I hope that everyone enjoyed the discussion today. John and I tried to ask questions that would provoke different types of conversations than what we have been speaking of.
There were a lot of good points made today. The one point in the conversation that was most interesting to me was when none of us could pin point what the goth subculture was or what it stood for.
I have been thinking about this all day and have even done some secondary research.
The thing is that goths do not stand for anything specific. People of the goth subculture listen to many different genres of music, have different political ideologies, follow various religions, and so on. Now, "how then could this be considered a subculture?" many of you either said in class or thought about. Foremost, we are all individuals and all have different interests. Just because they are all within the goth subculture does not mean they all have to share common beliefs.
Goths are not afraid to simply be themselves and are accepting of everyone. I know that sounds contrived and cliche, but that is a consistent value among the culture. The reason that there is such a variation of character among members is because of how accepting they are. Goths are free thinkers and express it, which is more than I can say about myself.
We could all pull something away from the goth mentality. We constantly exercise stigma management because we are frightened of judgment. Let us all try to be a little more okay with who we are, let us all be a little more 'goth'. I'll pass on the whole anachronistic and loud get-up. However, I will strive to be more accepting of others and myself.
I know that this post seems like a Disney special about accepting people for who they are. But honestly, I think it's something that we could hear a lot more. I have heard the message countless times and it still hasn't hit home.
-Bryan
I think this is a true characteristic of the Goth subculture, however, I would argue that their love and fascination for "the macabre" is also uniting. While Goths may have a number of differing ideologies, they are most easily recognized by their physical appearance, which is both how they express themselves and how "the rest of us" understand them. Their appearance, in the majority of cases, directly reflects their interests. While I agree that Goths are a very accepting group of people, I would also argue that they are the masters of stigma management, as the chapter pointed out, and easily slip in and out of their Goth identities depending on the social context. How can we be accepting of others if we're not first accepting of ourselves?
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