#(i think... i don't know much about alterhumanity)

[snow-on-mtsilver]

EHY DO I KEEP GETTING ALTERHUMAN POSTS IN MY FEED (i say as i continue liking alterhuman posts and having been questioning if i, myself, am alterhuman ever since i began to form)

- 🔥🐉

[officially-other]

On one hand, I'm someone who participated in the "silly little guy" vibes at times. On the other hand... You're so right and I don't know how I didn't realize it sooner. Something I've noticed in the past few days after making my fictionkin sideblog is that I talk ENTIRELY different over there. Because there's no expectations to soften myself- in fact, the expectations lean towards being more serious due to my kintype. I plan on making a proper post about it over there but it made.

I'm realizing that, no, I am allowed to be more than a silly little creature and just a funny witch in my corner. I can take myself seriously and I should.

It's weird.

Also hi everyone I didn't die I just got lost in a cave and came out with a new kintype. /J

(edit: to be clear this isn't hating on ppl who joke around about their Alterhumanity. Part of the joy in it is being silly, for me. I just also am realizing there's more than that.)

Possibly really petty complaint, but is anyone else really annoyed by the way a lot of people seem to be talking about nonhumans in a very infantilizing way?

Like all the posts going around that sweepingly refer to all of us as "silly creatures", "little critters", "silly animals doing their silly tasks", "just a creechur", etc? I feel like I've been seeing a lot of posts in the vein of like, "How could anyone hate therians? You're all just silly little animals doing buppy things typing with your big silly paws!" or similar.

And more power to you if you like being referred to that way, but I don't. It leaves a similar taste in my mouth to those old posts about trans men that are like "sweet little angelic cinnamon roll soft uwu boy!!! Trans men are little innocent boyes and I will protecc them all :3". And I think everyone sees the problem with those now.

I am a grown man. An adult wild animal. And while I don't need to take myself seriously, or even be taken seriously, all of the time, I sure don't like being referred to like a dumb little animal that doesn't know what it's doing as a default.

[knifedog-machina]

(Non)Humanity and Species Dysphoria: the Forced Transformation Trope

Written by Gavin on August 25, 2024.

As a nonhuman, do you ever think about why there's so many stories and myths and legends about humans being turned into animals? You ever wonder why it's usually a punishment or a curse, or why the characters try to do whatever it takes to become human again? You ever think, "I don't understand, I would love to be an animal and get rid of my human body, what's the problem?"

As a human myself, one whose system has been in the alterhuman community for years, I hope I can help bridge the gap of understanding here.

The way many humans see being turned into an animal as a curse, the way they'd be incredibly distressed about becoming nonhuman?

That is species dysphoria.

That is a human experiencing species dysphoria, because being perceived as nonhuman or other-than-human causes the exact same feelings of pain and wrongness and disconnection from their body that a nonhuman can experience when perceived as human.

(Particularly, this might be an orthohuman, someone who has a normative relationship with their human cultural and species identity, as opposed to an alterhuman, who experiences alternative/nonnormative humanity or a species identity separate from humanity. Human alterhumans can also experience this sort of species dysphoria - hi, I'm one of them.)

Imagine being your species your entire life, the way you know you're intended to be, living in a body you're comfortable in - and then having that body ripped away from you. Being forced to live in a form that doesn't match who you are, what you know you are, and desperately wanting to find a way to change back because you know you're not meant to be like this.

If this sounds familiar because it's what you experience as a nonhuman - that is how a lot of human beings feel about being transformed into something nonhuman. It's the feeling of being the wrong species! It's the desire to return to the form that you know as yourself!

The fact that orthohumans are born into the species they identify as does not mean that they could never comprehend your nonhuman experience. You can explain your nonhuman species dysphoria to an orthohuman. Given all the examples of unwanted transformation stories throughout human history, I think you're likely to find that they'll understand when you put it in that frame of reference.

"How would you feel about being turned into another species against your will, leaving behind everything that feels good and right and comfortable about your human body? That sounds horrible, right? That's how I feel, being nonhuman in a human body, and it's distressing in the same way you would hate being human and stuck in a nonhuman body."

I know that the gap between humanity and nonhumanity looks enormous. The horror of, say, werewolf mythology looks like a completely alien experience when you are a wolf, so you see being transformed into a wolf as nothing short of a wonderful experience, and you don't understand why anyone would see it as horrifying.

But if you understand that it's not about the species, but the experience of species dysphoria, of being trapped in a body that has never been yours and desperately trying to return to one that feels like you, well - that's a lot more understandable, isn't it?

Humanity and nonhumanity are not two opposite ends of a binary, destined to never understand each other. I know many alterhumans who are both human and nonhuman, and their humanity is an identity in much the same way as their nonhumanity. Humans are just another species on this planet, as bipedal tool-using social primates, and we have our species identities just like many nonhumans. You are not as alone in this world as you might think you are.

There is room for understanding and connection. Your experiences as nonhuman are not purely individual, not wholly unique, not utterly incomprehensible to human beings, and this is a good thing. The gap isn't actually as wide as it seems. You can reach out and cross it if you just remember - you have far more in common than you might think.

[korya-elana]

I've been seeing a very, very concerning trend on sysblr (CDD version) lately.

"If there's no documentation of this symptom/personal internal experience, then it's not real and you're misinterpreting what's happening to you."

Let's just talk about this, shall we? Because this mindset is not only anti-recovery, but anti-science!

Here's a personal example we came across recently. I know we've talked about it in the past, but we recently experienced a fusion between two parts. These two alters, Alice and Ashley, had been dating for a long time. At one point a couple months ago, we realized that they'd been talking about fusing. They told us about it briefly, said they'd been considering it for several months and then one day ... they did. This was an intentional choice and one that seems to have really helped them (a single alter now called Allison) and she is just so much happier now.

