Disclaimer: this doesn’t apply to 100% of situations, I don’t speak for 100% of the kin community. Alterhumanity is a large umbrella label, but otherkinity is more focused.
Friendly reminder that kin is not and has never actually been a verb. Kin is something you are, not something you actively do. It isn’t an activity.
❌ “kinning” or “I kin (x)” – no. Again, kin is not something you do. It’s a label you choose to acknowledge, yes, but it’s not an activity.
✅ “I am kin of (x)/I am (x) kin” – yes. While there are many ways to phrase this, these are more common appropriate ways to express you have a kintype.
❌ “(x) kinnies” or “(x) kins” – usually no, but sometimes okay in specific contexts where everyone already knows the negative baggage behind the word and is okay with it being used
✅ “kinfolk/otherkin etc – yes. While this is not an exhaustive list of terms for alterhuman identities, these are common and much better than “kinnie” or “kins” as the latter implies kin is just a funny silly thing people do for relation to characters which is false.
❌ insisting that “kinning, kinnies, kins, kin” etc is “different than otherkin” and that “language evolves and this is the one I heard about first and they’re different things” just no
✅ realizing that the former phrases are reductive of what kin actually is and stem from misinformation and people misunderstanding kin and trying to detach their idea of “kin” from what kin culture actually is, and trying your best to respect kinfolk by not using disrespectful terms rooted in misinfo.
❌ “I dont take kin that seriously/im real x not a kin/im not a delusional spiritual kinnie im just regular kin” – no no no no. Not only are these things rooted in misinformation but they are also typically fairly ableist (the last one especially). Otherkin is an overwhelmingly spiritual community and while there are many other ways people embrace their ‘kinity or express their ‘kin origins, there is no point in trying to distance yourself from “ew gross spiritual kins who take it too seriously!”. The amount of times I’ve seen people’s carrds that say “lol i dont take kin serious” or “im not a delusional kin i dont take it seriously” YOU ARE DOING HARM. Full stop! Kin IS inherently a serious thing. Historically it is a serious self identifier and was never meant to be appropriated as some commodified palatable version that people spread around now. Kin isn’t just relating to your favorite anime boy and by throwing people who take kin seriously under the bus you’re being a massive prick.
✅ “I have linktypes! I really like (x) character and relate to (x) on a personal level of attachment. I’m not serious about it, it’s just for fun/coping/entertainment/muse reasons” – kin was never just for fun. However, ‘linktyping can be. I feel like a lot of people THINK kin is what linktyping is. While they ARE similar in terms of linking and kin both being self identity labels, linking tends to lean more on the voluntary side and kin more on the “involuntary” although there has been recent discussion regarding the nuance and gray area of this definition. Bottom line is, otherkinity is something an individual chooses to acknowledge and adopt as their identity or a piece of it, whereas linking is something an individual chooses to CHOOSE as their identity or a piece of it. If that makes sense.
/rant
Also please don’t quote me. It’s late and I’m frustrated.
I’m just tired of the last decade of watching this community’s terminology and identities get abused, shat on, stolen, re-defined (appropriated) etc.
If anyone’s curious to actually learn about what I’m bitching about, there are many online resources to learn about ‘kin history but @/frameacloud (aka Orion Scribner if you google that name) has one of the most beginner/curious-person friendly guides to otherkin history as well as links to other resources AFAIK.
