Hello there! I've been questioning lately if I might be otherkin or otherhearted. I've checked out your post on terminology and how to go about questioning, and I'm still working thru that whole process, but I had a question. I've seen a couple times this term I'm completely unacquainted with, so I thought I would just like, ask what it is lol. Do you mind explaining what wishkin is for a new maybe-member of the alterhuman community? Thx in advance, and I hope you're having a great day!
Not a problem, and Iâm glad you asked, because this is absolutely something you need to know. (And yes, Iâm having a good day. Iâm reading Toby Daye (excellent faerie series) and I have chips and my mate, so all is good.)
Wishkin is an old term, and we use it kind of because we have to. Tumblrkin is a subset of wishkin that is, you know, got its own brand of tumblr-being-godawful. Basically, wishkin is someone who warps the definition of âkin until they can fit in it even though they donât actually do. Someone who wants really really hard for it to be real that they demand everyone else change to include them. If like... You experiment with labels and try to figure out if this community thatâs calling to you is you or not, thatâs not wishkin.
When we say wishkin, itâs a term based out of people with malicious intent. If youâre genuinely trying to learn and see if you fit, then you probably donât fit the term.Â
Youâve doubtless seen the kids that go âYeah I kin whatshisface from Undertale, doubles are fake and none of you are me, and you canât draw this because Iâm whatshisface and I said so, and if you kin something I personally deem harmful then youâre a pedophile / rapist / whatever the buzzword of the day is and you should kill yourselfâ. Thatâs tumblrkin, and wishkin as a whole do much the same.
I donât mind people who are ignorant and trying to learn. We like helping. But people who stick their fingers in their ears and yell when we try to teach them, who insist people who have been here for 5+ years are wrong and delusional, who make a mockery of our community and misuse our terms so they can play games and use our community to start cults and get power trips, well, we donât like them.
I canât find the post on it right now for the life of me, but I have a post somewhere deep in my blog screenshotting a wishkin telling everyone what theyâre allowed to be âkin of (no Problematic(TM) people, you know the type) and a few greymuzzles and I bitched about what wishkin keep doing.
The hard part about them is that yeah, you can usually see most trolls at a glance, but you need practice to be able to tell all wishkin from otherkin at a glance. Like, if someoneâs saying âwah Iâm a piece of grass and pots are slaveryâ theyâre a troll, you donât need practice to know that. But someone saying âIâm âkin as a coping mechanism please donât yell at meâ and then plugs their ears when you point out thatâs copinglinking and insists that youâre actually kinphobic is wishkin, but might not look that way at first glance.
Effectively, theyâre the people faking and misconstruing terms to get what they want. It meshes with purity culture and the idea that we canât hurt fictional characters for they are just as real as real people and hurting them is a Harmful Activity you should be in jail for, because how better to shut someone down than to say youâre the character, and doing something you donât like to said character is hurting you and they should go to jail and stop being so evil?
If by this point you want a drink, join the club, Iâll tell you about the booze from the Song World.Â
Youâll understand wishkin more when you see them in action. If you really have a few braincells to spare, take a trip through my âkin drama //â tag and youâll get wishkin, bad takes, and antikin all in one go. (Also, forgive the post I made a long-ass time ago about worship being bad. I have since learned better, thanks to a few patient folks explaining again the rules of BDSM to my inexperienced self. Bless them for being so patient with me.)