Ms. Waggus Doofus

I know that many - young and old - are using the terms in below said ways. But this mostly is based on misinformation that’s getting spread a lot. Please don’t feel offended with this post. I don’t want to start drama or the like. I just want to clear things up.

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What kind of word is the term “kin”?

“Kin” is not a verb or an adjective, it’s a noun. It’s the short version of “otherkin”. If you say “I do kin”, you’re saying it wrong. If you say:“Are you kin?”, you’re still saying it wrong. Correctly it’d be:“I am an otherkin./I am a ‘kin./Are you a 'kin?”

“Kinning” and “Kinnie”…

Furthermore, “kinning” and “kinnie” are two other wrong ways of using this word. Those two originally got brought into the community by trolls who understand therianthropes as “transspecies”, therefore they combined “(other)kin” with the word “trannie” to form “kinnie”.

And “kinning” is wrong because otherkinity isn’t something you (choose) to do, but it’s a state of being. If you want to say that you identify as a lion, then you don’t say:“I’m kinning a lion.” No, as an example you may say:“My (kin)type is a lion./I identify as a lion.”

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“I am a kin” or “are you a kin” just doesn’t sound right and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it that way.. Rather the phrasing would be “Are you Otherkin?”, hence the shorthand “are you kin?” works and is quite normal. So I wouldn’t agree it is wrong to use that way.

Just my two cents! Otherwise fully agreed upon that k*nnie and kinning never were community terms and don’t belong in use. Period.

Or would you say:"I see a horse." In these terms that would be:"Are you a kin?"

Let me explain before you get upset. 

Otherkin, fictionkin, therian… these are things you are, not things you do. 

“Kinning” as a word indicates that it’s something you do. 

You don’t kin as something, you are kin because you identify AS something. 

This rephrasing makes me profoundly uncomfortable because the core of being kin of any kind has always been, “it’s not something you do, it’s something you are”. 

1. We don’t mistake our memories or shifts for reality. We know our memories and shifts don’t effect the world around us and never have. They only effect us internally, and we’re very aware of this. Meaning they’re not delusions.

2. Memories and shifts don’t tend to cause severe distress or paranoia. I have had mild distress related to kin memories in the past, but as someone who experiences legitimate paranoia due to PTSD, they’re not at all similar. And before you say that because I get sad about kin stuff sometimes it’s “unhealthy,” I just want to say the positive experiences far outweigh the negative, and you shouldn’t have to have 100% positive feelings about everything you do for it to be healthy.

3. Phantom limbs ‘kin folks experience aren’t delusions, either. The feeling isn’t exactly that something is there, per se, but that something should be there. I’d compare it to the feeling of having a backpack on all day, and still feeling the straps after it’s taken off. This phenomenon is just caused by us feeling that something should be there and missing it, not any legitimate belief that there’s a body part there.

4. Even if they were similar to schizophrenia, which they are not, having one symptom of schizophrenia does not make you schizophrenic. Despite being ‘kin, my mental state is very healthy. I’m not constantly paranoid (only when I’m having a PTSD attack, but that’s entirely non-related), I don’t have hallucinations, either visual or auditory, and I feel in a very happy and stable place in my life. I’d even go so far as to say that being ‘kin makes me happier and healthier, as it helped curb my nihilistic tendancies and pull me out of my depression, along with other factors.

5. (In my case) It’s a spirituality. If Christianity wasn’t a thing, someone saying “I believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing man in the sky who can hear me when I speak to him, and created everything. If I don’t follow his rules, I’ll be punished for an eternity when I die” (I dunno, I’ve never actually read the bible and know very little about christianity in general) would sound “crazy” as well. It’s social normalisation that makes this seem acceptable, while being ‘kin isn’t. To an atheist, these beliefs may seem strange or improbable, but if they’re decent, they’ll respect the other person’s beliefs (as long as the person is decent to them, given that a lot of christians suck big time) because ultimately they can’t be proven or disproven. This is ultimately the difference between a delusion and a belief; a delusion can be disproven. And no, “it’s just common sense” doesn’t count as disproval, because that’s entirely subjective.

8 hours of studying, 2 coffees, 2 sandwiches and so much biochemistry & immunology later, i can at least safely say today was productive (and binge a new netflix show). still can’t get over how pretty this library is.

There are no bad questions when asked in good faith.

Since there were several questions here, let me break this down:

Q: How serious is otherkinity, exactly?

A: We may make jokes about it, but at its core, otherkinity is a 100% serious thing. It’s a personal identity, one most consider to be more or less immutable - it’s a word used to describe and categorize experiences outside of the norm, experiences many of us have had for years or decades whether or not we had a word for them. Of course, there are people who use the term erroneously - people who are “otherkin to cope” (copinglinker is the word, not otherkin, though this is a complex issue I’m not going to get into) or, more annoyingly in my opinion, people who “kin for fun” (in other words, roleplay being mislabeled). However, the otherkin community can be traced back to at least the 70s, and the identity defined by the correct usage of the word (that is, “identifying nonphysically as something other than human, partially or wholly”) is very much serious.

Q: Is there a sort of theory? …  Some sort of psychological explanation? A spiritual philosophy?

A: I’m not totally sure what you’re asking - if you’re asking if there are theories about why people are otherkin, there are many. The most common is the past life narrative, which I happen to fall into - that an individual was their kintype in a past life, and for whatever reason, that identity “bled over” into this life. However, there are many other explanations and theories as to why someone might be otherkin. Here is a (not exhaustive) list.

Both psychological and spiritual explanations exist for otherkinity, though I don’t think I’d call any of them “philosophies.”

Q: Any books you could recommend?

A: There is, as far as I know, exactly one (1) book that’s ever been published on otherkinity, and it’s a) out of print and b) outdated. It’s the Field Guide to Otherkin, written by Lupa. At the time she wrote the book, Lupa identified as a wolf therian, but she later decided that label did not fit her and subsequently took the book out of print. It’s also a somewhat outdated book, given that it was written over a decade ago, but it’s still considered a historic community resource. Copies of it are now both rare and expensive, and I would love to get my hands on one.

However, I do have a tag for otherkin resources both here and on my other ‘kin blog, which may warrant your perusal.

Q: Is there any sort of IRL community or acknowledgement?

A: IRL gatherings, also called howls, are difficult to find or put together because the community is so small and widespread. However, a few do exist - I don’t have a list of them handy, sorry. Sometimes otherkin panels or gatherings can be found at conventions as well, especially furry conventions (the two communities aren’t intrinsically connected, but there’s a lot of overlap).