Well we had someone come in and say that you couldn't choose to fuse. That it's not a choice, it happens spontaneously and out of a System's control. Well my example is pretty cut-and-dry, no? But because I was unable to find them documentation about this one very niche, very personal experience, they insisted I was wrong and misinterpreting what happened. And this is BY FAR not the only example recently. I've been seeing so much bullshit recently about denying people's personal and subjective experiences just because there's no scientific evidence that it's possible.

So let's discuss why this isn't ok (beyond just insufferable rudeness)! I am a life-long neuroscience student. I am studying the brain on a very intense basis and eventually will be pursuing a PhD for it. I've been studying for years! And the one thing I know beyond ANY uncertainty is that we will never, ever know everything there is to know about the human brain. It's absolutely impossible. And that's the thing! This is why science is so important and why there's so much push for STEM students! Because the human race (and alterhumans) will never, ever be able to discover everything this universe has to offer but by god we'll try! We're a very curious species.

This is known and understood in science. We as people and the universe as a whole are ever-expanding and evolving. To think there is documentation on every single experience to be had (especially when it comes to the subjective human experience!) is not only completely misunderstanding the point of documenting science and experience, but completely ignorant on how science works and why it's so important we focus on it.

People will ALWAYS have experiences that will never be documented. That's just how it works! Like for fuck's sake, one of my blood clotting factors is THREE TIMES what it should be and we have NO idea why or what the consequences are because the only science we have about that factor is what happens when it's LOW.

And then there are the things that are only documented after someone tells another about it! Do you think that POTS or autism never existed just because someone had never studied it previously? Do you think it just started popping up because someone studied that first patient? Isn't that a silly thing to think? Don't you think we'd never document any bad experience if it meant that these experiences weren't real until someone wrote about it?

So yeah, sometimes people ARE misinterpreting what happened. We're only human after all and so very prone to making mistakes and applying our own experiences to the unknown in an attempt to make sense of it. But the shit I'm seeing in syscourse right now is telling people that very possible, personal and subjective things can't possibly be happening to them because there's no scientific literature about it (yet!).

Stop it. Stop telling people that what they're experiencing isn't real. Come to terms with the fact that there are some things that will never be professionally documented and then learn to deal with it. Stop telling people their experiences didn't happen just because they didn't comb through the internet and find documentation to prove it to some random tumblerite who probably hasn't taken anything more than basic science classes.

[raptorish]

Being 'Kin Without A 'Heart

Written by Max on October 28, 2024.

I think I have an interesting disconnect between being otherkin and being otherhearted. I see people who feel as though the two terms are nearly indistinguishable, and for some reason it's not like that for me! There's a clear line between them in my brain, and I wanna journal about my personal experience with that.

I'm a velociraptor, velociraptor therian, raptorkin, raptorkind, a prehistoric bird, a wereraptor. I use those words interchangeably, since they all convey the proper information: I'm a raptor. I also strongly identify as human. I have two species, equal in value, and they fluctuate in intensity - in my daily life, I'm content to see myself as human, and my raptor side is almost a separate creature entirely, but not quite. It's a median headmate, an important part of me, and also different from me. We are the same until we are not.

And I'm not raptorhearted, even when I'm only partly identifying as a raptor, when I'm feeling more human. I don't identify with raptors, with the traits humans have given them or with their reconstructed biology - I don't feel a sense of belonging, or home, or love for their species in a way that's beyond what I feel for other animals. Raptors are, for some strange reason, not very special to me. I just happen to be one.

Even when I'm not a raptor, when I'm a human with a raptor side and raptor instincts, I don't relate to my raptor brain - that's why I separate it from me! I don't feel a sense of familiarity with it, beyond the familiarity of being it and knowing how it works from being it.

Other raptors aren't inherently family to me. I'll call them cousins, as an affectionate shorthand, because they're like me and not quite the same, but I don't feel a sense of caring for them simply because they're raptors. I feel familiar with them because they're like me - I enjoy seeing how much we're alike, what ways we might differ! But I don't deeply care about them, in the same way someone who's raptorhearted might.

Here, for contrast, let me tell you about how I experience being fictionhearted with a particular canon, and why I'm confident in calling that a hearttype.

My heartcanon, the fictional canon which I'm connected with, is a personally-created alternate universe of the video game Detroit: Become Human, which I've named Detroit, Machina. I've named it, given it a different title, because it's so fundamentally important to me and feels so different from the original source from which it was derived that calling DBH in general my heartcanon feels painfully wrong.

I don't identify as any character from Machina. I identify with the beats of the story, with the characters and their struggles, with the joys and failures and everything about creating it. I say I have a heartcanon because I could tell someone about it as a story, as a fanfic, and it would not convey the depth of how this story is embedded into my psyche. I would not be the same person if I hadn't written about it for years of my life, put pieces of myself into it. I'm not fictionkind, I'm not anyone in this story, but the story is an integral part of me anyway. I have such strong feelings about it that I don't know how to put it to words, and I don't feel comfortable trying in a public post. It's important to me. If you told me I could never talk about Machina again, I would crumble to ash.

Contrast that with being a raptor. If you were to tell me I could never have any piece of dinosaur paraphernalia ever again, I would shrug. They're cute, sure, but I don't care about raptors that intensely. I would be just as disappointed if you said I couldn't ever have any cat paraphernalia, and I'm not a cat in any alterhuman sense.

Basically - I don't care about raptors in such a strong, personally intense way that they've changed who I am. I am a raptor, and that's changed who I am, and that doesn't mean I necessarily love them. And that's perfectly okay.

