solivagusdraco

[solivagusdraco]

having a tail i could wag to show happiness would make communication 100% easier

[solivagusdraco]

A partial history of plural self-advocacy

Plural self advocacy is exactly what it says on the tin: plurals taking control of our own lives and being in charge of how we’re represented. It’s what happens when we speak for ourselves instead of letting singlet academics do it for us. Plural self advocacy has a long history that stretches before the existence of the internet, and it has made a difference. Here are some notable milestones, and what they’ve done for us.

1987ish: Truddi Chase is giving interviews (x, x, x), very openly insisting that her headmates are real people and that integration is not a solution for them.

February 1989: The first issue of Many Voices is published. This newsletter for and by trauma survivors with dissociative disorders is likely one of the first places that plurals could speak about their experiences on their own terms. It would run for over 20 years until 2012, when it was bequeathed to the ISSTD so that the issues could be made publicly available.

1993: Richard P. Kluft’s ‘Clinical Perspectives on Multiple Personality Disorder’ mentions Truddi Chase’s outspokenness against integration, disdainfully. ‘Some perceive the alters as real people’, it says. This paints a clear picture of how multiplicity was perceived at the time.

1995: Astraea’s web is created. This site continues to be one of the biggest plurality resources out there, and Astraea themselves have had a wide reach in plural activism - they’ll come up several more times in this article. They have curated a wide selection of sources on early accounts of plurality, plural involvement with legal issues, and the struggle against psychiatric abuse by all kinds of neurodiverse people, not just plurals.

1998: The Vickis begin to compile experiences of the ‘midcontinuum’, giving us the first terminology to describe median experiences. This is also, as far as we’re aware, the origin of ‘plural’ as an umbrella term.

2001?: darkpersonalities publishes ‘why we are not MPD/DID’, generally regarded as the first known instance of a system explicitly separating themselves from the ‘disorder’ definition. The empowered multiplicity movement grows from this. While many people take a cynical, bitter view towards people who still identify with their diagnosis, it begins to be associated with more sympathetic stances as it develops (x, x, x). Many of us look back disapprovingly on darkpersonalities’ attitude towards triggers and survivorship, but their role was still foundational to the concept of empowered multiplicity.

2002: Tim Bayne writes on the moral defensibility of forced integration, laying out a grounded  philosophical argument for considering non-host plurans autonomous people. It’s unknown what influenced him to write this paper, or whether any plurals were consulted.

2002?: The activist group Pavilion is formed. Their activities include outreach towards mental health professionals and academics, interviewing for radio stations, creating informational pamphlets and compiling resources for plurals and interested singlets.

2003: Matt Ruff, author of Set This House In Order, acknowledges Astraea and a plural friend-of-a-friend for introducing him to natural plurality and the idea that plurals don’t have to integrate, inspiring his book.

2011-2013: The Coalition for DSM-5 Reform writes launches a campaign to urge the DSM taskforce to change much of the proposed writing. This gets a lot of attention from plurals, and as such the DSM-5 revises its definition of DID to include distress/impairment, and for the first time accepts the self-reporting of plurality as valid evidence (x, x). It’s worth noting that this is an incredibly small step - as Astraea’s web says, ‘It was not proposed because therapists are beginning to recognize that non-disordered multiplicity exists; it was proposed in order to accommodate members of cultures and races where being more than one person is contextually normal.’ But it’s a step, nonetheless, that begins to recognize that plurals are the ultimate authorities on our own experiences of ourselves.

May 11, 2015: VICE interviews systems including Astraea and Oure Gaiya for a piece questioning if plurality is always a disorder.

2016: The plurality playbook is published internally at Google. It covers advice for plurals on succeeding in the workplace while dealing with the specific challenges that plurals face, and advice for singlets on respecting and assisting their plural coworkers.

January 18th, 2019: The Double Gears system (well known at the time as streamer and speedrunner protomagicalgirl) disclose their plurality on Hbomberguy’s DK64 stream for Mermaids. The hashtag #pluralgang trends on Twitter as a result, encouraging many people on twitter to come out as plural and many more to realize they’re plural by being introduced to the concept for the first time. #pluralgang has been a consistently active hashtag for the year since its inception and continues to be used to share resources, organize meetups, promote activism and generally remind plurals that they’re not alone.

The plurality playbook is also publicly published around now. In the new foreword, the Lizzes cite the activity surrounding #pluralgang as their motivation for this.

March 2019: The first Plural Positivity World Conference is held. It was created as a counter-conference to the one hosted annually by the ISSTD. The fees for attending the World Congress on Complex Dissociation and Trauma start at $200 for just one day, making attending near-impossible for the lay person. As the Crisses put it, “The ISST-D holding meetings, disseminating information, creating policy, teaching new standards for treatment, discussing new options, or sharing their research findings about us should not be done in a place that by design excludes us.” The Plural Positivity World Conference will run again in 2020.

December 25th, 2019: Power to the Plurals announces The Plural Association, a peer network for plurals which intends to provide phone, email and live chat helplines.

