dinocanid

[dinocanid]

There is an issue in the community that comes from outside of it that we need to address.

Hermaphroditic =/= Intersex.

But, Daski, you say, we know that!

Except there's this nagging part of people's brains that involves itself with respectability politics to the point that they forget this fact.

People hear "hermaphrodite" and get their feathers in a ruffle on behalf of the intersex community due to it's historic use as a slur. But they also forget that hermaphrodite is a legitimate biological description of genital configurations.

We're a community that talks a lot about blurring that of being animal and being person. We're also a community that is on the cutting edge of understanding parts of human psyche that science hasnt caught up to studying on a large scale yet.

Thus, when someone in our community mentions they (as a kintype) had or currently wish to have hermaphroditic genitals they're not saying they want to be intersex. You cant become intersex, and intersex is a human diagnostic criteria. Conflating ANY USAGE of the words deriving from "hermaphrodite" to intersex is doing an enormous disservice to the intersex community by muddying the waters of their terms and definitions.

Humans have wonderful terms such as salmacian and bigenital to describe the current technology level of having more than one genital attached to a body. However, remember we're talking about being animal people. Not everyone's wants or goals or dysphoria can be described by these terms. So we turn to the correct word of Hermaphroditic: having two complete and fully functioning sets of genitals. (Which I must remind readers: intersex does not include this definition. This is not a possible genital configuration in humans by birth.)

Hermaphrodite and it's derivatives are not bad words worthy of knee-jerk reactions. Think critically before policing others' terminology usage, especially if you're not a part of the perceived aggrieved group.

[dinocanid]

Please, for the love of everything, istg, stop equating alterhuman and nonhuman; they're not synonymous whatsoever. In that same vein, human fictionkin are not the edge of the community. Alterhumanity is not only identify-as labels.

Doing this only contributes to the erasure of entire sections of the community.

[dinocanid]

* Snowed in.

[dinocanid]

Outside of Othercon (which I'm obligated to run), most probably haven't heard from me in a while. I've been going through a lot and haven't had the spoons to do much of anything besides live day-to-day. I'm in a constant state of extreme anxiety and just barely holding it together. This isn't really something I can remedy or get help for either, I just have to weather it, and there's no telling at all how long that will take.

I've mentioned it before elsewhere, but I'm not sure if there will be more Othercons. Not that I don't want to, but because I don't know if I'll be able to, and I hate saying this after seeing how excited everyone is for the next one. It's just been a rough and scary time, and unfortunately I have to think about things like this.

Currently I'm trying to finish all of my queued commissions that have been backlogged for close to a year, after which I won't be taking any more for the foreseeable future. I need to focus on myself so I can finish a project or two. I don't want to have not finished anything of my own.

Anyway, this was a depressing update post, sorry it couldn't be more promising

[dinocanid]

Painted a skrunkly guy ( @dinocanid ) ! Pls get some rest!

[dinocanid]

Special thanks to everyone that participated in Othercon 2024, we had a great convention this year!

Our peak member count was 593 members, that's a lot, almost 40% more than last year! We were also able to raise a grand total of $605.93 USD for the charities! Congratulations gang!

[dinocanid]

I feel like a dog with old bones

[dinocanid]

To anyone wondering if this is actually a thing people do and not a hypothetical, it legit happened to me last night lmao. Exclusionists are wild

Hey, Lets Talk About Therian Gatekeeping.

If you've ever seen my work, you know that I'm a very inclusionist therian. People & creatures who have read my work or been to one of my presentations of Therian: Dispelling the Earthen Animal Myth have been very receptive of the information and have passed it on to others in the community that havent been so fortunate as to have experienced and learned along side me. There's still a lot of work to be done in this venture, and every person & creature who shares it is a crucial part of history.

So why does the "therian = earthen animal" belief exist and persist? My favorite theory is that there's a pervasive need to be seen as legitimate. Fictional and mythical animals arent seen as real, in their therian-worldview. Not real enough for exclusionists, and that theory is constantly reinforced by exclusionists who insist that inclusionists are the ones trying to rewrite the term's history.