[yourlocalbirdie]

I think that alterhumans/nonhumans don't talk too much about seasonal shifts as someone with many kintypes.

for me, weather or a season really affect my experience.

there are types of shifts/or feelings in general I only experience when it's raining, or the ones that only appear when it's snow outside... for example, it's most likely for me to feel more birdy in colder weather, since wearing baggy chlothes/coats make me feel like they're my feathers, and its more likely for me to feel more dragon-y in warm sunlight, where I can feel my scales while sunbathing

in general, when seasons change, so does my experience with everything... sometimes the weather doesn't make me feel like one of my kintypes at all, and sometimes it's the exact opposite

I noticed it recently, in the last 6 months I couldn't really feel my fox side at all, at the point that made me question my identity, i finally figured out that's cause I mostly experience fox-like shifts in autumn-winter!

let me know your experience with seasons/weather!

~Birdie/Hera

[fallingsatellive]

It will always piss me off to no end how willing people are to offer in conversation how much they kill bugs and why. That it doesn't matter how with-it or aware or morally upright a person is otherwise. That it doesn't even matter how much they care about the environment or animals otherwise. People who don't even just claim they care or know a lot about animals; people who actually do. Leftists. Anarchists. Vegans. Champions of animal rights. Environmentalists. Other alterhumans! Will still hear you say you won't kill a bug that's not hurting you and laugh and joke about how they're clearly not as gentle as you because they'll just kill anything that looks icky. They'll say the reason they kill invertebrates is because they don't like the way we look with absolutely zero shame or self-awareness. Like I'm supposed to think of it as a harmless bad habit. I'm tired of humans that can never know they're talking to a centipede when they casually joke about how centipedes deserve to die for being so gross-looking and I'm tired of therians who come on posts uplifting invertebrate 'kin (or worse, taking some issue with the ways we're seen) with "if bugs come in my house they have to die but otherwise I agree with this sentiment!" or "I totally agree with all of this! No exceptions! Except [insert bug that's extremely popular to hate], those need to stay AWAY from me lmao"

[aernthetransfrormer]

Identity Debates #4 Radqueers

I'm going to be making a few posts about "controversial identities" I want to here argument both for and against it. You don't personally have to believe the argument, just something you've hear/come up with. Also, this is the last post. :)))

The main reason I'm against rad queers is because a large part of them support MAPS/YAPS as if they're not just pedophiles. I'm also kinda offended by transabled, transabuse, etc people because I actually have those expirience it, I don't understand why anyone would want to transPTSD. I don't have PTSD, but I do have trauma. It's kinda offensive to be like, "I wish I went through that :c" No. YOU. DO. NOT. Being transharmful is worse in my opinion, Just because YOU SHOULD NEVER WANT TO HARM ANYONE!!!! You can be trans age I guess because you agere, transspecies, BUT WHY TRANSHARMFUL? THE WORST PART IS I'VE SEEN A LOT OF PEOPLE TRANSITION AND PURPOSFULLY HARM PEOPLE! I sometimes tell myself it can't be that much of a large part of the community, but it's so much it's still bad imo

The only thing I am okay with is trans race adopted people/anyone who's family is a different race so they celebrate things and act like people of a race they weren't born into. I do have a problem though with people who are transrace just because they think it's cool. As a Mexican, it's kinda racist??? You can celebrate the holidays, enjoy the food, and everything else without becoming the other race. None of them should try to physically change themselves though. Just like I said in my other posts, I don't have a problem with the cringe part of it, just those offensive and objectively terrible parts. Being transspecies is like being alterhuman. Who really cares? I don't care about those parts, but there's so much bad I am against radqueers. The argument that they aren't hurting anyone doesn't even work because they are being discriminatory AND SUPPORT PEDOS???

I would say # Rad queers interact! but I'm gonna trigger way to many people into pointless arguments. If you aren't VERY triggered, please tell me anything you have heard about supporting radqueers. You don't nesacarily have to agree with it though. Edit: A few people have responded and I am understanding a bit more why people are radqueer. I still don't think it's that good though, not THAT bad either though. 1. I still believe transharmful is bad because you should never want to harm anyone. 2. I know paraphilias are something people actually struggle with and they deserve support, but they shouldn't be celebrated. At least not in the way like LGBTQ+ is. 3. I do mostly agree with at least what most people have responded with. 4. do understand using transID for introjects who want to be more like their source, but I personally believe it's best to separate from your source. Having wayyyy to many Wilbur fictives, me (host) and all of them have had some existential crisis from not understanding whether or not I am the source. (obviously no but its still stressful) 5. I still don't understand transdisorder/transable. I understand why people use them, but I still don't think it's good most of the time. It's still offensive imo. This is because wishing you had it worse isn't something to be proud of, it's kind of an insult towards people struggling with those things. YOU CAN EXPIRIENCE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU IDENTIFY AS RADQUEER BUT ITS NOT ALWAYS SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF! specifically paraphillias, transrace, transdisorder, and transabled. You can expirience them and I agree we shouldn't have stigmas against paraphilias, but you shouldn't be proud of it (at least like LGBTQ+ is)

btw, I wouldn't consider radqueers as LGBTQ+ because LGBTQ is about struggling with gender and/or sexual and romantic orientation but radqueers don't have to do with either

ANOTHER EDIT :0 Radqueers... aren't actually that bad. Thank you to everyone who answered. Tbh, I'm mostly neutral on it in like half the cases lol. As long as it isn't hurting anyone, YAY! lol idk what to say I'm not against radqueer identities, I just personally think there are better options. like 70% of it is alright and the rest is... eh, kinda bad? I think transharm identies are okay but I still don't really know about trans race, transabled, and other things that are kinda biggoted. I understand why people use the labels, but I don't think it's right? Idk if that makes sense. I think it's better to just accept yourself first.

[interstellarsystem]

This isn't at anyone in particular, but it's very disheartening to see that the otherhearted AND otherkith tags are full of.... Posts that are almost completely unrelated to those experiences. Otherlink tags are much the same.

