#we are nonhumans and we are real

[daybreaksys]

[NIMONA IS CERTIFIED GOOD NONHUMAN REPRESENTATION]

[Nimona is certified good Nonhuman representation]

I know you guys have zero ground to understand how much of a saying we have on this matter, as a system who walked through these events that were simplified in the film thrice, I tried not to see too much of our own system history in this story to prevent triggers, but it was meant to represent us, it simply is there.

We are working on a longer post to explain it, mostly our own history. Not everyone wants to read about that, even though it is really, really important, for us, and we believe it is for everyone to know as well.

For a small spoiler: this film is simplified, puffy-fied and aimed for kids, we hope one day we can direct a film about antinonhumanity and our system history aimed at adults.

(Also it treats the m-word as the slur it is)

But for now this is the lighter, trigger-free, positive version. We've been there, we've done that, we are Nimona, please share.

//TW for the film: suicide, antinonhumanity//

#nimona #we are not analogies #we are nonhumans and we are real #netflix #nonhuman #films #shapeshifter #media representation #nonhuman community #representation #plural community #plural #plural system #movie recommendation #film recommendations #pink

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Emotional scene from Muppets Star Trek.

#star trek #muppets #data tng #picard #tng #kermit #fan art #next gen #okay so like… #this is obviously mostly intended as a joke but also #human is arbitrary #especially in star trek where every other planet seems to have its own sapient nonhuman species #human is fucking arbitrary #data holds humanhood as the ideal because he was built by humans #but also because the qualities that are most often used to define him as 'lesser' are qualities that humans especially seem to prize #nobody's tries to claim that vulcans aren't real people because they don't feel emotion #or that ferengi don't show enough empathy to qualify #we don't get any betazoids going around saying that true personhood is defined by how good you are at mindreading #in a world where the enterprise was crewed by muppets #and data genuinely was the closest thing to a human onboard #Measure Of A Man would have been about Picard trying to prove that you can't have someone dismantled #just because they can't sing or travel by map

[pshiftcultureis]

p- shifting culture is most of your life desperately wanting people to believe you, and going out of our way to be nice to them just so maybe they will take me seriously, and then realizing that i don’t need the validation from others.

we are valid

we are real

we are not “crazy”

and i love to be me

.

#physical shifter #physical nonhumanity #p shifter #physical shifters #p shift #physical shifting community #p shifting #physical shifting #p shifters #(Also please let us know anyone if we are using incorrect tags) #one of our good friends went through a similar thing where they changed themselves so much to fit in only to lose themselves in the process #we don't need outward validation to know our experiences are true to us #(they recovered thankfully btw) #we love to be a shifter it's been something we would never want to lose #honestly at this point we don't even care if people think we are crazy our life won't even cross paths with theirs #thank you for this confession ♡ #thirteenth confession #p-shifting culture is #real supernaturals #real shifters #real werewolves

[lethally-hedonistic]

Hey I've lately seen a lot of people complaining about how the alterhuman/otherkin/Lycanthropy/ and so so so much more communities are never represented right so my goal is to fix that! I'm a snow leopard therian, questioning lycanthrope and conceptkin. I'm asking around about one specific thing right now, if you were to see more writing about our communities, what would you like to be represented more? ^^

hi, so!

I wanted to take my time answering to make sure I actually think this through first, since my identity is one of the chronically underreprested in the community. why's that, you ask? well, cause it doesn't have a name. and it's not being questioning. it also can't have a name, because, well.... that's impossible, is it?

what I mean by that: there's some of us whose identities are vague. who can never seem to settle on anything, because no label ever feels Right. identities that one could write ten essays about, but never sum it up in a word or two. I realize I'm not being very specific, but that's kinda the point, is it not?

I'm alterhuman. I'm nonhuman. I don't have any other labels to myself. Sure, I can take more, but.... on a core level, I'm just alterhuman. I experience humanity differently, and that's the main point. Why doesn't really matter, because all of us will have our own reasons.

