Otherkin#Terms and identities

{{Cleanup rewrite|a large percentage of the article content is derived from low quality sources|article|date=May 2024}}

Otherkin is a subculture of people who identify as partially or entirely nonhuman. Some otherkin believe their identity derives from non-physical spiritual phenomena, such as having a nonhuman soul{{cite book |author=Lupa | title=A Field Guide to Otherkin | publisher=Immanion Press | year=2007 | isbn=978-1-905713-07-3 }}{{rp|73–76}}{{Better source needed|date=September 2024}} or reincarnation.{{rp|57–58}} Some otherkin give non-spiritual explanations for themselves, such as unusual psychology or neurodivergence,{{rp|80–86}} or as part of dissociative identity disorder or multiplicity.{{rp|76–79}} Many otherkin say they are physically human.{{cite book |title=The Psychic Vampire Codex: A Manual of Magick and Energy Work |year=2004 |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=1-57863-321-4 |author=Michelle Belanger |author-link=Michelle Belanger |author2=Father Sebastiaan |author2-link=Father Sebastiaan |page=274 |quote=/--/Some feel that their difference is purely spiritual, while others believe there is a genetic difference between themselves and humanity. /--/}}{{rp|66–72}}

The otherkin subculture developed primarily as an online community during the 1990s.{{rp|50}} It had partly grown out of some small groups of people who described themselves as elves during the 1970s and 1980s.{{rp|49}} During the late 2000s, the word has come to be treated as an umbrella term for some other nonhuman identity subcultures.{{rp|107–108}}

Etymology

The word otherkin, in the context of a subculture, was created in July 1990 by participants of the mailing list Elfinkind Digest. It came along with the variant "otherkind," which appeared first in April 1990. It was a more widely inclusive derivative of the mailing list's name. Mailing list participants used both interchangeably for a while.{{rp|50}} Over the following decades, the word "otherkin" entered common usage enough to be later added to the principal historical dictionary of the English language. In 2017, the Oxford English Dictionary defined otherkin as "a person who identifies as non-human, typically as being wholly or partially an animal or mythical being."{{Cite magazine |date=2017-02-24 |title=Oxford Dictionary Adds 'Squad Goals,' 'Yas' and 'Drunk Text' |url=https://time.com/4682491/oxford-dictionary-2017/ |access-date=2023-07-20 |magazine=Time |language=en |archive-date=2023-07-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720215758/https://time.com/4682491/oxford-dictionary-2017/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web| title = Otherkin - definition of otherkin in English Oxford Dictionaries|url = https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/otherkin| date = 2017-04-08 | archiveurl = https://archive.today/20170408121820/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/otherkin | archivedate = 2017-04-08 }}

Coincidentally, the word "otherkin" happens to have also existed in the Middle English language. A dictionary of that language, the Middle English Dictionary (1981), gave a definition of the adjective "otherkin" as "a different or an additional kind of, other kinds of".{{cite book |title=Middle English Dictionary: O.3, Volume 0 |year=1981 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=0-472-01153-7 |author=Sherman M. Kuhn |page=344}} Middle English died out in the late 15th century.{{cite book |last1=Fuster-Márquez |first1=Miguel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQLBqKjxuvAC |title=A Practical Introduction to the History of English |last2=Calvo García de Leonardo |first2=Juan José |publisher=Universitat de València |year=2011 |isbn=9788437083216 |location=[València] |page=21 |access-date=19 December 2017}}

