i get a lot of emails from people asking me for adivce (i
really do) and what i think goth is and so on. it is hard to explain, and
i know that i haven't actually put forward a lot of my opinions about what
goth is, or my goth pages, only said what isn't, and slated those who call
themselves goths just because they wear black and have been labelled that
way by the media. i don't call myself a goth, i am an 80s reject, but i do
have to say that others call me a goth, and rather than try to explain what
goth is according to the media (who don't acutally know anything, they give
labels to make life easier, but dont' understand the subculture) i will explain
what it is to be me. and have asked my friends to tell me what goth is to
them, or what they think they are if they don't want to call themselves a
goth. everyone i have asked is 'gothy' in someway, (according to the more
tradiaonal use of the word,. not the current use that has anyone in blakc,
esp mansonites labelled as goths, when they are clearly not goths, gothic,
or in anyway anything other than a mansonite) or has some knowledge about
that kind of subculture.
WHAT I THINK
I don't mean to sound pretentious, but goth is a state of mind, as much as
it is a way of dress. it isn't something that you can just put on, you can't
just throw on black, listen to the sisters and cally ourself a goth, it does
go further tahn that. it isn't just music, or dress, i am a goth no matter
what i wear, or what i am listening to at the time. I prefer 80s music to
antything, 80s pop, and goth, and anything like that. i dress the way that
i want to, which isn't main stream, but that isn't out of deliberate choice,
i don't wake up and think, must look different from everyone else, i like
the romanic look of goth clothes, bustle skirts, lace and velvets, i like
romantic art, i like the peace and romance of graveyards. i like the romance
of vampires, the savgery of wolves, the mystery of fantasy, but none of these
things are things that i chose to adopt just to be accepted as a goth by
other goths. i always liked graveyards and vampires, since i was a child,
something fascianates me about death and life after, but goth isn't all about
being depressed and thinking about death that is a misconception that most
townies, and people who want to be goths adopt. i just do what i enjoy and
try not to worry about what anyone else thinks. i like the old fashioned
way of dressing, mixed with the new because it is a mixture of my own tastes
and love of the old fantasy type universe, and victorian style, but mixed
to reflect the way that i feel. my clothes and my makeup aren't done for
attention, or to shock, but as a way for me to express myself. i think that
most true goths are that way because they feel that they can express themselves
in dress, the way that they dance, their makeup, and hair, whereas most mainstream
society has certain ways that you have to look, and dress, and act. any girl
wearing a proper corset, with pink hair, will get called a goth, because
townies recognise the fact that goths dress differently, the fact that she
may not like goth music, or have any gothic traits doesn't come into it.
for me, goth is about freedom to express yourself how you want, and is a
personality trait, too, a romantic, dark, macbre streak. cyber goths, mansonites
and so on, are not goths by my defination because both those groups want
to have conformity, they only accept people who dress the same sort of way,
only talk to people who like the same music and act the same way, and there
seems to be nothing romantic or gothic or macbre about them in anyway. cyber
goths are usually too full of drugs, to me they are just townies who dress
the way that they want, and mansonites seem to think that throwing around
words like satan and wearing petagrams makes them dark and mysterious. it
doesn/t. the devil isn't dark. dark, gothicness to me can be seen in pre-raphaelite
art, can be seen in dark poetry of byron or shelley, it is the tragic romance,
and to me that is what goth mostly is, people who are free to express themselves
how they please, and are drawn to the darker, gothic romance of life. not
completely, they aren't tragic sucidal people, but they just enjoy reading
a dark novel every now and then, while sitting out in the sun.
most of all i think goth is being free to be yourself, and not actually worrying
about what other people think goth is. :)
JADE
I think that Goth-ness is not just about the music
that you liten to - music trends come and go - but its about your outlook
on life. If you have a darkness about yourself, a morbid facination with death/parnormal things,
if you find the sad scenes in movies both sad and hillariously funny, if you wish that 1800's lady's dresses would come back into fashion, if
you can look into the abyss of your own mortality and be frightened and intregued, if you can look at an autopsy and moan because they cut out
all the juicy bits - then you are a goth at heart. You don't have to like
black (although most goths/alternative people do), you can even like neon-pink
and be a goth. Its a attitude to life, death and the insanely funny. Its
being able to say to yourself 'I don't mind what anybody thinks of me
- I am painting my car black with purple roses' and driving around with a
huge grin on your face because you know that you have pushed societies boundries
just once in the day. Its being mortal and at the same time wishing/hoping for immortality
just to get more of that lovely stuff called life, but still accepting that
you will have to die someday. Acceptance of cultures, acceptance of others,
acceptance of yourself and the freedom to be facinated like a child and expressive like a poet
with a hint of a painter inside - is what goth is to me.