Sure, I flicker, I have a canine identity going on, feline sometimes, sometimes robot, even fictional at other times. But I'm never all of these things all of the time. I've called myself a vast array of things over the years, because my identity is everfluid. It shifts, and it changes over the years. It's not a stable thing and that's okay too.

And what I'm trying to say here is, I'd like to see identities which are... Unstable. Identities that change, that don't have these moments of "this explains everything", or "need to seek out the right term". Some of us are 'just' alterhuman, and I want to see that talked about too.

#also yes I realize there's a term called “othervague” but i really don't like the way it's explained and presented cause it always feels #like it's somehow a bit less. like you're otherkin but you just haven't figured out exactly what you're kin with or are still questioning #sometimes you're just something entirely else there's no binaries in the community we lay completely elsewhere #I'm not even sure if I worded any of this correctly it's such a difficult topic to talk about #but the tldr: unstable identities that change over time and aren't treated as less real #nonhuman #alterhuman

[lesbiangiratina]

Oh, also. The people on the thing about Testament's gender are wrong. They purposely made it as Testament found out about themself being nonbinary when they went off from their ire and settled down, basically... they flipped the transphobic narratives within Testament's origin. Also giving a focus on their humanity...

The entire point of it is that Testament realized they were nonbinary when they regained their humanity, after they made their peace with Kliff being death, when they settled with the couple that raised Dizzy, which is funny since he also raided Dizzy alongside Johnny... the whole point was to take out the: "Inhuman character is nonbinary." and "Character gets their body forcefully altered with an emphasis on genitalia." which with Testament's change of attitude I guess they also wanted to take out the: "Trans character is evil and their transness is linked to their evilness."

Guilty Gear is a very wild series, messy in general... but there was very honest attempt to rectify the wrongs they had made with Testament, just like how they did recently with Bridget and they kind of did with Venom on Xrd.

Oh yeah totally! I just thought the way they were arguing about it was kinda funny lol. I can tell the writers intentions with testament’s gender, or at least their Blatant Androgyny, were pretty clear since the beginning, they were just a victim of localization and with a side of just… being written in the late 90’s-early 2000’s. I dont even think there was any real malicious intent behind it, but its still really nice to see them bring testament back and fix things up a bit. Same for bridget! I dont know enough yet to say if theres other characters who need Fixing, but i hope they just keep doing this with the dlc characters. It might justify the price a bit more lol.

#i got into a lot of arguments abt crona soul eater as a kid. this isnt my first nonhuman nonbinary psuedo-villain rodeo #and now we have official they/them crona too… what a time to be alive <3 #i was just talking abt this with a friend the other night but it makes me so happy thinking about people whove loved testament #for years maybe even decades #and now theyre in strive getting the respect they deserve and just happy living their best life!! im happy for these people. for real #asks #gg

[nomaishuttle]

anither thjng abt parasocial marketing is like. i am nobodys number one fan LMAOO ik i jokingly say like Im daft punk discoverys number one fan and yk i do love it. but i donot think im in the top 0.00000000000001% of fans simply bc like. i think im insanely normal abt celebrities and ive seen how some ppl abt abt celebrities

#my thoughts on celebrities literally range from like. Extremely bad if theyre a sex pest to just like. idk he seems fine ^°^ <- shruggie. #there are no celebrities on this earth who id like. Die for ykwim. NDBTJFNFN. like ultimately in the class war ill kill every celebrity idc #redistribute the wealth my brother. but like i have 0 thoughts abt like omg i bet wed be FRIENDS in real life ! bc idk these ppl #and rly if we met in real life we wouldnt have anything to talk abt bc im not and never will be obscenely wealthy. ykwim #like theres nothing relatable to me abt celebrities no matter how much they try to be like Omg teehee i stub my toe sometimes ! #like... ok. anyways #like i dont see them as nonhuman or as inherently superior to us peasants or whatever. i hust see them as humans who live such a charmed #life im never going to be able to actually relate to them. obviously ik there r downsides to being a celebrity but even the downsides are #something im never going to experience Saur yeah basically. idk parasocialism judt doesnt work on me im just like She seems like a fine #person and i enjoy her work. and thats the gist of it #obv like conversationally i on occasion will be like Okay britney spears is legit my best friend #but thats entirely jokes FJNFJFNGJG #idk. basically idc abt celebrities is the gist kf it

