Teen Gothic

So I wanna start this off by saying I’m a big history nerd, I especially love the history of the goth/punk subcultures. Most goths will agree that goth is anti-bigot. However recently whenever I talk about this outside of goth spaces, I’ve gotten odd comments about certain groups actually being bigoted.

A real message that was sent to me “A true goth is a closed group of people who listen to goth music or industrial while keeping traditional almost archaic beliefs the modern goth is just a punk relabeled or a chick in black listening to pop music.” “Goth was subverted by preppie girls who discovered tattoos actual goths hate them all and would've been a much more exclusive group than inclusive. The south park goth kids are actually more accurate to the real goths. Alt and punk was called goth by preps and then appropriated by them.”

Which is just insanity. Firstly “South Park goths” were literally a joke, kids that didn’t know what goth meant and copied the aesthetic with a line of theirs being “all you have to do to be nonconformist is dress exactly like us!” (Paraphrasing) secondly this isn’t what the modern gothic subculture ever stood for, since the 70s-80s their stance was against conservatism and conforming to popular norms.

Has anyone else had this experience where people will literally spout nonsense about what “true goths” are in order to co-opt it into a conservative thing? This feels like utter garbage by random (mainly guys) to gatekeep a subculture they know nothing about..

One thing I've experienced as an "older" goth living in Sweden is that it's not goths that are fighting at the gates but metal heads. I can't count all the times I've been told that I'm not a goth. I don't really care that someone that listens to Burzum doesn't think I'm goth, but I find this kinda amusing. Is this a Swedish thing going on or does it happen elsewhere?

Fun thing is that the last time it happened I was wearing a t-shirt from Klubb Död which is the biggest organizer of shows of the scene in Sweden.

Didn't know whether to label this as a nightclub experience or discussion but choosed the later.

As this is one of the same five dead horses that get beat in the sub, I'm sure everyone here knows about the accusations of this sub gatekeeping and other trivial conversations about it that occur daily here. However, the people that make this claim seem to have the idea that not just letting their favorite bands be called goth is gatekeeping. No. Actual gatekeeping within the goth subculture would be gushing to someone about some super cool band you've found but refusing to tell them who the band actually is out of some weird superiority complex from a sense of individuality in knowing obscure bands. Acknoweledging that a certain-doom-metal-band isn't a gothic rock band isn't gatekeeping goth because anyone interested is fully capable of "getting through the gates" (finding and enjoying goth music), they just don't like what's inside. Nothing is being kept or hidden behind closed doors in this context, many of you just like music that isn't goth which is OKAY. Not every vaguely dark or ominous song you hear is goth, and that doesn't make anybody a shunned exile from the evil r/goth subreddit. Quite literally the opposite of gatekeeping is done here, with exposure given to lesser known bands every day through reccomendations and the like. I know I'm really just furthering the congestion of these repetetive eye rolling posts, but I think some people would do well actually creating the mental image of a literal gate being kept to understand what the buzz word actually implies.

Edit: Typo.