identity, you’re welcome there.
More about it can be read here, which is required to see and agree to before you even join. If it suits your fancy then get in here and liven up the place! Right now we’re very prompt-oriented and we need way more than that. Even the content that you think is cringe or annoying is 100% wanted.
I hope this isn't too much of a nuisance, but I'm trying to introduce my friends to being kin, and as someone who is spiritual kin I'm having trouble explaining the psychological kin side of things. Do you have/know about any resources I could use to help explain things??
No worries if it's too much to ask, don't even worry about answering it if you don't have the energy.
It’s not a nuisance at all, but you’ve definitely got the wrong person for this, I don’t source anything unless there’s a gun to my head. :p Go ask Poppy aestherians, he’s psych ‘kin and between him and HoC liongoatsnake, there will be sources aplenty.
We’ve just finished polishing up Hidden Dragon, Anxious Townsfolk and published it on itch.io! It’s a short alterhuman-inspired, GM-less TTRPG that can be played alone or with friends: all you need is a deck of cards and a six-sided die. It’s currently listed for $2, but we also have a couple of free community copies up for grabs as well!
A link to the game will go onto our website in its next major update.
Saw Vagabond’s post. He asked for no reblogs, so I won’t, but I don’t want to go back and forth with original posts so I’m not gonna answer it. I have many thoughts on that, though, if anyone from Alt+H cares to reach out; although my position on the initiative they took hasn’t changed.
Right so… #WolfGetsReal, huh?
I mean, none of this has really sat well to me. I’m not a therianthrope myself, but theriomythic arguably applies to me, and I am more animalistic than I let on. Species dysphoria is the one thing that affects me directly, and very little of it is social: without physical transition, which is scientifically impossible, there is no treatment nor cure for the symptoms I have.
I haven’t watched Wolf (2021), owing largely to my general disinterest in movies. It’s rare I do watch films, and I’m certainly not going to waste two hours of my time watching a movie I’m guaranteed not to like. Everything I’ve heard about it so far says that it sucks, it’s a shitty B-list movie, and has pretty well no artistic value.
Alt+H decided to call a community initiative to drown the movie’s tags talking about actual species dysphoria, owing to an interview with the director where she admitted she went out of her way not to do any research.
Now, I’m not defending the director here, because that’s a stupid move in general. But I am gonna come outright and say that I don’t think this community initiative is a good idea. Actually, let me make that slightly plainer: I think it’s a stupid, ill-thought-out idea at best, and an actively dangerous one at worst.
This is a B-list movie, with zero famous actors, that very few people are going to watch. Of those few people, most if not all of them are going to either a) think it’s a werewolf movie spliced with an ableist mental facility movie, or b) think it’s a bad allegory for queer struggles.
Literally nobody but us is going to go “hm let’s be ableist towards the delusional with ~species dysphoria~ :)” because we’re not in the spotlight outside of when we’re brought up linked to transphobia. We are very occasionally that weird guy in an internet story you heard about once, and that’s only if you’re on the internet a lot.
Now, I know where this idea came from: back earlier this year when Grimes put ‘otherkin’ in her twitter bio and changed her birthdate to that of a nuclear bomb, the otherkin community flooded the twitter tags with introductions and 101s and threads on how cool the community is. It worked quite well, I think, and it’s clear this is more of that.
We were forced into the spotlight, so we forced the spotlight to be about us, and not the misinformation. Grimes has a depressingly large following, we didn’t have a choice.
This… isn’t that. The only reason anyone would watch this movie is if they’re bored of Sundance films. Hells, it’s even released right around two very anticipated Spiderman trailers. It’s a movie destined to be overlooked, a box office flop, and forgotten.
So tell me: if we don’t actually have a spotlight, why the hell are we making one? In the twitter tag of #WolfGetsReal, I’ve seen not one but two bestialist / animal abusers trying to overtake the narrative and link therianthropy to bestiality. Right now, the therianthrope community is having a nightmare time trying to kick them out.
