“Kinning” is not a good word to use. It implies that being otherkin is an active choice, and has probably contributed to people thinking we made a conscious decision to be this way. You wouldn’t say that you’re “red hairing” when you have red hair. It’s just something you have. Kintypes are the same. Think of it this way:
“I’m a readhead” = other-/fictionkin “I dyed my hair red” = copinglinkers “I prefer red hair, but I’m not a redhead myself” = otherhearted
I feel like the therian community is sometimes a bit… Elitist ? Like, some people REALLY hate 14 y/o wolf therians but, guys, let people explore their identity. Don’t act like you’ve always been an adult with a clear understanding of your very unique theriotype.
I have a very, very great app to share with you today. It is called Ultimate Bird Sim, available for IOS and GooglePlay. Let me begin by just saying that this alone has helped my dysphoria a tenthfold. The designers did a great job animating appropriate flight patterns for each species. You can hunt, fish, forage, fly, soar, build nests, explore four different “islands”, and raise a family. You can dominate a mate or bond with them over food. The game does cost 99 cents, but in all honesty, it is the best dollar I have ever spent on an app. I highly recommend it for birds!
I’m not a bird therian but I’ll boost this anyway.
can we please like…never accept otherkin/factkin/fictionkin people? like grow the fuck up and get a job theres no fucking way you’re Literally Alexander Hamilton or whomever ur roleplaying full time…
Plot twist: I already have a job.
Plot twistx2: My coworkers all know I’m otherkin and no one cares.
Plot twistx3: I’ve held the religious and cultural beliefs that are directly intertwined with my identity for a damn long time and don’t plan on ever changing. Suck it.
I’m other, fiction, and divinekin and hoowee guess what OP
I work in the medical field. I’m a collage graduate with a highly respected, well paying job with good benefits. I rent my own apartment that I don’t need roommates to afford.
Its almost like. Grown ups are allowed to be spiritual/religious people and don’t have to conform to social religious norms.
Hot damn, look at you being all successful! Nice!
I want this post to explode with otherkin saying how successful they are just so OP’s notes explode with kin positivity.
So, I’m a successful angelkin in a managerial position in the IT field, happily married, renting (soon probably BUYING) an apartment. My spiritual beliefs connected to otherkinity never came up in my adult life, much like my religion. It’s like it’s possible to live without mentioning to others what motivates your decisions and what’s going on in your soul. Amazing.
I’m disabled so I can’t work atm…. but I have a small condo that is paid off–I snuck into the market when the housing bubble collapsed, a loving found family with kids, and I have have an associates… So I’m pretty happy with myself.
I did have a job. It was bad for my health //and// the health of others. Didn’t have the spoons to maintain the rest of my life and my kids were left too much to their own devices in an abusive household, so flopping like a fish in the job market isn’t worth it to me anymore–finally owned up to my internalized ablism when I realized someone might die for my pride and applied for disablity. Literally have a video of my brother being chocked out by my mom for relying on her for a haircut because I was too tired and busy–and CPS and the cops don’t care so I’m at peace with being a reject in a fucked up society. Society blows so societal stands blow, and having a job isn’t the fucken ultimate value of someone’s life. My ex-job never meant more to me than my kids.
I’m Fictionkin. I’m in my mid-30s. I’ve taken some college courses, but didn’t graduate. I’ve been married for almost 13 years. We have 2 sons, both highly intelligent, academically successful, and physically active. I work 40+ hours a week, making less than $2000/month to support my family, since my husband is disabled. Tell me again how I’m not a grown-up and need to get a job?
I’m fictionkin, in my thirties, a successful web designer for many years, currently back in school for IT, and shopping for a house with my also-fictionkin fiancee at the moment. Fiancee has a degree in psychology, and currently works 40+ hours a week at a professional office. And nobody cares that we’re kin.
From the greater collection of non-human/otherworldly communities. Those being who have alternate identities from their present human selves or those with any connection to creatures, beings, and characters from alternate worlds or realities. There are many groups of different types of alterhumans, with varying individual belief’s and structural ideals.
Otherkin (Otherkinity): Otherkin are people who identify as non-human beings on a non-physical level, in either a spiritual or psychological way. Usually mythical or fantastic creatures not of Earth or our reality, they are commonly beings such as dragons, elves, or even aliens. These identities are an integral part of the individual, often found through introspection, personal experience, and the like. Otherkin can not choose their identities, as they are a deeply felt phenomenon that they do not have control over having.
