hintze-of-bird

[hintze-of-bird]

I think it’s unfortunate that this community, for whatever reason, often equates “seriousness” with validity. I this is where a lot of the “more therian than thou” misinterpretation stems from, and also how you get folks saying “just otherhearted” and etc in a somewhat demeaning fashion.

I think it is ridiculous to expect everyone to be “as serious” about their therianthropy/nonhumanity. On some level, this will simply not be a lifelong identification for some, but that does not mean that they were incorrect (or “invalid”) in calling themselves a therian when they did. There will be some who dip their toes into therianthropy before deciding, actually, this is not for them, or perhaps a different community serves their needs better. For some, therianthropy might be a small facet of their identity. None of these individuals have forfeited their claim to the space.

There’s the added complexity that often more physical/embodied experiences are shorthanded as more “serious” by default. The perception of validity, of “realness,” becomes: spiritual < psychological < biological < physical (or similar). Hopefully this is ridiculous on its face, but for clarification, none of these frameworks is more or less real than the other. The same goes for involuntary vs voluntary identities. The assumption that one is, at its base, more serious (and, following the “seriousness equals reality” paradigm, more real) than the other is just a mischaracterization at its heart.

I think both of these conflations are obviously unfair and not productive to the long term health of the community. Those with physical experiences should be able to talk about said experiences without being lambasted for “trying to make their experiences seem more serious [read: more valid].” And there should not be pressure for other folks in the community to justify their existence as oppositional to “less serious” (whether that is a true characterization or not) identities. Fundamentally, individuals will come to this community with a variety of frameworks. Some will view their nonhumanity more lightheartedly than others, some will be here for longer than others, some will have permanent shifts, some will have no shifts at all. No one is “less therian” than anyone else for these reasons.

[hintze-of-bird]

Food I can eat by manoeuvring exclusively with my beak is so species euphoric.

[hintze-of-bird]

toe-walking has really fucked up me feet?

nuh uh, i just have bumblefoot

feet are made for perching, not walking

[hintze-of-bird]

I am not my body, not my mind or my brain

[hintze-of-bird]

I’m really tired of travelling. I know it’s a pretty ungrateful of me to say, and I do treasure a lot of the experiences I’ve had, but I feel so listless, like I can never settle into somewhere long enough for it to be home. I’m always moving from one place to the next.

On the surface level, this reflects being an albatross pretty well. We spend a lot of our lives at sea, and very little of it on land. We have a reputation for being long-distance travellers; we’re masters of chasing air currents. Even so, there’s still something to tether us, be it the scent of ocean’s bounty, or the grounds of our colonies during breeding season.

I don’t think I’ve found my anchor yet… at least, not in the flesh. I’ve talked to crow before, of course — I’m simply waiting to navigate my way to her. I hope one day we can be united. I probably owe him a dance.

[hintze-of-bird]

《 Vulture Ethics 》

As my academic career advances, I am seeing more and more of what my field entails. The various tools, theories, and techniques that can be used, as well as the different attitudes people can have. With the latter, I've noticed a worrisome trend.

For a couple of my classes, we do dissections. I've never taken issue with doing so. Just as with bone collecting, I consciously take great care for how remains are treated: with veneration and respect. Even when I had to remove the plastron of a red-eared slider (an invasive in my area) I didn't feel any malice whatsoever. I made the effort to remember that this is what remains of a life. Throughout the process, I imagined what her life might have been like before she ended up on my sterilized metal tray. Before we forced her shell open. Before we dug around her organs. I apologize. Over and over again. I knew that her species wreaks havoc on my local ecosystems, but that didn't make her life less valuable. I still believe we should cull deer and feral cats for the good of biodiversity, but that doesn't make you a monster, not if you treat every individual with respect. It's not the deer's fault that we removed their top predator and their populations began to decimate the understory. It's not the cat's fault that we threw them out onto the streets so that they reduce local bird diversity. It is never the red-eared slider's fault that they're bought by uneducated caretakers and released unethically.

These are lives: minds and spirits that are worthy of love and honor, just as any of Mother's children are. For this love, we still owe it to her to own up to our mistakes as a species, and do what we can to restore the balance we have mangled.

Conservation can be ugly, just like life. It would be nothing short of a dishonor to deny that. As a vulture, it is my duty to not only recognize but also embrace that, with reverence for any lost life. They deserve that much and, I would argue, even more.

[hintze-of-bird]

This may be a silly question, but can alterlichen refer to human 'types or just nonhuman ones?

