#pshifter positivity

[aphelion-alifer]

nonhuman positivity for the night <3

you, reader, i want to make it very clear that no matter if you are human, nonhuman, a therian, clinical lycanthrope, songkin, plantkin, conceptkin, a mythical, were-creature, otherkin, alterhuman, etc.. whatever and whoever you may be, you deserve to be yourself. you deserve to be comfortable in your body and how you express yourself. you deserve to be alive and be well on this earth, just as the rest of us. you are alive, you deserve to feel like it. sing your song, take care of your petals, brush your fur, let yourself transform, wear those horns. life is short, and unfortunately people like to be mad over the wrong things and they like to make fun of others. but just know that it's okay to be alive as a nonhuman, physical or not, or maybe you are a human reading this. whatever you may be, be alive. stand tall, grab the world by its metaphorical shoulders and tell it that you are making it another day. 💙

[harloqui]

🏳️‍🌈🐺🏳️‍🌈🐺🏳️‍🌈

(I can’t believe pride month is nearly over and I did not make a post about this, but better late than never)

In modern werewolf media wolves and other shifters are stereotyped as being big, alpha-beta-omega types that always want to reproduce and go after the opposite sex. In reality, the shifter community is the opposite of that!

Most of us are just typical people, and there are many shifters out there who are family people and don’t express toxic “”alpha male” values. Additionally, many shifters are not limited in what identities they can have or what sexualities they can present with, and many have identities that diverge from the straight cis stereotype.  There are gay shifters There are lesbian shifters There are bi shifters There are pan shifters There are asexual shifters There are nonbinary shifters There are trans shifters

...and many more! If a human can have it as an LGBT+ identity, so can shifters. Anecdotally, we’ve heard many shifters are also some flavor of lgbt+/queer, and it’s common to encounter other lgbt+/queer shifters within the online community. Don’t let fictional media give you the impression that shifters are always straight cis people, there are many of us LGBT+ here.

[aphelion-alifer]

im a werewolf, and that's okay.

im an avian, and that's okay.

im a horned black kite, and that's okay.

im a bit confused when it comes to my identity, and that's okay.

my identity changes sometimes as i discover myself, and that's okay.

i believe my soul comes from a different universe, i am not sure why, and that's okay.

it's okay if things change, if you have multiple identities or forms existing at the same time, if your body or existence is considered supernatural in any way. it's okay to not know who or what you are and it's okay to be nonhuman. it's okay to be confused. it's okay to have an identity that folks may view as unusual. you will figure yourself out. i am figuring myself out still. it's a journey for sure, and there are others out there who are going down a similar path.

it's okay. 💙

[harloqui]

I’ve seen otherkin and therians say that just the idea of physical shifting is bad, because when someone fails to do it they will develop a complex and be upset because they can’t physically transform. They’ll be upset and disappointed, and feel bad around other shifters.  The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with being human, and nothing wrong with not being a shifter. I mean that wholeheartedly, and in fact there’s nothing wrong with not being able to do what others can. I cannot cameo shift, aura shift, etc. but that does not make the idea of therianthropy bad by any means. I cannot sprint as fast as some people, I will never be a good gymnast or an Olympic wrestler (even though I want to be those things!) and that’s okay. This doesn’t make those things bad, it just makes my situation different. And hey, I can find people who feel the same and maybe we can find our own ways to live out our dreams.

If someone is bullying you because you can’t do the same things they can or because you’re human, that’s wrong and they should be told off for it. But not being able to do those things, only being human, isn’t inherently bad. 

I do feel that if someone has species dysphoria that is causing them to turn to shifting and even pushing them towards borderline harming themselves or others to transform, at that point you are dealing with a mental disorder that needs treatment. Shifting is not something a person decides to do one day for fun or even due to dysphoria, it’s something that happens to you, something that you’re born with. If you’re chasing after shifters and believing everyone you meet (because even then not all shifters are legitimate or disseminate proper info) just because you desperately want to become an animal, then like any other condition you need to find appropriate help and/or healthy outlets for it. 

(And I’m not saying the above to be condescending or pathologizing either, but if you’re literally ending up in dangerous situations because you need to change your form you do need help. Therianthropy and otherkinity is an identity and can come with no dysphoria or varying amounts, but like anything else, harmful and endangering behavior stemming from dysphoria shouldn’t be entertained.)

In short, if you enter the shifter community and hope to shift, only to find that you’re only human, that is okay. If you discover you’re not human but something else, that is okay. There are plenty of mixed supernatural spaces, spaces that allow humans and welcome them, spaces that don’t care what species you are as long as you’re honest. Being human isn’t a bad thing, and not being able to shift isn’t a bad thing. Be who you are :)