Holy wall of text batman, I guess I have more data on this than I thought. Even with a lot of the screenshots I was looking for gone missing. :/
Sorry you experienced that nonny. I'm kind of boggled that people have somehow forgotten 4chan and KF's involvement in this, as it was pretty fucking common knowledge last I looked. Nonnies above had some valid questions about the origins of kinning and confusion over why a lot of people view it as transphobic, so I'll answer that here as well.
While there was definitely precedent for kinning before 4chan/KF began using the concept in a transphobic astroturfing campaign, it was originally a much more niche set of beliefs most often found in small communities that were often adjacent to the furry fandom. This is the Therian/Otherkin community I'm talking about here, their definition of 'otherkin' was and still is pretty different than the idea of 'kinning a fictional character'. A lot of the community was somewhat insular, and my understanding is that on the whole, members generally discouraged people from using those terms outside Therian/Otherkin community spaces.
"A lot of these animal/object kin identities have origins in 4chan trolling. IIRC the first incident was using "clovergender" as a way to sneak pedophilia and troll Tumblr and Twitter trans communities, and the other kin stuff followed suit."
Yep. This is one of the more well documented examples of KF farms doing active astroturfing to on tumblr that we have, though of course there were a hell of a lot more. I think more of the kin accounts and concepts created by these people were about painting transgender people as delusional and wanting to 'become animals/demons', than pedophiles, but there was eventually a push towards making accounts where the "user" was kin with various underage fictional characters and then would immediately use the account to solicit minors for SRP. BTW fuuuck imgur for deleting the screenshots someone had collected of this back in 2016, fuck you imgur.
Slight tangent, but there was a later version of this with the same "transphobic people are predatory" rhetoric that popped up somewhere between 2016-2020, where suddenly it was 'I'm mentally 16 but I'm actually 25...' Slightly different thing and similar situation to kin, where once the idea was out there via astroturfing, there were some more innocent fans on tumblr and twitter that just... thought the idea of saying you were mentally a minor in your 20s was appealing. (This is, uh much more problematic than identifying with Sans the Skeleton at 25, for obvious reasons. While I'm somewhat sympathetic with the idea of someone not feeling their age and thinking that are actually a minor at 25, I also have some really gross stories of people using this idea to justify having absolutely no boundaries with minors in discord. Anyways, back to kinning.)
I think the majority of the kinning astroturf campaign from 4chan turned into slightly less malicious but still transphobic trolling 'for the lolz', like plantkin, real person kin, ect, and by this time the idea had become somewhat popularized to the point where a lot of younger users adopted the idea wholesale.
Nonny above with this comment: "Same. Honestly, I think 4chan and KF bastardized an odd form of expression used by people online because they realized that they could hurt multiple groups by doing it for laughs, and it lingers. Now, anyone that did it innocently is tied to 4chan and transphobia."
You are correct that 4chan and KF were interested in hurting multiple groups, including anyone they saw as furry/autistic/queer, but the kin astroturfing campaign used a lot of its rhetoric specifically to attack and delegitimize trans people. I think a lot of people just forgot that 4chan and KF's transphobic trolling is why and how this extremely niche concept was suddenly exploding on tumblr in 2014-15, and with a pretty different definition than the one the established Otherkin community had been using for over a decade.
There's a really decent lecture online from 2013 (note the date) that goes over the online culture and ideas of Otherkin/Therians. This video has a lot of in-depth documentation, empathy and curiosity, and I highly recommend it to anyone that's curious about the history of kinning/otherkin/therians:
https://youtu.be/ZMEkuOW5pjs?si=Nys4jln6lqea0S8d
If you don't feel like watching the video but want a quick look at how the Therian/Otherkin community in 2013 was discussing and thinking about these type of identities and beliefs, the comment section on this video is a pretty good window into that.
I wasn't in any of these communities but afaik this lecture is considered to be a well researched and accurate description of what the Therian and Otherkin communities were like in 2013, and the experiences of the people that were using these terms. From all my interactions with them and what I've read, (though of course the community is not a monolith, you're going to find some disagreement) on the whole they were and continue to be pretty fucking unhappy with the fact that 'Otherkin", and "Kinning" suddenly exploded to widespread use on tumblr as a result of transphobic astroturfing, and consider the casual use of 'kinning' to be an insulting bastardization of their own beliefs. (Take of that what you will.)
I've learned about this mostly from talking to people in the community, but there's also plenty of documentation about it, here's one example:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/Thread-Therian-Otherkin-Terms Last updated 2018:
"Otherkin: A person that identifies as being, in part or whole (non-physically), one or more non-human creatures or beings on an integral and personal level. Otherkin cannot choose their kintypes. Otherkin is also an umbrella term for otherkin, therians and fictiokin."
