Please use “Coping Link”
I refuse to reblog and spread false
information. I hate how Tumblr works BTW. This is what I’m responding
to (
http://kinpositive.tumblr.com/post/147786351803/ive-done-my-googling-and-im-still-not-sure
).@kinpositive Learn some history of our community, before you go changing the meaning of terms that
have been used since the 90’s. Being Therian or Otherkin has never
had anything to do with mental illness or coping with mental illness.
I can’t speak for the first Otherkin, but the first Therians (early
1990’s) were mentally healthy collage/university students in their
twenties who were living normal lives. It’s never been a coping
mechanism. It’s not a coping mechanism!! Looking back at what the
term has meant historically is not ableism. Mental health has nothing
to do with identifying as non-human. Not the same thing. Never has
been.Want another reason why? Being Therian or Otherking is not a
choice. When you pick an alternate persona, that’s a choice. And
that’s exactly what it is, just call it an alternate persona or “comfort character” instead
of appropriating words coined in communities not related to mental
health or mental health issues/conditions. Have some respect for our
communities’ words and language. I don’t know who came up with the
term “coping link”. I don’t actually think it was older members
of the communities. So what if it was? Why is there so much hating on the
older, more experienced, possibly wiser members of the Therian and
Otherkin communities (greymuzzles) who are desperately trying to
preserve what our communities originally meant and stood for? Trying
to preserve our communities, their words, and history is also not ableism.No, coping link is
not a useless term. It is a useful one. There is nothing derogatory
about using “coping link”. By using coping link instead of
copingkin, it means you have some damn respect for other people and
the communities that those people belong to, because you aren’t
trying to turn their 20 plus years of community history into
worthless, meaningless Tumblr shit. Thank you. Have a nice day.Bless your soul. Thank you so much.
I might as well stop tip toeing now and…. go.
Dear tumblr kids,
It’s easy. Stop using us, our writing, our narratives, our history if you want us to shut up, if you want us to be silent, if you want to keep talking over us.
I really just don’t understand at this point what their game is about! How many times have we made plain what certain words mean? How many times have we referenced other resources for people to visit that are actually reflective of reality and history? How many times have those evil, curmudgeon greymuzzles spoken up about this and been called ableist or closed minded or exclusionary or elitist because tumblrkin aren’t being told what they want to hear? @who-is-page helpfully suggested copinglink… but nope, that’s apparently evil and they don’t want that either.
It’s becoming gross. It’s the co-opting of our words (therians and otherkin) and our narratives by people with no right to those things. It’s hurtful to us. It’s constantly speaking over us. Do these people not understand that or do they just not care so long as they get what they want?
I read every fucking written work I could find on therianthropy when I updated the Werelibrary nearly eight years ago, so I think I know what therianthropy is! And then people come and say, “No, therianthropy is a coping mechanism, or a metaphor, or an identity disorder, or just really liking an animal, or a thing you choose to be, or a persona you take on. We know better.” and bitch about what a dick I am. Or what dicks we all are by extension!
Alright. Time to embrace being a dick.
If I could tag every single inaccurate otherkin information blog right now I would. Just so I could pick up a fucking dictionary, the archives of AHWw, Awereness, Werelist, shifters.org, Were.Net, (pathways?), Werejournal, Shadow’s Den, Otherkin.net, maybe VOEN, bunches of personal websites, several dead livejournal groups (DO YOU WANT ME TO KEEP GOING TUMBLR BECAUSE I CAN), and the archives of the Werelibrary and back hand them with it. Unfortunately, I’ve blocked probably half of these fucks. So if anyone else feels like picking up that dictionary, and tagging a few willfully ignorant people, please do. 😀
Also, while I may have coined the term, I am no greymuzzle. I’ve been a part of the otherkin community for two years, not ten! Though I’m flattered by the implications by kinpositive, really.
^All of this
Furthermore, there are otherkin who have one or more professionally diagnosed mental illnesses. This does not make otherkinity a mental illness (though the case can be made for it being a mental condition/abnormality). Pointing out that a coping link is not remotely the same thing as a kintype is not saying anything against mental illness or against the mentally ill. It’s saying that if you choose to associate with something or think of yourself as something because it makes you feel better…then you aren’t otherkin. That’s just not what otherkinity is.
Furthermore, otherkinity makes for-arguably-the world’s worst coping mechanism. Why? Because it causes general feelings of alienation, dysphoria, discomfort, etc. Why one would choose such a thing is beyond me and further points out that coping linkers are not otherkin.
So just stop. The term “coping link” is not ableist, it is not an attempt at excluding the mentally ill. It is an attempt at preserving the integrity of communities that are older than those who are seeking to warp them into meaninglessness.
