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How separate (or how interwoven) are your alterhuman identities?

gingerbread - 2020-04-19 00:05:20

Different-but-related-question: If you only have one, how 'compact' or 'independent' are it's parts, if that makes sense? Does it have different parts, or is that like trying to split hairs?

So, I am sort of in a ???/figuring things out sort of phase, and I was wondering how others experience their alterhuman identities (in terms of like, how… close and/or how connected they are to eachother).

I'm not familiar with how alterhuman and adjacent communities usually phrase and frame these things, so feel free to substitute your own questions or correct assumptions in the questions I've put here.

Vyt - 2020-04-29 16:33:55

I really really like this thread, and I hesitated for a long time in answering it because I basically only have one identity, so I didn't think I was the best person to speak on it and answer this question. I've now noticed the related question for folks with just one identity, so I'm hopping onboard and trying to gove my answer.

My personal status:

But there are also things that I am not sure fall under the "alterhuman identities" umbrella:

Looking at just my for-sure alterhuman identities, it's all very simple. I don't even have multiple kintypes to compare, contrast or inter-relate. I have the one theriotype, which is multifaceted in that it affects multiple aspects of my life (senses, behaviors, personality, emotions) but these parts don't feel at all distinct. The same way that, when looking at a painitng, I see it's shape, color, brtightness and texture all at the same time (though I can analyze and think about each aspect on its own, and one aspect might be particularly noticeable), I experience my therianthropy continuously, even if I can identify parts of it (e.g. phantom shifts) or some aspects are more prominent in a given time than others. The paratypes, by defenition are related to the theriotype. They are rooted in it and wouldn't exist on their own. They feel like "a way my therian identity expresses itself" rather than identities in their own right (e.g. I feel protective of sheep because I am a herding dog" just like "I want to chew because I am a dog").

If the other things I listed (daemonism, voidpunk) fall under the "Alterhuman Identity" umbrella, then that's where I can actually get into seprataion.\ Daemonism is a deliberate practice, and thus doesn't feel as integral. I am a daemian the same way that I am a writer or a Romuvan, not the way I am a dog. (Though of course, these deliberate, action-based identities can be just as important to someone. For my bf, it's more significant to him to see himself as a "Math teacher" than to label his sexuality). Because daemonism is rooted deeply in personality, and my personality is connected to my theriotype, then there is an effect/relationship. It's not absolute (by the TDF analytical system I am closer to a Sheltie than a border collie) but I still exude doggish traits. That being said, there are therians who's daemon is completely unrelated to their theriotype (my impression is that this depends on how much the theriotype is currently psychologically influential vs. say, a past life). The hypothetical is kind of unknowable.

Could I still practice daemonism if I was not a therian? Absolutely.

Could I still practice daemonism if my theriotype were less psychological, and/or if my daemon and theriotype didn't match? Yes.

But if either of the above were true, I would fundamentally be a different person, and my daemon and my experience of daemonism would be different in ways I can't currently know.

With the voidpunk stuff, that is also somewhat removed from a direct identity. But it is only one degree removed. I fundamentally identify as a therian, queer, and disabled. It is as a choice. stemming from that that I relate to, and express myself as, a werewolf. Metaphorically I would compare it to mixing red and yellow paint to make orange. Orange is not a primary color the way red and yellow are, but once you've made orange you can't separate it back out into red and yellow. Or, alternatively, to pouring multiple juices into a punch bowl- they can't be poured out seperately. When I am expressing myself as a werewolf in voidpunk spaces, I am expressing all of identities that contribute to that identification, not one or the other.

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gingerbread - 2020-05-22 16:11:50

Sorry it took so long to reply-I've been having energy troubles-but thank you both for your answers!!

Vyt:

I have the one theriotype, which is multifaceted in that it affects multiple aspects of my life (senses, behaviors, personality, emotions) but these parts don't feel at all distinct. The same way that, when looking at a painting, I see it's shape, color, brightness and texture all at the same time (though I can analyze and think about each aspect on its own, and one aspect might be particularly noticeable), I experience my therianthropy continuously, even if I can identify parts of it (e.g. phantom shifts) or some aspects are more prominent in a given time than others.

That's a really elegant way of putting it.

Vyt:

Metaphorically I would compare it to mixing red and yellow paint to make orange. Orange is not a primary color the way red and yellow are, but once you've made orange you can't separate it back out into red and yellow. Or, alternatively, to pouring multiple juices into a punch bowl- they can't be poured out seperately. When I am expressing myself as a werewolf in voidpunk spaces, I am expressing all of identities that contribute to that identification, not one or the other

That definitely makes sense as well!

Right now, as far as I can tell, my alterhuman identities seem… almost wholly separate and isolated from each other? Much less like a painting and more like a slap-dash collage of disparate things that've obviously been put together, or I guess like one of those holographic card things where it looks like one thing until you shift the angle and there's a different picture underneath. Like, a kind of layered deal maybe?

I feel like if they're to be considered connected, it'd be in kind of weird/opaque and obscure ways.

[archive note: quote redacted]

I'm glad it's been helpful!

That's interesting-to be honest, before I'd actually really thought about alterhuman stuff I think I just kind of passively assumed it was always all melting pot all the time for everyone? But it makes sense that there can be some sense of distinction and/or origin sometimes.