We all have problems, right? We look in the mirror and see a fat , ugly idiot. But you know what? For most of us, we’re at least seeing the correct species in there. Imagine what it’s like to unfurl your wings in the morning, bat the sleep out of your eyes with your tail and lumber over to the mirror only to find that the face looking back at you isn’t a dragon at all?
That’s a fact of daily life for otherkin. The term was coined in 1990 by a person on an early message board for the type of fantasy fan who actually identified as an elf or orc, and it stuck. Into the umbrella term, though not strictly correct, we can throw therians, which are those people who identify as animals, from the popular wolves and lions down to sparrows, jellyfish and other more mythic creatures.It’s tempting to dismiss this as teenage soul-searching (or, depending on seriousness, a genuine neurological problem), but the fact of the matter is that otherkin are multiplying. They’ve found a spiritual home for themselves on Tumblr, where they can scour tags, follow the posts of others with similar experiences and generally benefit from the idea of a real community.
You can see what’s going on, broadly, by searching ‘otherkin’ on Tumblr and clicking a few blogs. Take, for example, a blog called Individual Otherkin, where otherkin with slightly less common identifications can go for moral support
“Any aliens here? Or… ooh, using that word is always weird for me. Just people who know they come from somewhere ‘out there’? Sort of a rabbit-moth feeling over here. Long soft ears, long soft antennae. At home in cities and bright lights and stars. Never met anyone who understood,” a shy anonymous otherkin asked the blog owner. “I suppose I count. But I’m more monster-kin as my type only exists on a dream level,” is the response.
It’s all pretty batshit if you’re coming into it with no context, but there is a very important aspect of the community’s internal theory that’s bringing more controversy than necessary to a group of people doing nothing other than saying “no one understands me” on a personal blog. Either through increase in the numbers involved in discussions or exposure to already-existing discourses on Tumblr, otherkin have now decided that the kind of thing that legitimises a trans* person is also the kind of thing that legitimises them. Which is dangerous.
The idea, in very broad strokes, is that if a person born male can identify as female and be accepted by (the sounder aspects of) society as female, there is no reason why a person can’t simply believe their way into being a lioness trapped in a human female’s body. Trans identity is fragmented because of a privileging of self-identification over society’s traditional groupings, and that’s where otherkin strike. “Include us in your struggle,” they seem to shout. “We are oppressed too.”
Only, obviously, a male to female transgender person who lives as a woman has a little more invested in struggle than theoretical internet support. You’re not going to be beaten up on your way home because you internally identify as a whale. A transgender woman called Lyn makes a good point on her blog Trans Quest: “If we’re found out to be trans, some medical insurance places raise our premiums without covering our medicines. We’re denied housing, we’re denied jobs, we’re denied a place in society.”
“I think they have every right to do what they do. They should be able to meet up, have their communities, think what they want about their ‘spiritual past’, do whatever it is they do. What they should NOT do is try to compare their spiritual quirk, and how people ‘don’t get them’ with people suffering from a physical incongruity between their gender and sex.”
But they do compare it, of course. Part of the problem is that the otherkin community assumes good faith about 99% of the time, thus undermining itself. Recently, a blog surfaced that was ostensibly run by a piece of toast. The bio includes the following statement: “My mother appliance said I’m beautiful and well done, I believe her. Got problem with that? Then fuck off you cis homo cunt.”
But the questions keep coming. “Why would you be sad to see toast get eaten? I mean, like, what else is the purpose of toast, but to eat?” meets with the deft answer, “That’s like saying all a female human is for is sex. Good job genius.” Now, a (human of any worldly cynicism at all is going to conclude that this piece of toast is just trolling the entire otherkin community. But as the blog rolls on, fielding challenges and genuine questions and reposting pictures of half-eaten toast as if it was lynched, the question is begged: is there even really a difference between trolling and not trolling when all you’re doing is claiming to be toasted bread on the internet?
Edible Problems Butter Side Up
The blog of Crumb, a 20-year-old piece of toast that also, coincidentally, identifies as deaf-mute and a Belieber. The Hipster Runoff of otherkin blogs.
AnOther Wiki
The reference source for all things relating to otherkin. The wiki proudly maintains Wikipedia-esque standards of factuality and nonpartisanship, which can lead to some strong levels of cognitive dissonance when reading about the homeworlds of Tolkien-inspired elves.
Tumblr in general
In the first page of results for ‘otherkin’ today: a tutorial on making a unicorn horn, a screed decrying the fact that people born human are referred to as ‘people’ rather than ‘beings’ by default, a recently awakened gargoyle-kin and a plea to carnivorous kin not to eat humans.
Illustration: Fuchsia MacAree
Oh my god do your research you flipping idiot. otherkin have been around since the seventies, tumblr isn’t really the “home” of otherkin, and maybe three people out of a few thousand have ever claimed to be oppressed–and they were quickly shot down by many members of the community.
we have enough bad PR already. stop contributing to this horrible online game of telephone and interview some actual otherkin, like a real journalist.
