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Add to FavoritesIn western society in the 21st century there are very few restrictions to what people can wear. Just about anything goes. You don't even have to look particularly decent. You can wear almost nothing at all and get away with it as long as the minimal essentials are covered. In many cases very little is left to the imagination.
That's not to say that you won't have people casting a critical eye in your direction and making all sorts of judgments of you based on your clothing - or lack thereof. Many of those judgments may not be totally fair. Others are reasonable reactions though.
Many people still have quite high standards of dress. Most people won't have the kind of expectations that our grandparents and even earlier ancestors did. Nobody will be treated as a criminal or even a person of low morality for wearing too little in public. However, people will nonetheless make their personal responses, at least inwardly, to what others are wearing or not wearing.
So it's unavoidable that people who choose to dress in all black - that is in what has become known as the Goth style - will be judged on that choice. A significant percentage of them may be essentially decent, good and kind people for all the rest of us would know. But the image they present to the world is one of a dark, negative outlook on the world. It's not even surprising if people are inclined to associate such a mode of dress with witchcraft or satanic worship. After all, black has always been regarded as a colour of dark and evil spirits.
I well remember once when my husband and I were on holiday interstate and we stopped at a little craft shop along the road. As my husband was sick of looking at craft shops, I went in alone. As soon as I walked in the place gave me the creeps - but when a woman with long black hair and a long black dress appeared from the back of the shop, it really freaked me out. I didn't take the time to see if there was a broomstick and a black cat. I couldn't get out of the place fast enough.
Of course not everybody who wears a long black dress is a witch! But there's no denying that witches have always been associated with wearing all black and having long black hair. Just add a wart or two on the face and a few missing teeth in a creepy grin and most of us wouldn't be hanging around for small talk.
That's not to say that everything that is black is seen as being evil. Far from it! Black can look extremely attractive. Take for example, the classic little black dress, which can look very sexy and stylish on a woman who has a good figure. A man can look very smart and distinguished in a black suit. Black can look fantastic when used to contrast with bright colours too. Black has its place.
But it's only natural that many people are inclined to be suspicious and critical of anybody who chooses to dress in nothing but black all the time. That's unless you're a nun of course! Not that they even necessarily dress in all black any more.
How would it be if we all dressed in nothing but black and wore black face makeup, dyed our hair black, painted our fingernails black, etc? What a depressing, dismal, boring world it would be! We need our world to be full of beautiful colours. For most people it's just not considered to be appropriate or normal to make a determined habit of going all out to wear nothing but black clothing, accessories and makeup.
It's certainly not the only clothing choice that people pass judgment on. There are plenty who also object to things like thong underwear showing above a person's outerwear, midriff tops and low hipster pants being worn in winter - or by people with bulging rolls of fat hanging over the top - what has come to be known as the "muffin top" look.
As somebody with a weight problem I have no doubt there are those who look at me sometimes and think I ought to wear something that flatters my figure a bit more. That's inevitable too. I in turn look at others my size and think, "Goodness gracious! Don't they have any idea what they look like in those shorts! What an eyesore!"
I also can't comprehend people who walk into shopping centres with nothing on their feet - not even so much as a pair of rubber thongs - or flip-flops as they are called in North America. Not only does it give the impression that the person has no sense of what is socially acceptable, but it's downright foolish because they have no idea what they could tread on. As for letting children walk in public places with bare feet, I think that's downright irresponsible in these times when there can be hypodermic needles laying around anywhere.
I also can't comprehend parents who take little girls in particular into shopping centres without even a little top on - or babies without so much as a little singlet even if it's hot. To me that's inappropriate.
We all have our own ideas about what is appropriate and what the way people dress says about them. So of course people who dress in Goth clothing will be judged accordingly. If they don't like it, they just have to "lump it", as my mother would have said.
I don't expect too many of them have people coming up and insulting them verbally for it. That would certainly be unacceptable. However, they may well find that people are inclined to shy away from them and they may pick up body language signs that they are viewed with distaste. That's life! It's human nature.