Let me show you what I mean.

Here's a link to where I got this screenshot. Please note the date in the upper right hand corner of the screenshot. For context, this is from a thread on the community's originating website, Alt.Horror.WereWolves. This is the thread that originates our current usage of Therian/thrope/y. (The censored info is the members' real names. You can see them uncensored at the link, unfortunately. I've censored them here for privacy.)

As I see it, therianthropy applies to *any* human/animal form, regardless of history, powers, or other attributes.

The original defining discussion thread of therianthropy includes "any human/animal form". Gatekeepers are the ones in the wrong here.

There's an argument amongst exclusionists, "if therianthropy can extend to include non-earthen animals, what's the point of therianthropy as a concept?" For those who arent aware, although therianthropy and otherkinity significantly overlap in their experiences and the way those experiences are described, the two communities developed separately, with overlap in experience and terms used, depending on which of the two a member found first. It's so deeply ingrained in these exclusionists that therians can only be real animals, that they choose a narrow inclusion or non-existence.

On top of this, it's incredibly disturbing that these people & creatures are encouraging revisionist history by completely denying original, first hand sources that tell them they're wrong. They delete messages that inclusionists reply with, giving them these primary sources. So I'm here showing you the truth.

If you've been led to believe, threatened even, that you're "not a real therian" if you believe therians can be non-earthen animals, then I'm here holding your paw, telling you that your inclusion in a term/experience doesnt hinge on how well you uphold the standards of a few.

If you would like more reading about this, I have a whole essay, linked at the beginning of the post, with dozens of citations to primary sources about this issue. If you agree that "therian = earthen animal only", I challenge you to read the essay. Read and really analyze the sources linked there. Engage with your history in it's purest form, not from others telling you things. Learning and expanding your worldview is the most powerful way to grow as a person.

[dinocanid]

You can just be nonhuman if you want though, it having to be something "you just are already" is a pervasive myth. Do whatever you want forever.

There's something I've been thinking about lately, and that's... if I'm non-human on some aspect. I look at the community, and there's parts I relate to. Not feeling 100% human, feeling heavily connected to animals, and at times the disphoria.

I've had this thing that whenever I picture myself without the limitations of what my body is, I always see myself as an animal. That's what I want to be, I want to be some kind of animal. Be that be Coffee, or Savv. If I didn't have to be human, I would be one of them. When I wear stuff that connects me to them its the most comfortable I've been in a very long time. I get these feelings of having cat ears, having a tail, having paws, and I dont understand it. My body has always felt so limited and that's not just because I'm Non-binary. If I could have my ideal body without needing to worry about anything, I would *be* Savv or Coffee. I was told that I should have been born an animal before and it's felt strangel... good.

The reason I'm unsure is that, I don't know if that's just a furry thing. I don't get shifts, I don't have those dreams about being an animal. At least, not very often. I can't confidently say that I am an animal. Just like I can't confidently say I am human. I know you can't choose to be non-human, it's something you just are. I don't know what I am in this department and I just feel very... confused.

[dinocanid]

Another reason I would discourage newcomers from diving headfirst into discourse is sometimes they trudge back on old discourse that we-as-a-community have already had, when they can just go back and read. We don't need another round of "can I be [x thing] even if I don't behave 1:1?"-style discourse again, for example.

(The answer is yes fwiw, I'm just giving an example because sometimes newcomers come in and then fight over old shit)

My greatest piece of advice to anyone who’s newly awakened to being otherkin, therian, alterhuman, nonhuman, etc. is to research.

I’m not talking about looking up definitions on fandom wikis or whatever. You need to really get to know your community before even considering conversations about who “can” and “cannot” be something.

Learn about the histories of our kind.

Read essays on your peers’ experiences.

Familiarize yourself with different labels and identities outside of your own.

Open your mind to experiences not only similar to yours, but also aren’t like your experiences at all.

