can someone explain how otherkin isn’t disrespectful to trans people and native americans who have actual spirit animals
Otherkin aren’t disrespectful to transpeople because the two phenomena have nothing to do with one another, really. Transpeople
- fictionkin/otherkin is not about gender.
- a kintype is not a gender
- otherkin as a whole are not ‘trans-species’
Similarities between being kin and being transgender
- *both experience a mismatch in their physical body versus their mental/spiritual perception of themselves
- *both experience anguish due to internal conflicts between body and mind/soul
Differences between being kin and being transgender
- *kin may experience memories and flashbacks to their other lives, transpeople do not
- *trans people experience systematic oppression, kin do not
- *transpeople are forced pre-transition to constantly dress, speak and act in a way incongruent with their identity, kin are not
- *transpeople are stigmatized by places of employment, and entire governments, kin are not.
- *transpeople are forced to jump through medical and legal hoops to have their identities recognized, kin are not
- Transpeople are expected to present as their chosen gender all the time, kin are not.
- *gender is a fundamental societal marker that is constantly being evaluated by people at all times, kintype is not.
- A kintype does not affect someone’s pronouns or gender identity as a whole.
- Kin are not claiming to be oppressed the way transpeople are
- Kin do not invade trans spaces on kin terms.
additionally, a lot of kin ARE transgender as well as being kin.
As for how its not disrespectful to native americans: firstly native americans are not the only culture to worship animals, and its disrespectful to lump all native americans into having ‘spirit animals’ because there are/were many different native american traditions.
Worship of animals and animals spirits is a phenomenon that permeates various different cultures of the world.
@inexplicablehanyou help me out here?
Me and my family actually have a spirit animal, and otherkin identities have nothing to do with it. Only people ignorant on what spirit animals, and other indigenous practices involving nonhumans are, think they’re the same thing. They’re not. All the kin in the world don’t change what it is. They’re not “stealing” from us, especially when a good chunk of them don’t even know what it is they’re supposedly appropriating from. Spirit animals, speaking generally, are external entities. A person’s kintype is themselves, and not a tutelary guide.
Cultural appropriation is something for us, the people affected by it, to declare. If other people also affected by it want to have dialogue about otherkin, then I’m always open to that as long as they’re not being a rude moron. Unless, op, you’re Native American or part of some other relevant group of people, we don’t need you deciding what is and isn’t harmful to us.
Okay, I will back off on the Native American aspect of this as I don’t have jurisdiction to talk about it. But trans people aren’t forced to act or look a certain way to be trans. I think you’re more talking about how people uneducated with being trans will view them, but gender is only the way your mind and like entire self works. And as it may be a social construct at this point in time, it’s still a major part of identity for people like you say kin is.
And I didn’t mean to come off as rude I’m more just confused and not really educated on kin and everything.
And regarding fictionkin, you say kin have flashbacks and memories of their past lives but how is that possible when that certain character was made like a year ago?
Also I think the reason that kin aren’t oppressed like trans people are is because kin aren’t really regarded by many people since it sounds fictional in itself.
I think what Felix was getting at was cissexism. Trans people are expected to look a certain way. As a trans man, I HAVE to look masculine, or people will call me a woman. Race intersects with this a bit, because Asian men are seen as “effeminate” by westerners. So being a Korean trans man in America means I have to style myself as a hyper macho stereotype just to be accepted as trans by most people.
If a fictionkin believes in reincarnation, then when the media was made doesn’t matter. The events could have happened 100 years ago, for all we know for sure. Not all fictionkin think this way as it is, and it’s more of an intense psychological ID. In which case, when the media was made still doesn’t matter.
But yeah, no one will argue with you there. Otherkin aren’t oppressed for it. We can be for other things, like race or gender, but being kin doesn’t factor into it. It’s a private belief that has no societal impact.
^ all of this