A few in there are geared toward all alterhumans in general, that's fine, but... Posts specifically only about therians, otherkin or fully nonhuman identities without so much as a mention of heartedness don't belong in the otherhearted tags. Therian/otherkin specific posts don't belong in the otherlinking tags either. It's so hard to find anything related to being otherhearted or otherlinking because it's almost all content that only explicitly relates to therians or otherkin. It really looks like they sometimes just slap the smaller tags on there for reach.

It doesn't get your therian posts reach though, because as far as I'm aware, hearted people and otherlinkers follow the tags for posts relating to those specific experiences. Sure, people can be more than one thing and there are definitely therians and otherkin following those tags, that's fine, but it's not why those people follow them. Flooding the hearted and otherlink tags with otherkin posts really only makes it impossible to see anything from other individuals who are otherhearted or otherlinkers. The people who want to see your posts will be following the otherkin or therian tags.

You don't need to tag in different community tags for reach, this is tumblr where tags do actually matter because they're the primary way of finding posts. There's no algorithm at all if you don't use the "for you" page. And when you're putting therian and otherkin only posts in tags that are for much, much smaller communities like otherhearted people and otherlinkers.... It becomes impossible to keep those communities present here.

I don't know if there's separate tags that otherhearted people and otherlinkers use that aren't flodded with otherkin-only posts but if there is I haven't been able to find it because the only post we can even find recently in the hearted tags thats actually about heartedness is one we made today.

We've went on about how the term "alterhuman" isn't just for otherkin content before. We're sad the tag for it has less variety than the community really encompasses. Yes, otherkin are alterhuman and have the right to post there--no one is saying they don't--but a lot of the times people post "alterhumanity is about being an animal and no one knows" or something when it's definitely not always the case. Alterhuman isn't the same as nonhuman. I want to see more diversity and acknowledgement that there can be other alterhuman identities aside from identifying as an animal. As an umbrella term, alterhuman encompasses a lot more than nonhumanity and I don't like that even the hearted tags are covered in unrelated material.

I really think that non-kin and human+ or just plainly still human identities that fall under the alterhuman umbrella need to be acknowledged and respected enough to not be flodded out of their own tags.

[dinocanid]

This might be a hot take related to the current discourse (and is much more broad than the original topic and only tangentially related) but like, I don't think you have to know anything about your kintype/theriotype/etc. to know that's what you are.

Not to say that research doesn't help people, it certainly can help someone confirm/deny what their nonhuman identity is, and it is possible to be wrong the first time around, but for some people that's legit just bonus information. Neat to know but not necessary to figuring things out. It makes absolutely zero sense to be like "you can't be sure unless you can recite some wikipedia facts to me right now", or if you can play spot the difference between two (very similar looking) species. There is no alterhuman diploma.

To use a personal example: one of my kintypes is a wolf, I do not know most things about wolves off the top of my head. Don't ask me anything about wolf ecology outside the bare basics, I couldn't tell you. When I was really young I thought my nonhuman identity was a dog until one day I had the epiphany that I was actually a wolf. I didn't have to bury my head in research to figure that out, I just knew for not much reason. Any information on wolves I know today is stuff I picked up here and there over the years, independent of my identity. Even so, most wolf facts are irrelevant to me as a wolf since I wasn't wild and don't act like most wolves do or have the same instincts or behaviors. If anything I would've been thrown off-path, possibly for years, because my experiences didn't match that of wild wolves.

All this to say, you do what works for you and don't set the bar for entry based on your personal journey. Your experiences are not universal and all that. Some people just know for no reason, that's fine. Some people don't know and need that extra research, that's ok too. This feels like The Discourse Ever(tm) to be starting 2024 with, this feels like something people would've argued about in 2010.

[dippable]

autism and media. spoilers for criminal minds, my hero academia, and dungeon meshi.

okay so, i'm an autistic person, and i've seen portrayals of autism (both implied and explicit) and they've had.. a range of quality overall.

in explicit examples, i've seen only a few. spencer reid comes to mind first- the autistic savant with an eidetic memory and a penchant for seeming robotic. i, personally, was heavily influenced by this guy- i did (and kind of still do) enjoy criminal minds after all. however, spencer's existence as one of the first explicitly autistic characters that was seen by a wider audience. the show was insanely popular, but in the later seasons (mainly after he was sent to prison) many of his autistic traits seem to fade away. of course, he is a traumatized man who was on high alert for a WHILE, but one would expect he wouldn't lose many of his core personality traits. personally, i think these were written out since his traits weren't seen as "popular", since autistic people can offend those they love or say the wrong thing on accident and it seemed too weird.

second, my hero academia. i don't think any of these characters are explicitly autistic, but i haven't watched in a while. mainly, i see deku and tamaki as autistic (although bakugo, aizawa, and shigaraki are.... suspicious) and i believe my views on these two are mainly influenced by the rest of the fandom, so here goes. overall, i think the characterization of these two lends itself directly to their emotional or anxious nature. most media i see with one or both of them severely dumbs them down to these traits, with tamaki getting the brunt of this treatment. most don't seem to remember that both of them are strong for their age, smart, and have faith in their quirks. even if tamaki might seem pessimistic about fights, he's just that- pessimistic. he's much more inclined to believe he'll lose because if he does, he's prepared to do what he can to help whoever comes after. deku is emotional, yes, but who wouldn't be? he's a teenager who's been told over and over again that he's a failure and he'll never achieve his dream, and suddenly, he's being helped by the #1 hero to become the person that he thought was unattainable. i think horikoshi's representation of them is alright, it's just mainly the fandom that compresses them into "uwu anxious cinnamon rolls too sweet for this earth" instead of remembering they're multifaceted characters, and damaging their own interpretations of real people in the process.