Terms and identities

The term otherkin includes a broad range of identities. Otherkin may identify as creatures of the natural world, mythology, or popular culture.{{cite book |title=Vampires in Their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices |year=2007 |publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide |isbn=978-0-7387-1220-8 |author=Michelle Belanger |author-link=Michelle Belanger |page=25}} Examples include but are not limited to the following: aliens, angels, demons, dragons, elves, fairies, horses, foxes, wolves, sprites, unicorns, and fictional characters.{{cite book |title=Real Energy: Systems, Spirits, And Substances to Heal, Change, And Grow |year=2007 |publisher=Career Press |isbn=978-1-56414-904-6 |author=Isaac Bonewits |author-link=Isaac Bonewits |author2=Phaedra Bonewits |pages=196–197}}{{cite news |title=Elven Like Me: Otherkin Come Out of the Closet |first=Nick |last=Mamatas |authorlink=Nick Mamatas |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |date=February 20, 2001 |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2001-02-13/news/elven-like-me/ |access-date=2021-06-27 |archive-date=2015-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516155609/http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-02-13/news/elven-like-me/ |url-status=live }}{{cite book |first=Christopher |last=Penczak |title=Ascension Magick: Ritual, Myth & Healing for the New Aeon | publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide |pages=416–417; 441 |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7387-1047-1}} Rarer are those who identify as plants, machines, concepts, or natural phenomena such as weather systems.{{Cite news|last=Beusman|first=Callie|date=August 3, 2016|title='I Look at a Cloud and I See It as Me': The People Who Identify As Objects|work=Vice Media|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmbeae/i-look-at-a-cloud-and-i-see-it-as-me-the-people-who-identify-as-objects|url-status=live|access-date=March 18, 2021|archive-date=December 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222211542/https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmbeae/i-look-at-a-cloud-and-i-see-it-as-me-the-people-who-identify-as-objects}}

{{anchor|Therian}}The term "therian" refers to people who spiritually, physically, or psychologically identify as an animal. The species of animal a therian identifies as is called a theriotype. While therians mainly attribute their experiences of therianthropy to either spirituality or psychology, the way in which they consider their therian identity is not a defining characteristic of therianthropy.{{Cite journal |last1=Laycock |first1=Joseph P. |date=2012 |title=We Are Spirits of Another Sort |journal=Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=65–90 | quote = There is a not a finite list of Otherkin "types," but some of the most common include faeries and elves, vampires, therianthropes (individuals who identify with animals and shapeshifters), angels and demons, and "mythologicals" (legendary creatures such as dragons and phoenixes).|doi=10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65}} The identity "transspecies" is used by some.{{Cite journal |last1=Grivell |first1=Timothy |last2=Clegg |first2=Helen |last3=Roxburgh |first3=Elizabeth C. |date=2014 |title=An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Identity in the Therian Community |journal=Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research |publisher=Routledge |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=113–135 |doi=10.1080/15283488.2014.891999 |s2cid=144047707}}

Community

Otherkin communities online largely function without formal authority structures and mostly focus on support and information gathering, often dividing into more specific groups based on kintype.{{cite book |title=Through a Glass Darkly: Collected Research |year=2006 |publisher=Sydney University Press |url=http://ojs-prod.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/SSR/article/view/259/238 |author=Kirby, Danielle |editor=Frances Di Lauro |chapter=Alternative Worlds: Metaphysical questing and virtual community amongst the Otherkin |isbn=1920898549 |access-date=2012-07-09 |archive-date=2014-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102195904/http://ojs-prod.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/SSR/article/view/259/238 |url-status=live }} There are occasional offline gatherings, but the otherkin network is mostly an online phenomenon.

The therian and vampire subcultures are related to the otherkin community, and are considered part of it by most otherkin but are culturally and historically distinct movements of their own, despite some overlap in membership. The word alterhuman exists as an umbrella term which intends to encompass all of these subcultures, as well as others such as plurality.{{Cite web|date=2020-09-25|title=Otherkin are the internet's punchline. They're also our future|url=https://www.dailydot.com/irl/otherkin/|access-date=2020-11-15|website=The Daily Dot|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120180302/https://www.dailydot.com/irl/otherkin/|url-status=live}}

=Symbols=

File:Acute heptagram.svg known as the Elven Star or Fairy Star]]

A common symbol for otherkin is a seven-pointed star, specifically a regular {7/3} heptagram, known as the Elven Star or Fairy Star. Otherkin have used it for decades. For example, one early use of it was by the Silver Elves in an article they published in the summer 1986 issue of Circle Network News.{{rp|52–53}}

=Religious and spiritual beliefs=

Joseph P. Laycock, assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University, considers otherkin beliefs to have a religious dimension, but asserts that "the argument that Otherkin identity claims conform to a substantive definition of religion is problematic". Many otherkin themselves reject the notion that being otherkin is a religious belief.

