I'm not really talking about coprophilia, that's a sexual fetish. Also I never claimed it's uncivilized, it's just not healthy. I was using it as an example of things that things with non-human brains do. For example Praying mantises eat their partners after they have sex with them. Dolphins kill other animals presumably for fun(although that's a bad example, some humans do that too). Also the smartest of animals are likened to having toddler like intelligence. If a person was really an animal, I maintain that I wouldn't want to be around them.
I have a feeling we're about to teeter off to the "Are humans really smarter than animals?" debate, and since I'm very uninformed about that, I'll just cut it off now. Wouldn't want the thread to get side-tracked, haha. I think I pretty much agree with the core of your beliefs. The details are a bit blurry, but hey, I can't expect to understand everything, right? But yeah. Otherkin. It's none of my business what others identify as.
BelleFromHell and Wuggums bring up good points: the lengths that some otherkin reportedly go to seem to glorify psychoses for the sake of uniqueness and demean the trans* group as a whole: it gives outsiders of both groups the idea that "oh these people wanna be different-gendered or animals so why should we take them seriously?", the same going for "transethnicity". Though I hold greater respect to other/fiction/etckin than transethnics, since the okins I know don't seem to do it for the attention and for the sake of being a special snowflake. At the same time, though, Nychtheremon has a point that we really -don't- know if it's a legitimate thing or not; transexuality, as I understand, was largely treated the same way that most treat okin now, until recent decades. It does seem like an attention plead sometimes and rather far-fetched, but from those who l've observed and talked to, they really don't act like they're crying for pity. Personally l'm neutral so long as they don't do something absurd, like kin-based "pronouns", and I quirk a brow at the idea of fiction- or objectkin. Please correct me if I missed anything or misrepresented anyone; I'm only speaking on an observational basis, and I have no claims regarding the fortitude of my statements above.
I think Gregarity pretty much said what I think. Although, the snowflake thing is a really tender subject. On Tumblr, if you so much as uttered "you're a snowflake," people will get on your ass until you deactivate your account. Or at least that's what I've experienced.
I'm not really an expert on this so sorry if I offend anyone I'm fine with people identifying as otherkin or fictionkin or whatever as long as they realize that they're not really an animal or fictional being and as long as they don't try and say that they're trans or oppressed for being otherkin. I've seen a lot of that on tumblr where people go by pronouns and claim they're trans and want to be considered a part of that group. It's harmless to have some fun and say you relate strongly to an animal or whatnot but when it gets to the point that you're trying to compare that with being transgender, I think there's something wrong with that. I don't know, just my two cents
In my opinion, it depends if they actually identify as one. I'm taking 'otherkin' to meant that you actually feel like you're an animal inside a human body. I don't really consider people who relate to an animal 'otherkin'. However, a lot of people doubt the legitimacy of this identity, and I doubt we'll actually ever know. But yes, otherwise, it's incomparable to being trans.
I've never liked the whole "special snowflake" expression. I've known a lot of weird people, in fact I'm pretty weird myself. But I've never met someone doing it for the attention, they are just legitimately odd people. A good number try to hide some of the stranger things about themselves. I think people who criticize others as "special snowflakes" are just boring people trying to justify how boring they are and why they feel a need to conform to others.
