Actually, yes, this *is* Goth

The Gothic Subculture is:
• A music and fashion based subculture that emerged in the late 1970s’ from the Punk movement.
• A subculture that has branched out into many variations.
• A subculture unbound by race, color, creed, religion, or political affiliation.

The Gothic Subculture is NOT:
• A lifestyle.
• A mindset.
• A religion.

(reblogged as I couldn’t have said it better myself).

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Disagree, disagree, disagree with the second part so much it makes my teeth hurt.

Just based on the semantic word games you like to play, let’s look at the pure definitions of the words, shall we?

According to Wikipedia:

Lifestyle: A lifestyle typically reflects an individual’s attitudes, values or world view. Therefore, a lifestyle is a means of forging a sense of self and to create cultural (emphasis my own) symbols that resonate with personal identity.

From Dictionary.com: 

Culture: the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.

From Wikipedia again:

Subculture: In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.

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When you adopt the ways of a subculture, you become part of that subculture.  That means you live a certain way—which is called a LIFESTYLE.  To those of us for whom “goth” is not just some narrowminded person’s view of a style of dress or a shortlist of bands or a particular way to apply eyeliner, your suggestion that who we are and how we live our lives is completely negated by somebody’s offhand, ignorant “definition” is specious at best and utterly callous and insulting at worst.

I’ve been pretty tolerant and good-natured up until now, but the fact that you’ve blogged this twice has really got my bloomers in a bunch.

No one—I don’t care if you’re Peter-fucking-Murphy—has the right to tell me that how I live—-from my pointy, goth-booted toes to the top of my black-veiled head—IS NOT GOTH. 

I have been goth—AND LIVING A GOTH LIFESTYLE, THANK YOU—for nearly 30 years.  It is part and parcel of my identity—as are many other things.  But it’s an important part, and I will not let anybody take that away from me, simply because they have some narrowminded view of “what is and isn’t”.

One of the things I love about my goth community—oh, and yes, there *is* a community, and it’s far-reaching, diverse and many-splendoured—is that 99% of the time it is a wonderful and inclusive thing.  Goth is like the Statue of Liberty for the Strange and Unusual, you see.  She takes in all the ones that society doesn’t want—and that don’t want society in turn.

Maybe if you stopped gleefully wallowing in what you perceive as other people’s faults for not recognizing YOUR “definition” of “goth”, and spent more time actually exploring other people’s experiences of it, you might find your horizons broadened a bit.  Because from where I’m standing, it sure looks like they could use some broadening.

Stepping off my black soapbox now.

(Source: thedelicatedarkness, via thisisnotgoth)