cringeisfreedom

[cringeisfreedom]

A little advice from someone studying extremist groups: if you’re in a social media environment where the daily ubiquitous message is that you have no hope of any kind of future and you can’t possibly achieve anything without a violent overthrow of society, you’re being radicalized, and not in the good way.

[cringeisfreedom]

genuinely, honestly, I wish fandom could move past "depiction isn't endorsement".

because it's really meant to be sort of the baby beginner step to media literacy but in fandom spaces it usually acts like a trump card to shut down critical discussions. it's one of the thought terminating cliches of fandom that discourages learning how to interrogate the text beyond "fiction isn't reality, dummy".

yes, the popular whump fic in your fandom isn't endorsing torture, but also, can you tell when the canon for your fandom is endorsing a message? how do you then choose to interact with that canon, and do you get defensive when people are critical of the source material?

depiction isn't endorsement, but can you tell when fandom trends are misogynistic or racist? can you see how killing off a black female character to "punish" her in fanfiction with the framing that she deserves it, and the popular narrative in a certain fandom that a heroic black man is a possessive liar and a white villain is a good man deserving redemption, is endorsing a message in fanfic? do you argue that it's "just fiction" when people get very understandably upset at misogyny and racism in fandom spaces?

yeah, depiction isn't endorsement, but do you think this is where it starts and stops as the only thing you really need to know? do you think people who are critical of things aren't engaging with it properly, or being mean, because they've forgotten the golden fandom rule of "fiction isn't reality"?

nbc hannibal isn't endorsing cannibalism as a dietary choice, but top gun maverick and call of duty: modern warfare were quite literally sponsored by the us military as propaganda for recruitment.

I'm not saying don't enjoy the ip that's making you happy or calling for moral purity in your media habits or whatever. just saying that there's a lot to media literacy beyond the feel good affirmations that periodically circulate fandom, and those affirmation posts both lack necessary nuance and discourage people from engaging with said nuance.

[cringeisfreedom]

@curicore

reading a romance novel where the protagonist feels the need to stop and inform that audience that it's okay for her, a 27 year old, to hook up with a 31 year old because despite the age difference both of their brains are fully developed. the Discourse really has done incalculable damage.

[cringeisfreedom]

@curicore

Nonhuman photo edit of @cringeisfreedom as their European wild rabbit and calico maine coon self!✨🐾

Interested in having one of your own photos look like this? Click HERE for more info!

[cringeisfreedom]

[Requests OPEN]

Nonhuman PhotoEdit Info

What is it??:

I take selfies/images of yourself and edit you to essentially look like a realistic anthro version of your kintype/theriotype/kith/etc! This can be headshots, torso up, or full bodies!

I do this for free and for fun, so it may take a bit to make + results will be inconsistent for photo quality, species choice, and more play a part in making these!

Examples of past edits here:

1). 2). 3). 4). 5). 6). 7).

The process of commissioning:

Either shoot me a DM (or comment on this post if you’d like me to message you first) to start discussing with me about editing one of your photos!

I’ll need one or more photo options to use (or just more to make multiple for ya!), the photo can show your face if you’re comfortable, but I can also work with you wearing a small mask/ lightly blurring of removing your face (I need the background etc. intact)

Note: It helps if photos are

- Not showing a lot of skin, for fur/feather/scale/etc placement begins to look bad and unrealistic (hands, neck line, and some belly are alright)

- A bit further away than close close up, for many photos I use to add features are not the highest of quality

- On the flip side, very very blurry or zoomed out photos are hard to edit but can sometimes be done!

Then I need ya to know what lovely creature you want me to edit your photo to resemble! Please note that it may be hard for me to edit you as something that has little to no good photos or is highly complicated!

I’ll send ya multiple renditions of the final product and you then can ask me to change things. Then you decide if you want to keep the photo edit(s) to yourself, post them and credit me, or have me post them and @ you!

Payment:

Sike! It’s free! I do this for fun and to make others happy! It can be very self affirming to see yourself with features you unfortunately can’t possess physically, so these edits can be the next best thing! I’ve already had some people gift/trade me artwork, moodboards, and more with me which is very much appreciated! But again, it’s simply a bonus and not required ♡

Hope to hear from ya soon! ♡♡♡

(Reblogs appreciated)

[cringeisfreedom]

Ao3 is actually massively culturally important and very very good at being what it is. I’m so serious when I say that ao3 needs to be protected as the anti censorship, by fans for fans, nonprofit, volunteer run, expertly designed archival site that it is. You don’t have to read or like fanfiction to understand that on principle, ao3 is a site that should be defended.