in dungeon meshi, i don't know if they're explicitly autistic (however laios and falin are HEAVILY HINTED AT so.) but the representation of autism here is incredible. in the series, we see laios fuck up with shuro (and, notably, we see the fandom sweep it under the rug because laios is white) while he has real, genuinely close relationships with others (marcille is like a sister to him, and chilchuck's his best friend) so we know he is a multifaceted character. he's also tied to the tendency of autistic people to be interested in fringe interests, or alterhuman circles. he thinks (like many others) that he's weird enough to people, so he throws all caution to the wind and goes all-in on being weird. i know that when i realized i was "too weird" for others, i just stopped caring, and that's how i got into many of my favorite things- like OFF, house of leaves, etc etc. if they thought i was weird then, i don't really want to know what they think i am now, especially since i'm out here playing obscure meta rpgs or reading books that require me to flip them around.

overall, i think the representations of autistic people in media have a long way to go. there is still a critical shortage of autistic poc in media, and many representations of autism are still influenced by the savant stereotype we see with spencer reid (see: the good doctor) and there's still a variety of symptoms that haven't been shown accurately yet. i'm very proud of where we've come, though- now, i can see an incredibly accurate portrayal of myself in laios, but there's still many autistic people who haven't seen someone they can relate to on the silver screen.

[that-dreaming-dragon]

Media Representation and (a rant on) Draconity

I think it's natural to want to find something within the media that represent and reflects yourself. As a dragon, the option might seem like quite a few within various sources of media, but the realities are that I and my various alterhuman identities are not the typical or commonly seen dragons.

As myself, I'm orange, furred, white feathered wings, yellow horns, and the vibrant red belly. Those are not things you find common in animals, even amongst birds, that's some colors that don't exactly flow together. People drawn inspiration from around their world to create, people are also creature of comfort and habit--with the idea of dragon being "fire breathing, bat winged, scaly lizard" or "scale with mane, elemental control and sometimes deity, serpentine wyrm", and then variations based off of that, perhaps scaled beast with feathery wings, or great furred wyrm with webbed wings and fire breathing. Seriously what is with the fire breathing? Have I mention that I'm a shapeshifting sort of dragon? While that is often tied to the eastern sort of draconic beings, my exact combination of dragons are far and few in between. Even the dutch angel dragon within the furry community has certain limitation and character traits that don't align with me. If I hadn't got turned off by the idea of looking anywhere or being misidentify as a horse, I might have find myself drawn to the dutch angel dragon as a sort of maybe paratype, or just friendly dragons that I share similar traits with. But alas.

Every single piece of media or fictional source that has a representation I can find brings me joy. Games centered on collecting dragons like Flight Rising or Dragon Cave does a great job of acknowledging that diversity. I get especially grumpy when dragon maker only has webbed wings and scaly body. At one point I really did not want to put the 3D dragon maker by Dragonita on my Alterhuman Shifts and Self Discovery Tools guide (ohh, guess I finally got a name). You can call me petty however you want, but I was not very happy of something that denies my existence. I'm a strong advocate for draconic diversity, because I am not alone in being "unusual" sort of dragons. Nobody should feel like this, unseen. Dealing with the constant "he or she" as someone nonbinary is more than enough, thank you very much. I feel like as alterhuman, hell, even just within the confine of draconic community or even smaller the dragonkind community, there should be a sort of basic understanding that "dragon" is a abstract term. Like "what is human", "what is dragon" should be a default and nobody gets to decide who is or isn't dragon. To touch back onto what I wrote on Day 1 of this challenge, alterhumanity is a experience, it is a feeling, it is vague and abstract, it is something you know within your essence, or one day you will awaken to it. A dragon is all of that. I did end up finally putting the 3d builder on my guide. I will still prefer Lukas Sotrmskull's Dragon builder though.

Before I let my thought get away from me, lets talk about my other alterhuman identities.

The other side of the spectrum, when you have a almost exact match in sources that are well known, you end up keep getting mistaken as it. My kardiatype looks very alike to Haku from Spirited Away. It gets frustrating when I bring up my kardiatype, and people immediately go "oh, Haku!" It's the same problem with people seeing my self protrait and call that a horse or a goat. Seriously, is like people don't recognize a basic dragon head shape if it isn't scaled and spiked. Horses are neat, goat is fine, and Haku is a very cool dragon. But my kardiatype was not Haku. I'd argue that he was just your generic Japanese storm dragon that may or may not be local deity. Wild thought huh. I like that I get to see glimpse of that dragon through Haku, but I would really rather not deal with yet another case of misidentification in the form of "close enough". My human english name got enough of that treatment.

Amongst my other draconic identities, I have a vague-flicker of Flammie from the mana series. The vaguetype feeling has components of paratype within, precisely due to myself being the sort of dragon I am. Belly plate aside, Flammie looks very close to me. And with my discovery of how suggestive my wing count may be (currently in shifts of at least 4), Flammie is definitely a big contender for media representation of myself.

When it comes to intensionally created identity, me and Akumu, my headmate/mirror self, collectively linked a vaguetype of Aurelion Sol. Now, Aurelion Sol has nothing alike to me, maybe the color is more align with Akumu's, but generally, the eastern noodle form is my least favorite to partake in. It feels like a responsibility, and things are just heavier in a way when I'm in that form. It doesn't have to make much sense. Perhaps I will delve into this one day. One can argue we formed the link due to our kardiatype. But really, it happened because that's the one dragon we were really drawn to (and attempted to main) while playing League, and well, there were two others who were shyvana and smolder respectively, and we wanted to complete the draconic of LoL set for shits and giggles. There not much need to find a representation, because we are the exact representation from the source. But wait, we identify with the concept stage where people dub "unbound form" of Sol. Whelp, guess we gotta look elsewhere again.