They may well have to accept it if employers are put off by it too. The fact is that employers do have a right to expect certain standards and conformity to normal and even superior dress code in certain jobs. That has always been the case. Again, standards are generally not as strict as they used to be in many areas anyway.
For instance, my husband works for the government and, whereas he always used to wear a tie, he hardly ever does now. Mostly he wears good trousers to work, but some Fridays he even wears jeans - and he says many others wear jeans a lot of the time. It would certainly be quite uncommon for men to wear a suit to work these days unless they are in a very important position.
Teachers too often wear jeans to work. Even nurses don't wear the traditional nurses' white dress any more. They may be required to wear some kind of uniform but it's much more casual than it used to be.
Standards of dress are generally much more easy-going than they used to be. Nevertheless, people will always receive some kind of appraisal or judgment on what they wear. It's human nature. So if you wear Goth garb and all that goes with it, just accept that the consequences are you will find a considerable number of people who judge you accordingly. As the old saying expresses such facts of life: "Them's the breaks!"
Learn more about this author, Ruth Woodhouse.
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Yes
As someone who has embraced the Gothic Subculture for several years, I know exactly what it is like to be judged. I know what it's like to be sitting on the subway train being gawked at by passengers; I know what it's like to be minding my own business only to have someone whisper to their friends about the way I look; I know what it's like to be snarled at with a discontent face.
But on the other end of the spectrum, I know what it's like to be smiled at; I know what it's like to be complimented on my hair and on my jacket; I know what it's like to be appreciated, celebrated, and embraced by those who pass by me and by close friends in the Gothic subculture.
I have personally dealt with it every single day - both embracing and disregarding both ends of the spectrum.
Whether we should be judged or not has an obvious answer - but that doesn't change reality. And reality is that every single person on this Earth is judged within the first few seconds of seeing them - it's called the "First Impression". Do we deserve this? Of course not - appearances say nothing about our personalities. But the fact is, there really isn't any way that we can stop people from thinking what they want, especially when they don't say it out loud. We are always going to be judged - we just have to do our best to be judged in a positive manner, or to disregard those who judge without justification.
Looking back, I re-call a lady who met me for the first time. She met me on the subway, and with no seats left she was forced to sit beside me. She turned her head, and upon speaking she said, "You could be such a pretty girl if you just dressed like...", and than she stopped in mid-sentence, completely embarrassed. I knew what she was going to say.
...If I just dressed like what? Just like you?
If I wore the latest over-priced apparel from Dolce and Gabbana, dyed my hair beach-babe blonde and wore a sexy pair of Gucci sunglasses? Your flawed perception of beauty is exactly what I am trying to get away from. A perception that has been designed and sold by the very people you buy your over-priced clothes from. I don't want to be a product of the assembly line. I don't want to be a victim of what the media SAYS that I should wear. I don't want to be a product of trends or fads.
I dress the way I do because I am trying to get away from this concept of beauty that the media has placed on our heads. The whole "this makes you attractive, this does not" mentality to me is very unhealthy, yet many people seem to be a product of it. If I were part of your ideals, I would be on the on Jenny Craig diet trying to maintain my physique and size zero waistline. And that is what I love about my subculture - the fact that we can look the way we do and not be judged by each other. Everything is embraced, and everybody is beautiful, no matter what their weight or appearance - because that is only the exterior. We don't have to look like a twig in order to be respected or appreciated by our peers - we can be curvy, average, and voluptuous as well.
People may tell you that a Goth is dressing the way they do because they want attention or are trying to relay a message of non-conformity. The fact is, we are not trying to get a reaction out of you. Whether you accept us or hate us makes no difference to how we feel about ourselves. We don't dress to impress. We don't try to prove ourselves to our peers and change our dress code just to impress a complete stranger. What do we care what a stranger thinks of us?
We don't share the same observations as mainstream society. When you sit there in your subway seat and think that we are affected by your dirty looks or criticism, you are assuming that we think the same way as you do, therefore assuming we are somehow infected by your judgement. We are comfortable in our own skin, and we dress the way we do because we think it looks good and it makes us feel good. You may not think so, but that again we didn't ask you.