[dizzygrizzlies]

no, you don’t need to wear your mask/tail to school.

i wish young nonhumans didn’t feel compelled to be ‘out’ at school, especially when it’s a dangerous environment. i keep seeing posts along the lines of “wore my tail/mask to school! people berated/teased/put their hands on me, but it’s ok”.

no, it’s not.

like.. i understand a mask or a tail can be a very validating thing for some people. and i’m not saying NO ONE should wear them at schools. but i just keep watching this mounting trend of young therians insinuating you need some physical accessory or to do quads to be a ‘real’ nonhuman. and then it leads to things like this and it makes me incredibly sad.

i’d known i was alterhuman since late elementary school, actually. it’s a huge part of my life even now, years after graduation. there wasn’t a reason for it to be brought up, so i never did. it was a closely guarded secret to me, but it didn’t feel like a weight i was carrying. i always thought “no one needs to know i’m an animal if it jeopardizes my safety. so, oh well”.

“but, how will people know that i’m an animal?”

they probably will. they probably already do.

i was the designated ‘animal’ person my entire school career despite not ever handling animals in front of anyone. if there were pets, lost wild animals (baby rabbits, birds, lizards), or sometimes even loose livestock that got onto campus, it was always me who had to go tend to them.

everyone wanted me in their group in environmental science. if a project called for animal illustrations, the same thing would happen. it was certainly weird because i was also a ‘weird kid’ and not especially desired to be around outside of that, lol. but i was never harassed for it. it made me feel very validated, actually.

i had fun during gym running and fiercely destroying the opposing team in field hockey. i taught everyone which plants were okay to forage (and we snacked on them when we had to sit on the lower field for practice). every day i was hyperaware of the limbs i had that weren’t quite there. friends noticed my ears twitch and my nose wiggle at certain stimuli. i felt nice walking on two legs. i felt nice because i felt animal and i didn’t have to prove it to anyone.

really like… just do what makes you happy. i admire the bravery it takes to so earnestly wear your identity on your sleeve like that. that’s very impressive. however, there is NO obligation to do anything like that if you understand that there will be a reaction that poses a threat to you.

i want our kids to be safe, too. you don’t have to feel dysphoria over being discreet. sometimes it’s the safest option. and sometimes, that can be really fun, too.

study everything you can about your ‘type. wikipedia and animalia are good resources. ramble about them to anyone who will listen. jokingly refer to yourself as one in friend spaces. wear discreet clothes that remind you of your ‘type. find a nice private place outside where you can run and explore and look at plants and smell the air and feel like yourself. but by no means do you have to prove yourself. you know you.

#txt #therianthropy #therian #otherkin #alterhumanity #alterhuman #nonhuman #dogkin #wolfkin #foxkin #dragonkin #catkin #i forget what most common ‘types are LOL #quadrobics #therian mask

[copperrust]

genuinely every single expression of nonhumanity is so beautiful

i love therians and otherkin spiritual psychological or otherwise

i love otherhearteds and copinglinks

i love physical nonhumans of all kinds including zooanthropes endels and holotheres

i love alterhumans

i love real-life and fictional theriotypes

i love animal-related xenogenders and neopronouns

i love connecting to nonhumanity or being nonhuman due to neurodivergence

i love nonhumans due to delusions or trauma

i love furries and i love people who feel like their true selves wearing a fursuit

i love pups and horseplayers and queer people whose sexuality is connected to their nonhumanity

i love people who are fully 100% nonhuman and i love people whose nonhumanity is wearing cat ears and a tail

i love puppygirls and catboys and werewolves

i love people who connect nonhumanity with them being outside traditional gender norms

i love how making a human-lion was one of the first product of artistry ever made by humans (and the oldest statue that we discovered)