"Coping Linkers: People who use non-human entities as a way to cope with depression, anxiety, and general day-to-day troubles. They are not considered the same as otherkin or therians despite vague similarities, as they have chosen their identities. The name was changed from copingkin to copinglinkers to cement that they are not associated with the otherkin community.
Theriotype: What a therian identifies as being on a spiritual and personal level. A therian may identify as one or more animals as their theriotype. E.g. a therian may have a wolf theriotype, meaning they identify as a wolf.
Kintype: What an otherkin identifies as E.g. Dragonkin means identifying as a dragon, wolfkin as a wolf.
Kin: Shortened form of Otherkin, not a verb. You can’t ‘kin’ something, and ‘kinning’ isn’t a thing. “My kin/theriotype is (x)”, or “I am (x) kin” are correct ways of phrasing it. “I otherkin across the street” makes no sense."
Terms and ideas of course continue to evolve, and there are plenty of people that are either unaware of 4chan's extremely transphobic involvement in popularizing kinning fictional characters on tumblr, or just don't care. Which... honestly, like, fine? Ideas and language evolve, and if you're not using it to maliciously bully people or use it to try and convince other people that trans people are delusional, I guess I don't really think you're doing a great harm to anybody by using the term. It's just been a very, very recent tool of transphobic rhetoric, and the community that it came from less than 10 years ago is also extremely unhappy with people using it causally as a shorthand for having an extreme attachment to fictional characters such as Sans the Skeleton/ thinking you're Sans the Skeleton on the astral plane. (Take your pick.)
Nonny above with this comment: I mean, are they though? I get how some people might have their perspective of kinning soured by those malicious instances but it's a bit of a stretch to say they're now tied to 4chan and transphobia.
Sorry, but even if you are unaware of the history behind it, saying that you're "kinning a fictional character" is absolutely, definitely tied and strongly associated with 4chan and transphobia, and that's what a lot of people will think of upon seeing it. I'm not equating this to someone putting "I'm kin with Sans the Skeleton" being actively transphobic, just that the recent history behind it absolutely is. It's... context.
Re: Unpopular Opinion...
Holy wall of text batman, I guess I have more data on this than I thought. Even with a lot of the screenshots I was looking for gone missing. :/
Sorry you experienced that nonny. I'm kind of boggled that people have somehow forgotten 4chan and KF's involvement in this, as it was pretty fucking common knowledge last I looked. Nonnies above had some valid questions about the origins of kinning and confusion over why a lot of people view it as transphobic, so I'll answer that here as well.
While there was definitely precedent for kinning before 4chan/KF began using the concept in a transphobic astroturfing campaign, it was originally a much more niche set of beliefs most often found in small communities that were often adjacent to the furry fandom. This is the Therian/Otherkin community I'm talking about here, their definition of 'otherkin' was and still is pretty different than the idea of 'kinning a fictional character'. A lot of the community was somewhat insular, and my understanding is that on the whole, members generally discouraged people from using those terms outside Therian/Otherkin community spaces.
"A lot of these animal/object kin identities have origins in 4chan trolling. IIRC the first incident was using "clovergender" as a way to sneak pedophilia and troll Tumblr and Twitter trans communities, and the other kin stuff followed suit."
Yep. This is one of the more well documented examples of KF farms doing active astroturfing to on tumblr that we have, though of course there were a hell of a lot more. I think more of the kin accounts and concepts created by these people were about painting transgender people as delusional and wanting to 'become animals/demons', than pedophiles, but there was eventually a push towards making accounts where the "user" was kin with various underage fictional characters and then would immediately use the account to solicit minors for SRP. BTW fuuuck imgur for deleting the screenshots someone had collected of this back in 2016, fuck you imgur.
Slight tangent, but there was a later version of this with the same "transphobic people are predatory" rhetoric that popped up somewhere between 2016-2020, where suddenly it was 'I'm mentally 16 but I'm actually 25...' Slightly different thing and similar situation to kin, where once the idea was out there via astroturfing, there were some more innocent fans on tumblr and twitter that just... thought the idea of saying you were mentally a minor in your 20s was appealing. (This is, uh much more problematic than identifying with Sans the Skeleton at 25, for obvious reasons. While I'm somewhat sympathetic with the idea of someone not feeling their age and thinking that are actually a minor at 25, I also have some really gross stories of people using this idea to justify having absolutely no boundaries with minors in discord. Anyways, back to kinning.)
