hi, i love otherpaws here. otherpaws are always welcome.
in light of the recent influx of otherpaw hate, i have some Things To Say.
truly, there is no real difference between otherpaws and furries, except the materials they use to roleplay as animals. we should not be gatekeeping materials, guys. you cannot seriously call yourself furry-friendly if you are anti-otherpaw. but that is not my main reason for disliking the anti-otherpaw stance.
i find a laaaaarge issue i have with these “but otherpaws are copying therians!!!!” folks is that the term otherpaw was created specifically to distance otherpaws from alterhumanity; to create a clear distinction that masks and quadrobics ≠ alterhuman (therian included). which is a factually correct distinction. and folks whining about copying are (maybe unintentionally, maybe not) obscuring that distinction.
no, someone wearing a mask or doing quads is not inherently copying or mocking therians, because masks and quads aren’t exclusive to therians, and they never have been. wearing a mask does not a therian make. wearing a mask does not necessarily have anything to do with therians. claiming that anyone who wears masks or does quads is copying therians is trying to claim exclusive rights of therians over masks and quads. it’s gatekeeping, yes, but worse than gatekeeping, it’s trying to cement masks and quads as inherently ‘therian’. which they aren’t. which we have tried all this time to teach folks that no, not all therians wear masks/do quads, and just because someone does those things doesn’t make them alterhuman.
but now these anti-otherpaw folks are regressing again to “mask = therian, therefore they must be copying and mocking therians”. which is factually inaccurate and damaging to what being alterhuman and being therian truly means. it’s what leads to the misinformation about the true depth of alterhuman identity on places like tiktok. and i’m so sick of it.
i know it’s not a widespread issue (yet). but given that i’ve seen a handful of posts and comments about it, this is why i hope it doesn’t become one.
(i have also alwayyyyyys found the argument “but x is too similar to y!” to be a terrible argument against x. cause like…. who cares. things are allowed to be similar. humans and nonhumans alike are so incredibly numerous that you will almost never have a completely unique experience which no one else has ever had. our experiences overlap significantly because there are so many beings in this world. there is no fault in someone having a similar experience to you. you will not die just because you aren’t in fact that worlds most special snowflake. i prommy.)
