by Mona Cole

Created on: March 07, 2007   Last Updated: March 18, 2007

Before I begin, you must first know that I myself am part of this so called 'movement'. I have been since I was a young child, and I always will be. The Goths are a very misunderstood subculture.
When some people first hear the word 'goth', the first thing they seem to think of is satanism, terrorism. I must say that this is very untrue. Most Goths are not Satanist's, and we certainly aren't terrorists. To put it simply, Goth is a way of life. It is how we choose to be. Its embracing the unnatural things with open arms, and seeing the beauty and romance in them. It is only natural for a human to dislike what they fear, and most tend to shy away from the darkness.

Its true that at first glance, with our black clothes and dark makeup, that we seem sinister. Most people reject this way of dress. Our music is loud and angry, depressing and tragic, I know its hard to see the beauty in this.. But its the way we are. Goth is not a bad thing.
If you take a look at "The Goth Bible" written by Nancy Kilpatrick (This is in no way a religious bible), you would see that the first Goth's were artists. They built the great cathedrals, and created gargoyles to chase away the demons from the holy places. They took the beauty of the outside, and put it inside with their unique architecture, and created the bench's so people would have a place to sit during Sunday mass. Goth is not Evil as some may say, we are not a cult. In fact, most Goth's are the least judgmental people you will ever meet. We know what its like to be misunderstood, so we can accept the differences people have.
You can't judge anyone by how they dress, or the music that they listen to. The captain of the football team, or the head cheerleader is no better than the kid sitting in the corner in all black alone. You can't compare our music to theirs, rap music today is becoming worse and worse with their hateful lyrics and degrading of women. If you took time to sit down and speak to us, you'd find that that kid in the corner could be highly intelligent, while that perfect head-cheerleader has the grade point average of a fifth grader. Believe it or not, we like to learn.
So if you have a child thats wearing all black, or sits at home all the time reading, don't fret. Be proud of them for being different. Besides, the more you reject the way that they are, the more they're going to embrace it with all of their souls. Trust me, I know, I'm goth.

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