otherlinking-bye

[otherlinking-bye]

Otherkin/Otherkind: Identifting As an entity that is nonhuman Involuntarily

For Fictionkin[d], replace 'Nonhuman' with 'a fictional character (that can be human)'.

I thought I'd make a little post countering some claims about Otherkin I've seen it is rampant unfortunately.

I mean to inform, but ofc, feel free to correct me if I've gotten anything wrong as a non-kin, I wouldn't want to spread misinformation either so Otherkin feel free to correct me!

• “ Otherkin is a term that is new / Otherkin originated from Tumblr ”

It has existed as a term since 1990(though some even say earlier).

It did not originate from Tumblr, which launched in 2007.

It were written for the first time in the Elfenkind digest, in 1990: the '' Other '' in Otherkind referring to Other than Elves, as people needed a word that would define a Kin experience similar to Elfkin's, but who weren't kin with an elf (Elvenkind existed before Otherkind as a word, the latter was based off it).

• “ 'Kin equals identifying as something nonhuman/fictional ”

I've seen it's been common to exclude the fact that being 'Kin is to Identify involuntarily As something nonhuman/fictional.

If it weren't involuntary, that would make Otherlink a synonym for it: which it isn't, Otherlink being Voluntary unlike Otherkin + the word Otherlink had been based on, Copinglink, had been coined by tumblr user Who-Is-Page in order to cease the use of '' Copingkin '', if you do not believe me tumblr posts are still up), so saying Otherlink and Otherkin are the same isn't fact.

• “ Being Kin is a spiritual thing / Otherkin are either Psychological or Spiritual ”

Otherkin have an endless list of possible explanations for how they interpret their own Otherkinity with their kintype(s). Spiritual and Psychological are common ones, but others such as Energetic Resonance or Magic operating exist as well. Could be a mix of those. Or could be none of those, if the Kin person doesn't wish to find an explanation for it or anything similar.

• “ Words change ”

Otherkin have had their community for so long. They are not gatekeeping, they're just saying you can't misuse their terms, it's a term that defines a specific experience that matters. The Otherkin community IS against it: taking into account a few Fictionkin —the ones that had been only shown misuse and presented Kin as an umbrella term before they discovered the Otherkin community— validating the misuse of Kin, meanwhile ignoring the rest of the Otherkin community (plantkin, therians, etc.) doesn't add up.

The community's space have been invaded: if you go in the Fictionkin tags, a lot of wishkins have taken place of actual Fictionkin's safe space. That's why it matters, because people literally do not care about Otherkin and twist their terms to no end both in meaning, and in phrasing.

A lot of the time, the misinformed people that insist on misusing Kin terms only utilize it as some kind of meme / catchy post thing (for example, Judging you on your '' Kins '') and act as a self deprecating meme community. The Otherkin community may make jokes about their Otherkinity in the same fashion, but their safe space is utilized to discuss their Otherkin experiences as well, this is an entirely different type of community which bonds over the actual Kin experience.

• “ Otherkin aren't oppressed ”

They aren't, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be given respect for their identity. The community has been bullied and such, with people making light of Kin beliefs such as making fun of people who believe they were the reincarnation of any nonhuman entity.

• “ Kins are what I relate to! / I don't Kin seriously though it's for fun / I kin to cope ”

Otherkinity is based on a person identifying as-involuntarily.

Kin do not choose their kintype, hence why they may dislike their kintype / not relate to their kintype if it is a fictional character / they may have very graphic/troubling memories in case they get any of those, —for example— their death in a past life.

Non-kins puts on Fictionkin the weird non-kin standard of having to be similar to their kintype to be valid Fictionkins, and a lot of wishkins invalidate Kins with basic Fictionkin needs like “ No Doubles rule! ” etc. and may make fun of people who identify As anything nonhuman and/or fictional while saying they '' kin '' everything themself.

Misusing Otherkin also makes other identities such as being a Synpathizer or being (Otherlink but I'm gonna assume)Fictionlink for example demeaned to label everything that isn't a kintype your '' Kin ''. I have seen Synpath as a word used in the rank of ''''' Low Kins ''''', when Synpath, coined by tumblr user stirdrawsandreblaws, was meant to describe a very deep connection to something/someone, as you can see in their Synpath FAQ that is still up (+ it says Synpaths aren't Kintypes in there). Seeing Linktypes put under the name of '' Kins / I kin for fun / I kin to cope '' also is demeaning to it, to estimate being a [insert any non-kin other- Alterhuman identity] is inferior to being 'Kin and that's pretty much the imagery people got.

Making Kin to be this identity term people want to use so badly it is somehow above and more worthy of use than Otherlink, Fiction-Hearted, person who has Synpath/ Synpathizer... Alterhuman is the umbrella term people seem to be looking for.

It is still strange people want to use Kin for everything and make like every Alterhuman term lose meaning / twist those ones too.

