probably a little weird to say this but I kinda don't want alterhumanity to be medically studied (?)
this point is probably going to be very vague, but I still want to share it, specially as someone who could potentially suffer with medicalization and psychiatrization of my current identities and experiences.
I have seen several alterhumans saying things like "I'd love for alterhumanity to be medically recognized/studied so I could comprehend a little more my identities and phenomenons and what happens to my brain while I'm shifting and [...]". Not exactly in this way but I think the point is clear here.
I was in support of this opinion a while back. Alterhumanity was, back then, a "magical" and "whimsical" thing to me way more than it is today, and I just wanted it to be recognized and for alterhumans to have more acknowledged and accepted experiences in general.
while I still kinda agree with the last part ("alterhumans deserve to be more acknowledged"), I don't think that we should forget these three things:
— some part of alterhumanity is being medically researched (or atleast it's supposed to be)
— alterhumanity would inherently suffer psychiatrization of being medically researched
— ableism and sanism are immense in this community.
for the first point, I'd like to point that Clinical Zoanthropy (CZ) is not an alterhuman identity per definition, but I'm pretty sure a portion of zoanthropes (atleast those which I've met) identify with the alterhuman (or nonhuman, to be more specific) community. CZ is (or atleast was supposed to be) medically researched, and well... there aren't enough resources for us zoanthropes, or are there ?
I've seen a good portion of zoanthropes who I've interacted with not being able to get proper psychiatric help, or couldn't get a diagnosis for it (some being described as "schizophrenic with animalistic episodes" than actual "clinical zoanthropes"), for example. And while this has only happened with zoanthropes (as far as I'm aware), I don't doubt that most medical researching on alterhumans would lack fundamental definitions and resources, or atleast those which aren't outdated in some way.
Going on to the second point, we simply cannot forget that being medicalized often harms groups of minorities and marginalized individuals. While I can't proper say if I interpret alterhumans as minorities or marginalized individuals for their alterhumanity, it's very clear that most alterhumans do belong in some kind of minority group (due to being LGBTQ+, BIPOC, disabled, in a bad financial situation, in homelessness etc), and it's a fact that psychiatric and medical fields/systems often harm, deny care and prejudice minorities.
I know it's not the best comparison here but I can't stop thinking about genes whenever I hear "I want alterhumanity to be medically studied". I mean that in a "is there an autism gene ?" kind of way. "Is there a trans gene ? An LGBTQ+ gene ?" and I don't know what else to say when I think of that.
Medical and psychiatric trauma is often common in alterhuman individuals as well, or atleast it is, from what I've seen. I myself got some medical trauma and I am currently actively seeking diagnosis & treatment for a condition I am very sure I have (and most doctors as well), but no professional could appoint a cheap way to find it out. Talking about money, also — what if there was an "alterhuman diagnosis" ? A list of "medications for alterhumans" ? "Pills to alleviate species dysphoria" ? How would marginalized groups, specially those who do not have enough financial conditions, be able to get access to these ? And how would they be treated ? It would, again, be another privileged phenomenom that would only include set groups of people, specially those that are part of a low number of minorities.
And lastly, I would like to point out that the sanism and ableism inside alterhuman communities (specially "broader" ones, like therian and otherkin) is huge. Zoanthropes often suffer with it a lot ("that's not therianthropy, that's clinical lycanthropy and you need help"), but a lot of takes inside of these spaces revolt around that. Not to mention that people outside of the communities often see alterhumans as "mentally ill people", so the sanism doesn't even come just from the inside.
Most of these comments look like jokes or serious advices but they're generally not. Disabled alterhumans (and non-alterhumans too tbh) are very poorly treated inside of the alterhuman communities and are often excluded from diverse topics, "universal experiences", the quadrobism culture, "things for therians to do !" etc.
medicalization would harm even more of these disabled alterhumans, but I wonder — if it really happened, would there be a segregation between "sane, normal alterhumans" and "medical alterhumans" ? How would "medical alterhumans" be seen outside of the community ? How much harm sanism + psychiatrization would bring to these individuals ?
with that said, I don't believe alterhumanity should be medically studied. Some components of it, maybe ? Or things like medical species transition, which would be great for transspecies beings. But other than that, I can't believe that medicalization would bring positive results to this community.
