(no subject)

[vicarz]

A pointless point to make: saw South Park last night. Are they reading my LJ posts? Last week they ripped on anti-smoking efforts (I support people's right to smoke but don't want to breathe in their residue while I get drunk on my own poisons, think the tobacco lawsuits were absurd), this week they tore into Hooters (damn funny) and goths. Week before it was the metrosexual when I was busting on Queer Eye. Crab people!

Ok, if goths walked around whining all the time it would be fair to say that anyone that wallows in misery feeling sorry for themselves is pathetic. Pointing out that non-comformists all dress the same is funny, ok. Denny's is lame.

Problem is - I've never associated those black-clad fellas with being miserable. The dark spooky people appreciate everything from crappy poetry to a cathederal, and dress funny. They also laugh a lot, give support, goof off tons, and generally have a good time. If it weren't for the abuse you got for looking that way...but then again the look also gets shock value and identification, so I suppose it's a trade off.

Anyway, is it just me or does the miserable goth stereotype just come from nowhere? Do they think because 'we' wear black we're miserable? Aren't most goths giddy and giggly?

Comments

[thefeline.livejournal.com]

Not all goth kiddies are smiley and giggly. Some have the melodramatic "whoa is me" thing going on. Take a good look around Alchemy the next time you're there ;) Or think back to the Roxy days. Or hell...look around at journals with "goth" as an interest ;)

[kelowna.livejournal.com]

I never saw "goths" as the least bit depressed. Melodramatic, sure... but who isn't in their late teens/early twenties and some of us into our thirties ;)

--kelowna

[alumiere.livejournal.com]

come on vicar... think about it - even if it is south park it's still tv - they stereotype and often play to the lowest common denominator... and you know how stereotyping works - if someone thinks all goths are depressed then they are going to meet/find a bunch of depressed people and ignore the rest of the scene

also, i suspect that given that the show is done in la, if the writers did any actual meeting of real goths they may have found that many of them fit the stereotype - our scene in dc is surprisingly diverse and has a much smaller quantity of mopey/miserable goths than many other scenes, in part i think because the goths have always been part of a much larger scene of freaks which includes punk, industrial, and other types as well - mopey goths are definately out there (even in dc) but in communities such as la la land where there is no freak community but rather a bunch of smaller, more insular communities they are a much larger percentage of the crowd at any given goth club... convergence last spring really drove this home for me - we have friends out in la and they introduced us to a bunch of la goths - many of them were decent people, but damn do they have no clue what a freak is or that such a community is possible and the closed group they presented made little to no sense to me (nor do my friends who've been transplanted there understand it)

hope that makes sense - brain not quite firing on all cylinders today

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I've not ventured out a lot in other goth scenes, but it seemed that Philly, B'more, and SF were all very friendly and fun scenes. I tend to think it's more the outside view. Perhaps I don't visit the hot topic side of life to know about the new Spencer variety goth.

I'm just some old guy now anyway
life, passed me by.
It's a steep slope, all down into the dark abyss

Come sweet slumber,
enshroud me in thy purple cloak
Hmph. Doesn't even rhyme.

Smaller goth scenes

[lilu22.livejournal.com]

I agree with alumiere. But, I'm from Colorado. Go to middle America, republican states and you will find depressed, alienated, picked on goths. Small circles that are kinda hush, hush about where the good hang outs are.

Although, my guess is that they are all a lot nicer (friendly often appears less depressed) in the clubs, where they feel safe, than in school. At least, that's how it appeared to me in high school.

In high school, the goths wouldn't talk to me (the "happier" freaks would), but the goths were feeling too bad about themselves to say hi.

Flashback: 3 guys and me all talking about eyeliner and I'm the only one not wearing any.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_blackjack_/]

The whole point of dressing up like a Munster is that it's FUN, fer crissakes.

[grymnir.livejournal.com]

As one of the depressive, perpetually-bitter goth-types, I'll just sneer in the general direction of the perky-goths. After all...their mothers all smelt of elder-berries. There is, indeed, a difference between being goofy and being quirky...it says so in hte alt-goth manual, no, really!

No one is depressed all the time...nor is anyone suicidal all the time; if they were, they'd be dead.

Now- turn of your irony-tone and get back to studying!

[lilkender.livejournal.com]

The best thing about our freak scene is that we can laugh at ourselves.

[(Anonymous)]

Hmn, well honestly, in my case, I've spent considerable time being less than happy in my life for various reasons as well as time being happy/ocasionally cheerful, whatever- The less than happy (occassionally quite bleak) part can be attributed to my whacky brain chemistry and accompanying sleep disorder (a disfunction most people apparently don't "enjoy"), my lack of true success at living up to my eccentic value system, dissapointment with other people, lol (especially the many who can't deal with honest communication and/or eccentricity), the state of the world/country and the general mentality of Americans re that ect. Except for the first one, you yourself have mentioned all those here in your journal or on message boards here and there.

I like the goofy, friendly, happy, non-conforming (sometimes), not-over-serious aspect of goths, or people generally, but, in my case, I also like to think of (romanticize?) goth as a culture having an acceptance/compassion for and desire to understand both/all sides of things, including people and the human condition, and not to necessarilly idealize what is stereotypically viewed as either the "positive" or the "negative" in people. I like music that's "dark" like alot of industrial music is, and I think that's because it sometimes resonates with me on some personal level, and sometimes has either a comforting or cathartic effect. I love alot of Skinny Puppy for example, and the music and lyrics are very dark, but at the same time I find it kind of funny- even while Ogre is singer "Why don't you CAAARE?" there is something very amusing and laughable in the way he says it...

(If this wasn't written well it's cause I couldn't sleep well last night- now I'm feeling depressed- time to go hide in the closet, away from the light, the dreadful light, lol)

dana

("When you have a song to sing it never seems as bad" Stevie Wonder)