Fictionkin: Fictionkin are those who identify on an integral level as a character or creature from a fictional series, either spiritually or psychologically. These individuals, like otherkin, feel a deep personal connection to who or what they identify as. The identity a fictionkin has is not a choice, but a deeply felt personal identity they have no control over having.
Therian (Therianthropy): Therians are people who identify as an animal or creature from Earth, either spiritually or psychologically on an integral level of their self. This ranges from any creature that existed on Earth from an Ant to a Zebra, and includes even animals that are extinct. Their identities are found through various methods of introspection, self discovery, and personal experiences. Just as Otherkin, Therians can not choose their identities and are an equal phenomenon they do not have control over having.
Theriomythic: Theriomythics are people who identify as mythical creatures in a feral sense, in a spiritually or psychological way. They often border between therian and otherkin communities, but is entirely up to the individual which communities they associate with or not. Like any type of therian, theriomythics do not choose to have these identities, as they are a personal part of themselves that they had no choice in having.
Phytanthrope(Phytanthropy)or Plantkin: Phytanthropes or plantkin, by whichever they choose to label themselves as, are those who identify as plants. This is an integral identity of their self that is experienced on a spiritual or psychological level in a non-physical way. Just as otherkin and therians, they have no choice in having this identity as it is a deeply felt personal phenomenon.
Draconic (Draconity): Draconics are those who identify as dragons, in either a spiritual or psychological way. Someone who is draconic isn’t necessarily a dragonkin(dragon identifying otherkin) as it is up to them to label themselves as such. The draconic community is separate from the otherkin, but they do overlap often.
Vampire: People who identify as vampires. Not the same as someone who is say, vampirekin, the vampire community consists of those who believe they are physically vampires of a sort in the here and now. There are essentially two types; psychic/pranic vampires(energy feeders) or sanguine vampires(blood feeders). They tend to keep to their own separate communities and do not often integrate with otherkin and the like.
Copinglinker (Copinglink): A copinglinker is someone who chooses an identity, that can be of any animal, creature, or fictional character, that they are in order to cope with mental illness, trauma or other emotional factors. They can choose anything to identify as that will aid them in coping. This is not the same as being otherkin, but they do often spend time in the otherkin community.
Animafidem (Animafidemism): An Animafidem is an individual who spiritually believes that their soul is of a non-human species, by the spirituality: Animafidemism. This is a solely spiritual felt belief that only involves the identity of the soul specifically. Animafidem do not choose what their soul is, as no one has a choice to what their soul was created in being.
Cerebrumalius (Cerebrumalia): The Cerebrumalius is an individual who psychologically believes they have a non-human identity. They believe their identity comes from how their brain is wired or brain “weirdness”. The Cerebrumalius does not choose what they identify as or have any control over it, it is simply how their brain works.
Otherhearted: Those who are otherhearted, have a strong emotional or spiritual connection to any type of non-human creature. They do not identify as that creature, but feel a deeply personal and emotional bond to them.
Fictionhearted: Those who are fictionhearted, have a strong emotional or spiritual connection to any fictional character or fictional species. They do not identify as that character or creature, but feel a deeply personal and emotional bond to them.
Soulbonder (Soulbond): The soulbonder is someone that the spirit of another being has “bonded” with and communicates with that usually comes from another dimension. The soulbond is a spirit that inhabits the headspace or body of an individual and can share emotions and memories with the soulbonder.
Multiples (Plural): Anyone who is sharing a body with more than one entity. A plural system can be either a multiple system or a median system, or anything in between. They could either be a part of a group of distinct individuals who share the same body(multiple system) or a group that is not so distinctly separate(median system) who share a body.
These definitions only scratch the surface of what being part of any of these communities means. When it comes down to it, it is up to the individual to discover and research for themselves whether or not they are alterhuman or not. There is nothing wrong with being alterhuman or not being alterhuman.
Feeling other than human doesn’t mean you have to label yourself as such either. I’ve said this before and I stand by it, but just be yourself and what comes naturally. There’s no wrong outcome, even if you don’t get it right at first. Whether you’re otherkin, therian, copinglink, or none of the above.. you’re always you, and that’s what matters most.
Looking for more information about otherkinity and fictionkinity? We get asked for resources on the regular so decided to compose a masterpost. If you have suggestions you’d like to see added or removed, shoot us a message and we’ll hop to investigating.
Otherkin is sometimes considered an ‘umbrella’ term for all nonhuman experiences. However, since otherkinity refers to species, alterhuman is often the preferred and considerably more functional term. This post focuses primarily on being ‘kin, although we have included some resources discussing other alterhuman experiences near the end.