'' Kinning '' makes it look like an activity/hobby, but Otherkin is an identity. Also this weird idea of '' Kinning '' people have gotten originated from a tumblr group called the Yandere B*tch Club, around 2008, who were really awful individuals. Among other things, they pretended to have DID and to be Japanese while they weren't. Also are the ones who spread misinfo about Otherkin's meaning and who began all this.

Btw the term ''Kinnie'' was used for bullying Otherkin for their beliefs way back and though it is not a slur, it still isn't to be used on Otherkin without their consent as it may make some uncomfy / some use it for themselves but it doesn't mean you can call a whole group of people '' ___ Kinnies '' randomly / also non-kins such as me should avoid the use that word in the first place because of its nature though not a slur

~

Please respect Otherkin is the conclusion, hope this could help with some claims I've seen

[otherlinking-bye]

Honestly, now that we’re thinking about it.. “kinnies/kin for fun” folks have really just come full circle.. it’s like every time they stumble upon more proper terminology they just twist that backwards and inside out too-

It seems intentional..

Just in the past month or two we’ve unfortunately seen:

Referring to their kintypes as “kinnies”. The… the kinnies.. are getting terms so messed up that.. their own ‘types… are the kinnies??? So are they.. “kinnies with kinnies”??????

Having such long kinlists (into the dozens, yes) that they categorize them by aesthetics, which they refer to as “kin-types”, hyphenated. Like.. “type/categories of kins”. Brainhurt.

Claiming.. with such backwards reasoning, that serious otherkin experiences like species dysphoria and past lives are nonsense generated by trolls/antikin and that the “kin for fun” trend came first.

On a related note, once again kinnies claiming that fictionkin is just a new internet phenomenon.

Perhaps most infuriatingly, people twisting the word “shift” to mean a change in hyperfixation. So instead of a mental/phantom shift, we’ve seen certain kinnie spaces saying that they’re “shifting to a new kin” to mean they picked up a new aesthetic.

For the love of beans stop saying that nonhumanity/alterhumanity is reserved only for neurodivergent folks.

I’m beginning to think that trying to teach terminology to nonkin/kinnies and such is just handing them more of our terms to distort. It was one thing when they just took the word “kin”. It was at least somewhat easy for someone with enough experience in the alterhuman community to separate “kinnies/kin for fun” from the genuine community.

But now they’re just encroaching even further upon even more otherkin terms than ever before.. to the point where they have an alternate (often “cutesy” imo) version of almost every term and it’s concerning.

Perhaps we pay a bit too much attention to trends in both sides, perhaps we’re paranoid, but the earlier discussion on the term “kinsona” just reminded us..

For all that kinnies claim that their community is separate from genuine fictionkin, they sure steal and stomp on as many terms as they can get their hands on.

Just a thought.

[otherlinking-bye]

Okay, hopefully this isn’t out of my lane as someone who’s not a ‘linker myself, but something that’s been annoying me for a long time and I’m seeing it more and more in the tags -

“Kin for fun” is not copinglinking/otherlinking either. Otherlinking is also serious and is also identify-as - it’s just voluntarily formed.

If what someone’s doing is roleplay, it’s not otherlinking. If what they’re doing is comfort characters, it’s not otherlinking. If what they’re doing is relating to a character without actually identifying as that character, it’s not otherlinking.

I know we’re all really, really tired of people misusing ‘kin language to mean those things, but that’s not an excuse to tell them to misuse someone else’s language instead - when we do that, we’re throwing ‘linkers under the bus in exactly the way we’re asking non-’kin not to do to us.

The only difference between ‘kin and 'linking is that one is involuntary and the other is consciously, voluntarily formed - they’re both serious, they’re both identify-as, and neither of them should be conflated with roleplay or relating to/projecting onto or comfort characters.

That being said - apparently there’s a term I wasn’t familiar with before someone told me about it while writing this post, funlink, which is in fact “choosing a nonhuman identity for fun” and may fit - I don’t know how popular the term is, but it exists if you want to use it. (That being said… it’s still identify-as. If you don’t identify as the thing, you probably don’t fit under that either, I would assume.)

In addition to that, otherheartedness/kith/synpaths are… generally more important and serious than people make them out to be when they’re giving KFF (kin-for-fun) people alternative words to use. The point of the ‘hearted, kith, and synpath labels are to say “this isn’t me, but it is important to my sense of self nonetheless”. Again, if it’s just something you’re doing for fun and can drop at any given moment with no consequences, it’s… probably not ‘heartdness/kith/synpath either. Those aren’t things that you do for fun.

And yes, I understand that there are cases in which these fit. Usually that’s when people are saying they’re “kin to cope” or “kinning” but not “kin for fun” - if the experiences someone is describing do fit the definitions of ‘linker or ‘hearted or whatever else, then please point them that direction! My point is not that it never applies and we should never suggest it - just that when we do, we need to clearly state that these are still identify-as (for ‘linking) and serious, genuinely important things (both), not treat them like they’re “for fun” and less important or real than otherkinity.