To this day, the overwhelming majority of plural activism has happened outside of the medical model. Improvements in the treatment of plurals have come from us being seen as people, and singlets seeing us as people has come from us viewing ourselves that way - by making spaces for us to understand ourselves and create narratives that aren’t bounded by pathology. Even changes within psychiatry have mostly been motivated by pressure from plurals demanding fairer treatment. It is good, and necessary, for us to speak for ourselves. We have done so much, and still have so much more to do.

This month’s article was written by Joey, one of our community mods and volunteers, and voted on by our Patrons. You can write for us by applying through our volunteering page, and decide what ideas we tackle by pledging $5 or more a month.

[solivagusdraco]

alterhuman =/= otherkin

I keep seeing this conflation and it’s getting to be a huge problem, with some “alterhuman” places being either kin-specific, nonhuman-specific, or even sysmedicalist?? 

Otherkin are constantly upset over the preservation of the definition of otherkin, but I have seen none of that concern extended to the definition of alterhuman, which was coined …. because otherkin were concerned about becoming an umbrella term and losing the definition of otherkin. 

You see the problem here? 

Alterhuman is an umbrella. It’s a wide, wide umbrella that’s very comparable to “queer” in how it’s inclusive and open. It includes ‘kin, sure, but it also includes post/furries, voidpunkers, other-hearted people and people with heart-homes, plurans of ALL kinds, singlet walk-ins, copinglinkers, and pretty much anyone with non-typical experiences of species identity, embodiment, narrative identity and personal mythology.  You know what other identities I’ve seen that don’t fit in those nice labels? People who identify as archetypal tropes, or “wild men,” or early hominids, or even having absolutely no species identity and being “aspecies.” I know someone who feels deeply like they should have been a twin and feels that in an alterhuman way. I’m close to someone who is literally undead – not Cotard’s delusional undead (though those people are here, too!), but literally was pronounced legally dead and resuscitated. That’s pretty fucking alterhuman. And there’s plenty more I know I’m either forgetting or leaving out for brevity.

Alterhuman is meant to encompass identities you probably haven’t even thought of before, people who use different words or frameworks for similar experiences, and more. It is not a synonym for otherkin, it is not here to replace otherkin, and it is also not a synonym for nonhuman. Alterhuman is alterhuman. If you say something is for alterhumans, you should mean ALL alterhumans.

[solivagusdraco]

You do not have to answer this and I apologize in advance if this makes you uncomfortable! I'm dragonkin myself.

Is being attracted to sentient dragons considered zoophilia? I mean like non anthro dragons but they have sentience and the intelligence of or above humans. Like Clay from wings of fire, not Toothless from httyd

I've been too scared to ask or say anything. I don't want to be seen as a zoo. I fucking hate zoos.

First, no, it's categorically not. If it's sapient, it's not an animal. We can argue about whether being attracted solely to fictional animals, never to real ones, counts as zoophilia, but being attracted to Clay WingsOfFire is just flat-out not. That's a person.

Second, and this is going to be a bit of a hot take but it really shouldn't be: even if it was zoophilia, being a zoophile is not inherently bad. Bestiality and promotion of it is the thing that is bad. Even if you want to argue that what you're experiencing is a form of zoophilia, that does not make you a bad person. And we, both we the alterhuman community and we the general public, need to be better at distinguishing between those things, because statistically speaking most zoophiles are not bestialists.

(I'm gonna soapbox for a minute here; sorry, but I've been meaning to make a post about this for a while now, and you've given me a good opportunity. This is not a lecture to you personally, I'm just using your ask as the jumping-off point.)

Zoophilia is being attracted to nonhuman, non-sapient animals. Zoophilia is not something you typically have a choice in, and therefore it makes no sense to apply morality to it. Someone doesn't choose to be a zoophile, and in many cases it probably causes them some amount of distress - though let's be careful here and not require someone to be in a constant state of distress to be allowed to exist. Most importantly, zoophilia is not inherently harmful. A zoophile who's just existing, dealing with that attraction in healthy ways that don't hurt anyone or anything, is not a bad person for the crime of... what, having impure thoughts? I don't think that would be fair to them.

Bestiality is committing sexual acts involving an animal - a real life animal who is being directly involved, to be clear. Jacking off to feral furry porn (or, hell, even masturbating to a nature documentary that includes wolves mating under zero outside duress to do so) is not bestiality, let me be very clear about that. Bestiality is the thing that is morally wrong in this scenario - that's the thing everyone's afraid of when they talk about zoophilia, just like child molestation is the thing everyone's afraid of when they talk about pedophilia. And being a zoophile does not make you a bestialist.

As always, the question should be: is a real person or animal being hurt in this scenario? If the answer is no, then at least by my morals, the scenario is not morally wrong. Full stop.

The reason I say all this comes down to this: when you make the only spaces that will allow zoophiles to exist in peace without constantly harassing them pro-bestiality (pro-contact) spaces, you drive zoophiles to those spaces, where they are likely to be radicalized toward being pro-bestiality themselves. We are setting these people up to be driven into spaces where they will be pushed relentlessly toward being okay with bestiality, because the bestialists are the only people who will show them compassion and allow them to exist (or at minimum, allow them to exist without constantly self-flagellating for the crime of having an attraction they can't control). And then we blame them for getting radicalized and use it as evidence that "see, all zoos are like this." This is not harm reduction; it is quite the opposite. If you want the paraphiles who need professional help managing their paraphilias to get that help, they have to feel safe doing so, and that means they have to feel like their whole life isn't going to be destroyed if people find out they have a paraphilia.