It feels like I'm trying to start a topic and well, rant on draconity got me all over the place.

Sometimes it really is a exercise in patience. The more unique you are, the harder it is to find representation. Wouldn't change myself for the world though, I love my uniqueness, and I appreciate how crazily varied dragons can be. Or any other sort of creatures or identities or experiences. Life is wonderful like that.

[taxidermycanine]

DEAR DISABLED THERIANS.

a short positivity post to remind you all that you are loved, important and valued in not only the therian / alterhuman community, but in life. take care of yourselves.

to the therians who use canes and wheelchairs, you are no less of a mobile creature for needing an aid. whether your theriotype is a fish, a domestic cat or a wild canid — mobility aids are found in most, if not all, species out there due to the help from humans. if you had been born in the right body, you would be given the same sort of aid. i promise. it isn't shameful.

you have carpal tunnel and feel left out because you're a wolf who was born to run and hunt elk? that's great!! i bet you'd be great friends with this guy :0}

to the blind and / or deaf therians who are told that their theriotype simply wouldn't survive due to their blindness — this simply isn't true. there have been many cases of blind or deaf animals surviving, look at this wolf as an example! and bare in mind MOST cases of blindness are partial, but this old gal is pretty much FULLY blind, and she's doing fine. why wouldn't you?

to the therians who have some sort of learning disability, it does NOT make you an idiot. i tend to see a lot of critters with stereotypically intelligent animals (think elephants, border collies, etc) as their theriotypes and feel worried due to their disability. you aren't dumb, you aren't "mentally not there", you aren't any of the mean things you've been called throughout your life. there ARE animals with learning disabilities, you would not die in the wild for having one just the same as you would not die in a domestic household for having one (or many)

and to those who have any other disabilities that i didn't mention in this short post, you are enough. you don't have to prove your therianthropy to anyone. if someone ever insists that you can't possibly be your theriotype because you are disabled? ignore them, they're lying and just trying to make you feel terrible about yourself. it's hard being disabled, it's hard waking up in pain and never not being NOT in pain, it's hard knowing that there are folks out there that'd demean you just for being disabled, it's hard needing mobility aids and not being able to afford them, it's hard when people think that you're stupid or less deserving of respect because they don't deem you "all there".

i love you all, those hardships are something that you shouldn't ever have to experience.

take good care of yourself if you can, and if you can't? get yourself that sweet treat you've been wanting, eat your favorite candy before a savory meal, give yourself a well deserved hug and watch your favorite show.

[knifedog-machina]

Being Human: A Species Identity Compare and Contrast

Written by Gavin on June 27, 2024.

Hey, I'm Gavin, and despite hanging out in various alterhuman spaces, I'm 100% a human person. I live in a system with two headmates who are also human, but identify as other species as well - Max as a velociraptor therian, Jude as a dog archetrope and an android. In contrast, I specifically, completely identify as human.

What's so special about that, being human? Statistically, it's nothing remarkable - most people on Earth identify as human after all. I think what's really interesting is that, over the past year, I've been connected to communities that all contain people (or non-people, as the case may be) who partially or fully identify as nonhuman - otherkin, therians, a solid number of fictionfolk and some alterhumans. Therefore, I feel like I can compare and contrast my species identity to the experiences of others, in a way that most people who philosophize on what humanity is don't get the chance to.

We tend to think of humanity as The Default, a non-identity, since the majority of self-identified nonhumans were raised as human, and we all live in human societies. Most people don't bother clarifying that they are human unless they're dehumanized, because it seems obvious that being born human means you're human. Given humanity's position as a default state, a lot of nonhumans see it as an opposing and fundamentally different experience from nonhumanity.

In this way, species identity is similar to gender identity - cisgender people, who identify with the genders they were assigned at birth, are often assumed by transgender people to have a fundamentally different understanding of gender. I feel like both of these assumptions are oversimplifications, ones that miss out on a lot of nuance, and throughout this essay I will be comparing gender and species, as a trans man whose species is as important to him as his gender.

There are some common threads I've noticed when it comes to having a sense of identity. I wouldn't call them universal experiences, I can't read minds, but they're frequent enough to be significant. They may be more obvious when it's an identity at odds with your body (e.g. being transgender or nonhuman) - but I'd go so far as to say that plenty of cisgender (and human!) people also experience these feelings, and simply don't have the words or desire to describe their feelings with these terms.

First off, identity euphoria - the internal sense of alignment, joy, and contentedness one gets from presenting and being perceived as their identity. A trans man might experience gender euphoria from presenting and being treated as a man, and so do many cis men. Think about how thrilled many guys are when their beards fill out; that's facial hair as a presentation of masculinity, and gaining it is a gender euphoric experience. In a very similar way, a nonhuman experiences species euphoria from being perceived as their species - and so do I, as a human being.

I’m trans, so I know how gender euphoria feels for me. I find that the more I'm just treated as a man, the more that the bright elation of being correctly gendered turns into a sense of quiet satisfaction - this is what I am, and everyone knows it, and all is right with the world. There's no reason to think too much about it unless something calls attention to it, and then I feel confident and comfortable enough in myself that other people's judgements are more annoying than hurtful. I exist peacefully in my body, happy with the way people see me in it, and sometimes I'll do something that feels extra masculine and grin about it for five minutes.

My species euphoria falls into the same sort of category - I feel content with my body, the way it matches how I feel internally, and the way other people treat me because of it. I feel fundamentally comfortable with my human body map and movements, having a flat face and hands and nails, walking upright on the soles of my feet. I feel comfortable when I'm acknowledged as a human and a person, when I do something that’s known to be human - when I wear different clothes to express myself and keep out the cold, when I cook a meal to eat with people, when I sing for the fun of it, when I write and draw to share something creative, when I interact with human technology and invention and creation. Humans have been making clothes and foods and songs and adding marks to the world for about as long as they've existed, and we're still doing it, and if I think about it too long I get emotional. I’m human and I feel deeply connected to humanity, and most of the time I don't think about it because I'm treated as one, but sometimes I’ll notice that I'm doing something that just feels fundamentally human, and it's really nice - sometimes species affirmation can be in the little things, like wearing a beat-up jacket or writing a personal essay.

