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Pamphlet: Coping with species dysphoria

vagabondsun - 2019-12-12 19:26:11

This is a thread to organize updates and get feedback about one of our pamphlet projects: a guide on dealing with species dysphoria. We’ll post more frequently and about more minor things than we would on the blog, and you can follow along and give your thoughts as and when you like. This specific project is being headed up by me.

Right now I’m in the early stages of writing the copy, which you can look at here. When I say early, I mean very early - this is only a little more than the stream-of-consciousness notes Rook and I jotted down in a Discord call a while back. But that means there’s a lot of room for you to shape this! Any feedback on how this should be structured or what you would personally want out of a resource like this is welcome.

Juushika - 2019-12-13 23:03:56

Some potential additions to the outline:

In intro section: maybe mention or define dysmorphia? I feel like I see it thrown around in context of otherkin/species dysphoria these days (probably not always correctly), so maybe it’d be helpful?

In ways of coping: + behaviors, specifically outside of social elements-vocalizations, types of movement, ways mimic hunting/flying/etc, actions in general.

Also in ways of coping: + potential overlap with related communities like the furry community and other forms of animal "roleplay."

Also in ways of coping: + body modification?

In convos about dysphoria I’ve benefited most from super specific-to-my-kintype lists of suggestions/shared experience (not useful in a general overview, obvs, except maybe to add a masterlist of links to other lists/discussions? I’m not sure if that’s in the scope of this project) and from an emphasis on inclusion, specifically re: legitimizing transspecies as a term, acknowledging overlaps between otherkin/furry/roleplay communities and encouraging borrowing practices from those communities, and generally destigmatizing atypical appearance, behavior, and social interaction, specifically the reactionary respectability politics within the otherkin et al community.

So if I were writing it, it would probably be I) Introduction to terms, focused on general validation of concept, II) An exhaustive list of coping mechanisms is impossible, instead try to pull from whatever practices/communities are useful and to allow yourself whatever presentation/behaviors are useful-and yeah, that can be a lot to learn/unlearn, and III) Here’s an organized list of categories of coping mechanisms, with diverse but inexhaustive examples of how they can manifest, to help ground and provide inspiration to the second section. IV) Further reading.

vagabondsun - 2019-12-18 17:14:42

I think I agree with your assessment that it would be most effective to focus on dismantling the social stigma and other broad meta-concepts, for lack of a better term, rather than just making a laundry list of coping mechanisms and having that be the majority of the thing.
I also think the scope of this thing is starting to crystallize, and yeah, it might involve some kind of companion page on the site of links to external discussions and resources. It might also mean that the handout is gonna be more like a zine than a pamphlet, which I’m not opposed to, but it does bring in extra considerations for printing :thinking: I’ll have to see how long the copy turns out and then maybe make some prototypes.

Thank you for such detailed feedback! I’ve tidied up the draft and you’ll see that I’ve incorporated quite a bit of what you suggested.

aepaex - 2019-12-18 23:17:46

Mayble there could be an Alt-H blog post, or a page under Resources, listing some different ways of combating dysphoria? Like wearing fangs, etc. etc. And the URL for that could be included in the pamphlet for those who want to read further.

Juushika - 2019-12-19 05:00:23

I’m glad my contributions helped!

I love the additions to the further reading section! I also feel like it’s the best place to cut length. The compromise may be to cut things down to simple overviews/single sentence bios/etc and then direct to reference page(s) online with polished longer versions/complete bios/masterlist of links.

"extra challenges presented by specific phenotypes" could probably go directly after "advice on identifying what your specific needs are and how to go from there", ex. "identifying those needs may be further complicated by specific phenotypes with harder-to-realize needs…"

vagabondsun - 2020-01-21 21:19:44

I’m-still-doing-things Update: I’ve now also posted the draft to: tumblr, twitter, mastodon and the Alt+H discord. After I’m relatively satisfied I’ve gotten a more broad spectrum of feedback, I’ll begin to flesh it out into something more like actual writing.

vagabondsun - 2020-02-19 17:58:10

Slowly trundling along with this, blowing up bullet points into paragraphs. I’m hitting a bit of a roadblock when it comes down to some of the actual advice-giving; I think I’m gonna start a thread elsewhere in here to solicit some personal experiences to help with that. (ETA: thread is here)
Also looking for advice on how to organize the actual list of coping methods, I feel like they could stand to be sorted into broad categories but don’t really know what. Thoughts?

vagabondsun - 2020-03-03 20:48:33

Still truckin! I’d say we’re about 75% of the way to the first draft - here’s the link again, for your reference.

As we approach that, I’m looking at where we talked about hosting a more comprehensive resource for coping mechanisms on the site (or somewhere) and I think I want to start working on that concurrently. I’m not quite sure what format I want that to take, other than probably not just a big old list, because that’s very difficult to navigate.
So, looking for input on that, as well as on organizing the examples within the pamphlet too. What do you think? (You’re of course welcome to comment on anything else that’s been changed or added here too!)

aepaex - 2020-03-03 22:33:28

vagabondsun:

As we approach that, I’m looking at where we talked about hosting a more comprehensive resource for coping mechanisms on the site (or somewhere) and I think I want to start working on that concurrently. I’m not quite sure what format I want that to take, other than probably not just a big old list, because that’s very difficult to navigate.

This is just my immediate thoughts on the subject so IDK how good they are but, maybe have a collaborative google doc and share the link on the Alt-H discord, and give everyone a week or so to add all the dysphoria-alleviation techniques they can think of. It could also be shared with other affiliated places like the Postfurry Embassy discord? Ideally a wide range of people would be able to contribute their ideas, without the document being so public that it gets raided.

Then, after that period, take all the data and sort it. I think it could be sorted by body part (for physical dysphoria), maybe like so:

Skin (color)

Or, individual ideas could have tags that could be searched, like this:

Body paint (#skin #body #color) - [More info here]

And then, put this more organized list on the website.

I’m not a volunteer, but personally I wouldn’t mind sorting through the data and categorizing it.

Beethoven - 2020-04-09 19:25:10

i think it’d be worth it to have a board on the forum for that, so not only can you post a bunch of recommended coping methods, but the community can post theirs
i get the feeling that’d end up with more content.