#graymuzzle

[frameacloud]

“There are no ‘elders’ or leaders [of the otherkin community]. Just because someone has a website, has written a few essays, is an admin or a moderator, or has had more ‘experience’ than you, it does not necessarily make them any more qualified than you to say something or any more worthy of respect. There is no arbiter of the truth here and there is no one who should be given special treatment.”

-Excerpt from “Advice for those new to Otherkin,” an article written by Mikh’to in 2014

[toxius]

and I ranted about ages for 10 minutes

[liongoatsnake]

People have been talking about graymuzzles in the alterhuman community lately (A term given to someone by people in the community for those who have been in the community for “a long time” (subjective) and/or have impacted/contributed to the community enough to gain some level of positive recognition/association.)

 Anymore, people like to call us graymuzzles. (They’re wrong, we’re just a large system with a special interest in history stuff.) The label of graymuzzle is just kind of… there. It doesn’t give us any real power. Like, even though we’ve been on Tumblr since 2012, we’ve never had a large number of followers. We’ve always kind of been the community nerd people might know about but that is about it. We also have a long history of getting hate by virtue of just existing as a multiple system over the decade within the community by other community members. Being “a graymuzzle” has never shielded us from anything.

 ~ Miushra (she/her/hers, Named fictionkin)

[grizguts]

Since making my character and fursuit, Granny Greymuzzle, I've come across two other lovely elderly ladies! One of which was so nice to do some art of my granny and her's having tea together, and I've since been working on doing a little something gift arts for our granny club x3 I can picture these three regularly meeting up for afternoon tea~

My Granny Greymuzzle (sheep) Tempo_Roboson (Himalayan Cat) And Pomshkas (Lesser Tenrec / Pygmy Hedgehog)

[gryneos]

it's quite comforting and reassuring to see adult otherkind. we're 17 at the moment, and looking around alterhumanity communities, we mostly see other young folk like ourselves. it certainly doesn't help with the anxiety that this is just some fad, lol, but seeing people and blogs like you and yours really eases that worrying voice. thanks for simply being present and open about your otherkinity

I’m glad you found some usefulness to my post(s). I still have more to write about my djinni stuff, yet my post about obscure Otherkin seems to have encouraged more to open up about that. In a way, that was part of the intention, to find more who didn’t fit in with the bigger (or more popular) groups of Otherkin.

The Otherkin communities have grown in recent years, thanks to people being willing to question and accept that Otherkin is a real phenomenon, instead of a fad or something to do just for fun. The latter is still a problem, but we just have to keep educating the ignorant. They’ll eventually move onto something else, or as I am often saying “The next shiny object.” But we do have to take back our vocabulary from them so it doesn’t get watered down any further by incorrect definitions. That will likely take more effort.

Keep looking around at the other communities, and if you ever want to know some places to try out, there are a few Discord servers worth joining, as well as the still relatively new message board “Nonhuman National Park” (it’s only about a year old now). Of course, I can only recommend the ones I still visit, but maybe we need a post just on Discord servers worth joining :-)

[moremetalwelding]

This #dog. #Nora #pitbullsofinstagram #pitbull #peanut #oldladydog #graymuzzle #home #dad #ithaca #rollin (at Ithaca, New York)

[frameacloud]

"The dragon community has no members which could rightly be called 'leaders.' There is nothing one must believe in order to call themselves a dragon ... Dragons are a very diverse group, and if one stays for long enough they are almost certain to be exposed to a wide range of beliefs, but there is no agenda we have to push upon others."

- an excerpt from an article written by Baxil and last updated in 1998, “The Draconity FAQ.”

[frameacloud]

"[Something to watch out for in the alterhuman communities is if someone is] Trying to position themselves as a ‘Kin of Authority’: Claiming themselves to have authority over the community and that their words are worth more than other people. Examples [of the red flags of this]:

"Asserting their personal mythos for their identity is the only ‘true’ explanation for said label (ex- insisting only spiritual or only psychological otherkind are ‘real otherkin’).

"Implying or stating anyone with different beliefs from them regarding identity explanations is invalidating them just by mentioning this in appropriate venues.

"Claiming they know better than you about your alterhuman identity; often due to some spiritual power they claim to have.

"‘Grilling’ people without being asked and only respecting their identity if the given answers satisfy them.

"Deitykin trying to get people to worship them or pray to them in a serious manner while promising they can actually do miracles about it. Deitykin otherwise evangelizing for themselves.

"Claiming themselves to be a ‘greymuzzle’ (an honorific gifted to the community through consistent positive contributions to the community over a long period of time, usually 10+ years) in a way that it implies it’s the reason people need to listen to them."

- Excerpt from page 13 of "Safety in Alterhuman Spaces," a document by the Dragonheart Collective. Emphasis in the original. You can read the whole document here (PDF).