Punk movements in the alterhuman communities

The beastpunk flag

Multiple punk movements have been created in the alterhuman communities. These movements commonly focus on embracing alterhuman experiences, rejecting social norms, and presenting as one's phenotype. Examples of these communities include ontopunk (sometimes referred to as kinpunk) and beastpunk.

Philosophy

Alterhuman punk movements focus on embracing one's alterhumanity despite opposition. In the kinpunk coining post, pluralanomaly describes being kinpunk as "just being unashamed to be what you are and expressing it." Alterhuman punk movements may also follow these ideals:

• Radical acceptance, embrace, and celebration of alterhuman identities and experiences
• Rejection of traditional social norms, especially as it relates to expressing one's identity
• Embrace of non-harmful nonhuman behaviors and instincts
• Presentation of one's identity through means such as gear or body modification
• Embrace of creative self-expression and DIY projects
• Rejection of cringe culture
• Effort to improve the world and support of the environment and animal rights

The ontopunk movement, originally called kinpunk, embraces alterhuman identities and seeks to support marginalized humans and those with nonhuman bodies. It rejects gatekeeping and includes identities that may be rejected by the wider alterhuman community.

Alternatively, beastpunk focuses exclusively on embracing and celebrating the animality that results from some nonhuman identities. It denies that animality is an excuse to hurt others while still acknowledging the messiness of the animal experience. Beastpunks do not view animality as inherently wrong, and as such, reject attempts to make their identities more comfortable for others."

History & etymology

Punk subcultures began to emerge in the 1970s, which centered around punk music and leftist and anarchist politics. Similar political ideals have existed in alterhuman communities since their inceptions.^{[Citation needed]}

In 2020, tumblr user pluralanomaly coined the term kinpunk after being inspired by the voidpunk community and another user referring to themselves as punk-kin. Similar sentiments were discussed in the Alt+H Discord server, where the term alterpunk was considered. However, some members of the server felt that the prefix alter- was too vague, as it originated from the word alternative instead of a more explicit term. Ontopunk was created as a response, coming from ontology, the philosophical study of being. mordecai midas later proposed the term ontopunk as an alternative to kinpunk on tumblr due to criticisms surrounding the otherkin-centric implications of of using the kin- prefix.

Page Shepard coined the term beastpunk in 2022. He was inspired by the original kinpunk, but wanted to focus explicitly on animalistic identities. The term was also modeled after the word beastfolk, which had been used in the Otherconnect Discord server.

Symbols

Page Shepard created the beastpunk flag with the following symbolism:

• monochrome colors to represent the foundational but static nature of many people's nonhumanity
• the phases of the moon to reference werewolf mythology and the pre-therian were community
• three diagonal stripes to reference the anti-Nazi three arrow symbol