2021/05/07
Word count: ~750
Reading time: ~3 minutes
March 12th 2021 - @/plurgai-archive writes about “kinning” by choice, and how choosing to create an otherkin identity is different from otherlinking, because a linker can stop being a linker, while a “kin by choice” can’t stop being ‘kin. It also claims that “kin” can be used as a verb due to this. Its opinions about choice of identity stem in large part from its own spiritual beliefs.
April 7th 2021 - @/enchanted-arms responds to the March 12 post that being otherkin is not a choice, but agrees that ‘kinning’ is different from otherlinking, (it’s implied that the difference is that ‘kinning’ is typically without much thought, while linking is typically done more seriously). According to @/enchanted-arms ‘otherkin’ has a long history and an agreed upon meaning that was slowly defined via mailing lists and forums. Additionally they claim that telling people that being otherkin is not a choice is not forcing people to identify as otherlink, but rather that it’s asking people to respect the aforementioned agreed-upon meanings.
April 7th 2021 - @/plurgai-archive responds that since a lot of people agree that ‘kinning’, ‘kinnie’, and choosing to be otherkin are all "valid”, that means it is valid and ends by saying that being otherkin can be a choice, with the reasoning that it fits into its belief system.
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April 12th 2021 - An anonymous ask is sent to @/plurgai-archive, claiming that it’s causing harm to the community to say that otherkinity is a choice, that the whole idea of choice originated with anti-otherkin folks, and that it would be better for @/plurgai-archive to boost identity labels that focus on the voluntarity, such as the copinglink label. @/plurgai-archive responds that otherlinking means something different to what it is experiencing, since it chooses to become otherkin but then can’t shed its identity the way a linker would be able to. It ends the post by referring to the experience as ‘choicekin’.
April 12th 2021 - @/alternormal suggest that @/plurgai-archive look into the quoiluntary label and @/plurgai-archive responds that it’s a nice word.
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May 3rd 2021 - @/plurgai writes a post further explaining the differences between ‘kin for fun’, otherlink, and choicekin, which can be summarized as “roleplayer/faceclaimer/person with a comfort character”, “voluntary identity that one could get rid of”, and “voluntary identity that one could not get rid of”, respectively. Included in the post is a venn diagram of how the terms overlap.
May 3rd 2021 - @/aestherians responds that what @/plurgai describes as ‘choicekin’ is a well-known otherkin experience that does not warrant a word of its own. @/plurgai responds that it agrees, but that it felt pressure from within the otherkin community to create a new term for those experiences. It explains that it experienced harassment due to the initially voluntary nature of its kintype(s).
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May 4th 2021 - An anonymous ask is sent to @/plurgai which proposes that ‘choicekin’ should be an optional label for people who initially chose a nonhuman identity which then became a kintype. The ask also claims that metaphysical labels, such as ‘otherkin’, don’t have official definitions, that it has never been specified that kintypes must be involuntary, that language and labels change over time, and that the otherkin community should be more open to these changes to prevent inter-communal divisions. @/plurgai enthusiastically agrees.
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May 4th 2021 - An anonymous ask is sent to @/a-dragons-explanations asking what ‘choicekin’ means. The blog mentions two different meanings: A chosen nonhuman/fictional identity that turns into a kintype (which they claim to have only seen once) and a chosen nonhuman/fictional identity that’s not necessarily a self-identification or a kintype, in other words “kin for fun” (which they claim to have seen a lot more often).
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May 5th 2021 - @/plurgai states that it’s half-divorcing itself from the word ‘choicekin’ since it was always a real otherkin experience and it only coined the term due to harassment. It emphasizes that ‘choicekin’ was never meant to describe a new class of alterhumanity, just one specific experience that falls under the otherkin umbrella.
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May 6th 2021 - @/plurgai writes one last post explaining that ‘choicekin’ was never meant to describe ‘kin for fun’ experiences and that there’s still an element of involuntarity to the choicekin experience, in that choicekin are unable to drop their kintype(s). The term ‘choicekin’ was created in a spur-of-the-moment response to anon hate and was never meant to describe a separate group of identities, just a specific otherkin experience.