REAL QUICK short and simple to the point because this has come up more times than i can count and lots of people have asked me what i think of it (this is not about any one person in particular or anything like that).
yes, i am really uncomfortable with how often people say “person x is my spirit animal” or just randomly tag things “spirit animal” without thinking about it. for the longest time i didn’t get what it even was supposed to mean… just look at the tag on tumblr and you see hockey players, fictional characters, movie stars, “hipster animals” and hey! even a few animals. it has come to my attention that it is trendy to throw a “spirit animal” theme party. (for the record, this is just dressing up as animals)
MY TWO CENTS: just take a second, step back and think about it before you throw around a term like spirit animal. is there a better way of saying what you’re actually trying to convey? if you’re talking about a person, could you say, “i have a lot of admiration for you/we’re kindred spirits/you’re my brother from another mother/sister from another mister?” if you’re throwing a theme party, could you just throw an… animal themed party?
for the record i really don’t know very much about the significance of animal spirits and totems in some native communities. all i know is, if you don’t either? i don’t think it’s cool to throw it around. it just rubs me the wrong way.
here’s what some other people wrote about “spirit animals”:
- champagneproblems (jan 11, 2011)
- adorianmode (jan 11, 2011)
- velocicrafter (feb 22, 2011)
some other suggested reads:
- The Manataka American Indian Council’s webpage about animal spirit guides
- Spiritual Appropriation as Sexual Violence by Andrea Smith (more about that here)
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SPIRIT ANIMAL
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