an otherhearted experience i want to talk about: âjust otherheartedâ
(for @skylargoesbark alterhuman new years posts!)
i know a lot of folks tend to think of otherhearted as âjust having a connectionâ, or like the lesser version of kin, and it will never not get on my nerves when i see someone (trying to correct someone else) say âtherian/kin isnât a connection!! if you just have a connection, thatâs just otherhearted!!â or something similar.
itâs the word âjustâ that always gets me. itâs just a connection. itâs not kin; itâs just otherhearted.
it feels reductive. it feels like dumbing down what it truly means to be otherhearted.
personally my hearttypes arenât just anything. theyâre a whole slew of complexities and emotions that are integral to who i am as a being. they make me who i am, and i wouldnât be the same without them.
and i know people tend to think itâs not a big deal, and even if i were to say âimagine if someone said âitâs just a kintypeâ about one of your kintypesâ, many of you probably wouldnât care. but my issue is that to otherhearted creatures, specifically, it happens over and over and over again. and if i ever point it out, suggest a correction, i sometimes get dogpiled on as if im the bad guy; op didnt mean it that way, dogbite, donât be so sensitive. youâre overreacting.
but i suppose thatâs the problem, isnât it? that they didnât mean to. that reducing our identity in such a way is so common, so familiar that people donât even think about it when they do it. that in their subconscious, otherheart will only ever be âjust a connectionâ, and nothing more. even if they donât mean it that way. it still stings a little even if it wasnât intentional.
all this to say: to be otherhearted is to have unique experiences, to have a deeply rooted and meaningful identity, to have complex relationships with your hearttype beyond âjustâ anything. my otherhearted identities make me who i am. there is no âmeâ without cows, without dogs, without thunderstorms. and i love being otherhearted<3