Just... let people exist if they're not hurting anyone. Bestiality and the support thereof are immoral. Trying to push for treating zoophilia (and thus bestiality) the same as any sexuality is immoral. Merely existing as someone with a paraphilia is not. Thought crimes aren't real. It's okay.

Anyway, that's my spicy TED talk for the day. I'll expect any callout posts on my desk by Monday. o7

[solivagusdraco]

real photo of me

[solivagusdraco]

It's CRAZY how people are so adamant on hating on folk who use the term 'transspecies' on themselves. Like, for one, this term wasn't made to mock or shame trans individuals, nor is its usage. You all realize most folk who use this term are in fact trans themselves, right?

"But the term species dysphoria mocks trans folk!" My littermate in therianthropy no the fuck it does not. There's more types of dysphoria than just gender dysphoria. Also, 90% of therians/otherkin use this term anyways. Why is it suddenly harmful when someone who's transspecies uses it?

"But they make us look bad!!" I hate to break it to you, but literally anti-kin will hate us regardless. Even if you're the goodest of boys, even if you kiss their asses n sing them high praise, they will still hate us. Division between our community is what they want. Divided we fall. They're banking on you turning against you're own in the hopes that they're able to eradicate us.

And dont even pull the bullshit ableist ass phrase "Well THEY believe they're animals and I DONT so," because one, yes the fuck you do that's what the term "otherkin" literally means and two, you're REALLY showing your ass by openly admitting you view people with delusions and mentally illnesses as lesser than you. Congratulations! You are ableist!

It's fine to not like the term personally but you do not get to growl n snap at folks who use it. You do not dictate a person's identity. Mind your business

[solivagusdraco]

dysphoria

2019

cone 1 terracotta, glaze

[solivagusdraco]

Dropping these gifs I made a few years ago and use for some of my Discord servers; from left-to-right, it's the Nonhuman Unity Flag, the Compass Rose Transspecies Flag, and the Beastpunk Flag.

[solivagusdraco]

Sometimes I wonder about all the younger/newer alterhumans in the alterhuman community who are so "anti endo" and "anti pro endo" that they have effectively cut themselves off from some of the largest and/or oldest alterhuman resources out there. Like some of the biggest names that get referenced, cited, etc. include a lot of people who they do not or refuse to interact with. And not just specific individuals either. Even whole major events like Othercon, Centaurus Festival, etc. all are "endo safe" and even have/sometimes have endogenic systems (or not-strictly-traumagenic systems) as help staff.

Plus, down on through the line of things being created within the community and even outside the community.

~ Earth Listener (she/her)

[solivagusdraco]

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.

[solivagusdraco]

This is a terrifying norm I’ve been seeing in fandom recently, with a lot of people asking for photo ID’s to enter a server or for 18+ commissions or to follow a private Twitter account. While I understand the sentiment and realize that there’s an issue of minors trying to get into adult spaces, this is an incredibly dangerous practice that needs to stop.

I have seen this popping up more and more in the past year and frankly, I’m sick of sitting back and watching it become a social norm. Not to mention, there is a huge difference between a company with a team of lawyers and legal statements with the intention to protect your information and giving this to a random person online.

Here is an article from IAPP discussing more in depth the current difficulties for age verification online.  Thanks to @murmurkins for digging around to find this!

Here is also some resources for Discord specifically on how to moderate and run a server that has 18+ channels and designating a server as 18+. Discord also notes that if you are locked out of 18+ channels, you can appeal this by sending a picture of yourself and either a photo ID or your Discord tag. Again, while not a perfect solution, this is their last resort, not the intial requirement. It’s dangerous to do, and Discord recognizes this, which is why they have a system to protect your information AND they require that all third-party individuals have a privacy policy telling individuals how they will protect others’ information. 

If anyone wants to respond to this post with more information on other websites, feel free! The biggest issue I have seen with this is on Discord, so that is where my information is focused.

TL;DR: Don’t give your ID out online to random people for your safety. Make sure who you are giving personal information to has a privacy policy. While it is an issue that minors are accessing 18+ content, this is not a safe solution to the problem.

[solivagusdraco]

[purrs in a dragon way]

[solivagusdraco]

The Unicorn in Captivity (from the Unicorn Tapestries), 1495–1505. Unknown Netherlandish. Wool warp with wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts.

[solivagusdraco]

type: null doodle

[solivagusdraco]

YOU KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS

[solivagusdraco]

Reminder that this blog is and will always be anti-Zeta and anti-bestialist. If you have a problem with that, unfollow me, block me, I don't give a shit. We don't and will never condone the sexual abuse of real damn animals.

[solivagusdraco]

tapping foot to stim? no. tapping foot to mimic my tail? absolutely.