Well, that's all over. A lot of things have happened. I quit my job. I've moved to Melbourne now. It's great. I live with the notorious Kitty Lovett of Anonymous Gothcat infamy, along with a bunch of awesome Indian folk.
So I'm back. My swords are as yet not-back. They're in the mail. My maille wil also be in the mail soon, I hope.
But me? I'm back. And I'm as angry as ever.
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| Fuckyear Xrrrryyyy for being unofficial My Blag Illustrator. |
Why this time?
Goths.
To be more specific, people who think they're goths when reeaaallly they're just kind of an asshole.
As you can probably guess by looking at my girlfriend and the few friendly people that follow(ed?) my blog, I don't have anything against goths, or subculture folk in general as long as they're, y'know, decent people. Which they tend to be. However, we watched a video recently (We being myself, the nefarious cat and The Green Fairy, who if you aren't following can be found over here) detailing something that was called quite amusingly 'The Vladimir Incident,' over at Sebastian Columbine's youtube account. Her blagoblag can be found over here.
Now, I'm sure you'll find the video if you find yourself interested in miss Columbine, but to detail, she encountered a fellow who was almost cartoonishly goth. He was every bad 90s stereotype of goth. And of course because of this he was THE GOTHIEST GOTH THAT EVER WORE GUYLINER.
According to this guy, there are certain rules to being goth. Rules seem to be as follows;
-You can't be a goth unless you were born on Hallowe'en (lolwut) or ordained as a goth by an Arch-Goth (lolwuttttt)
-Keep to your Tribe (Wtf is this, Survivor Subculture?) and have no positive interaction with non-goth subcultures
-If an Arch-Goth, set an example of Super Mega Gothdom to your Tribe.
No word yet on how to become an Arch-Goth. Maybe you just have to be the richest and able to afford the most trashy 'goth' gear. Maybe you just need to have the most spikes on your eyeliner pattern. I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS WORKS I'M NOT GOTH ENOUGH. Though it should be mentioned my level of goth basically stops at liking waistcoats and listening to Voltaire. Cause Voltaire is best.
Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to try and extremise your culture or subculture. Annoying, but a regular phenomenon. If you want to go and live in a little commune away from the Normals and rule your Tribe with an iron-clad but delicately manicured fist, fine. That's fine. Go off and do it. However, do not declare someone as less than you, or as being a lesser form of the culture than you. You are not the TWOOEST GOFF or insertappropriatesubculture/culture/religion/politicalideologyhere because you've made all these special rules for yourself.
Now, I say this as an outsider looking in, but I say it as an outsider looking in from a pretty damn close window. I've encountered a lot of people from various subcultures and other minorities in my life. I stayed two weeks in America with one of my oldest, dearest friends, who happens to be a gay furry pagan vampire with goth tendencies. I stayed with him and his Christian boyfriend in a redneck state, where they're known and popular for being damn cool people. I grew up bullied for hanging out with the Aboriginal kids (most of whom I was at least partially related to) as a child.
And what I say as an outsider looking in is this; these things are about self-identification over outside classification. Whether it's a subculture, an exoculture (is that a word? It is now) a sexual/gender identification, it's what you feel about yourself that matters. To continue using the goth example; I've known goths that dress in blue t-shirts and have a tan a nudist would call dangerous. They identified as goth because the majority of music they liked was from goth genres and they enjoyed much of the rest of the subculture, they just didn't feel comfortable in the aesthetic. I've known the reverse. I've met people who were into both, but denied being goth. I've been labled as a goth a few times. I'm not a goth. A few of my gothy folk like to joke that I'm Closet-Goth or similar because I like Voltaire and I'd wear some steampunkish stuff if I could justify dropping hundreds of dollars on clothes for myself instead of for my ladyfriend. I enjoy that, to a degree. I've also been labled as a furry for liking some anthro-art and old cartoons and movies and stories involving animals. And while I've sat fairly deeply into the Furry Subculture at times, I'm not a furry. I'm just me. We're all just us. You're just you, you're just your 'me.' If your 'me' happens to be a goth, steampunk, skinhead, furry, oldschool gamer or anything else and you feel the need or desire to show that in whatever way externally, great. Wear four hundred dollars worth of frilly material, plaster gears to everything, shave your head, wear a tail, wear a shirt with the NiGHTS Into Dreams original gamecover on it, listen to the music that's related to it if you like it, whether it's fourteen different string instruments and a harmonica over lyrics about zombies or if it's a classical overture version of the original Zelda theme. Or hate the music and say FUCK IT LETS ALL LISTEN TO LADY GAGA. Or dress like a bum with a huge set of headphones blasting your music. Or do none of that at all, and still be just as much of a whatever-the-hell you are, even if people can't guess it by looking at you in your casual clothes or by listening to the first few songs on whatever-the-hell music device you people are using nowdays. Call yourself whatever the fuck you like, and never let anybody tell you that you're not whatever the fuck you are just because they, too, are a whatever-the-fuck, and you don't follow their own self-imposed ideas and rules on HOW TO BE A WHATEVER-THE-FUCK.
But don't try to make those rules up for anybody else either. Because whatever-the-fuck is your whatever-the-fuck you are, taking away someones self-identification or self-expression? That makes you an Asshole.
So in short, fuck that guy, fuck assholes, fuck people that tell you that you aren't whatever you feel you are. And fuck exorbitant prices on makeup, clothes and swords because goddamn that's shitting me off and that'll probably be my next post.
I'm back, goddammit.
