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frameacloudWarnings: Profanity. Linked article includes references to drugs and sex.
Kotaku Australia, a news blog focused on games and gaming culture, today posted an article (Hernandez, “My weekend at a furry convention”) describing a visit to a Furcon 2013, a convention of the furry fandom held in San Jose. Journalist Patricia Hernandez doesn’t say that there were any otherkin there, but she talks about otherkin for a few paragraphs anyway. Excerpt:
Some of the information given here about otherkin is inaccurate. For example, otherkin are not a sub-group of the furry fandom. Historically, the communities had separate origins than one another. If the otherkin community originated in a fandom, then it arguably would have been that for The Lord of the Rings, judging by adoption of concepts from J. R. R. Tolkien in the writings of elven groups during the 1970s.
On the other hand, it is true that the part of the otherkin community active on the blogging site Tumblr.com use the language of Tumblr’s version of social justice. Some of them controversially frame their identity concepts in terms that are similar to that of the transgender community. Still, this generalization doesn’t apply to all otherkin, even of those who are on Tumblr.
Later, at the convention, illustrator Egypt Urnash talks to Hernandez about transgender people in the furry fandom. The topic of otherkin comes up again in connection with that idea.
Urnash says that just as transgender people are now able to transition, future technologies might offer options for people who want to become physically other than human. Again comparing otherkin to transgender people, Hernandez considers that there may be more to it than the appropriation earlier described by her friend.
Other than this, the Kotaku journalist visited a fursuit parade and some parties. She also questioned stereotypes about the furry fandom as perpetuated in the gaming community, examining demographic data about the fandom.
Source
Patricia Hernandez. “My weekend at a furry convention.” Kotaku Australia. 2013-01-25. http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/01/my-weekend-at-a-furry-convention
Kotaku Australia, a news blog focused on games and gaming culture, today posted an article (Hernandez, “My weekend at a furry convention”) describing a visit to a Furcon 2013, a convention of the furry fandom held in San Jose. Journalist Patricia Hernandez doesn’t say that there were any otherkin there, but she talks about otherkin for a few paragraphs anyway. Excerpt:
“We [the journalist and her friend Daphny] start talking all about furries on the way to San Jose, eventually landing on the subject of otherkin — this smaller sect of the furry fandom that believe that their bodies do not match who/what they actually are, and ‘who they actually are’ tends to be a mythical creature. They might say that they’re actually a dragon, as an example.
“When people make fun of Tumblr denizens, otherkin are often brought up as this ridiculous group of people that encompass the worst Tumblr has to offer — social justice (they believe in ‘human privilege’ and that the otherkin are highly oppressed), people pretending to be stuff they’re not (close ties with role playing and fanfiction in this sense, also denigrated), and teenagers that are likely highly confused about their identity all in one package.
“Daphny is not a fan.
“‘Tumblr is a bunch of confused teenagers and we like to pretend we don’t all know what that’s like or as if we haven’t been through that ourselves,’ she [Daphny] said, ‘but the thing about otherkin is that they they [sic] appropriate trans narrative. They claim to have dysphoria, and that their bodies don’t match with who they think they are, but the stuff they think they are — dragons, mythical creatures, and so on — don’t even exist.’
“This sounds wild to me, but if I know little about furries, I know even less about otherkin.”
Some of the information given here about otherkin is inaccurate. For example, otherkin are not a sub-group of the furry fandom. Historically, the communities had separate origins than one another. If the otherkin community originated in a fandom, then it arguably would have been that for The Lord of the Rings, judging by adoption of concepts from J. R. R. Tolkien in the writings of elven groups during the 1970s.
On the other hand, it is true that the part of the otherkin community active on the blogging site Tumblr.com use the language of Tumblr’s version of social justice. Some of them controversially frame their identity concepts in terms that are similar to that of the transgender community. Still, this generalization doesn’t apply to all otherkin, even of those who are on Tumblr.
Later, at the convention, illustrator Egypt Urnash talks to Hernandez about transgender people in the furry fandom. The topic of otherkin comes up again in connection with that idea.
“‘Furry is a safe space to experiment,’ she [Urnash] recalled, ‘You will see MTF [people who are male to female transgender], and they don’t “pass” in real life but their (furry) friends don’t give a fuck.’
“‘Who is to say we won’t have a future with malleable bodies?’
“Not looking like who you really are is a familiar experience for those in the fandom, after all. Inevitably we begin talking about otherkin here, and unlike Daphny, Egypt feels sympathetic.
“‘We [trans folk] are the lucky ones, we can find ways to fix ourselves. 100 years ago a man or a woman couldn’t do much about wanting to be something else. What about in the future, a transhuman future? Who is to say we won’t have a future with malleable bodies?’
“What if, in other words, the otherkin would be able to rectify their dysphoria? Wings and other such fantastical body parts aren’t possible…now. Will we look back on otherkin and think differently of them in the future if/when malleable bodies are possible?”
Urnash says that just as transgender people are now able to transition, future technologies might offer options for people who want to become physically other than human. Again comparing otherkin to transgender people, Hernandez considers that there may be more to it than the appropriation earlier described by her friend.
Other than this, the Kotaku journalist visited a fursuit parade and some parties. She also questioned stereotypes about the furry fandom as perpetuated in the gaming community, examining demographic data about the fandom.
Patricia Hernandez. “My weekend at a furry convention.” Kotaku Australia. 2013-01-25. http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/01/my-weekend-at-a-furry-convention
