#lmao idk how to tag this
this is a post addressing some criticism #WolfGetsReal is getting. a good post, i promise. because people have made some good points. i’m not reblogging the post they’re from because there’s enough that i disagree with that i don’t want to just amplify it onto my own followers, but there’s also enough well-reasoned and productive criticism that it deserves a response. like, geuinely, i really want to emphasise that we do give a shit that some people think this was poorly executed (or a bad idea in general) and to enter into a dialogue about that, so we can do it better. tumblr is a fucking godawful platform for any kind of productive communication, but here goes.
cc@a-dragons-journal@spiritus-sonne@shadowfae, come get y’all juice.
Gonna just do a bullet point addressing stuff because I just got out of my last final and my brain’s still a bit frazzled, but.
1) You didn’t actually address this at any point, which automatically puts it at the top of the list. I said, and it was actually brought to my attention a couple days ago in a server from folks more on twitter, but your hashtag was already co-opted by bestialists (LycanTheory is the big one, but I know there’s been at least two) trying to push the narrative that therianthropy is inherently linked to bestiality, which it isn’t. Alt+H also remains one of the few big spaces for alterhumanity that hasn’t addressed this problem whatsoever, and they clearly think you’re allies. These people need to be convicted and put in prison for animal abuse. You need to make it clear, before anything else right now, that they are not welcome in your spaces. By neglecting to do so, you are making it unsafe to be in your spaces if you’re not pro-bestiality. Now, if I’m wrong and you actually want that, I’d like to know, because I’m under the optimistic impression that you don’t. Either way, make that clear. It’s not a question that should be left unanswered, especially right now.
2) It was brought to my attention that you opened discussion for this initiative for a total of two hours before posting. That is… unreasonably fast. I’ve worked and managed projects before, and for smaller projects I would have given no less than 48 hours before even drafting the post. I’m not a part of Alt+H, but I find it hard to believe you didn’t have a single person who was either a) asleep or b) at work, who didn’t have the chance to give any input. Every single criticism and critique that I’ve seen (barring most made today, since I’ve been very busy) were obvious ones that I’d be very surprised wouldn’t have been brought up if this were thoroughly discussed. It’s obvious that it wasn’t, and that’s a serious issue as well.
3) Furthermore on that point, you said you actually weren’t aware of the Grimes thing earlier this year. Had you held discussion for longer, I’m certain someone would have brought it up, and also goes to show that Alt+H isn’t very active on twitter: I’m not either, but it was impossible to miss. If you’re going to do initiatives on platforms, it stands to reason that you should have folks who are native to those platforms, and can advise you how to proceed. To not do that is setting yourself up for failure.
4) Re emotional exhaustion, which was your first point: species dysphoria is not a kind topic. Writing about it, especially when your foundation is so negative, is absolutely exhausting. There’s a reason I don’t really do it unless asked directly. There was absolutely no acknowledgement that people would have this issue (again, how was this not brought up in discussion before posting?) and no support was linked in advance. It was a clear “show up, tell these people who don’t care and have no reason to not be utterly cruel to you about the things that hurt you the most, boost others’ misery and posts about it, and then uhhhh have fun I guess”. That is incredibly ill-thought-out, and kind of obvious.
5) Which means I have to ask something that should have been one of the first questions you asked yourself(ves?) when you proposed this idea: what, Mercy of the Fire tell, did you expect to happen? Did you expect rainbows and sunshine and pulling the movie from the box office and apologies from the director? Obviously not. Did you expect to just be ignored? Did you expect the Washington Post to apologize? Did you expect to be shut down and mocked? Genuine question, because “worst case / best case / most likely scenario” is an essential part of drafting up any sort of initiative where you’re getting people to do things. The fact that this was evidently not asked is a glaring issue, and if I can get you to listen to a second piece of advice from me, even if just two (the first is obviously point #1, deal with that first please and thanks), is that you need more planning when you’re doing things like this. This was not enough.
6) This is slightly related, but you mentioned that you expected people to stop and read through interviews and journal posts before making calls, and I want to know… where have you been on the internet where everyone does that. Actually, where have you been that more than about 15% of people do that. That’s a bias you should have known and accounted for from the start, because people will read headlines and that’s about it. Sensationalism and out-of-context-headlines and half-true ideas are what the internet runs on. I’m not sure how you didn’t notice that one, and I don’t mean to insult you, I genuinely don’t, but you need to start accounting for that. You can make it work for you, but you have to acknowledge it first.
And finally, your two big questions.
1) I said we don’t have any power to say literally nobody is going to take us seriously. Because they have no reason to. We are the internet’s punching bag when we’re relevant, and entirely forgotten about when we’re not. What makes you think you can take on the Washington Post and all these big-shot journals when they don’t think cis trans or gay people should be treated with any humanity? We don’t have any power because the only ways to get it are to break things until people listen, or be respectful enough someone decides to give it to us. We will never be the latter, and I will not be apart of any respectability politics that the latter requires. We don’t have the numbers for the former. Right now, we’re mentally ill people who need to be fixed at best in their eyes, and at worst we’re transphobic jokes and should be stripped of human rights because of what we believe ourselves to be. How do you intend on changing that mindset in people who won’t change it for cis gays or anyone who isn’t a fucking Christian, who are leading the charge in terms of privilege among marginization? You aimed way, way too big, and it’s going to fail about as hard, if we’re lucky, and harder if we’re not.
As for how to change that? Simply put, we’re not. That isn’t me being pessimistic, that’s me being realistic. If there is a time when you’ll be able to change your legal species and retain your human rights, or have neopronouns on your driver’s license, it’s decades off at best, and will require a lot more work. We’re not going to get the Washington Post to respect us. Best case scenario, those journalists didn’t even see the comments. Because if they did, the odds are against them being charitable about it. We’re too damn weird. We’re beyond teenagers using neopronouns, which are also very weird (regardless of what I personally think of that, it’s still weird to society at large). There’s no changing it, not that high.
To change it at all? Ally ourselves with furries, maybe. They’ve got financial power and a chokehold on the IT industry. Or go up to academia and fund their studies. I recall one of Alt+H’s original goals was to fund studies. Being able to cite those would go a long way into being able to say “we’re here, we exist, and you’re going to damn well acknowledge it”.
2) How do we strike a balance between bringing up issues and not making everyone hate being alterhuman?
This is a question that I think you should’ve asked right when you made the organization. Although, to be fair, this does seem to be the first community initiative, so it’s understandable why it got missed until now.
Be a positive force, so that when it’s time to have to be serious and negative and stir up the community, people actually want to work with you to see the goals complete. Give us more notice for things like this, for one. Don’t just “oh write essays right now” us, more like “ayyy therianthropy day’s in a month, we’ll be holding a raffle for this cool sticker set, five bucks for a ticket to fund studies, and if you want more than so many tickets, you get an extra one for every piece of personal writing or art you do over 500 words / 20 minutes of work that you also tag us in!”.
People ask a lot on what to write, because they don’t know where to start, and yet the 30 Day Otherkin Challenge is still popular. Maybe host several prompt lists and personal challenges on your website, and link them frequently on your socials so people know they exist. Boost zines and surveys and whatnot and be a community hub, so that folks know you, and they like you, and when it’s time to do stuff, word actually gets out.
Do more positive stuff, and get people happy to do this sort of stuff. Simple as that, really, and there’s so many ways to go about it that aren’t mutually exclusive that I’m sure your organization could come up with some really good ones, given a week or two to brainstorm.
Hope that helps, at least.