[cringeisfreedom]

shout out to this one interaction i had with my therapist yesterday

therapist: "the best part of being human is..."

me: *tilts head*

therapist: "...the best part of being somewhat human is..."

[cringeisfreedom]

^^^

[cringeisfreedom]

Fondly remembering the time that a cat owner casually entered their calico Maine Coon in a cat fancier’s competition and the judges lost their minds because the cat was 1) male and 2) able to bear children

[cringeisfreedom]

Reblogging bc I have several recommendations

Aka big post of alterhuman songs I’ve found with some alterhuman sounding lyrics, vibes and genre

There a lot of alternative/indie because I listen to a lot of that but it’s also a very alterhuman genre imo. There’s also some folk music which is VERY alterhuman but a newer genre for me so not as much as there should be. Enjoy.

My Name Is… by Once Monsters:

Good for a more mysterious or aggressive kin type but I can’t say for sure it would match up with the otter experience

Lyrics: ‘my name is thunder, lightning, my name is something very frightening, my name is adrenaline…’ and ‘I’ll learn my lessons from my scars and mistakes, I’ll make my own future I won’t leave it to fate’

Genre: alternative/indie

Water Falls by Air Traffic Controller

You might like this one which is very alterhuman to me. It’s all about how the world is chaotic and full of adrenaline but you can always come back to the water. Plus it has cool background music that feels very wild to me

Lyrics: ‘some things you can count on, all the others are a thrill, but water falls it always will’ and ‘it may seem obvious to you but it’s not obvious to me, all I know is I know nothing, nothing of the world that’s running circles all around me’

Genre: alternative/indie

Devil Town by Cavetown

A classic. Very ‘I’m sitting in a wet cave and I hate being human.’

Lyrics: ‘life’s alright in devil town, yeah right, no one’s gonna catch us now’, ‘I’ll lose my mind at least another thousand times, hold my hand tight, we’ll make it another night, I still get a little scared of something new, but I feel safer when I’m with you’ and ‘I forgot my name again, I think that’s something worth remembering’

Genre: alternative/indie, alt, pop

Do My Own Thing by American Authors

Self explanatory I think. It’s about being your own person and being you no matter what. This song also happens to be a (an accidental?) queer anthem

Lyrics: ‘a suit and tie copycat, I never was into that, heyo nanana, I said heyo, I’m all good, ima do my own thing’ and ‘time won’t get the best of me I see the world so differently, you do you, you do you and I’ll do me, march in to my own parade, my heart won’t beat any other way’

Genre: again alternative/indie

Strawberry by Andrew Montana

All gumption (googled this so you don’t have to, means sharp judgment and resourcefulness) and calm and running away from humanity to the dangerous wilds to be at peace

Lyrics: ‘I’ll bake you strawberry pie, clean the blood and never ask why, I’ll be your alibi, hide the bodies change your hair dye’ and ‘we’ll hide out in the country, I’ll keep you, you menace’

Genre: folk

seven by Taylor Swift

Fair warning this song might make you cry. It’s actually about being too young to tell your friend is being abused but noticing the signs when you’re an adult and don’t know them anymore. Heartbreaking but actually if you ignore the sad stuff it’s about the wild undjudging freedom of childhood

Lyrics: ‘please picture me in the trees, I hit my peak at seven, feet in swing over the creek, I was too scared to jump in but i, I was high in the sky’ and ‘just like a folk song, our love will be passed on, please picture me in the weeds before I learned civility’

Genre: alternative/indie, technically not folk but it has similar vibes (especially bc it’s from the folklore album)

Monster by dodie

Oh this one’s good. Personally my favourite alterhuman like song. It’s about about being resented and losing your humanity in someone’s eyes in a toxic relationship. it’s got that sweet but angry passion I associate with being nonhuman, all while singing about wanting your ‘devil’ side to be listened to and unleashed but hating being looked down on. Dodie’s music as a whole feels alterhuman to me. I don’t know how else to describe her vibe other than pretty white dress stained with mud and blood with heavy scuffed work boots.

Lyrics: ‘I’m guessing that I’ve grown horns, I guess I’m human no more, I can tell I’ve rotted in your brain’ and ‘I’ve said my speech through sharpened teeth, you break the rules and spikes grow from your skin’ and ‘through my red eyes you look pale, all of your scars are looking more like scales, two ugly creatures, two sinister preachers, blind to the past like a couple of monsters’ and my fav ‘a monsters here, you plug your ears, but hey you might just listen to it song’

Genre: alternative/indie

Sorry for the lack of genre variety but there are my recommendations. I got these off my therian playlist which is 40 minutes long as of now. There are more songs I didn’t include here on there if you’re curious

Hope you found something you like!