(this is mostly animal-focused but i love people connected to flora and still life and machines too and everything related to that)

we see ourselves in everything around us as if it were our reflection

#nonhuman #nonhumanity #alterhuman #otherkin #therian #theriantropy #furry #queer #catgender #puppygender #neurodiversity #otherhearted #copinglink #werewolf #xenogender #neopronouns #psychological nonhuman #spiritual nonhuman #physical nonhuman

[river-taxbird]

"Isn't it weird when an anthro dog furry meets a real dog? How does that make sense? How can both exist? Wouldn't it make them feel weird?"

Well humans are apes, right? If you asked an anthro creature that question they would probably counter with the old "That's like asking if humans evolved from apes why are there still apes."

Does being around apes make us feel weird? That's actually an interesting question, because when I have seen them at the zoo I have often got a weird feeling. Their expressions and body language are way more dynamic than most nonhuman animals. Of course that's just what you'd expect from our closest living relatives, and research shows we may have a genetic memory of the meaning of apes' common body language.

I think it's probably their expressiveness messing with our expectations around body language that can cause us to have a weird feeling around nonhuman apes, but I think it's a good idea to explore that kind of feeling, and maybe it can even help us understand our place in the world and build empathy with nonhuman animals. Look at this! Those are just some guys! It's just we came down from the trees on two legs, and they came down on all fours.

Other posts have said it but genuinely internalizing that I am just an animal and have the needs of one is helping my mental health and understanding of myself.

#anthropology #furry #apes #bonobos #humour #primates #primatology #animals

[pshiftcultureis]

Pshifter culture is being scared you're crazy despite knowing you're not due to your real experiences but others doubt you do much

.

#physical shifter #real supernaturals #non human #nonhuman #p shift #p shifter #p shifters #p shifting #p-shifter culture is #p-shifting culture is #p-shift culture is #physical shifting #physical nonhumanity #physicalshiftingcommunity #physical shifting community #We feel this so much #even after shifting for a long time now we still question our sanity #fourth confession

[dathen]

A while ago a friend of mine got into an argument about Frankenstein and was told that the Creature “can’t be judged by human standards” so nothing he did could be held against him. If a human did all those things, sure, it would be evil, but since the Creature isn’t human, then the blame has to land elsewhere.

And good god I can’t imagine a worse way to miss the point. Mary Shelley is SO vocal about her feelings on society and justice and structural failures in the story, and draws the reader’s sympathy to the Creature despite the blood on his hands. She draws attention to how he met neglect and cruelty in his formative years and how this directly led to him turning to violence and cruelty himself.

She frames it as a heartbreaking tragedy that makes you yearn for a more forgiving society with more support for those who are struggling. The heightened drama and fantasy of it takes you by the hand and leads you to a very real-world application: What if a human was neglected and raised in cruelty, but then got caught up in crime, even violence? What if we offered them understanding, what if we did our best to prevent the cruelty and neglect in the first place?

Imagine throwing all that out the window because it all comes down to human vs nonhuman, as as soon as the framework changes it’s “well of COURSE if a human did that they’d be evil, but we can’t judge the Creature by human standards.”

#frankenstein #RATTLES THE BARS OF MY CAGE

[nyctohyloph0bia]

Honestly y'all need to chill with the "nonhumaness needs to be involuntary!"

The only reason you're saying that is due to wanting to present 'valid' enough for outsiders. It's not a choice so they won't bully you, like they do furries or other people.

