Being Queer and Otherkin
+ + + + + + + +This is a bit more of a personal one, some background on me personally and on my identity.
+As you might have noticed, I am a catgirl. But what does that actually mean? +For some, it might just be a weird cute thing they know from anime, others might think "a girl who likes cats". +For me, it means I am a cat and a girl (kinda). Both are equally important parts of my identity.
+I am trans, I am nonbinary, and I am otherkin. I am also autistic. All of these are properties of me as a whole. They +add up to create this entity that's writing this post right now. Remove any single one of these properties, and you end +up with a completely different being.
+What even is this 'otherkin' thing???
+The Otherkin Wiki describes Otherkin as a subculture of people who don't consider +themselves human, although the specifics of what that means and how exactly it manifests can be very different on a +personal basis, and the term functions as an umbrella term for a lot of different experiences.
+For me, it means that in every way other than my physical body, I am a cat. I don't identify as a cat, I don't +think that I'm a cat. I don't act like a cat. I am a cat. I did not choose to be a cat, being a cat is simply a +part of me, the same way my gender and my neurodivergencies are.
+In that way, being otherkin is very similar to being trans. There are trans people who, having no idea how it actually +feels to be otherkin, disagree with this comparison, probably out of some kind of urge to appeal to a wider transmisic +society, hoping for easier acceptance by not associating with "those weird ones". Personally, from my experience of +living as a trans cat, those two things couldn't be any more similar.
+I get the same kind of euphoria from getting referred to with feline-related terms that I get from being called a girl, +or from being referred to with my correct pronouns. When I look into a mirror, both the cat ears on my head and the +boobs on my body cause a little happy reaction. I love wearing a collar with a cute little bell the same way I love +wearing a skirt or making my dress go spinny. If you refer to me as "not a cat", I will feel a similar kind of hurt +and anger as if you misgender me. I don't need people in my life who can accept one part of me, while not respecting an +equally important part of me.
+Many of my instinctive and natural behaviours align with the stereotypical cat. I meow at people to get their attention, +I get startled really easily by sudden loud noises and will perk up in alert mode as a reaction. I bump my head against +people to show affection, and I'm always in the way when my girlfriend comes home and I rush over to greet her at the +door while she's trying to unpack. When I feel comfortable, I start kneading with my paws. I love chasing things and +trying to climb up places that are actually too high for me and then being scared of getting back down. The list goes on +and on.
+And then there is the overlap of being a cat and being autistic. Many autistic traits are similar to animalistic +behaviour - Or the absence of "typical" human behaviour. I feel very uncomfortable around people who I don't know +well, while being very affectionate and active around people I trust and love. I get overstimulated and confused when a +lot of stuff is going on around me. I don't understand most human behaviours, and people think I'm unsociable and mean +when I act distressed or overwhelmed in response to their behaviours and expectations.
+In the end, all these parts of me affect each other in many ways. My pronouns, It/Its represent my gender, being +distinct from the binaries made up by human society, and actively going against the notion of what pronouns are +acceptable or not. At the same time, they reinforce the non-human part of me. I am a cat, an animal, and thus my gender +expression - including pronouns - explicitly breaks human ideas of gender. While a lot of people also have different +reasoning for similar gender expressions, for me those aspects are deeply interlinked.
+So.. that was a weird one to write. Writing about personal topics can be so much more complex and hard than writing
+about touching computers. I hope this was interesting to read, maybe you even learned something new about people like me
+or have gained some kind of new perspective on gender and species. Either way, thank you so much for reading my blog,
+remember to stay hydrated, and have a lovely {time of day}
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