If the words that apply are roleplay, comfort characters, and relating to/projecting onto characters, and it goes no deeper than that and isn’t genuinely important to your sense of self, then those are the words that should be used. Not otherlinker/copinglinker if it’s not identify-as, not ‘hearted/kith/synpath if it’s not genuinely important to who you are. Don’t encourage people to misuse another group’s language because you want them to stop misusing ours.

EDITED: altered phrasing on the otherheartedness paragraph; someone pointed out the original phrasing kind of implied otherheartedness wasn’t usually as serious as ‘kin/’linking, which was the opposite of my intention.

[otherlinking-bye]

read DNI in bio before interacting

𓏲 An introduction to Otherlink, along with debunking claims about the term

Otherlink : someone who identifies voluntarily as any nonhuman or fictional being/thing. What they identify as is called a Linktype. A shortened version of Otherlink would be a 'linker / a 'link. Feeling more like your Linktype on purpose is called being in a Linkshift. Contrary to possible misunderstanding, it does not «fall under being an Otherkin identity» (more about this later on). Alterhuman is the Umbrella term it falls under, which is defined as a person who has a subjective identity which is beyond the scope of what is traditionally considered ‘being human’.

'Linkers commonly 'link with their linktype for one or more purposes that can differ/overlap from linktype to linktype if they have many.

The most common purposes are : for Coping, for Fun, for “Support”(=advantage yourself with one or more of your linktype's qualities, for example being eloquent or daring), and Aesthetically. There doesn't need to be a clear purpose though.

Since a linktype could have many different purposes, many terms have been coined to identify which is the purpose you 'link for! They are: Copinglink ; Funlink ; Supportlink ; Aeslink.

There also exist Otherlink terms that refer to Otherlinking in a what the linktype is way : Fictionlink (Otherlinks who have or more linktype that is a fictional character) ; Plantlink ; etc., can be any word which has “link” as a suffix.

Debunking some things from now on!

𓄴A linktype =/= something an Otherlink relates to in itself. It's a choice to adopt being a linktype, could be influenced by how the linktype could tie with their needs(purpose, for example if the Otherlink links in order to cope with a specific thing) if they do have that kind of purpose. Since it's a choice, you could very well identify as anything you'd like, regardless of how “similar” the linktype is to you!

𓄴 Otherlink =/= Otherkin. Contrary to popular misunderstanding among the people less informed about Otherkin/Otherkind and other existing Alterhuman labels, it is not Otherkin at all since Otherkin means —you can look up Otherkins' posts and the very rich and old history of the term for more info— Someone who involuntarily identifies as something nonhuman and/or fictional.

Though someone could have trouble resolving (or can not care to know) whether or not what they identify as is a conscious choice or an involuntary thing/an inbetween, Otherlink is definitely not Otherkin!

𓄴 This is “just being too much into roleplaying”. Now I saw a post that were strongly invalidating identifying as things(implied voluntarily) because of this very “point”. Roleplaying could be compared to doing theatre and having fun acting as a specific character. Once the plays stop, they aren't the character anymore and probably wouldn't adopt any of the character's traits in their separated life/out of the theatre.

Otherlinking would be more like actually identifying as one of the play's characters (voluntarily you know it). It could be for fun as well, and it could be for however long too. Like with roleplaying, they don't have to relate to the character. However, it becomes part of the Otherlink's identity. It's not pretending to be the character.

'Linking is voluntarily adopting the linktype's characteristics / identity: it affects 'linkers' identity. Roleplaying doesn't play into / interact with the roleplayer's personal identity in the same way since they separate themselves from the character way more(talking about non-alterhuman roleplayers, it's possible to roleplay as your linktype since *it'd be putting yourself into the linktype's shoes and act 100% like them instead of adopting their characteristics along the foundation that your own being were beforehand?*).

So in response to this! Otherlinking = part of your identity and can be taken as seriously/lightly as you'd like. Roleplay = can be important to you as well but (unless Alterhuman or anything else that could come into play) you'd drop being what you roleplay as once the roleplay ends and wouldn't adopt the thing you rp as' traits in possibly everyday/some days life.

It'd be nice if anti-alterhumans/other people who don't try to understand what 'linking actually is and why it's done quit spreading misinformation about Otherlink and insulting their identity with suddenly no empathy. Otherlink is very valid and some's possible shame is a result of this kind of people being invalidating on the daily as they do with so many other Alterhuman subsets they do not try to understand as well, but they do not speak the truth and being Otherlink can be a great help / be great fun and help someone explore what feels true to themselves more.

Terms that I recommend checking out for other kind of identities and experiences that may be similar or linked to this one: Otherkin, Otherhearted / Otherkith, Othervague, Synpathizer(?) / having Synpaths, and Alterhuman.

𓂅if you have any remarks/anything to add or anything to critique about this post feel free to speak up! I would not like to spread misinformation but this is my knowledge of it as a 'linker. Thank you for reading!