Some people of the Goth Subculture have a theory about why we all wear black, and it is definitely something that I can agree with. It is said that the reason we wear all black is because there is nothing to be judged upon. It is a plain, dark, and there are no logos or brand names - therefore, there is nothing to be judged upon. And if you cannot be judged by your clothing, the person regarding you is forced to speak to you in order to form their opinion. And this is the way it should be. We should all be judged upon who we are, not on the clothes we wear. And that doesn't just go for the Goth subculture, that goes for all subcultures. Like the old saying goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover".
But unfortunately, where this theory is flawed is societies general outlook on the colour black, itself. Although the black may be plain and without logos, it is still a colour - a colour that has a bad reputation with the media, especially. If you wear black, you're Goth, and if you're Goth, that means you warship Satan and shoot up schools. According to Color Psychology by David Johnson, "Black is the color of authority and power. It is popular in fashion because it makes people appear thinner. It is also stylish and timeless. Black also implies submission. Priests wear black to signify submission to God. Some fashion experts say a woman wearing black implies submission to men. Black outfits can also be overpowering, or make the wearer seem aloof or evil. Villains, such as Dracula, often wear black."
But have people ever thought that maybe, just maybe, people might wear black because they LIKE black?
Nowadays, it is easy to be dismissed as a Goth. All you need is black hair and heavy eye liner, and you are instantly known as a Goth by the media and its ill-informed listeners. What they don't know is that behind closed doors, you are rocking out to pop-punk, alternative, and metal - one of the very things that the Gothic subculture isn't a part of. If you ask somebody what a Goth is or listens to, you will get a different answer wherever you may go, but when I am asked exactly what it is, I will name off bands like Siouxsie & the Banshees, Specimen, Bauhaus, and early Skinny Puppy. I think of death-hawks, big black teased hair, black jeans, black leather jackets, and David Bowie makeup. But upon asking a wrongly informed observer, and you may get answers like HIM, Evanescence, Marilyn Manson, and My Chemical Romance.
Anything dark, black, or depressing is tied in with the subculture. Not to mention satan-warshipping, wrist-slitting, angst-ridden, life-hating mopers that are lost in life and spend every day dreading the next. Give me a break - that is the perception that the media has dispersed amongst the masses. The media thrives when it has managed to scare or shock - that's the material that gets viewers and high ratings. Do you know how badly things like the Columbine shootings or Virginia Tech incident has crippled the general publics outlook on our culture? There isn't a day that goes by that we aren't shunned because of such incidents, simply because the crimes committed were done by people donning black clothing.
Simply put - black is just a color.
I always thought that people were more smarter than that, but it seems that a lot of people just can't see past a stereotype. They don't see that the shooters in the Columbine incident were troubled for their own reasons, and not because of the clothes they wore. They would rather blame it on the fact that they wore black or listened to "evil" music, and judge their mental stability on that. And that's what makes some people so ignorant - the fact that they are content with blaming it on a stereotype, rather than blaming the influence that drove this person to insanity in the first place. Why did they do what they did? Because the black in their trench coat made them evil? Did Marilyn Manson reach in behind him and pull the trigger?
The most worst part of this question is that even though we shouldn't be judged negatively just by the way we present ourselves in our appearance, people have died just for the being a part of the Goth Subculture. Take recent cases like Sophie Lancaster - a twenty year old woman who happened to be part of our subculture. Just because of the clothes she wore, she was kicked in the head, stomped on, and beaten to death by a group of kids in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, in Lancashire. Her boyfriend was also beaten, but later regained consciousness. If this isn't a good example of the ignorance that a stereotype brings, I don't know what is.
The sad part is, Goths will probably continue to be stereotyped and judged upon a few bad seeds just by the way they dress, and that is the way it is. Incidents in the past have caused our subculture to be crippled in many communities, especially throughout Canada and the United States - but together, many of us still stand. We defend our beliefs and community by continuing to be the people who we want to be, unaffected by the negativity and stereotypes that modern day society has placed over our heads.
Like us or not - we are Goths, and we want the same thing as any other subculture, and that is to dress the way we feel like dressing without being ridiculed. Who is it hurting?
Learn more about this author, Kimberly H..
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