Does anyone have good alterhuman songs that don’t explicitly say “alterhuman” but have that vibe?

[cringeisfreedom]

we need a term for a ship that you don’t necessarily want them to end up together (usually cause it’s horrible for all parties involved) but are obsessed with the dynamic still

edit: @shyguypisces said shipwreck could be a term for it and i loved that so im going with that 🩵

[cringeisfreedom]

Otherkin/Therian kin dump because I just wanna run through a forest with a pack so bad !!

[cringeisfreedom]

I am actually so serious I think it really messes with a childs creativity and joy to tell them to never make a mary sue OC. Like that unbridaled form of joy where you make a self insert OC who super cool and everyone loves them and they have every superpower in the world SHOULD be something a kid makes, it nourishes their ability to create things for fun and not be stifled by "oh but what if my character is too overpowered and cringey...". whatever

[cringeisfreedom]

Tips for young therians or anyone who wants them

based on things ive seen on tiktok and experienced irl

(ended up being less of a list of "tips" and more just- whatever you would call this jumble of words-)

a lot of this might just be parroting what a lot of other therians say, but i also wanted to add my own view of things

gear is not just restricted to masks and tails. it can also be jewellery/accessories, footwear, shirts, and stuff like that. hell, I consider everything I wear to be gear even if it's not necessarily theriotype-related because it's my gear and I am a therian, thus making it therian gear

past-lives and spiritual connections do not make someone a therian, but you can be a therian with those

you can not become a therian, but copinglink and otherlink do exist and are perfectly valid identities

when doing quads, do not curl your thumbs in, you will inevitably break them. I see far too many therians doing this, it is incorrect and it's dangerous

you do not need gear to be a therian. if you would like it to relieve dysphoria or even just because you think it's cool, that's fine, but don't feel pressured to spend money on it just because all the popular tiktok therians have gear

you do not need to do quads to be a therian. if your body type doesn't allow you to or if you have disabilities that prohibit you from doing quads, that's fine. don't push yourself to do something you're simply not physically capable of doing

and if you can and are doing quads, please make sure you stretch properly and build up muscle before trying crazy jumps like the popular tiktokers do and again, don't push yourself and end up getting hurt. most if not all popular therian tiktokers have been doing quads for a while and have practiced a lot to get as good as they are and they know their limits. do not try to do the same things they are doing if you are not 100% confident in your body's ability

you do not need to do vocals to be a therian and your vocals do not need to be perfect. everyones vocal abilities are different. some people will be naturally better at making different sounds than others, that does not say anything about your abilities. also, if you dont have the confidence to try vocals, that's okay. no one's pressuring you to do them, and if anyone is, they're in the wrong.

if people are barking at you when you wear gear in public, you have a few options of how you can respond: 1) do nothing, no rude gestures, no telling them to fuck off, no eye contact, just don't acknowledge them, they need to learn to mind their own and you're not doing anything wrong, plus all they're doing is causing a scene, this should always be your first instinct, 2) simply flip them off and walk away, 3) if you're close enough and feeling silly, spray them with a water bottle and say "bad dog" then walk away, 4) if, and only if you are okay with making a scene, call out asking if someone lost their dog, oftentimes (in my experience at least) they get embarrassed and leave

it's okay to be wrong. about your theriotype or even about being therian altogether. it's not harming anyone if you want to experiment with different labels while you figure things out, and you shouldn't listen to the people who say it is. their opinions do matter

and similarly, it's okay if your identity changes, we're always learning new things about ourselves, and sometimes that means that some labels we used to use might not apply to us anymore after a time

also you do not need to know your exact theriotype. if you know youre a feline or canine, or avain, or aquatic animal but dont know what type, thats okay. even if you dont really know what type of animal you are but just know that you experience shifts of some sort, thats also okay. we dont always know right away and sometimes we never figure it out exactly and theres nothing wrong with that

this was all i could think of, but please, feel free to add to this in the comments or tags :)

[cringeisfreedom]

Mind if I ask what a forwardkin is?

🌿; not at all! forwardkin is when you feel as though you are going to be your kin in a future life as opposed to a past life :)

[cringeisfreedom]

this is. extremely gay. protective yang the secondruby looks sad. ruby's flirty eyelash fluttering. the way they skip off together. they are literally running off to bang

obsessed w this gif

[cringeisfreedom]