Some otherkin claim to be especially empathic and attuned to nature. Some claim to be able to shapeshift or "shift" mentally or astrally, meaning that they experience the sense of being in their particular form while not actually changing physically.{{cite book |title=Shadow Magick Compendium: Exploring Darker Aspects of Magickal Spirituality |year=2008 |publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide |isbn=978-0-7387-1318-2 |author=Raven Digitalis |page=178}} Moreover, the claim to be able to physically shift is generally looked down on by the community. They may also describe being able to feel phantom limbs/wings/tails/horns, that coordinates with their kintype.{{Cite journal |last1=Baldwin |first1=Clive |last2=Ripley |first2=Lauren |date=2020-08-07 |title=Exploring Other-Than-Human Identity: A Narrative Approach to Otherkin, Therianthropes, and Vampires |url=https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/qualit/article/view/8147 |journal=Qualitative Sociology Review |language=en |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=8–26 |doi=10.18778/1733-8077.16.3.02 |s2cid=225433670 |issn=1733-8077 |hdl=11089/38377 |hdl-access=free |access-date=2023-06-04 |archive-date=2023-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604215034/https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/qualit/article/view/8147 |url-status=live }} Some otherkin claim to also go through an 'awakening' that alerts them to their kintype.

Many otherkin believe in the existence of a multitude of parallel universes, and their belief in the existence of supernatural or sapient non-human beings is grounded in that idea.

History

=1990s=

A student at the University of Kentucky created the Elfinkind Digest, a mailing list for "elves and interested observers."{{rp|50}} Also in the early 1990s, newsgroups such as alt.horror.werewolves (AHWW){{cite book |title= The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within |author= Chantal Bourgault Du Coudray |publisher= I.B. Tauris |year= 2006 |isbn= 1-84511-158-3}} and alt.fan.dragons on Usenet, which were initially created for fans of these creatures in the context of fantasy and horror literature and films, also developed followings of individuals who identified as mythological beings.{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=D. |year=1996 |title=Werewolves |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-525-65207-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/werewolves00cohe_0/page/104 104] |url=https://archive.org/details/werewolves00cohe_0/page/104 }}

=2000s=

On 15 December 2006, the Minneapolis-based newspaper Star Tribune published an article about dragons that included a section about the otherkin blog Draconic.https://startribune.newspapers.com/image/250367410/ The article took quotes from the mission statement of the blog, written by site founder Chris Dragon.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

=2010s=

On 7 April 2010, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published an article titled "Ibland får jag lust att yla som en varg" (“Sometimes I get the urge to howl like a wolf”) in which Lanina, founder of the Swedish language otherkin and therian forum therian.forumer.com, described the basics of what it is like to be a therian.{{Cite news |last=Lerner |first=Thomas |date=7 April 2010 |title="Ibland får jag lust att yla som en varg" |work=Dagens Nyheter |url=https://www.dn.se/insidan/insidan-hem/ibland-far-jag-lust-att-yla-som-en-varg |url-status=dead |access-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909073826/https://www.dn.se/insidan/insidan-hem/ibland-far-jag-lust-att-yla-som-en-varg |archive-date=9 September 2011}} The article is the first known article to offer a description of "therian" identity by a major European newspaper.

