i’ve been asked a lot about “ahab” recently (assigned human at birth) and it got me thinking that there’s probably a better alternative we can think of. i know a lot of people like ahab (and please keep using it if you like it!) but i just think we can probably do better:
- AHAB – assigned human at birth
- RAHB – recognized as human-bodied
- A[A]HB – assigned [as] human bodied
- RABH[B] – recognized as biologically human [bodied]
i talked to a clinical lycanthrope friend about this and they really liked AHAB and RAHB – the goal here is just to be inclusive of alterhumans & physically-identifying alterhumans. please let me know what you think in my inbox or in the notes, or you can anonymously straw poll here.
if you’re wondering why i’m proposing a change, it’s mostly because i think using “AHAB” (although efffective as it follows a known-format) could lead to a lot of bullying or harassment long-term. i’m not one for respectability politics, and i don’t want to change it so we can be more palatable to outsiders, it’s all just so that we can avoid harassment or bullying long-term. i think “AHAB” could be a good way for alterhumisist rhetoric to spread and that kinda sucks overall.
it’s not really a huge deal if nobody wants it changed, i just think proposing more options is probably good. especially considering “AHAB” has not been officially coined