-A pissed wolf therian
As someone who identifies as a sea otter I find the level of research present in this article nauseating.
Like a real journalist! cries the angry Tumblr user "navelgazed" who is an pissed wolf therian living at home with her parents who force her to go to church and also has fictional anime characters living in her head.
Perhaps Karl should consider probing the mysterious world of the "multiplicity" tag on Tumblr next, where people claim to have DID (MPD) without any of the horrible trauma that causes it. Oh, and all their "alters" are fictional characters. from anime and video games.
If anyone is interested in understanding why otherkin are how they are, there are two Tumblr users who have posted interesting articles from their past time inside the community. integrated-mind, and melted-snowflake. they provide a lot of revealing insight.
Lisa, integrated-mind appears to do their research on the multiplicity community, but melted-snowflake has stated things about the otherkin community that are flat out wrong and lead to the inescapable conclusion that her only experience with the otherkin community is through tumblr. Which implies that she is lying about her history in the community, which implies that she is a troll. I've posted a more detailed explanation of the various clues that show she is trolling here: http://jarandhel.tumblr.com/post/23804755800/noma…
Lisa.
From three years of high school journalism class, I am able to tell that this is not journalism, this article is straight up misinformation.
And yes. I do live at home. Because I'm 18.
WOW. SHOCKER.
and the joke makes itself.
Wow. This is so amazingly full of wrong assumptions and total lack of actual research. The origin of the term "otherkin" has nothing to do with fantasy fandom and it was not coined on a message board. "Toast" kin blogs and such on Tumblr are just trolls and people mocking actual otherkin and should not be held up as evidence of anything except the tendency of people to be jerks to one another on the internet. The otherkin comunity is much wider and much older than Tumblr – as the author's own admission that the term itself has existed since the early 90s implies. Tumblr is an easy place to shout about it but hardly representative: the Tumblr userbase is overwhelmingly young, thus so are the otherkin (genuine or not). Elsewhere on the internet there are otherkin in their 30s, 40s, 50s and on up. The word is relatively new but the phenomenon predates the internet at the very least – the documentable history goes back into the 1970s.
BTW I am not the same Lisa as the one above.
Hey there. I'm the person who runs AnOtherWiki. Just wanted to thank you for the plug here, and make a few comments.
First off, the other commenters are correct: describing tumblr as "home" to the otherkin community is very, very incorrect. Take a good look at the resources listed on AnOtherWiki, particularly in the websites, mailing lists, and blog sections. Many of the resources listed there have been around for years, and the vast majority of them are not on tumblr.
Likewise, they're correct to point out that the word otherkin was not coined on a message board for fantasy fans. It was coined on the Elfinkind Digest, the first and longest-running otherkin mailing list. After the creation of the Elfinkind Digest, the list owner made a post to various Usenet groups advertising it. Some of those were fantasy or gaming based (such as rec.games.frp) others were spiritually based (such as alt.pagan). I suspect that advertisement message is what you meant, though it did not use the term otherkin.
I do want to thank you for one point you make, though: "But as the blog rolls on, fielding challenges and genuine questions and reposting pictures of half-eaten toast as if it was lynched, the question is begged: is there even really a difference between trolling and not trolling when all you’re doing is claiming to be toasted bread on the internet?" Because you're right. There's not much difference, when that's all you're claiming. Tumblr-otherkin do, as you say, assume good faith 99% of the time and they are undermining themselves that way. But again, tumblr otherkin aren't synonymous with the otherkin community as a whole, nor are they even close to the majority of the community. Most older otherkin lists, boards, Livejournal and Dreamwidth communities, etc. are not so accepting of every claim that comes along. Indeed, many otherkin appear to have ended up on tumblr because existing otherkin forums questioned their identities rather than simply accepting them. Believe it or not, our community does have standards. Here's an essay by one of the older members of our community that might help explain them: http://otherkin.net/articles/heartOut.html
Sorry, one other thing – a question: will this article appear in the print version of Totally Dublin, or only the website? Just curious.
I'm sorry but this article has got a lot wrong. tumblr is not the "home" of the community, hell tumblr is the WORST representation of the community. I don't even' have the energy to rant here, seeing as it won't make a difference I won't but seriously next time please do some more research, actually interview a variety of people, hell maybe spend some time on a forum or two. But avoid tumblr and stop giving us a worse rep.
Please for the love of all things holy do not refer to tumblr as a good resource on otherkin. Tumblr is not a resource, it's a cell pool where people blog, vent, argue, debate, and in rare rare occassions, share their experiences. Wikifur has more information about otherkin and therianthropy than tumblr does, and it's more accurate.
If you have to link something, like to werelist, the oldest surviving therian/otherkin site to date, and certainly the most rational and informative.
