This section of Peg's article really caught my attention for obvious reasons that I'll explain in a moment. "Subculture groups like Goths (short for Gothic) stand out because of their modes of dress...It is performance of the 'leave me alone' variety. Identification with such a persona can be in some cases crucial to a young person's social survival....most high schools in America had at least a handful of students who liked to wear black and listen to the Cure."
I grew up in Northern Virginia in a fairly conservative county. When I was in 8th grade, I started getting in to this so-called "goth" stage. I dressed in black, wore my doc martins and put on black lipstick. My parents HATED it. They did all they could to stop me from doing it, but for me, it was a form of growing up and rebellion. I had my own style, my own friends, and I was too fucking old to listen to my stupid parents. One of my older friends was probably the cause of this--he was my idol for a very long time and he wore the chains and the black trench coat and had the butterfly knife that he so secretly showed me on the school bus on the way to school. I knew the connotations that came with wearing black and I knew other people referred to me as the "goth girl" but I enjoyed the attention.
I guess I didn't realize how STUPID people can be until two different events happened. First, the high school my friend attended had a bomb scare, and because he was wearing the chains and studded bracelets and fishnet shirt, he got called to the office to be questioned. The administration wanted to pin the bomb scare on him. Why? Because he wore black and chains. My friend doesn't have a cruel bone in his body...he just loved being different!
The second event was a bit more personal. Two friends and I had secretly started this comic book in a school notebook. Just for fun, of course. My good friend Lindsey was great at sketching, so we came up with a super hero group of girls (us) who went around eradicating the world of evil and stupidity. Unfortunately, evil and stupidity took the form of several teachers, administrators, and fellow students. One of my friends (they each swear it was the other) left the notebook in a 6th period science class.....it was found. And handed in. And before we knew it, we were being brought into the office, two of us wearing black and chains, and were accused of wanting to stage a Columbine-like shooting in our school.
Uhhh...no. I don't want to kill anyone...I just hated some of the people I had to see every day! So I found a healthy way to express my anger--art! Of course, that was unacceptable and I got three days of in-school suspension. My parents yelled for hours, saying the police were going to come and confiscate my computer, take me to trial, blah blah blah, all because of the media hype over Columbine.
I grew out of my "goth" phase shortly after entering 9th grade.
I still wear my docs though.
2 comments:
Aren't you a goth, Eleanor?
:)
I got called in for a bomb threat because I watched a movie with a really big explosion, and I was talking about how cool the explosion was.
They were afraid I was going to try to replicate it?
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