On the flip side, there's identity dysphoria, the distress experienced when one's identity doesn't align with the way they present or find themselves perceived as. A trans woman might feel gender dysphoria because of her body hair; many cis women also feel less feminine if they don't shave. Species dysphoria is a well-known experience in the nonhuman community, the distress of being seen as human or having a human body when you don't identify as one. Given what I said earlier, hopefully it doesn't come as a shock that people can have the opposite experience - feeling distressed about being seen as nonhuman. I get this kind of species dysphoria.

It feels odd to talk about species dysphoria when I’m not nonhuman, but I still feel it. Mostly it comes up in the context of being in alterhuman spaces, being accidentally mislabeled as nonhuman through proximity to those who are, and I've also felt it in the context of playing around with visualizing myself as nonhuman in art. My body map doesn't have nonhuman features, parts like wings or tails or claws or pointy ears. Picturing myself like that feels wrong, it feels like sandpaper, like there’s this foreign thing attached to my body and I need to cut it off so I can stop this crawling sense of my body not being my own. I used to have an awful amount of gender dysphoria, and I feel like the two are very comparable experiences - the distress of feeling like your body doesn't match your mind. I got top surgery, so the gender dysphoria is gone, and thankfully my body is actually human, because I would be just as distressed about being seen as nonhuman as I was about being seen as a girl.

It’s kind of fascinating that I feel this way, that I can’t picture myself as nonhuman without feeling incredibly uncomfortable. On the other end of the spectrum, there's the entire furry fandom, a subculture of people - most of whom definitely identify as human beings - who regularly depict themselves as nonhuman animals for fun and self-expression. We’re all human, what gives? Do they have a more malleable sense of species identity than I do?

Maybe, maybe not. I don't have a straightforward answer to that - like I said, I can't read minds, and I'm just one person. But I do have a couple thoughts on the way humans interface with nonhumanity, on the topic of enjoying it.

See, I get dysphoric about being considered nonhuman, but I've found some loopholes in there. I’m completely fine with my fictional counterpart - the character getting tossed into different AUs for our personal enrichment - being turned into a vampire, a werewolf, a selkie, an android, a person with wings. How's that any different from other expressions of nonhumanity? Well, for me, those stories don't induce dysphoria because they're about humanity, at the end of the day - how people cope with being seen as or turned into monsters, the way they treat one another and the way they treat supposed outsiders, the ways society might change if humans were slightly different animals but still called themselves human. If I were a werewolf, I'd still be human, just one living with the consequences of also being a wolf. If I had wings in a world where all humans have wings, I'm still human in the context of that world. That baseline sense of humanity is what’s important to me.

In a similar vein, I can't stand seriously being seen as nonhuman - but pretending to be nonhuman? Roleplaying? Dressing up in a costume? I can do that. I feel like there’s something very human about being fascinated by the abilities and strengths of every animal that's not your own kind, and wanting them for yourself - the human desire to fly like a bird, swim like a fish, hunt like a wolf, run like a deer.

I think a lot of what people like about fursonas is this sort of wish fulfillment, of having the cool traits of all these fascinating animals, and having that animal self-portrait still being anthro - human - enough to relate to. It's animality through an anthropomorphic lens, through how fun it can be to play pretend and express yourself as a cool deer-wolf-lion hybrid. And usually, those animal choices are symbolic, and the fursona reflects the personality of the person who made it - more often than not, it reflects the cultural stereotypes of what that animal is, instead of being true to what the animal is like as a living organism. It's about the way humans see themselves in animals, not necessarily the way we are animals. So, ironically, being a furry tends to parse as a very human thing to me.

So far, most of this essay has been a comparison, since I see a lot of similarities between identifying as human and identifying as nonhuman. Putting my species into my list of self-identifiers, like how I'd list my name and pronouns, has cemented it as a crucial part of how I view myself and want to be seen. That's the same way a lot of nonhumans think about their species. I have a strong sense of species identity, it just so happens to align with being human. Contrasting the categories seems harder to me.

I could list a bunch of different nonhuman traits that I lack, but it would be on the same level as saying one kintype is different from another. I don't care about walking on all fours, and neither does Max as a raptor. I don't instinctively try to bite a threat, I’d rather kick it, and I know a horse would agree with me. I don't long for the sky and neither does Jude, they're a dog. I don't have a prey drive and neither does a hamster. I don't feel like a nonsapient animal, and neither does an elf.

When it comes down to just being a certain species, there’s not that much of a difference between identifying as a human and identifying as a dragon. There's a bunch of traits that feel correct, and a million others that don't feel right at all.

I could say that I don't understand feeling like I don't fit in my own body, but I do - I had gender dysphoria. I have species dysphoria. If one of my partners is having a phantom shift while co-fronting with me, I invariably end up either leaving front or nullifying their shifts, because I just don't feel comfortable if our combined body map is nonhuman. I don't have memories of being a different species than I am, having abilities that I don't have in my body now, but those aren’t necessary to be nonhuman in the first place.

Do I need to find a contrast that makes sense? Does there need to be some fundamental difference between human and nonhuman identity?

I don't think so. It's all identity, at the end of the day.

[yellow-computer-mouse]

just kinda thinking out loud about some alterhuman/possible collective(????) stuff, don't mind me

under the cut bc this is probably gonna be long asf

i've kind of been wondering if i'm some kind of collective lately? i don't have the trauma, though. there have been minor things (charger shooting out sparks and almost catching me on fire, parents being kind of bitchy, etc) but those are mostly just one-time things/irritating, not traumatizing.

