Vocal Majorities, Stereotyping, and Personal Thoughts

There's weird, and then there's Otherkin

It seems rather obvious that this amateur journalist took little time to properly research his sources, especially seeing as the last quote he had made was from a very recent entry in the LJ Otherkin Community. NS_Kumiho, who first alerted me to this article by posting it in his personal journal, also noted the apparent ease by which a person could become an 'Examiner'.

But you know what? I'm not here just to discuss sloppy journalism, or to discuss why people choose to latch onto stereotypes and judge unnecessarily. We can jab our fingers and gnash our teeth at the apparent injustices of it all, but in the end I've grown to the point where I will laugh at these sorts of things--and the people who spark them. There is a part of me that really cannot blame people for thinking a certain way about the otherkin community based on that vocal majority.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. There are a great many reasons out there, too. I identify as otherkin, in fact I would fall into both the therianthrope and otherkin categories. Going back to the example quoted in the article, on Lupines and Relationships, well...I had to have a good chuckle on this one. And people wonder why most otherkin allegedly construct their entire spiritual basis around identity. It's so easy to blame relationship failures and poor social skills on, say, being a wolf. As someone who identifies as a wolf, I can't say I've had the problems that the person above claims to have. One also must consider, for example, the lack of knowledge this person seems to have on anatomy and animal psychology. Wolves are deeply social beings, and of all the animals to form a symbiotic relationship with humans, it would be the dog--the direct descendant of the wolf (and, many scientists believe, a subspecies of c. lupus). There is also the obvious sense enough to seek out a significant-other who shares similar beliefs and values as oneself, which makes the journey easier. But that's the mark of proper social skills.

This again circles back nicely to my reasons as to why I don't believe most people who say they are otherkin...really are. Or, to revise that, really are who they claim they are--because in the end, I see being otherkin as another transhuman condition--something anyone is capable of being, regardless of who or whatever else they are. But let's get back directly to what I'm driving at here: if you claim to be something, but have precious little understanding of what exactly you are talking about, I am going to see this more as an excuse for a life not fully lived, an identity not fully realized, or some other sociological or psychological malformation. It's so much easier to package up something (that you feel is) ugly with something (that you feel is) so much prettier...until you realize that, for example, wolves have much the same problems that humans have--and perhaps that is why humans feel they can relate to them so much.

I only have this to say in the end, and yes it may have been said before, but it is appropriate and bears repeating: yes, you are indeed a beautiful and unique snowflake, just like everyone else.