You’re telling me we should go viral with zero cohesiveness, focusing on therianthropy, and give them the chance to irreparably link therianthropy to bestiality? Because of a shitty B-list movie that otherwise would fade into obscurity?
No. No, this is a bad idea. If we want to go viral, this is a terrible way to do it. Don’t get me wrong here, talking about species dysphoria and writing up posts and essays and 101s is great. But doing it specifically to go viral, when we have some major predators already frothing at the mouth to steal the mic for their malicious and substantially evil purposes?
It’s ill-thought-out at best, and I cannot approve. There’s literally no upside to this. The director wouldn’t listen to us at best (if that were possible, it would have been done already), we do not have any power we can actually use, any spotlight we make right now on this issue will be immediately hijacked (and we have currently zero plan to mitigate that major issue), and making a spotlight of us being made fun of isn’t something we can turn around.
There’s no upside to doing this. If we want to talk about species dysphoria, let’s focus on that, not bring emphasis to a movie that should fade forgotten into obscurity.
I know Alt+H also noted that between this and Wild Mountain Thyme, it seems the beginning of a trend. But WMT was taken almost universally by people who aren’t us as a metaphor, and had a total of zero impact on the community. If we let this pass us by the same way, it will also have zero impact. And right now, I’ll take no attention over almost-guaranteed-to-be-bad attention.
So that’s my thoughts on that.
It’s good to see other perspectives on this subject & I agree with what’s said here. The movie is an obscure one & it seems counterproductive to drag more attention to it & all its bullshit. Maybe the #wolfgetsreal initiative would make more sense if the movie was actually really popular & in the spotlight, but it’s not & won’t be.
Yeah, I’ve… been thinking this but didn’t want to say it. Realistically, I don’t think the #WolfGetsReal hashtag will get any more attention from anyone who’s not in the nonhuman communities than the movie itself did, but I don’t want to take the risk.
Also, this may be a little selfish on my part, but it’s… frankly exhausting to go into the otherkin tag and have literally every other post be about this movie (at best complaining, and at worst outright catastrophizing it). It’s exhausting to go into a community space and be overwhelmed by posts about a big scary thing and how bad it could (could) be for the community, especially when yeah, I do honestly think it’s catastrophizing a bit, even as I understand where people are coming from.
I hadn’t thought of it before this post, but I think this -
Now, I know where this idea came from: back earlier this year when Grimes put ‘otherkin’ in her twitter bio and changed her birthdate to that of a nuclear bomb, the otherkin community flooded the twitter tags with introductions and 101s and threads on how cool the community is. It worked quite well, I think, and it’s clear this is more of that.
We were forced into the spotlight, so we forced the spotlight to be about us, and not the misinformation.
- is an excellent point. If we really want to combat any negative impact this movie might have, then maybe we should do this again - make a point of talking in whatever tags are relevant about our experiences, about real species dysphoria and what it’s like and how we deal with it and why it isn’t whatever demon the movie made out of it, about real nonhumanity, about Otherkin 101, etc. etc. That might be a more productive response than what’s currently happening, in my opinion - and it’s less compassion-fatiguing.
But, that’s just my opinion, and like I said, I don’t honestly think the #WolfGetsReal tag is going to bring any more attention to us than the movie is, though I’ve certainly been wrong before.
Thanks, this is why you gotta let me do the spitballing of opinions for you. :p
But honestly, yeah. I want to reblog a lot of these posts, but I also don’t want to give more attention to this hashtag. I only got some 900 followers and I don’t want to be complicit in bringing attention to a profoundly bad idea.
The Grimes thing was mostly… really chipper and cheerful intros and “ask me questions and I’ll answer them~” and just. We threw rainbows on things so we couldn’t be painted as the bad guy. Look how fun and neat we are, we’re kinda rare but isn’t it interesting that we exist? This is super not that.
And I love getting folks to talk about their experiences! I tell them to every thirty seconds. But it’s built on such a base of negativity and downright fear that isn’t necessary, I don’t think, that it sours everything.