HOWEVER. i have very strong personality shifts with my kins, and lately (especially with jimmy and curly), i've felt kind of influenced by them. it's weird. also, when i'm not feeling particularly like one or the other, it feels weird to call them "me". that's an issue i have with a lot of my kins.

for example, i made a playlist today for their individual music tastes. i already have character playlists for them, it's just stuff that the "jimmy brain" or "curly brain" likes. currently the only song on jimmy's playlist is Sports by Beach Bunny, so it's. DEFINITELY NOT A CHARACTER THING LOL

i don't really hear them talking though?? it's weird. but like that's just kinda how it is for a lot of my kins.

also there's uh. me. but that's weird i have a weird sense of self. it's like "oscar" is kind of a mask to put up when i'm not feeling particularly one way or the other. oscar just kinda feels like. yknow. a collection. but they're all me?? but also not??? i dunno

writing this out it sounds really plural-y but i just. arrrgh i dunno!! bc i know it's a trauma thing! and i know endogenic systems exist but i don't really know that much about any of this so. yeag 👍

^ BUT SEE IT'S EVEN LITTLE SHIT LIKE THAT. curly brain likes 🥲 better. jimmy brain likes 👍 better. IT'S WEIRD??

aarhrhghhhhhhh

[wanderingcritter]

Hello! I have some questions for you, if you don't mind.

What does transspecies mean to you?

How did you discover you were transspecies?

How do you feel about the myth that transspecies makes fun of transgender people?

How do you feel about the idea that transspecies should not be used or people who are transspecies should stay hidden because it can be used against the transgender community

(A controversial one) Why did rad-q takeover the transspecies term, how does that effect the alterhuman community, and how do you feel about it?

Hi thank you sm for asking hehe :3 I love getting to talk about this stuff (and knowing that others are interested in hearing about it lol)

Long ass post below the cut

1. To me, transspecies is the rawest, most direct way for me to express my nonhumanity. It cuts through a lot of the vagueness and nuance of some other nonhuman labels (not that there's anything wrong with that ofc) and gets straight to the point: Im not entirely human and want to be acknowledged as such by my peers and society at large. It emphasizes my desire to move through life as nonhuman, and that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I also like that it challenges the narrative of human superiority and the idea that species identity is purely biology based. For me personally, it also ties into my experience with being transgender, as I often see my gender as being partially nonhuman. Many things that are gender affirming are also species affirming and vice versa. But obviously you don't have to be transgender to be transspecies, one of my irl packmates and close friend is cisgender transspecies and she's awesome <3

2. It wasn't so much a "discovery" for me. My transspecies identity is very closely tied to my therianthropy, the species I identify as and see myself transitioning into are also all kintypes. So after I realized I was a therianthrope, it was kind of just a slow realization that it was also a label that fit my experiences well. Like most alterhumans I had heard the word used as a weapon against transgender people and alterhumans, so I had a very negative perception of it for a long time. I think the first time I ever heard it referred to in a not-outright-negative sense was in PDTherians "Trans-species?!" youtube video (which I do not recommend as a source of education at all it's a very flawed video that's riddled with misinformation) a few years back, and from there I slowly started to open up to the idea and yeah. The rest is history pretty much lol

3. To some degree I actually can empathize with the stance because I used to be in the same camp, and I know from experience that for a lot of folks it's just well intentioned but misplaced passion of trans liberation. But at the same time it's still a harmful belief and one I grew out of because I matured and learned more about the communities I was part of. Anytime you cast judgement onto a group of people with a harmless identity/belief/interest for the sole purpose of "they're too weird", that harms everyone, not just that group. In this case, hatred against transspecies folks implies that there is a right and a wrong way to be queer/trans, which is harmful not only to nonhumans but to all queer individuals.

4. I think it's bullshit lmao. Shying away from it and outcasting the people who use it does absolutely nothing but divide us further and make us an easier target for discrimination. Categorizing it as a community taboo just turns it into ammunition for transphobes and anti-alterhumans alike. Turning against each other and fighting over stupid shit like labels is exactly what oppressors want, a house divided against itself cannot stand. It also just doesn't make sense, species identity is socially constructed, similar to gender, so why should people be forbidden from using a word to describe that experience just because it's misunderstood?

5. I honestly have no idea why radqueers do anything at all lmaoooo. But if I had to guess, I think it's because on some level, they know that nobody with any semblance of social education or moral compass is ever going to be on board with their beliefs, so instead of trying to fight a losing battle they just barge their way into other small, marginalized, and outcasted groups (alterhuman, altage, paraphiles, etc.) and try to claim them as "part of them". It's a lot easier to tell a group of people "Hey you guys are actually just like us so you need to support our ideology because otherwise you're just fighting against yourself" than it is to try to convince them from scratch that you're not a horrible person.

As for how it's impacted the alterhuman community, Im not entirely sure but luckily I think its effects have been fairly minimal thus far. The alterhuman community is significantly bigger and older than the rq community, I've only ever run into rqs on Tumblr and even here Ive met transspecies folks who had never heard of radqueers before. I think its biggest impacts have been on the transspecies niche specifically, since they often try to lump it in with transid's like "transrace" and "transharmful", which leads to the assumption from outsiders that they're inherently connected and that all transspecies folks agree with those stances as well. But I think as transspecies and alterhumanity as a whole slowly becomes less stigmatized and more widely understood over time, that belief will also fade and die off.

Sorry for the massive text wall lmao, I hope that wasn't too much info. But again thank you sm for asking ^^ I think it's super important that folks out there are interested in learning more about this stuff and that alterhumans are able to communicate their experiences to one another <3