Werelist dates to 2001 in its original version. Rialian.com dates to 1997 in its original version and is still going. Otherkin.net dates to 2000 in its original version, and is still going. The Elfinkind Digest website dates to 1990 and both it and the list it pertains to are still going. Perhaps you mean the oldest surviving message board? But Draconic.com dates to 1998 and is still going, so even that would not be correct.
I think otherkin in general have kind of been thrust into the spotlight at with Tumblr. it seems to be an easy mistake that otherkin hail from there.
Not that kin weren't known before, but Tumblr seems to have increased that.
Not a very good article…maybe not informed well? Though with some kin, I can see how inaccuracies would sprout up.
Get the fuck out of here Draven. I don’t want to see your name anywhere on the internet. You make me sick.
Get the fuck out of here Draven. I don't want to see your name anymore. You make me sick.
This post is full of misinformation. First of all, the Toast persona was a troll blog, so was the spatula, the bus, the tea kettle etc. Secondly Tumblr is not the home of otherkin, just another website for us to talk through ( and because of the lack of rules on Tumblr, sometimes this leads to incrediably problematic statements and behavior that is not accepted on otherkin specific forums and groups) We have a number of forums, mailing lists and groups through sites such as LiveJournal and Dreamwidth.
Third, otherkin have been around since at least the 70's, though yes the term itself wasn't coined until 1990.
However due to the very public nature of Tumblr outsider awareness of us has increased and some kin, due to the high amount of trolling, have taken that as a signal to talk about kin in a very Social Justice type way.
Now, on to the oppression thing, only a small handful of otherkin have ever stated they were oppressed ( out of the several thousand or so gathered on various forums and such) because of some negative experience they have had with people treating them harshly or violently because of being kin, however in most of these cases the treatment could have easily been avoided if the kin in question would have employed some common sense.
a lot of the "otherkin are oppressed" bs comes from skeptics and trolls perpetuating that bit of misinformation after hearing about one of the few incidents where its been dais and applying it to the whole of the community.
The majority of otherkin also do not comapre themselves with the Trans* or LGBTQ community, if they do talk about the two together it is usually because that person is both otherkin and LGBTQ and are venting about personal experiences, but not comparing those struggles to each other.
I would highly suggest researching this further. Orion Sandstorm put out a wonderful Timeline of otherkin, detailing where, when and how the community started. Jarandhels AnOtherWiki is also a good source, and yes though it is a wiki page, it is quite accurate. Jarandhel also has more resources at Dreamhart.org.
Something else I would suggest is getting a hole of a copy of Lupa's " A field guide to otherkin"
At the base of it, we are a group of people who in one way or another ( typically spiritually or psychologically) feel nonhuman. We realize we are physcially human and must act as such in our day to day lives. We are people with jobs, families, educations, different ( or no) spiritual inclinations, etc. we just have a different way of looking at ourselves.
Speaking from the perspective from someone who is also Irish, and identifies as otherkin.
I personally think this article is complete nonsense. Although otherkin is a relatively obscure concept and the name itself hasn’t been around for that long, the idea goes back quite a few decades.
Tumblr isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of all otherkin activity. I stay away from there because of the ridiculous claims and the endless trolling that occurs there.
Not all otherkin are deluded individuals clinging onto the label as a form of escapism. Some do actually take themselves seriously, and attempt to research on and back up their beliefs. No one says you can’t use scientific methods.
Otherkin forums have been around for decades longer than Tumblr. LiveJournal, a similar service, also had quite a bit of otherkin activity for a while.
In Ireland, relatively few people have heard of this. I’d rather if the public wasn’t introduced to a concept like this through a very poorly researched article.
The media here is extremely biased and badly researched at the moment, I’m also seeing a load of hatred in the newspapers over electronic music influencing people towards violent behaviour, since the incident with the Swedish House Mafia in Phoenix Park.
For anyone who has just found this, I would take the article with a pinch of salt.
This article is full of misinformation and is completely wrong. Do not believe a thing written here. Let me explain what otherkin really means.
Im an irish dragonkin myself, for me, being otherkin is a spiritual belief. Kind of like how religion is a spiritual belief though otherkin is not a religion as it has no god or set rules on how to follow it. For me, I feel like my soul is a dragon or has taken the shape of a dragon. For some people, being otherkin is reincarnation, which exists in Hinduism too. Meaning they have memories or believe they were once something in a past life (If its an animal from earth, they are called Therian, if its mythological, they’re called otherkin)
Tumblr is the worst place to go to for information on otherkin. It is full of teens using the name thinking its cool or trolls trying to make us look bad. Which sucks. I suggest googling proper websites established for otherkin to get a better idea of what it really is. Otherkinity was founded in the 1990’s from an elven online community. Way before tumblr even existed. Some say that the idea of otherkin was also used during ancient times.
This article is bullshit. Just because you dont understand something doesnt mean to need to make up an entire article on what YOU think it is.
Well this was fucking closed minded. This site is Irish? I’ve never been more ashamed of my country since Jedward appeared on Eurovision. Holy shit.