But you’re right. For those of us who just don’t have the energy - and you’re not the only one I’ve heard - it’s absolutely super fatiguing right now in the tags.
I don't disagree re: #wolfgetsreal being poorly thought out (mod posted the idea in the discord chat and gave the community less than 2 hours to voice thoughts before posting it to the official blog) but I do feel like it's worth pointing out that the point in your post and one of the reblogs about how most people would just disregard the film as a bad allegory for trans people is like. The point. It's not a blockbuster or anything but it is getting a little attention specifically as a comedically bad allegory for gender by people who are now going to think of species dysphoria I'm general as a comedically bad allegory for gender, so "if you didn't say anything it would just be regarded as a bad allegory for gender" is probably like. Not...especially convincing to the people you seem to be talking to
Firstly, I find it mildly comedic but genuinely sad that Alt+H gave everyone less than two hours to voice thoughts. You give no less than 48, especially if you’re an organization. Some people are asleep, my dude. I don’t follow Alt+H because ultimately I don’t care, but… what are they doing.
As for whether it being a bad allegory for trans stuff is a bad thing… I’m trans, and honestly? You’re betting that the inner part of the Venn diagram of “people who have seen this movie” and “people who intend on only being mildly ableist to otherkin over species dypshoria” is going to be a significant problem here.
People just aren’t gonna see the movie, and they certainly aren’t going to decide the entire otherkin community is just idiot trans people any more than they were already going to. Either you understand that movies around mental health are very rarely done in good faith, or the conversation’s over before it started.
Either it’s just a bad movie and dismissed at that; or it’s a bad movie with controversy over the internet’s punching bag. I’ll take the former every single time.
I wrote notes down about this thing trolls do (pretending to be multi-racial) and why it’s a factor in my non/alterhumanity, because I want to write a proper thing about it. But I’ve had a shit few weeks so this is what you get. It’s very disjointed because, well, notes.
Unless you’re lucky enough to be welcomed by one or more of your ethnic groups, you’re an outcast. I’m too white for my Asian side and I’ve never been at ease or unconditionally welcomed by the white side either. Even my foster parent who isnt blood related told me that she would never adopt a nonwhite child again, because she cant deal with other cultures anymore. Guess I ruined it.
I dont have a home among human beings even if I feel like I should, and I’ve long since given that up. I’m an anomaly, an aberration, a hybrid that no one wants too close. As a kid I got this message, swallowed it whole, and my attachments were forever disordered. The idea of having familial bonds as an adult makes me sick and tired. I like people well enough, but they need to keep a polite distance; the few times they or I or both of us forgot this rule, the relationship imploded. Mania and fawning is not affection, it’s desperation.
I’ve felt like a nonhuman animal for all of my life, and this includes my humanity, my phenotype and environment and culture(s). I dont fit. Being born in America was the final blow, since it washes away your heritage in a sea of conformity, even if you are white or half white. I couldnt be Irish, and I couldnt be Korean either. My identity was trampled as much as my countries of origin were. I was told to be Christian, and American, and Female, and White. I was never any of those concepts, even when I was still dirt in the ground.
It’s strange to be used as a mockery of alterhumans (How can I make otherkin look crazy? Pretend to be multi racial! That’s so CRINGE!). But it also works, because these things move together in the dance of my alienation. For me it is cringe. I dont even like thinking of the components of my human body too much because they’ve been a source of shame for so long.
Trans racial is an actual thing that describes people of one ethnicity adopted and raised by another. The fact that it’s co-opted by people who (sometimes) think they’re supporting us by making fun of alterhumans is insanity. Like cool, I get it, people like me are an absurd concept comparable to being trans-fat and having 20 personality disorders at one time, message recieved. I’m being sarcastic, but a part of me just internalized it as another thing that makes me not human. Or at the very least alternately-human. Human, but a little bit off. Something is piloting this body but it just aint right.