In 2011, the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP), a Canadian-American multidisciplinary research group, expanded the scope of its annual International Furry Survey to include otherkin and therians for the first time.{{Cite web |title=International Furry Survey: Summer 2011 |url=https://furscience.com/research-findings/appendix-1-previous-research/international-summer-2011/ |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=Furscience |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524195004/https://furscience.com/research-findings/appendix-1-previous-research/international-summer-2011/ |url-status=live }}

Research

Daniell Kirby wrote the first academic paper on otherkin in 2008, which served to introduce the community to other academics. Kirby described otherkin as sharing ideas with the neopagan movement, however she called this an "interim classification", and warned that "to construe this group as specifically neo-pagan or techno-pagan obscures the focus of the participants". Subsequent research has treated the otherkin community as having an essentially religious character.{{Cite journal |last=Robertson |first=Venetia Laura Delano |date=2014-01-13 |title=The Law of the Jungle: Self and Community in the Online Therianthropy Movement |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/pome.v14i2.256 |journal=Pomegranate|volume=14 |issue=2 |doi=10.1558/pome.v14i2.256 |doi-broken-date=2024-11-13 |issn=1743-1735}}{{Citation |last=Bador |first=Damien |title=J. R. R. Tolkien et Ferdinand de Saussure : un héritage en fiction |date=2019 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/books.editionsulm.4020 |work=Tolkien et la Terre du Milieu |pages=55–74 |access-date=2023-07-15 |publisher=Éditions Rue d’Ulm|doi=10.4000/books.editionsulm.4020 |isbn=9782728806799 |s2cid=246344364 }}{{Citation |title=Spirituality and self-realisation as 'other-than-human': the Otherkin and Therianthropy communities |date=2016-11-18 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315582283-11 |work=Fiction, Invention and Hyper-reality |pages=54–71 |access-date=2023-07-15 |place=New York |series=Inform series |publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315582283-11 |isbn=9781315582283 }}

From 2016 onwards, otherkin research has taken more of a narrative identity approach, investigating how otherkin come to understand their experiences.{{Cite thesis |last=Bricker |first=Natalie |title=Life Stories of Therianthropes: An Analysis of Nonhuman Identity in a Narrative Identity Model |date=April 25, 2016 |publisher=Lake Forest College Publications |url=https://core.ac.uk/works/27587688 |access-date=July 15, 2023 |archive-date=July 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715145116/https://core.ac.uk/works/27587688 |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |last1=Baldwin |first1=Clive |last2=Ripley |first2=Lauren |date=2020-08-07 |title=Exploring Other-Than-Human Identity: A Narrative Approach to Otherkin, Therianthropes, and Vampires |url=https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/qualit/article/view/8147 |journal=Qualitative Sociology Review |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=8–26 |doi=10.18778/1733-8077.16.3.02 |s2cid=225433670 |issn=1733-8077 |hdl=11089/38377 |hdl-access=free |access-date=2023-06-04 |archive-date=2023-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604215034/https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/qualit/article/view/8147 |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |last=Shea |first=Stephanie C. |date=July 2020 |title=Exploring Other-Than-Human Identity: Religious Experiences in the Life-Story of a Machinekin |journal=Religions |language=en |volume=11 |issue=7 |pages=354 |doi=10.3390/rel11070354 |issn=2077-1444 |doi-access=free }} Reviewing prior research, Stephanie C. Shea criticizes the prevailing conception of the otherkin subculture as being, or being alike to, either a religion or a spirituality.{{Cite thesis |last=Shea |first=Stephanie |title=IDENTITY AND BELIEF: An Analysis of the Otherkin Subculture |date=June 2019 |degree=MA |publisher=University of Amsterdam |url=https://www.academia.edu/43287628 |access-date=2023-07-15 |archive-date=2023-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820200610/https://www.academia.edu/43287628 |url-status=live }}

