I would like to take this time to make a special public announcement: Goth is a culture, not a fashion trend.<\/p>\n
The subculture was born in the late 1970s and has undergone at least two transitions, according to Alicia Porter Smith, author of \u201cA Study of Gothic Subculture: an Inside Look for Outsiders.\u201d\u00a0 Music has been a key factor in the culture\u2019s development, and Smith marks its growth by bands such as Bauhaus, London After Midnight and The Shroud.<\/p>\n
In 1989 a new store called Hot Topic marketed music and merchandise directly to punk and alternative teenagers. \u00a0Five years later a shock rock band called Marilyn Manson exploded onto the music scene, shining a spotlight on the gothic subculture that had previously gone largely unnoticed.\u00a0 Unfortunately for true Goths, a fad was born.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m not saying that Marilyn Manson or Hot Topic are bad things.\u00a0 I am saying that the popularity of one or two aspects of the gothic culture has robbed it of some primary identifiers.<\/p>\n
For example, what do you think of when you see someone who wears a lot of black or a man who wears eyeliner?\u00a0 This used to be an identifier of a Goth, but now it is a fashion statement for punk, rock, emo and suburban rebellion.<\/p>\n
If you really want to know about the culture, then look past the fashion.\u00a0 Get to know people.\u00a0 Do some research.\u00a0 A great book to read is \u201cWhat is Goth?\u201d by Voltaire, a Goth singer, performer, animator, comic book writer and toy creator.<\/p>\n
Voltaire describes Goth as the melancholy cousin of punk rock, and I tend to agree with him.\u00a0 He believes that Goth is a new romanticism that deals with the human condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s obviously something about Goth that is very mysterious to most people who are not exposed to it, which makes them believe that there is something especially dangerous about Goth which, to me, seems fairly silly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There are still aspects of the culture that remain unique.\u00a0 Every Goth I know loves the peace and beauty of cemeteries and graveyards.\u00a0 Many enjoy poetry.\u00a0 Few fit into any stereotype.<\/p>\n
Fashion and stereotypes should never be used to define a culture.\u00a0 This Halloween, remember that black clothes, pale skin and dark makeup don\u2019t necessarily make someone gothic.\u00a0 If you do meet a Goth, identify them by their humanity, not their eyeliner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I would like to take this time to make a special public announcement: Goth is a culture, not a fashion trend. The subculture was born in the late 1970s and has undergone at least two transitions, according to Alicia Porter Smith, author of \u201cA Study of Gothic Subculture: an Inside Look for Outsiders.\u201d\u00a0 Music has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[368,730,728,729,1976,731,732],"class_list":["post-3012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-culture","tag-fasion","tag-goth","tag-gothic","tag-meagan-ewton","tag-subculture","tag-voltaire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-MA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3100,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions\/3100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}