Ichigo has the same story, though less explicitly stated. Bullied by his peers and discriminated against by adults for his hair and appearance, finding kinship with the one other mixed kid who sticks out and gets hurt like he does (Chad), and having the rest of his identity fragmented and fought over for the entire story until everyone wants blood. That’s always been his/my story, and all of it is true and all of it is metaphor.
Enter Aizen Sosuke who - at least in my timeline; ymmv - is another mixed race outcast. Dubious history resulting in a man who stands alone and learns to prioritize himself. Adopts an entire species that is also fragmented and kicked to the curb, and teaches them both of his languages while he’s at it. They adopt some of his customs and vocabulary and behavior because they’re in awe of him no matter what he is or what other people thought about him.
I only exist because this person wanted me to, “in his image” in an almost biblical sense. This should be my inspiration to accept all of my pieces no matter what, and I did- but not in a human way at all. I enjoy being a creature that other people dont understand or even like. To a Nazi I’m contaminated. To a more subtle racist they just cant put their finger on why they dont like me. Each side of the family blames the other for supposed failings and bad influences, but all I heard growing up was that there was something fucked up about me and it had to be someone’s fault. Likewise, as Ichigo, after being told and shown in so many ways that to exist across boundaries was a bad thing, I snap, and I start to like it. The man who encourages me to like it and shows me actual care becomes a god figure. This is how you craft a new kind of guy with all sorts of things going on (me).
I have nothing to say to “trans race” trolls except that they need to get good, because I DO feel like a freak and there are so many layers to that.
In related news, I went and crossposted that to my website. It needs updates, especially some plural stuff, and I really want to work a whole lot more on my website.
But alas. I have the final exam I’m most dreading tomorrow evening, and it has to wait. :’)
I mean, don’t get me wrong here, Goni said that the summary and reactions we’ve heard from the movie reminds him unpleasantly of freak shows, and I don’t know much about those so that’s his take on the matter, and I too would be happier if the movie hadn’t gotten made.
But ultimately… I want no spotlight. Not right now, and if we must have a spotlight, I want it on a foundation of us in control. I don’t want it built off our misery. Again.
Right so… #WolfGetsReal, huh?
I mean, none of this has really sat well to me. I’m not a therianthrope myself, but theriomythic arguably applies to me, and I am more animalistic than I let on. Species dysphoria is the one thing that affects me directly, and very little of it is social: without physical transition, which is scientifically impossible, there is no treatment nor cure for the symptoms I have.
I haven’t watched Wolf (2021), owing largely to my general disinterest in movies. It’s rare I do watch films, and I’m certainly not going to waste two hours of my time watching a movie I’m guaranteed not to like. Everything I’ve heard about it so far says that it sucks, it’s a shitty B-list movie, and has pretty well no artistic value.
Alt+H decided to call a community initiative to drown the movie’s tags talking about actual species dysphoria, owing to an interview with the director where she admitted she went out of her way not to do any research.
Now, I’m not defending the director here, because that’s a stupid move in general. But I am gonna come outright and say that I don’t think this community initiative is a good idea. Actually, let me make that slightly plainer: I think it’s a stupid, ill-thought-out idea at best, and an actively dangerous one at worst.
This is a B-list movie, with zero famous actors, that very few people are going to watch. Of those few people, most if not all of them are going to either a) think it’s a werewolf movie spliced with an ableist mental facility movie, or b) think it’s a bad allegory for queer struggles.
Literally nobody but us is going to go “hm let’s be ableist towards the delusional with ~species dysphoria~ :)” because we’re not in the spotlight outside of when we’re brought up linked to transphobia. We are very occasionally that weird guy in an internet story you heard about once, and that’s only if you’re on the internet a lot.
Now, I know where this idea came from: back earlier this year when Grimes put ‘otherkin’ in her twitter bio and changed her birthdate to that of a nuclear bomb, the otherkin community flooded the twitter tags with introductions and 101s and threads on how cool the community is. It worked quite well, I think, and it’s clear this is more of that.
