#wolfgetsreal

I made this video back when the FURRIES Act was still being deliberated on, but was too scared to post it until now due to the way my past attempts at talking about these issues and bringing attention to otherkin politically have gone. Especially on Tumblr. But if not now, when?

When I posted as @flock-of-changes I ended up burning out and leaving alterhuman community out of trauma, because when I tried to speak out against depictions of therian conversion abuse, I was told I was "fearmongering" and "not to draw attention" to otherkin. But the reality is that I've already been a victim of conversion abuse much like in the movie, and other kin/therians have been through juvenile detention, psychiatric institutionalization, ABA, and more for similar reasons. We are the people who already exist that this is actually about, and we need to build community supports NOW to prevent any more of us becoming further victimized without any support. Because they will come for you, too. No amount of respectability, academia, whiteness, sanity, or avoidance of this issue will save us.

But rather than just lecturing people, I want to tell my story as much as I can manage. I want to tell you all what my reality of being a therian in a proto-Alt-Right Christofascist household was like, and what these people who say "if you're an animal, i'll treat you like one" really mean when they say that. They were never "just trolls." It was always a promise.

Here's the Bluesky thread where I posted this video and other comments as well, if folks feel inclined to re-doot and like it there as well: https://bsky.app/profile/lovequeer.bsky.social/post/3lu2373sets2h

This isn't about being right, anymore. It's about protecting the most vulnerable of us NOW. No more hiding. No more denial. No more "this isn't really about us."

A year ago today, Wolf, a movie about Jacob, a wolf trapped in a man's body who is sent to a clinic with others who have “species identity disorder” was first shown to the public.

 This document took nearly a year to make so we decided to just release it on the anniversary of this movie’s release. It covers our thoughts on the movie and its production and it is 31 pages long.

On the 3rd of December, Wolf was released – a movie which features a protagonist with species dysphoria being committed to a mental asylum. It’s been getting bad reviews, but many critics mention one idea in particular: that this is a metaphor for mental illness or gender identity.

[image ID: snippets of reviews criticising Wolf as ‘social commentary’.]

The thing is, the director has explicitly stated that Wolf is inspired by real people with species dysphoria. She states nonhuman identity has an ‘obviously comical side to it’ and is a ‘growing syndrome’. She also confesses to deliberately not researching the subject.

Non-alterhuman transgender people are affected by the film’s messages too. But it’s critical to understand that we are the people this movie is about. We deserve to be seen as more than a metaphor for transgender issues – especially when so many of us are transgender ourselves. We also deserve to be seen as people capable of living happy lives, not pathologized for our experiences.

We're calling for society to recognize that people with species dysphoria are not an allegory. We're real, and we’re affected by these representations.

And you can help us make that happen. If you're a person with species dysphoria or an ally, we’re asking you to join us in sharing your feelings about the movie using the hashtag #WolfGetsReal. We’re interested in:

Opinions on the movie, its production, or the critical response to it

How species dysphoria affects you and how other people have treated you for it

Experiences with the mental health system and hospitalization as a nonhuman

How your species identity and gender identity intersect, if relevant

Anything else you think people need to see and know about!

We’ll be boosting and promoting content that uses the tag #WolfGetsReal anywhere we can. Anything from a full blown video essay to a single tweet is welcome. If you’ve got stuff to say but you’re nervous about putting yourself out there? Send us an ask, email us, or come discuss it on the discord or forum, and we’ll publish it on your behalf.

You can also help by:

Sharing your perspective in conversations about the movie in your social spaces

Leaving reviews for the movie on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and other review sites

Leaving comments on articles reviewing the movie (or even directly contact the journalists writing them!)

For better or for worse, nonhuman identity is entering public awareness. Other recent films like Wild Mountain Thyme show that this is not a fluke, but the beginning of a potential trend. But if we stand together and speak out, we can prevent these careless depictions and incredulous critical responses. It all starts with raising our voices and taking the narrative into our own hands.

Let’s get real.

as an extranth, i don’t have to imagine a world where my alterhumanity is seen as a disorder. the treatment in Wolf has been compared to conversion therapy, and justifiably so! but i also wanted to point out the clear similarities to the mistreatment of plurals - we get it, and we should be building mutual support and understanding here.

medical abuse of transgender people is still unacceptably rampant. that said, these days, the prevailing medical opinion is that transition is the solution to gender dysphoria, and standards of care are about helping you get that. the prevailing medical opinion about plurality is that it needs to be eliminated, the standard of care is integration. this reality is much closer to that of Wolf’s. the clinic is depicted as unusually cruel, but ultimately in line with what doctors think about species dysphoria in that universe: it has to be ‘cured’.

i don’t have a big essay to write, i’m not that kinda guy, but i wanted to point this out to highlight that we’re all on the same team, here. singlet otherkin: be aware that this story is already truth for many of your fellow alterhumans. consider what you can learn from the plural self advocacy movement to prepare you for doing the same in the future. plurals: we know what this feels like. we should be supporting and advocating for nonhuman identity as much as we do ourselves.

i’ve collected what i think are the most egregious examples, and i encourage you to pick one or two of them and leave a comment on the article explaining that people with species dysphoria exist and are affected by this too:

Identifying as an animal takes on extra baggage in the thin, iffy parable Wolf - Mike D’Angelo for AV Club

Review: Wolf Is a Muddled Trans Allegory Anchored by Committed Performances - by Derek Smith for Slant Magazine

‘Wolf’ Film Review: Psychological Drama About Animal-Identifying Humans Gawks From a Distance - Robert Abele for The Wrap

Review: 'Wolf' bites off more than it can chew - Chris Hewitt for the Star Tribune

Review: In ‘Wolf,’ George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp Embrace Their Animal Sides - Morgan Rojas for Cinemacy

WOLF is an acting exercise in search of a story - Gary M Kramer for MovieJawn

The movie ‘Wolf,’ about a guy who thinks he’s a wild animal, is as mixed up as its hero - Michael O’Sullivan for the Washington Post

i picked these ones because they seemed the most explicitly derisive plus they seem to have the biggest reach, but there are plenty more examples on the rotten tomatoes page which you could also turn your attention to.

sorry for the typos, damn twitter and its lack of edit button.

image description under the cut!

In the movie Wolf (2021), writer/director Nathalie Biancheri imagines a world where people with species dysphoria are "cured" of their nonhuman identity and feral behaviors (such as knuckle-walking naked in the woods) through forced confinenent and barbaric therapeutic practices.

The majority of Wolf's runtime focuses on a inpatient facility for nonhumans (distastefully) called "the zoo", run by an abusive psychologist known as "the zookeeper". The "zookeeper" is an antagonist, but his brutal and coercive therapeutic practices "cure" nonhumans of their nonhumanity within the narrative of the film, glorifying abuse of nonhumans and mental illness patients.

As a nonhuman pluran who has been involuntarily institutionalized, Wolf horrifies me. Abuse is a rampant and regular part of real world mental health systems that should not be portrayed as comic, novel, or "successful". Nonhumans are a vulnerable group in psychiatric settings.

a sympathetic writer would not admit to seeing researching us as a chore or the need to depict us realistically as a burden. a sympathetic writer would not spend half the fucking movie on drawn out scenes of people like us being abused and tortured and mocked.

what purpose does that serve? not ours. people with species dysphoria are nothing but a prop to Nathalie Biancheri by her own admission and if you want to outright attack people for criticizing it just because it’s the first movie that’s focused on species dysphoria by name then like, seriously? genuinely, you ought to respect yourself more. because you deserve better than this too.