Are Otherkin Oppressed?

So I'm gonna do my best to simplify my input on this thread to two things: A broader point about how I think oppression works, and a more personal point about my lived experience.

Oppression doesn't work by selecting groups of individuals based on how they identify personally, and targeting them based on that personal identity. It works systemically to punish all kinds of people under oppressive systems that we are all affected by to some degree. Only the richest and most unimaginably privileged of us (the actual 1%, not even most celebrities are that rich or privileged enough to totally escape) are able to control anything about this system, and they do it by pitting us against each other in these little groups. Separating us. Forcing us to nitpick amongst ourselves who's deserving and who isn't of solidarity, inclusion, awareness, respect, and resources. That includes conversations like this. "Are X Oppressed?" Like, if you have to ask ... maybe the answer is "it doesn't matter, and we should ally anyway."

Because like. Cissexism oppresses trans people in a unique way from cis people, but it doesn't do cis people any favors by any means. Gender non-conforming cis people, queer cis people, cis people of color -- none of these groups are really benefiting from cissexism. It is, in fact, directly contributing to the oppression of many cis people. Cis people are oppressed by cissexism, they are sometimes even direct targets. It just depends on who is the biggest threat. I remember when it used to be cis emo boys who dressed ~too gay~, whether they were gay or not. That's how cissexism and heteronormativity do the tango, they're good friends. Just look at the theory of "sexual inversion" for a laugh.

And so when people say "oh we're targeted by ableism and transphobia, but we're not oppressed for being alterhuman," I don't follow the logic. Because by virtue of being alterhuman, we are being targeted. By transphobia and ableism. Just because they seem mis-applied to us from the inside, doesn't mean that we aren't their direct targets.

Which brings me to point two: my direct lived experience.

Last month at the trans support group I go to, a man there described having recently had to debunk the rumor about litter boxes at schools "for students who identify as cats." I held my tongue about the real people who ID as cats not being happy about it, either. But we are targeted by that as much as trans people, given that otherkin existence is literally weaponized against trans experience.

I lived through the "ace discourse" where lots of people decided aces aren't oppressed for various reasons like not being "direct targets," etc. And now I see conservatives directly targeting "sexless, platonic marriages" and mocking asexuals on TV along with the rest of the queers. It's a pattern I see over and over as groups get more visibility and acceptance. It is one I cannot help but see some parallels to in these discussions.

Younger queer people, and people in IRL queer spaces, are all including alterhumanity as an intersection of queer identity. Plurality is gaining more mainstream, non-medicalized acceptance through queer circles. There are obvious parallels between these identity experiences, and intersections have existed for a long time (see: multigender experiences and plurality, transspecies narratives in both communities, etc)

And even more personally, I have been on the receiving end of both queer and therian-based conversion "treatments." Both came from the same Christian fundamentalist, white supremacist, fascist point of view. Both involved being isolated from others and denied privacy. Both involved physical abuse. Both involved "sin-specific" punishments. I KNOW firsthand that the people who want to deny us rights are 100% going to come for otherkin if we ever get serious momentum in society, and that's why otherkin have historically been scared shitless by public attention -- we ALL know this. !CW ABUSE! But I have been literally hit with newspapers and sprayed with water and worse by the same man who tried to pray the gay away and threaten and evil eye the trans out. !END CW! So like, it really is all the same to me. The people who want violence for one group want it for all us deviant freaks in the end, and it's foolish and short-sighted to act otherwise. Like, ask yourself -- are we really serving the great white supremacist mission here? Are we upholding the status quo? In favor of keeping things exactly the way they are and keeping the powerful in power? Or does our existence maybe challenge some stuff in a really radical way that could be threatening to power if it was ever taken seriously as anything more than an oddity or mental health affliction? :V

That's my $0.02 aaaaand I ended up writing an essay anyway.