Werebeast of a thousand kin

I’ve seen a couple of folks make excuses for Bug DNIs because they have a phobia or know folks with phobias. Some may even insist this is “like Doubles DNIs” except it’s not. You don’t share an identity with the community in question. You aren’t a bug. You don’t have that experience. What you’re doing is discriminatory. On top of that, I feel like some folks don’t think about the implications of their DNIs and how they’re structured, especially since DNIs are so common in practice. You have your peers in the same DNIs where you tell racists, TERFs, and other genuinely harmful people to fuck off!!! Think about that!!!

And as someone with my own phobias, filter features exist for a reason. No one is forcing you to follow the blogs of bugs or blogs that regularly post them, but no one is obligated to censor themselves for your comfort either. Insects, arachnids and other arthropods are expected to further isolate themselves from a community they’re supposed to belong in. It’s a common frustration among bugfolk that I’ve seen is how we’re expected to filter our existence, yet every single tag is plastered with the face of a wolf or a dog without fail. There’s nothing wrong in a canine expressing themself. At the same time, I’m not the only one who’s noticed this double standard of species deemed “unsightly” like bugs being expected to hide ourselves or not commune with fellow animals for someone else’s comfort whereas everyone else has the freedom to openly be themselves.

Another example: I’ve seen more than enough animals make the excuse for their misanthropy as if otherhumans, demihumans, and humans in general don’t exist in alterhuman spaces. Or worse, act as if the term or its contexts exist in a vacuum when plenty of other misanthropes will specify that their hatred is directed at my species, seeing them as ontologically evil or harmful. My humanity and nonhumanity are inseparable from each other. I don’t feel recognized as I am, let alone welcomed, in spaces that lets this behavior slide. I understand that there’s plenty of nonhumans who feel the opposite, and I’m grateful that I’ve curated my space enough where I’m not bombarded by it. Even so, these conflicts still exist in our spaces.

Human alterhumans are expected to just be okay with it, to quietly accept that some of our peers hate our species— most of whom refuse to separate systemic harm and benefactors of said systems of our societies from a species wholesale. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of this community forgot or doesn’t know it’s possible for a human to be alterhuman. Some folks talk about humans like they aren’t also animals. You can recognize the harm in nonhuman animals being stereotyped or generalized by uninformed members of society, but you won’t recognize the harm in you doing the same against humans? Be fucking serious. You’d know the apathy isn’t victimless if you turned on your local news channel or read a damn article about current events in our world as of now, and for some who knowingly have the privilege to ignore this, it is indeed harmful to act like your misanthropy exists in a vacuum.

Mind you, this is barely covering the biases regarding species identity in this community. This isn’t even touching on the many, many other experiences within the alterhuman community that aren’t related to animality (or nonhumanity as a whole for that matter) folks either don’t acknowledge, erase or devalue without a second thought. These examples only came to mind due to discussions I’ve seen recently.

Ironically, folks are ready to talk about the sanitization of identity when it’s time to talk about species-specific urges, biology (ex: genitalia) or kink, which I welcome as well. But when it comes to unchecked biases, it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it deal. Generally, folks can agree that other members of the community are “valid” but I still see excuses be made for the ostracization of anyone who isn’t a fucking mammalian, nonhuman animal— let alone a canine— in this community. Don’t even think to speak on our experiences in a political context either. Then, all of a sudden, folks start caring about comfort. It’s frustrating, and it should come as no surprise why these criticisms are common. Sometimes, I want to resign and say it’s an issue applicable to alterhumans of a specific age or time of arrival in the community to make it make sense, but honestly some of these issues have been around since I joined this community and long before that (especially the misanthropy).

In my first year here or so, I recall an old post by a crocodile expressing her frustration with mammal-centric language (ex: howls, packs). While the formation of these terms can be traced back towards the history of therianthropes in particular, her frustrations were understandable. Although not specific to mammals like wolves, I still see folks who centralize intracommunal language around a specific experience to this day. I wouldn’t be half as pressed if it was directed at animalfolk, but some animals will straight up address nonhumans or alterhumans COLLECTIVELY as beasts/creatures/critters/etc. as if the community solely consists of animals.