We were forced into the spotlight, so we forced the spotlight to be about us, and not the misinformation. Grimes has a depressingly large following, we didn’t have a choice.
This… isn’t that. The only reason anyone would watch this movie is if they’re bored of Sundance films. Hells, it’s even released right around two very anticipated Spiderman trailers. It’s a movie destined to be overlooked, a box office flop, and forgotten.
So tell me: if we don’t actually have a spotlight, why the hell are we making one? In the twitter tag of #WolfGetsReal, I’ve seen not one but two bestialist / animal abusers trying to overtake the narrative and link therianthropy to bestiality. Right now, the therianthrope community is having a nightmare time trying to kick them out.
You’re telling me we should go viral with zero cohesiveness, focusing on therianthropy, and give them the chance to irreparably link therianthropy to bestiality? Because of a shitty B-list movie that otherwise would fade into obscurity?
No. No, this is a bad idea. If we want to go viral, this is a terrible way to do it. Don’t get me wrong here, talking about species dysphoria and writing up posts and essays and 101s is great. But doing it specifically to go viral, when we have some major predators already frothing at the mouth to steal the mic for their malicious and substantially evil purposes?
It’s ill-thought-out at best, and I cannot approve. There’s literally no upside to this. The director wouldn’t listen to us at best (if that were possible, it would have been done already), we do not have any power we can actually use, any spotlight we make right now on this issue will be immediately hijacked (and we have currently zero plan to mitigate that major issue), and making a spotlight of us being made fun of isn’t something we can turn around.
There’s no upside to doing this. If we want to talk about species dysphoria, let’s focus on that, not bring emphasis to a movie that should fade forgotten into obscurity.
I know Alt+H also noted that between this and Wild Mountain Thyme, it seems the beginning of a trend. But WMT was taken almost universally by people who aren’t us as a metaphor, and had a total of zero impact on the community. If we let this pass us by the same way, it will also have zero impact. And right now, I’ll take no attention over almost-guaranteed-to-be-bad attention.
So that’s my thoughts on that.
you said at about 2:30 so heres an ask to let you know it's about 4 minutes to 2:30 :-]
Got my days all fucked up and had to run off so my brother could open presents (it’s his birthday), but aight, time to write post.
It’s 12:05pm right now, I’m about to go into my Java final. In two hours, someone harass me to make a post on the hashtag Alt+H is trying to get people on, because I have a post about it, and just need to write it down, but can’t do that right this second now that I’m awake.
Someone harass me about 2:30pm PST / GMT -8:00. I’ll do my thing.
there’s so much kin terminology and i get most of it. it’s just the grammar that trips me up. like, can fictionkin and fictionkind be used interchangeably in a sentence? or is there a difference? is it proper to say “kin with” or “kin as”? i honestly just stick with the basics and say that i am my fictotype because man there is a LOT of jargon.
1) -kind is very slightly older, and connotation-wise implies you’re tired of KFF.
2) Both are good shorthand and are interchangeable, just don’t use ‘kin’ as a verb.
3) If you have any other questions, I can answer them!
I crawled out of my hole because Wolf scared me.
The director and filmmaker both admitted point-blank to looking at otherkin, thinking about species dysphoria, purposefully doing no research, and purposefully envisioning a future where conversion therapy prisons are the norm for people with species dysphoria.
This is not an exaggeration. This is real. Someone actually looked at us and decided this was the reality they wanted, and they didn’t wanna base it in actual reality at all.
Please don’t let people think this movie is an allegory for transgender people or gender dysphoria. It literally by admission is not. And while trans people are obviously impacted, we need to start admitting that there are other very real people that this is literally – not allegorically – about forcing through conversion “therapy.”
They made a movie about conversion therapy prison for species dysphoric people.
As a pluran, I can say it is the equivalent of Split for species dysphoria.
Please tell people species dysphoria is real and people with it are going to be harmed by this being one of our first major pieces of “representation.”
Not all representation is good. This isn’t representation when they literally admitted to not researching real species dysphoria at all.