Teen Gothic

A little background, me and my friendgroup live in a small city compared to other ones in my country. There lives a few other alternative people around here, but when i go shopping, I usually don’t see any alt people at all. My friends and I have experienced very few bad encounters for our looks, usually people just screaming ”fucking emo” or something like that. Also people obviously stare, but it’s usually not in a bad way. So nothing severe. There has been more good encounters than bad, almost always when I go to the town someone compliments my makeup and/or my outfit.

We went to visit a much bigger city, there’s a LOT of people there, so I assumed that people wouldn’t pay that much attention to my looks, and I did my makeup pretty heavily. My friends are different subcultures than me, I hung out with two people there and one of us is pretty much opposite of our looks, wore like lolita style clothes. I didn’t even think anyone would say anything to us surrounding our looks, and especially not stare.

When we were shopping, at least 4 people complimented us during the 4 hours we spent there, which was very nice and sweet. 🙂 also a bunch of people stared at us, almost everyone who walked past us which I didn’t expect since I assumed that there would be a bunch of other goths/alts there, and there was a few emo-styled and punks there.

But then, we went to go eat and when we were almost done, the most evil group from our perspective walked over to us; very young teenagers. There was like six or seven kids, ages maybe 12-14. They IMMEDIATELY stared at us and started screaming ”ew fuck no” and stuff. They obviously commented on my makeup, called my friend emo and my other friend a child or something. I was their main target since I was wearing the heaviest makeup, white foundation, strong contour, big eyeliner.. They were ’bullying’ us, and threw salad on my friend’s backpack. They were full on harassing us, and when we left the restraunt they WAITED for us outside. When we got out, the harassing continued and one of them SPAT ON ME. The spit was on my jacket and cheek, and then they just ran out of the mall, with the only two girls staying for a bit to tell us to kill ourselves and stuff like that before running away.

We went to report them to the security, and someone else was there too because they spat on her also. Not saying what happend to us was ok bc of our looks, but she looked absolutely normal and i’m extremily confused why they would spit on her. I really hope the security found them and that their parents found out and gave them a long talk.

I’m just so confused, I assumed that bc it’s such a big city that there would be people with even more ”extreme” looks, and that the people there would be used to it. Also a bunch of people stared at us, especially older people which i think is fine/understandable. I’m just very disgusted with the behaviour that we encountered. I just wish people would leave us alone and not say anything if there’s nothing nice to say.

I hope I don’t sound like i’m trying to be the only victim here, I just wanted to tell it from my POV since my other two friends are from different subcultures. They were victims too.

Feel free to share your experiences based on the sizes/population of the places that you’ve visited and how you got treated there. Thank you 🙂

Okay so I live in a urban area so I have always been the "emo girl" in my neighborhood. My family is hispanic/black so I grew up with a lot of them telling me "you just want to be into that white people s***"

So when I went to college and finally met another goth girl I was ecstatic. She came up to me and we hit it off and actually didn't talk about music taste deeply till a few days later.

So the mitski concert happened and I went to it because I like her. My friend had saw that post and texted me that she thought I was goth. I told her I was, but I like other music artist to.

Then she started asking if I've gone to a goth concert or a goth club and I said no. I'm like 19 my mom would never let me go to a club. Also I thought you couldn't go to a club under the age of 21. I'm so confused. Plus apparently since I've gone to other concerts for my other music taste that I'm not serious about being goth.

Anyway she told me that I should stick to calling myself alternative and not lying to people about me being goth.

So I'll be honest goth music is not my top genre atm. It's in my top 5 though. I listen to punk,metal,rock, indie AND goth music.

Can I not listen to other music and go to non-goth concerts?

Like I would go to a goth concert, but twin tribes isn't coming to my state nor city. Which is most likely the only goth artist who I like who can come over to my city.

Idk I guess I'm just looking for some advice and maybe some validation.

I really wanted to make a friend who didn't listen to rap/hip-hop/pop. I have nothing against those genres but I just wanted a friend who could listen to some similar music to me and go to concerts. Maybe even show me some more music.

Also I guess I kind of understand where she is coming from because now we have things like "clean goth" (idek) and people just marketing off the goth style now without listening to the music.

Though I'm not one of them. I'm just feeling like a poser right now, also kind of sad.

I don't usually listen to this type of music nor would I consider myself to be a part of the goth subculture but I have really enjoyed Bauhaus – Bella Lugosi's dead and the Cure – A Forest was one of my favorite songs at one point.

I'm seeing them in Houston next week. What to expect? I really love improvisation in music though it isn't everything.

so.. as you know i am.. a baby bat.. and i am doing my best with appearing as goth as i can especially with my budget and working part time with weird hours.. and a friend if mine who used to be goth is.. abit of a prick to me in a way saying that “casual goths aren’t goths, you’re not goth if you’re going to be casual about it, i and my ex gf went full outfits even on casual days”