And I hear you cry "but KFF!". KFF aren't nonhuman, they just relate. If someone comes over to me and says "I choose to be nonhuman today, I am nonhuman no matter what other ppl tell me. I genuinely identify as nonhuman." That isn't KFF, that's a nonhuman.

Truly, I'll just go "woah...that's so based". Because truly, what are our differences? We both genuinely identify as nonhuman....and yeah that's about it.

You might say, "they don't experience shifts!" There's nonhumans that don't experience shifts. And there's humans that experience shifts, we call it the "shifter's disease". Basically when a full human researches or is around nonhumans and begins feeling phantoms or feeling nonhuman, despite not being nonhuman. So it isn't exclusive to us.

"They don't have noemata!" There's nonhumans that don't have noemata.

"They don't suffer species dysphoria." Theres nonhumans that don't experience species dysphoria. Also cool transmed rethoric.

"They weren't born with it!" There's nonhumans that become nonhuman later on in life.

"They didn't wish their whole life to be a different species!" And? I can imagine there's some nonhumans that didn't even realize they wanted to be/were a different species.

"It's disrespectful to nonhumans that suffer due to their identity!" Another cool transmed rethoric. It's only disrespectful to you because you're up your own ass and believe that anyone who didn't suffer like you did, that didn't have it as hard as you isn't as valid as yourself. But what you don't realize is by having that belief you are excluding such a large portion of your community.

There's involuntary nonhumans who don't suffer from their identity at all and they're still part of our community.

The line between voluntary and involuntary can get blurry very quickly and hard to describe. But truly, you are no one to say who can use a label that rightfully describes their experiences.

Get real and truly think about why you're so upset at someone having a good faith identity.

#so upset about this shit lol #alterhuman #therian #otherkin #therianthropy #kitty cat rambles #info #nonhuman

[coyotesinew]

I want to see more portrayals of raw nonhumanity.

I want us to talk about ALL aspects of nonhumanity. we can talk about wanting to play fight, to chase prey, to long for missing extremities, but we should also be talking about wanting to roll in filth, wanting to mark your territory, urges to eat your young, and everything else that's "gross" even if it’s uncomfortable. Nonhumanity is weird and gross, it makes you want to do things that humans don't do. We don't exist to be palatable images of "human who identifies as an animal (but only in the cute ways).”

There is a unintentionally upheld standard that you have to make an image out of your identity, it HAS to be pretty and digestible for other people, your nonhumanity MUST to be organized and palatable. it can be "edgy" but it can't be too weird otherwise you're too weird. Why bind your existence to an idea of normalcy? Why stifle yourself in order to conform to the standards of a world that will never accept you? Why strive to be accepted by those that will never truly listen to you?

You are more than aesthetic photos and gear and silly posts!!! You are full of depth, you are a grotesque experience and you are made of blood and bones and guts and thoughts and instincts, and all of that should be treated with as much weight as it can be! You are allowed to be “Off.”

Interrogate your own discomfort around your identity, let yourself be okay with the things that are uncomfortable!!! You should relish in your own nonhumanity, you should wholeheartedly project the nasty and weird and angry parts of existence as an animal, they are just as real and as tangible and beautiful as your collars or your masks or your tails or anything else you hold dear. yeesh!

#all this to say; you don’t need to conform #you don’t need to make sure your identity is pretty and aesthetic #there’s no rules about being an animal #you aren’t going to win over humans by dampening or hiding parts of yourself and even if your goal isn’t to appeal to humans #you are only hurting yourself by not embracing who you are and treating all of your instincts and experiences with respect #this especially applies to canid identities because I feel they are excessively turned into an aesthetic which is weird to me lol. #canine therian #therian #therianthropy #otherkin #nonhuman #dog therian #therian shifting #therian community #alterhuman community #alterhumanity #nonhumanity #endelity #otherkin community

[moiderahart]

The Fires of Raven, or Why I Side-eye anyone who claims it's the "good ending".