Not a silly question at all — I never clarified it anywhere, but yes, it can be applied to any kind of altertype, human or otherwise.

[hintze-of-bird]

I feel the therian community needs a reminder:

Being alterhuman can be having dysphoria and little signs all throughout your life, crazy experiences with memories and flashbacks and full body shifts, never once feeling like a human and only feeling like your kintype(s)

And being alterhuman can also mean discovering a Creachur one day and going 'Oh, yeah, that's me' and then going on with life

And it can be a spectrum between that

There is no one right way to be alterhuman

[hintze-of-bird]

Anyone else part of the childhood Where’s My Water? enjoyer to crocodile pipeline? /silly

[hintze-of-bird]

Had a zombie apocalypse dream last night and it felt like that one What If…? episode all over again.

[hintze-of-bird]

Fictionkins, do any of you have a heart-type of someone you were close to in source? Is there a distinction between your feelings towards them and your feelings surrounding the heart-type? Does it feel awkward to think about?

I’ve been kinsidering if I’m Natasha Romanoff-hearted, because I strongly identify with her story (almost in an archetropal sense, but not quite), and I feel like we have a few things in common. However, I have memories of being with her romantically and it’s making me a bit reluctant to explore the identity. I’m not quite sure why?

I think I generally struggle to have multiple altertypes associated with one source, though. I was only able to accept being Bucky upon realising that my Spider-Man identity had faded away.

[hintze-of-bird]

Is wanting to sleep upright a bird thing? I just remembered I used to wish I could sleep sitting up or standing as a kid.

[hintze-of-bird]

Had to use a backpack-type thing to spray disinfectant for my work experience and felt like I was using a proton pack.

[hintze-of-bird]

I’ve been wanting to make a clearer list of my alterhuman identities to find others with similar identities more easily, but (being alterlichen) I find it hard to put my identities into categories without drawing connections between them. Because of this, I ended up making a mind-map instead.

(It turned out quite large, so I do recommend opening the image separately in a new tab, or zooming in if that is possible.)

Through this exercise, I found that I often identify as broader categories of some altertypes as much as I do with the altertypes themselves. One such example is being an archosaur — my being a few groups within the clade has led to me being all of its other groups (though to a slightly lesser degree), and identifying as Archosauria almost as a concept as well.

This “list” is, of course, subject to change, as my sense of self isn’t very consistent.

[hintze-of-bird]

Fictionfolk Experiences Ask Game

Yeah, you. Fictionkin, fictive, fictionhearted, fictionlinker, fictionflicker--whatever else you may be in the tags. I wanna get some potentially positivity and experience sharing going because there's some Stuff that isn't great in the tags right now but ALSO I think fictionfolk as a whole (and not just identify-as fictionfolk but yes those too) deserve a nice little platform to share their experiences. So, use this ask game. Or just reblog and answer the questions. Or post the answers yourself. Be free.

1. What's your fictional identity (hearttype, kintype, etc)?

2. If you have multiple, do you have one you're closer to than the others, or is more important to your identity overall?

3. How many fictional identities do you have?

4. What's your favourite part about being fictionfolk?

5. What's a positivie interaction that's happened as a result of your fictional identity?

6. Have you told any people in your offline life about your fictional identity and gotten a positive reaction?

7. Have you told any people in your online life about your fictional identity and gotten a positive reaction?

8. Is there anyone you've met as a result of your interactions in the community who's very important to you now?

9. What's your favourite thing about the fictionfolk community?

10. Tell us about a time you've experienced species/identity euphoria as a result of one of your fictional identities.

11. Do you experience any shifts (mental, phantom, dream, etc) of your fictional identity? Share a bit about those and how they feel!

12. Do you have any canonmates (if applicable)?

13. Do you have any sourcemates (if applicable)?

14. Do you wish to seek out canonmates/sourcemates? Why/why not?

15. Do you have a favourite piece of fanart/fanfic/etc that ties into your identity? Share it (with credit)!

16. Do you have any art/fic/etc specifically made for you as a fictionfolk of your specific identity (made by yourself or someone else)? Share it!

17. Does your fictional identity differ from source in any way/is it canon divergent? Explain a bit about that!

18. Are there aspects of your fictional identity that you previously questioned, decided weren't a part of your identity, but you still look fondly upon? (Past 'types, etc).

