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A person should not be judged by what they are wearing. America was founded on the basic principle of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion- and although not specifically spelled out in our Bill of Rights- the freedom to wear what you wish.

There have been other styles from the past that stood out as much as Goth clothing- How about the Hippie era? Hippies had lots and lots of long hair, they wore headbands, young women wore long skirts and flowers in their hair; young men wore leather vests without a shirt, and sometimes, they occasionally smelled like they were using onion deodorant. Some fellows had long beards. I always wondered how that would be in hot weather.

There was an element of society that objected to what they wore and how they looked back then, probably the same people who object to what the Goths are wearing now. Some people forget that when they were young, their own parents were dismayed at what they wore. Every generation has its own "look". When I was in my 20's I worked in an accounting office, wore conservative business clothing and looked very proper, Monday through Friday. On Friday and Saturday night, I was a "weekend beatnik" who wore too much dark eye makeup, drank espresso and listened to poetry readings until 3:00 in the morning.

Goths wear black clothing, black hair, deathly pale face makeup, exaggerated eye makeup and black lipstick. Both young men and young women wear black nail polish. Gothsactually have their own noir charm, and the ones with whom I have been acquainted were polite, clean, soft-spoken, very pleasant and not at all spooky or odd. I worked with one Goth young lady who wore rose perfume, her black hair was worn in a short Dutch-boy bob, and she was tall. The whole effect was charmingly other-worldly. She was very nice, and was an excellent worker. To each his or her own.

I wonder if people who object to Goth styles realize that if there were some sort of "style police", that perhaps their own fuddy-duddy style of clothing might be in jeopardy? How would they react if they were told that they had to abandon their high-water pants, and those awful suspenders? Or that old-lady sausage-curl hairstyle? To criticize the style or dress of other people flies in the face of individualism. If we are to be a truly civilized society, we need to be able to look beyond what a person is wearing. We need to be able to see beyond the unusual exterior and evaluate that person by what is in their hearts and minds.

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