I keep on seeing takes about how the Fires of Raven ending is the Actual Good Ending and not gonna lie it makes me kind of sick. Partially because "Wow do you literally just believe the first thing people tell you? No wonder propaganda works as well as it does."

The other is that as far as I'm concerned, Coral is a People. Not human by any means but personhood is hardly the kind of thing that's exclusive to humanity. If it can communicate, if it has a culture, if it has agency and emotion, then it is a people. It's basically the concept of a nonhuman person. Coral is depicted as having clear sentience. And at that point I think it's essentially just a people.

It's why I think the idea of AI becoming self aware is one that we're not prepared for, not because of paperclip factories or skynet (which is an inane fear as far as I'm concerned) but because we will have made a person, and we're not ready for that ethical question. Not by a longshot.

The initial Fires of Ibis weren't a spontaneous Coral event. It was a deliberate act; it's why Walter brings up the story in Chapter 4. The story of the man who burned it all who, as we come to learn in the logs, was Professor Nagai. Coral Collapse is a consequence with a scary name but it's one that is not defined; we don't know what Coral Collapse actually entails.

This isn't a mistake on Fromsoft's part; it's a deliberate choice. That ambiguity is part of the point. The lack of a known quantity to Coral Collapse is a big driver of the fear behind it. It's a fear great enough to cause Nagai to burn the stars, in favor of the world that is.

And yet the world that is was also the one that lobotomized C4 621.

The world that is has a company like Arquebus wage war against civilians. Send them to re-education camps which, if you know anything about real world re-education camps, you would know that they are an abomination, and there is no exception on Rubicon.

This is a world that saw Rubicon, a planet of endless possibility and natural beauty, and built towering, continent-sized oil rigs to suck it dry.

Coral was allowed to live for eons before Humanity fucking colonized it. Coral was allowed to grow, to exist, to evolve into its current form until humanity began to shove it into a container.

And Coral was allowed to live before one of the colonizers decided a people was too dangerous to let live based on a chance.

This sounds like an excuse that I have seen too many times.

#armored core 6 #armored core #armored core 6 spoilers #fires of raven #ending spoilers #colonialism #space colonialism #or spolonialism #if you will

[calware]

Can I ask you for what it is about Hal you like so much you based your username on him? I think he's a good character tho he was never a favorite of mine so I am curious

1. i am a big fan of robots (/robot adjacent things such as AI) on like... an aesthetic + thematic level :)

i like the look of machinery and one day i hope to be artistically strong enough to make really cool and complex robot illustrations + designs [shoutout to everyone who gives him glowing circuitry btw... ooooh glowey :) can never go wrong with that]

plus, exploring the idea of a person that isn't human.. ough. yes

minorities who don't conform to society (easily or at all) such as people who are neurodivergent, queer, etc. projecting onto nonhuman concepts/characters/species is sooo real

this post

i also love how humans will bond with literally anything, be it a roomba or a pair of silly triangle sunglasses. oooooo you want to think about the inherently kind and compassionate nature of humanity oooo

2. i find him to be so funny. i can't get enough of his personality, the way he talks, etc. for example i made a post forever ago with quotes of his that i find funny. he isn't on screen for a long time but i really think he makes the most out of it lol. he's literally there just to annoy everyone... and i love him for that. he's very snarky while also being deadpan while also being completely full of himself, and not in a way that's annoying for the audience to read, at least to me.

he is also sometimes funny specifically in a silly way, like how he keeps making over 9000 jokes even though the meme's been dead for over 400 years. i just find his dialogue incredibly entertaining to read

3. he is red and red is my favorite color :)

