I am; a parent, a trans man, a polyamorous pansexual, married to a man, in love, living with chronic pain and fatigue, fighting depression and anxiety, an insomniac, an artist, a dreamer, looking for happiness, a feminist, an amateur philosopher, politically active and aware, interested in serious debates about any and all serious topics, following my own code of honor, otherkin, honest, thinking of baking something, a lazy poster, extremely tired, a fan of facts and information in general, and about a thousand other things...
Otherkin….
Reblogged from jarandhel
I’d offer to pitch in but I’m stretched pretty thin as is.
If I had more energy.Totally understood. I’m at my personal limit on taking on new projects myself.
It seems to be the case with those willing to do good.. they end up overloaded. :/
Supernumerary phantom limbs have been documented in the scientific literature. Phantom limbs are not solely an experience of amputees. And studies have been done with supernumerary phantom limbs which show that the brain does register the sensation of touch when they are used.
I stand corrected…
Got a link though? For curiosity’s sake.Have a few:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.21647/abstract;jsessionid=15F3C756CE66F7DAF63255B92CBD9654.d03t04
Cool, thanks…
mind you, these appear to focus on the extra phantom-limbs as a result of stroke, but it would be interesting to see if the same would apply to non-stroke-related extra limbs…
It’s… Well, dysphoria as used for trans people is referencing a certain symptom of a certain thing. It’s more specific than “the sniffles”.
It’s… more like a reference to a certain sort of pain stemming from a certain source. As if the pain felt from a broken leg was called a gugog. Now, the pain felt from a headache is pain, but it might not be “gugog” pain…
… I’m wording this terribly I’m sure.I don’t think dysphoria, as used in gender identity contexts, is any more specific than dysphoria as used in otherkin contexts. If it were, one would hardly need to specify one was experiencing “gender dysphoria”. The term dysphoria, by its nature, would suffice.
Fair enough…
Rubbish explanations aside, like I said…. the word has it’s use.
What I oppose is the suggestion that the experience is the same…. which I’ve seen a lot lately.Now that, I can agree with to some extent, though I’d be hard pressed to tell someone who was experiencing dysphoria based on what gender they are and someone who was experiencing dysphoria based on what species they are how those experiences differ exactly. Particularly if the same person is experiencing both and says they are the same, for them. Using your gugog example, it’d be a little like telling someone that the pain in their broken right leg was gugog but the pain in their broken left leg couldn’t possibly be gugog.
Very often I’ve seen dysphoria be used by (mostly tumblr) otherkin to refer to the experience that their limbs aren’t “in sync” with their phantom limbs. That is to say, they feel “weird” that their fingers don’t have massive talons or somesuch, or that their feet have toes or whatever…
This is not how I see trans* people use the term.
Most often, when it comes to trans* people, they are referring to it as the crippling, overwhelming sense of “wrong” with their bodies. To trans* people, dysphoria isn’t a sensation of “weirdness” or even “discomfort” but an overwhelmingly painful sensation, emotionally, psychologically and physically.
I have body-weirdness, as in feeling too tall, like “I” don’t reach to the ends of my physical limbs, resulting in days when I bang toes and fingers into things because I’m out of sync and unable to muster the concentration to compensate. My gender dysphoria is something different. There were days when I’d have to consciously avoid any and all contact with my physical self, and avoid places where there were sharp instruments because the feeling of wrongness was so overwhelming that I couldn’t trust myself not to take these sharp instruments to my flesh, to the parts that were just plain wrong. Not uncomfortable, not weird, not “not quite right”, not “doesn’t fit”, but wrong, just plain wrong.
And when I see otherkin refer to their dysphoria as being “like” that of trans people, because their arms aren’t wings and this makes ‘em “uncomfortable” it’s.. well.. it’s insulting to me. Because when I’d catch a glimpse at my chest in the mirror I’d sometimes be hard pressed not to break down into tears, not because I was “uncomfortable” but because the reaction was one of visceral pain and abject horror. Because what I saw wasn’t “not me” but because it was me… but “wrong”.
There’s also this conversation involved that I’ve often seen among kin that I’ve never seen in trans* circles. The “if you could choose your kintype” conversation (or variants there-of). Otherkin that somehow are able to imagine being something other than what they are. There’s never this question among trans* people, the ability to imagine not being trans* or being of another gender identity isn’t there.
I’ve also never seen trans* people change their gender identity the way otherkin sometimes do. You know what I mean, the “kintype of the week” sort of folk. Trans* people can take time to figure themselves out, but a trans* person’s pronoun preference doesn’t change every couple of weeks.
The suggestion, which I’ve seen often on tumblr, that otherkin’s species dysphoria is comparable to a trans* person’s gender dysphoria is therefore similarily ridiculous to me as saying that a broken leg pain is comparable to the pain of an average headache.
Mind you… I could be in the wrong here.
There’s no way for one human being to “know” the pain of another human being.
I’ll admit that much.
It’s just… It feels preposterous to me, probably due to my own experiences, to suggest that the two are alike.
We believe these things, that is a fact… but a lot of people believe things which have been demonstrated false, and if they expect their beliefs to be treated as just as valid as scientifically proven things, then we think they’re being fucking assholes, and idiots to boot.
Not saying our experiences are false, but saying that we “believe” and that belief and fact are not the same thing.
My point was that there are two separate things involved with being otherkin. The experiences, which are simply fact, and the beliefs we develop about those experiences.
I’ve probably spent too much time reading philosophy and psychology, specifically regarding various perception biases and so on, but my mind simply went “but… experience can’t be considered fact…”
That is to say, our perceptions are so flawed, so manipulable, and our memories so much more so, that it’s almost impossible for me to even consider my own memories of experiences in general to be even remotely factually accurate. Which is why I write, a lot. I keep notes, thoughts jotted down, things documented and collected, with as much detail as I can muster at the time.
The only thing I can consider “factual” is that we believe….
‘Course not!
I’m not a troll.
I’ve friends who consider themselves trolls, and honestly, while I usually disapprove of their tactic, I can understand where they come from when they troll Otherkin. They’re all kin themselves, they’re just fucking sick and tired of other otherkin to the point where they can’t help but to prod the worst cesspools of idiocy for laughs, the alternative to them is to just leave anything otherkin, turn their backs, and try to never look back….I find otherkin trolling otherkin to be fairly unhelpful. It really doesn’t change the minds of those so trolled. Usually, it makes them dig in and defend themselves. They become more entrenched in their positions, and point out the evils of their “persecutors”. So I’d say trolling has a net negative effect on the community, even when done by other ‘kin for the “right” reasons.
Which is part and parcel of why I don’t condone that behavior.
I do understand the root cause though, and these folks are generally good people, and don’t tend to troll that often, to be honest, so I don’t forgo the friendship I have with them even if I don’t always agree with them.
Since we’re veering a touch off topic to begin with, I’m reminded of a study that dad brought to my attention. (My biological father, that is, not to be confused with someone I sometimes jokingly refer to as “dad”.)
Apparently, a debate doesn’t necessarily change people’s minds. In fact, the more intelligent a person is, the less likely they are to change their minds through debates, even if information is added, but instead become more entrenched in their already formed opinion, even if invalid. Though this is likely a result of the opinion being formed on some solid ground and so the debate is a way to reinforce the opinion by revisiting what solid ground it’s formed on.
I find minds fascinating…