Some of these sources link off of tumblr, to PDF files, or Youtube.
About a year and a half ago, what-is-paige on tumblr coined the term “copinglink”:
It was a term made to describe voluntary non-human identities. As people started discussing things, it seems matters of why links are made and what about them is voluntary are more complicated than they may first seem. People seem to create these identities for more than just coping, leading to the suggested terms purposelink and otherlink.
2) How do I know this isn’t a kintype?
You don’t choose to be otherkin. You can decide to embrace yourself or deny yourself, but you can’t decide whether or not that is part of you. There is a pattern emerging where linkers choose to have links but not what the link is, so that’s a bit of a fine line.
3) How do I know this isn’t a hearttype/synpath?
It can be both. Actually, some linkers do derive their links from their hearttypes. But you don’t choose to have a hearttype. It just happens. Also, a link is something you are. A hearttype is something you identify strongly with. Hearttypes can manifest as a feeling of being “adopted”, a yearning to be something you are not, or a myriad other ways.
4) What if I’m just making this up?
Then congrats, you have a link. That’s literally how this works. Without getting into technical details, otherlink opens up a new realm of discourse regarding the nature of the self. Self-indulgence is king. Desire is to be explored for its destination not its root. Etc.
5) Is this just a fancy fursona?
Yeah basically. There’s overlap. Not all people with fursonas identify as their fursonas, but some do, and those people could be called linkers if they chose to be. The vocabulary is contextual more than anything else.
Yo, can we normalize being wrong about your experiences and being open about making mistakes in this community? Pretty much everyone has been Completely Sure Something Is A Thing and then later on realized…… that they were wrong about it, in some form or another.
Someone going all-out into exploring a potential identity to see how it feels before saying whether or not they think it’s likely (or even feeling like it’s likely and diving straight into acknowledging it as A Thing) is only ever a problem if people refuse to go back on their labels and admit they made a mistake.
It’s not that uncommon to confuse a kintype for a soulbond/headmate or a hearttype or vice versa or any combination of these. Personal narratives can affect perception of identity and can cause people to internalize or externalize things like this a lot.
I thought I was Sora for years. I told so many people that I was him, it wasn’t a secret or anything. Then I realized he was actually a soulbond and we had gotten mixed up with each other (and I had some huge misunderstandings of how this stuff worked for awhile due to my ex) and it was scary to finally say “hey, so I was actually wrong about this” because of the pervasiveness of feeling like you need to know 100% about yourself before you say anything, and if you realize otherwise you were “just making it up”.
Mistakes happen. They’re normal. Thinking you’re one thing when you’re actually another thing is completely normal. You’re not betraying anyone if you realize you made a mistake. What isn’t okay and normal is refusing to acknowledge the possibility that you could be wrong about who you are. It’s scary, I know, but it’s really important.
It’s a lot better to really look at yourself and be open to change and accepting responsibility than it is to desperately cling to labels and false identities that don’t suit you. This is’t a contest, otherkind/fictionkind/therian identities don’t grant you access to some “exclusive club”, and they’re definitely not somehow more real or legitimate or better than things like otherheartedness, plurality, etc. or just being human that relates heavily to “weird” experiences.
Being yourself, without trying to force yourself into an experience you don’t fit, is more important than the labels or titles you come across. Learning to express what you really feel without fancy buzzwords or fear of backlash due to an honest admission of realizing you thought you were something else.
If everyone’s so hung up on who uses what words to describe themselves and who fits what terminology, why not focus on experiences and existences instead? Let people make mistakes. Let people know it’s okay if they’ve grown and changed and used to think some pretty stupid things. I bet you most of us thought p-shifting was possible at some point. I know I did.
So let’s kill this culture of belittling people for being wrong about themselves and making newbie (or not-so-newbie) mistakes. We were all new to this at one point. We all had mishaps and confusion. So let’s remember that, and be honest and open about it, okay?
Didn’t have the spoons to maintain the rest of my life and my kids were left too much to their own devices in an abusive household, so flopping like a fish in the job market isn’t worth it to me anymore–finally owned up to my internalized ablism when I realized someone might die for my pride and applied for disablity. Literally have a video of my brother being chocked out by my mom for relying on her for a haircut because I was too tired and busy–and CPS and the cops don’t care so I’m at peace with being a reject in a fucked up society. Society blows so societal stands blow, and having a job isn’t the fucken ultimate value of someone’s life. My ex-job never meant more to me than my kids.
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