I think the majority of the kinning astroturf campaign from 4chan turned into slightly less malicious but still transphobic trolling 'for the lolz', like plantkin, real person kin, ect, and by this time the idea had become somewhat popularized to the point where a lot of younger users adopted the idea wholesale.
Nonny above with this comment:
"Same. Honestly, I think 4chan and KF bastardized an odd form of expression used by people online because they realized that they could hurt multiple groups by doing it for laughs, and it lingers. Now, anyone that did it innocently is tied to 4chan and transphobia."
You are correct that 4chan and KF were interested in hurting multiple groups, including anyone they saw as furry/autistic/queer, but the kin astroturfing campaign used a lot of its rhetoric specifically to attack and delegitimize trans people. I think a lot of people just forgot that 4chan and KF's transphobic trolling is why and how this extremely niche concept was suddenly exploding on tumblr in 2014-15, and with a pretty different definition than the one the established Otherkin community had been using for over a decade.
There's a really decent lecture online from 2013 (note the date) that goes over the online culture and ideas of Otherkin/Therians. This video has a lot of in-depth documentation, empathy and curiosity, and I highly recommend it to anyone that's curious about the history of kinning/otherkin/therians:
https://youtu.be/ZMEkuOW5pjs?si=Nys4jln6lqea0S8d
If you don't feel like watching the video but want a quick look at how the Therian/Otherkin community in 2013 was discussing and thinking about these type of identities and beliefs, the comment section on this video is a pretty good window into that.
I wasn't in any of these communities but afaik this lecture is considered to be a well researched and accurate description of what the Therian and Otherkin communities were like in 2013, and the experiences of the people that were using these terms. From all my interactions with them and what I've read, (though of course the community is not a monolith, you're going to find some disagreement) on the whole they were and continue to be pretty fucking unhappy with the fact that 'Otherkin", and "Kinning" suddenly exploded to widespread use on tumblr as a result of transphobic astroturfing, and consider the casual use of 'kinning' to be an insulting bastardization of their own beliefs. (Take of that what you will.)
I've learned about this mostly from talking to people in the community, but there's also plenty of documentation about it, here's one example:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/Thread-Therian-Otherkin-Terms
Last updated 2018:
"Otherkin: A person that identifies as being, in part or whole (non-physically), one or more non-human creatures or beings on an integral and personal level. Otherkin cannot choose their kintypes. Otherkin is also an umbrella term for otherkin, therians and fictiokin."
"Coping Linkers: People who use non-human entities as a way to cope with depression, anxiety, and general day-to-day troubles. They are not considered the same as otherkin or therians despite vague similarities, as they have chosen their identities. The name was changed from copingkin to copinglinkers to cement that they are not associated with the otherkin community.
Theriotype: What a therian identifies as being on a spiritual and personal level. A therian may identify as one or more animals as their theriotype. E.g. a therian may have a wolf theriotype, meaning they identify as a wolf.
Kintype: What an otherkin identifies as E.g. Dragonkin means identifying as a dragon, wolfkin as a wolf.
Kin: Shortened form of Otherkin, not a verb. You can’t ‘kin’ something, and ‘kinning’ isn’t a thing. “My kin/theriotype is (x)”, or “I am (x) kin” are correct ways of phrasing it. “I otherkin across the street” makes no sense."
Terms and ideas of course continue to evolve, and there are plenty of people that are either unaware of 4chan's extremely transphobic involvement in popularizing kinning fictional characters on tumblr, or just don't care. Which... honestly, like, fine? Ideas and language evolve, and if you're not using it to maliciously bully people or use it to try and convince other people that trans people are delusional, I guess I don't really think you're doing a great harm to anybody by using the term. It's just been a very, very recent tool of transphobic rhetoric, and the community that it came from less than 10 years ago is also extremely unhappy with people using it causally as a shorthand for having an extreme attachment to fictional characters such as Sans the Skeleton/ thinking you're Sans the Skeleton on the astral plane. (Take your pick.)
Nonny above with this comment:
I mean, are they though? I get how some people might have their perspective of kinning soured by those malicious instances but it's a bit of a stretch to say they're now tied to 4chan and transphobia.
Sorry, but even if you are unaware of the history behind it, saying that you're "kinning a fictional character" is absolutely, definitely tied and strongly associated with 4chan and transphobia, and that's what a lot of people will think of upon seeing it. I'm not equating this to someone putting "I'm kin with Sans the Skeleton" being actively transphobic, just that the recent history behind it absolutely is. It's... context.