swanpinions

chasingcaribou:

okamp:

swanblood:

Written by me. The link goes to a PDF… it’s a little too long text to put in a post.

Please spread this around, the idea is to educate people…

“Why do I care? Because nonhuman identities are not often represented in conversations about identity. Because the identity is not treated seriously, not in the social justice community and definitely not in the rest of society, even though it can be the core of someone’s identity, and a lot of stress can be caused through the problems of having this identity, and the problems of society not accepting it.”

For anyone who thought swanblood was one of the more rational ones.

Apparently otherkinnery has a place in social justice discussions. /tired sigh

I am just wondering for the sake of things… I guess because this sums up my time here on tumblr and how much my writing has been completely futile, why do otherkin not have a place in these discussions? Especially considering that guide was written (I imagine) for the tumblr social justice community, which is an entity unto itself and doesn’t necessarily represent ‘social justice’ elsewhere? And we come up plenty in tumblr’s discussions, which would make understanding what otherkin are relevant to the social justice community here (thus, the guide).

The more relevant part of the whole affair is that some otherkin want a place in discussions about identity, period. No social justice attached. When we’re talking about tumblr social justice, we’re really just talking about, ‘What things are valid and reasonable to discuss in terms of abuse, violence, visibility, oppression, etc.’ Sometimes, it is not all of those things that we include (like most otherkin are uncomfortable talking about oppression, but abuse and violence and visibility are still relevant). 

It is reasonable to talk about otherkin in terms of identity, in terms of how people might receive abuse for it and sometimes even feel that abuse is justified because people tell them that by being otherkin they are bullshit. 

The larger problem here is that there are people who are hurt because they are otherkin and because this is invisible and responded to in a nonserious or sometimes hostile way. So you’ve got people who don’t have support offline from family and friends if they struggle with something related to be otherkin, you have people who feel alienated from their peers because no one relates to them and they’re afraid to speak, you have people who are actually sometimes abused because they are otherkin, you have people who are uncomfortable and insecure in their feelings because so many people (not only online, and it is offline I think that is the larger issue) tell them to stop playing childish games when it is not a game. On and on. 

So, some otherkin would like to be able to speak about identity in a serious way, without tumblr social justice advocates saying, ‘Well, you’re not serious. Shut up.’ Swanblood is saying why she feels we are serious, and again, thus the guide for the tumblr social justice community and why she cares.

And even if social justice off tumblr is a bit extreme a thing to be included in at this point in time, and thus it’s somehow extremist to talk about being included in those dialogues, and thus swanblood is somehow less rational…

Well, the heart of what she is saying remains to be that some otherkin struggle, and some otherkin need support, and that is a serious and important thing. And that it is important for us as otherkin to speak up about that, because otherwise nothing will change. 

I’d like to know how that is irrational. 

Thank you, yes.

Also, it’s worth to note that I never personally claimed to be a “rational” person. I think that I am rational, in the literal meaning of the word: I analyse things without looking at emotions or looking at what is “weird”. But in most discussions, “rational” seems to be a code word for “their ideas are not too extreme”. “Rational” seems to be a code word for “I believe in some strange things, but I still mostly bow to our forced social ideas of what is weird and what is not”. “Rational” means “I have a line for what is too far that is mostly based on what society thinks”.

I’m not that kind of fake “rational”. I am a radical. I believe in pushing the boundaries, all the time. If you don’t see that, you are definitely reading me wrong.