In four surveys of furries (with a sample size of 4338, 1761, 951 and 1065 respectively), depending on the sample, between 25% and 44% responded that they consider themselves to be "less than 100% human", compared to 7% of a sample of 802 non-furries surveyed at furry conventions.{{Cite book |last1=Plante |first1=Courtney N. |url=https://furscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Fur-Science-Final-pdf-for-Website_2017_10_18.pdf |title=FurScience! A Summary of Five Years of Research from the International Anthropomorphic Research Project |last2=Reysen |first2=Stephen |last3=Roberts |first3=Sharon E. |last4=Gerbasi |first4=Kathleen C. |date=2016 |publisher=FurScience |isbn=978-0-9976288-0-7 |location=Waterloo, Ontario |access-date=2023-12-04 |archive-date=2022-04-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421044257/https://furscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Fur-Science-Final-pdf-for-Website_2017_10_18.pdf |url-status=live |page=78}}

Public perception and media coverage

Outside viewers may have varying opinions about people who identify as otherkin, such as considering them psychologically dysfunctional. Reactions often range from disbelief to aggressive antagonism, especially online.{{cite book |title=The Vampyre Almanac 2006 |year=2006 |publisher=Lulu |isbn=1-4116-6084-6 |author=Th'Elf |editor=Sebastiaan van Houten |editor-link=Sebastiaan van Houten |chapter=Otherkin}}

Otherkin have been called one of the world's most bizarre subcultures,{{By whom|date=January 2025}}{{cite book |title=Essentials of Marketing Management |page=48 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2010 |author=Geoffrey Lancaster |author2=Lester Massingham |isbn=978-0-415-55346-9}} and a religious movement (or a "quasi-religion"{{cite book |author=Kirby, Danielle |url=https://archive.org/details/exploringreligio0000unse_q7d1 |title=Exploring Religion And The Sacred in A Media Age |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7546-6527-4 |editor1=Christopher Deacy |chapter=From Pulp Fiction to Revealed Text: A Study of the Role of the Text in the Otherkin Community |editor2=Elisabeth Arweck |url-access=registration}}{{Page needed|date=August 2024}}) that "in some of its forms, largely only exists on the Internet".Dawson, Lorne L.; Hennebry, Jenna. "New Religions and The Internet: Recruiting in A New Public Space". Essay published in several books:

Lori G. Beaman. Religion and Canadian Society: Traditions, Transitions, and Innovations. Canadian Scholars' Press, 2006. {{ISBN|1-55130-306-X}}
Lorne L. Dawson; Douglas E. Cowan. Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet. Routledge, 2004. {{ISBN|0-415-97021-0}}
Lorne L. Dawson. Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader. John Wiley & Sons, 2003. {{ISBN|1-4051-0181-4}} Although otherkin beliefs deviate from the definition of "religion", they share the primary interest in the paranormal.{{Page needed|date=August 2024}}

Joseph P. Laycock argues that the otherkin community serves existential and social functions commonly associated with religion, and regards it as an alternative nomos that sustains alternate ontologies.Joseph P. Laycock. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65 “We Are Spirits of Another Sort”: Ontological Rebellion and Religious Dimensions of the Otherkin Community] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613125527/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65 |date=2020-06-13 }}. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. Vol. 15, No. 3 (February 2012), pp. 65–90. University of California Press Professor Jay Johnston feels that nonhuman identity "is perhaps not so much pathological as political".{{Cite book |last=Johnston |first=Jay |title=Animal Death |chapter=On having a furry soul: transpecies identity and ontological indeterminacy in Otherkin subcultures |date=2013 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gxxpvf.23 |pages=293–306 |editor-last=Johnston |editor-first=Jay |access-date=2023-08-17 |publisher=Sydney University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1gxxpvf.23 |jstor=j.ctt1gxxpvf.23 |isbn=978-1-74332-023-5 |editor2-last=Probyn-Rapsey |editor2-first=Fiona |archive-date=2023-08-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817120553/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gxxpvf.23 |url-status=live }}

According to Nick Mamatas, they represent a dissatisfaction with the modern world, and they have taken fairy lore out of its original context.{{Update inline|date=September 2022|?=yes|reason=Reaction is from February 2001, and the source treats otherkin as a monolith. I found no source claiming Mamatas believes his reaction still applies broadly to otherkin today. Is it still relevant after so many years, or should the reaction be removed?}}