Otherkin

Otherkin are a subculture of people who identify as partially or entirely nonhuman. Some otherkin believe their identity derives from spiritual phenomena (such as possessing a nonhuman soul, reincarnation, or the will of God), ancestry, symbolism, or metaphor. Others attribute it to unusual psychology or neurodivergence and do not hold spiritual beliefs on the subject.
The otherkin subculture grew out of online communities for people identifying as elves in the early-to-mid-1990s. The word has since come to be treated as an umbrella term for a number of nonhuman identity subcultures which developed around the same time.
Etymology
"Otherkin,” as an adjective, was defined in the Middle English Dictionary (1981) as "a different or an additional kind of, other kinds of". In 2017, the Oxford English Dictionary defined otherkin as "of another kind; other, different."
The earliest recorded use of the term otherkin, in the context of a subculture, appeared in July 1990 and the variant otherkind was reported as early as April 1990. The word "otherkind" was initially coined from the word "elfinkind", to refer to non-elf others who joined the communities. The terms "otherkin" and "otherkind" have since come to encompass a wide variety of unique non-human identities.
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. Examples include but are not limited to the following: aliens, angels, demons, dragons, elves, fairies, foxes, horses, sprites, unicorns, wolves, and fictional characters. Rarer are those who identify as plants, machines, concepts, or natural phenomena such as weather systems.
The term "therian" refers to people who identify as an animal of the natural world. The species of animal a therian identifies as is called a theriotype.
Community
With regard to their online communities, otherkin largely function without formal authority structures and mostly focus on support and information gathering, often dividing into more specific groups based on kintype. 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.
Symbols
The earliest symbol used to denote nonhuman identity was a regular {7/3} heptagram, known as the Elven Star or Fairy Star. It was designed by the Elf Queen's Daughters and first published in the Green Egg newsletter in March 1976.
Experiences
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. 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. Some otherkin claim to also go through an 'awakening' that alerts them to their kintype.
Some otherkin experience a sense of unease and unhappiness due to the mismatch between their physical body and that of their kintype or theriotype. A controversial but frequently made analogy is to gender dysphoria, leading to the terms trans-species or trans-speciesism and species dysphoria.
Beliefs
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.
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.
History
1990s
The oldest Internet resource for otherkin is the Elfinkind Digest, a mailing list started in 1990 by a student at the University of Kentucky for "elves and interested observers". Also in the early 1990s, newsgroups such as alt.horror.werewolves (AHWW) 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.
On 6 February 1995, a document titled the "Elven Nation Manifesto" was posted to Usenet, including the groups alt.pagan and alt.magick. Enough people contacted the original author of the Elven Nation post in good faith for a planned mailing list to spin off from it.
Rich Dansky, who worked on the development of Changeling: The Dreaming, said that after the game's release in 1995 the darkfae-l listserv had "a rampaging debate... over how the folks at White Wolf had gotten so much of their existence right", adding, "Finally, one of the list members came to the obvious conclusion that we'd gotten it right because we ourselves were in fact changelings." Dansky denied being non-human.
From 3–11 April 1996, a week-long gathering of therianthropes called EuroHowl ’96 was hosted in Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom. It was the first known otherkin gathering outside of the United States.
2000s
On 6 August 2003, the Russian therianthrope community hosted their first official gathering Howl 2003 (Вой 2003) by the shores of Lake Onega in Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia, Russia.
On 18 December 2005, the Minneapolis-based newspaper Star Tribune published an article about dragons that included a section about the otherkin blog Draconic. The article quoted from the mission statement of the blog, written by site founder Chris Dragon, making it the first known description of “otherkin” to be published in a major newspaper.
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's like to be a therian. 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.
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". Despite this, much subsequent research treated the otherkin community as having an essentially religious character.
From 2016 onwards, otherkin research has taken more of a narrative identity approach, investigating how otherkin come to understand their experiences. Revewing 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.
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.
Otherkin have been called one of the world's most bizarre subcultures, and a religious movement (and a "quasi-religion") that "in some of its forms, largely only exists on the [Internet]". Although otherkin beliefs deviate from the definition of "religion", they share the primary interest in the paranormal. 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. He feels that the negative public reaction to the subculture may be because of how these beliefs challenge the predominant social worldview. Professor Jay Johnston similarly feels that nonhuman identity "is perhaps not so much pathological as political".
According to Nick Mamatas, they represent a dissatisfaction with the modern world, and they have taken fairy lore out of its original context.
See also
A Field Guide to Otherkin
Changeling
Clinical lycanthropy
Multiplicity (subculture)
Star people (New Age)
Therians
Walk-in
Tulpa
References
Further reading
“Why be human when you can be otherkin?” University of Cambridge, Research published 16 Jul 2016
"Otherkin are the internet’s punchline. They’re also our future". The Daily Dot, article published September 26th 2020
External links
Internet culture
Spirituality
Subcultures
1990s neologisms
Collective identity
Reincarnation
Mythological creatures
New religious movements