I’m saying this in the kindest way possible, especially to younger members of our community. I get it. I know what it’s like to come up in a space and see how discourse is given a lot of focus. There’s pressure to take a hard stance on something.

But, you just realized this part of yourself.

Please understand that zeroing in on discourse, let alone becoming a gatekeeper, isn’t the way to engage with community.

Most of all, it’s not good to dive headfirst into it without educating yourself.

[dinocanid]

Absolutely shaking everyone worried about "faking" their alterhuman identity, AND everyone that likes to claim others as "faking".

Faking is something you do on purpose. If you are not going out of your way to consciously lie while rubbing your hands together like a cartoonish supervillain, then it's not faking. That's just your genuine experience.

It IS possible to be wrong, but being wrong is harmless. It's literally whatever. This is not equivalent to faking.

[dinocanid]

I think my problem with misanthropy isn’t folks having a mild dislike of humans per se, but more so when misanthropes equivocate infractures like colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, etc. to being “human nature” and use those as justifiers for said misanthropy when… the main ones who suffer from those issues are marginalized human beings themselves.

Not to mention, many of your peers are harmed by those same infrastructures but not on account of their nonhumanity— but on account of how they are perceived by those who benefit from said infrastructures.

Yeah, people aren’t obligated to be mankind’s number 1 fan but I don’t think it’s toxic positivity to basically say “Hey, this group isn’t inherently evil or worth hating for existing”.

Am I making sense?

[dinocanid]

I made this last summer (I think?), I've just only ever used it on Discord

C’mon guysss, where are all the theriotype wikihow drawovers at!?!?

Saw this while while looking for drawing refs

I WILL be making more theriotype draw over posts lol

[dinocanid]

Resets and loops: experiencing time in a non-linear manner

I have a new Dreamwidth entry available for reading here. It covers what I've been going through recently with my alterhuman (specifically fictionkin) experience. I originally thought against posting it, since I assumed nobody can possibly be going through something similar, but there's no real way of knowing that. If you've experienced things like the title mentions, I hope it helps you feel less alone in your experience.

If you haven't experienced anything like this, I hope it's at least an interesting read and opens your eyes to experiences you might not have heard of before.

[dinocanid]

Reminder that submissions for this is open! Only 2.5 weeks left!

"Village Beacon" zine submissions open!

Deadline: July 31st, 2024

The goal of Village Beacon is to celebrate the alterhuman community and comraderie, where submissions can detail the positive experiences and sense of belonging found among other alterhumans through writing or visual art.

Submission specifications are:

Written submissions can have a word count between 300 and 7k words.

Artwork must be half-page (1530 x 990px) or full-page (1530 x 1980px) in .png or .pdf format. File size must be under 10 MB

No sexually explicit content

More than one submission is allowed

Please note that we reserve the right to reject any submissions that we feel does not fit the spirit of the zine. We're predicting rejections to be unlikely, but would rather mention this than not.

Release date: The zine will be made freely available on August 9th, to celebrate Othercon's 5th anniversary.

[dinocanid]

Last year I ran a survey on the percentage of POC in the alterhuman community, this survey closed a long while ago and I apologize for the long wait for the results. I don't know when I will have to time to properly organize an "official" results post, but I see too many posts on POC feeling alone to not at least give a statistic.

Out of 645 responses, 29.3% of responders were people of color. This is a significant number, and I hope gives some solace to those who need it. For those initially thinking this isn't that high, keep in mind that it's not an abnormal number for a minority group in a large sample size.

[dinocanid]

I wanted to make a post saying thanks to everyone that's been patient with things I've been working on over the past several months. It's been a very stressful and busy time as I've been dealing with mental health crises, preparing for college, and finding a way to move out of our current home.

It's not all done yet, but luckily within the next month we will soon be moving to a new place where we can be much more comfortable and work productively again, while also being much better for our overall wellbeing.

I know it can be disheartening having to wait, and longer ETAs and missed deadlines have been causing confusion (for both commissions and with Othercon), but I'm thankful nothing's burned down in the meantime.

Anyway, that's it for the current update. Thanks again!