19. Do you have any spiritual identities? Explain a bit about that!

20. Do you have any psychological identies? Explain a bit about that!

21. How old were you when you discovered/chose your first fictional identity?

22. Did you ever take a break from the community, but came back later? What made you come back?

23. Have you ever considered fictionlinking? If you already have, what made you decide to do it?

24. If you decided to 'link a fictional character, who would it be and why?

25. If you decided to 'link a fictional species, what would it be and why?

26. Have you ever questioned being fictionhearted? If you already are, what started your questioning into that connection?

27. Do you have any fictional hearthomes? What are your favourite things about them?

28. Have you ever questioned being a fictionbased archetrope? If you already are, what's your archetropal identity?

29. Have you ever questioned being fictionkin? If you already are, what started your discovery of that connection?

30. Have you ever had a fictotype turn out to be a fictionflicker or vice versa? What was that like?

31. Do you have any fictionflickers? What are they, and how do they make you feel?

32. If you're a system, do you have any collective fictional identities?

33. If you're a system, how many fictional identities do you have across all of your headmates?

34. Do you have any soulbonds from a fictional source? Share a bit about that!

35. Do you have any memories/noemata around your fictional identity? Share some if you'd like!

36. If you do have memories/noemata, what's your favourite?

37. Does your identity intersect with your gender in any way? Share a bit about that!

38. Does your identity intersect with your sexuality in any way? Share a bit about that!

39. Is there anything you'd have loved to hear back when you were first questioning your identity?

40. Is there anything you'd like to share toward fictionfolk who may just be starting to look into the community?

41. Free space! Share anything about your identity/ies that you'd like to!

[hintze-of-bird]

On the topic of gear specifically, I am well aware that it can be very affirming for some but I think it’s worth interrogating why that is. You can examine the sociocultural forces without condemnation of individual actions.

Capitalism pressures you to align your identity with purchases (are you a Pepsi or a Coke person?), therefore it’s worth considering: does the affirmation provided by gear come from the item itself, or from the perceived entry into an in group the purchase has afforded? Does (for example) having a collar actually make you feel more canine, or does the purchase and subsequent posting of it make you feel more like a [canine] therian? No judgement here, these are just questions I think are worth evaluating.

I don’t think owning gear makes you a consumerist (hard word to define anyways if you live somewhere where a good number social pressures are geared towards purchasing goods to maintain the engine of empire) but I do think social media promotes a conflation between the abstract internal identity and the external representation of it, again because the external representation is a lot more “consumable.” Often said is “owning gear doesn’t make you a therian” which is true, but equally true is “being a therian doesn’t necessitate owning gear.”

How often have you seen the “oh my gosh I think I saw another therian in public” post where the identifiers are listed as: tail and MAYBE a theta delta symbol somewhere as a pin or necklace. These items are the visual shorthand for the subculture, so it’s no surprise that membership into said culture may feel for some as though it hinges on possession of these items, especially if you’re younger, or new to therianthropy, or are in some other way unsure of your place.

Again, this is not me being like “don’t buy gear” or “never post about your gear” or in some way calling you personally evil and amoral. I’m just trying to tease apart the relationship between all these things.

[hintze-of-bird]

Not ‘alterhuman’ or ‘nonhuman’ specifically, because I do feel a sense of belonging in these communities, but I’ve stopped describing myself as a ‘therian’ out of preference.

I found that I just don’t like the association with humanity it has? I’m not sure how to articulate it well, but my best attempt is: when I personally use it, it feels as though I’m pointing out that I am [X] instead of a Homo sapiens, in contrast with simply stating my species. In a similar vein, I prefer to say “I am a therian [X]” instead of “I am [X] therian”.

To some extent, this also applies to ‘fictionkin’. If there is enough context (eg., amongst another alterhumans), I like to say “I am [X] (from [X] source)” compared to “I am [X] fictionkin”. There is just too much emphasis on the (in my instance) irrelevant aspect of the identity, and also too much distinction between ‘me’ and how I’m canonically presented for my liking. I may be a little canon divergent, but I still see myself as the ‘me’ shown in source. However, I still use the label to refer to my fictional identities as a whole, as they’re pretty hard to sum up in one word otherwise.

I would say this applies to ‘otherkin’ too, but I never really used the label. I’ve had the general tendency to refer to myself as an embodiment of Natural Science etc. Although, I suppose there could have been a time I used ‘conceptkin’?

It’s a different story with ‘archetrope’, because that label describes the nature of my “being”, which I feel is important to emphasise.

(Note: I still use the corresponding tags regardless, because I still feel like my experience is adjacent to others who use the labels.)

have any of you stopped using alterhuman or nonhuman labels after a time? why?