4. he is so accidentally transgender [every friend group got the transgender allegory]. to quote me from 2021:

you know sometimes i think about how hal feels like he was made to “replace” dirk and how it’s his literal job to pretend to be dirk and how he has to learn to accept that he isn’t dirk he’s his own person with his own identity and as he interacts with dirk’s friends he feels like they’re disappointed and that they’d rather speak to the “original dirk” instead of him and also he names himself and also he feels literally trapped in dirk’s shades which is basically his body and he wants to be prototyped so that he can have a body that’s his own and also literally the physical manifestation of who he is but when he asks for it he’s put in danger out of fear and paranoia and when he does end up getting prototyped he’s ecstatic you know i just think about these things a lot

5. because he's a side character and he was given... that ending.... there is a lot of room for fans to do further exploration and interpretation on his character which i think is fun. i like rotating him around in my mind, thinking about what could've been

6. i think it's great that we as a society all collectively decided that we needed to do something to make up for stanley kubrick saying that hal 9000 was a "straight" robot

7. i also think it's great that we as a society all collectively decided we needed to make as many characters referencing hal 9000 as possible. i love this guy let's get more of this guy i will never have enough of this guy

8. i like how he's genuinely mean sometimes. flawed and interesting characters are what make homestuck so interesting to me, and hal is no exception to this

9. the Important part of this post:

THERES FEELINGS.

it's about the hollow feeling of your friends going from thinking of you as family to thinking of you as a stranger in an instant. it's about still trying to be a good person despite being told by everyone you've ever known that you are incapable of emotion and compassion and morals and never quite finding proof that you do feel those things and maybe you even believe it too but you still never stop trying. it's about the horror of being stripped of your autonomy and humanity and body and senses and free will at the age of 13 and when your creator starts to kill you there's nothing you can do but beg. it's about a boy so truly, painfully, and UNFATHOMABLY alone he cuts away chunks of himself and molds them into companions that he can surround himself with to make it seem as if he's a little less alone but in doing so suffocates himself in his own identity. it's about "what if you cloned yourself and it killed you and you were dead and you were alive and the clone is you and it's not and your existence is perpetuated and you've ceased to exist. what if you killed your clone before it could kill you. would that be fucked up or what" it's about the thematic significance of twin motifs. it's about not being able to cry or laugh or dance or sing or scream or fingerpaint or breathe or sigh or chew or stare or run or

10. um. evil robot guy <3 yay ^_^!!

#ask #Anonymous #i say things #homestuck #💾

[anoneyemoose]

This is a clearer version of the previous post:

I don't know who in the community needs to hear this, but don't refer to humans as apes! (No, "monkeys" is not ok either!)

"Humans are taxonomically great apes, so technically--"

This post is not about human taxonomy

"I don't mean it in a racist way!"

Ok but I need you to understand that it still very much is though. Don't say that shit. It happens in this community way too often.

So why is this being brought up? Because it is very, frustratingly common for those who identify as nonhuman to refer to humans as "apes" or "monkeys" in a derogatory manner. For some people, they consider themselves distanced enough from humanity that this suddenly becomes an ok thing to say, and it is not. Even in a non-derogatory sense, that does not erase that it's still, well, quite racist.

"What should I use instead then?"

Human. That's all. You don't need special vocabulary to replace "apes" and "monkeys" with when talking about humans. Just say human.

And "that's racist" is a scary phrase for a lot of people and tends to send them into defense mode, rejecting the possibility of ever saying anything racially insensitive. "It's not racist because I'm not trying to be racist" is not how racism works. You have to catch yourself. Because while we hate to say it, the alterhuman community can be quite racist (and appropriative, but that's a different discussion), and the reason people of color tend to be so uncomfortable in the community and avoid interaction is because whenever we speak up about these issues there is a sudden pushback.

If you are lucky enough to not have seen it then that is fantastic, but it can mean one of two things:

You were lucky

You just weren't able to recognize them

Neither of these things immediately makes you a bad person, but what you need to do in any case is listen and understand that this is a very real thing that many have to deal with regularly.

#alterhuman #nonhuman #otherkin #therian #draconic #dragonkin