Teen Gothic

It seems like a lot of these discussions, specifically on tiktok resort to trying to see whose "more valid" than the other person rather than actually coming to a fair conclusion. I've had accusations thrown at me about not being "Goth/alternative" enough with no real justification besides ad hominem, strawmanning, or maybe even projection at best from the other person.

My reaction to it has more or less been doing my own personal research, withdrawing from the online community on and off, flip-flopping from label to label, and further tuning my musical tastes.

The Reddit and YouTube community are a lot more bearable. Even then, there are a few people who still get argumentative for no real reason other than to prove very common information in a really defensive and pretentious manner. Already under the impression that they're speaking to poseurs with no real evidence. The term "e-girl" has become the new word for poseur to a lot of these people.

If I were to put my concerns into words. It'd be this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/750764200380474363/. This "virgin bad, chad good" dichotomy which obviously takes on a comically exaggerated version of real life people.

A lot of these gatekeepers my age fall under the impression that every other alternative person they come across is an e-girl and over-correct for the sake of "protecting the community" perhaps. Though the over-correcting does more harm than good, and reads as virtue signalling in my opinion. Even if they don't intend to do harm, it comes off as offensive to people like myself who put in the effort only to be shut down by know-it-alls who don't know me at all.

All and all, I don't run into these issues in real life or with eldergoths online, only on sites and apps with a large concentration of people my age and younger were misinformation and circle-jerking is rampant, which is most of the internet.

Has anyone else dealt with this? I've only been in the online community for about 3-4 years and this has been my general takeaway as a young person into the Goth subculture and over-lapping subcultures.

I spent most of my life repressing my autistic wants, needs, and ways of self-expression purely because I was told it would make neurotypical people "like me more" and "be less uncomfortable around me." Now that's over. I'm done with that shit.

At goth clubs I don't make facial expressions if I don't want to, stim in public, am not shamed for my "weird" interests, tell people they absolutely cannot touch me, am encouraged to truly feel and express my intense emotions, dress however the hell I want, and truly be myself without judgement. These safe spaces have made me grateful beyond words. Thank you all for being in this lovely community.

I made 2 other autistic goth friends, and we did the most ridiculous full body stimming (that could barely be described as dancing) for 5 hours straight with nothing but encouragement from those around us (: The very idea of stimming through bouncing, stomping, having t-rex hands/loud hands/raptor arms (which are very goth with certain dance moves), and flapping my hands in public even to a mild extent horrified me for years, but look where I am now! Confident and so happy

If there are any other goth autistic people in this sub, please share your stories and experiences (: <3

I no longer see the post from the person who was escaping from their abusive partner on Wednesday evening. Does anyone have an update on whether they made it out okay? 🥺

Do any other autistic goths feel this way? I feel like alot of autistic traits are just seen as goth stereotypes to most people. One example is that one of my biggest special interest is horror. Normally people would be like "Why do you know so much about violent media? You're a freak…" While with me they go "Ofc you like that stuff just look at you" along with many other autistic traits being seen as stereotypes such as barely emoting or being touch averse. And thats not even mentioning the fact that goth dancing is peak stimming. I feel like being goth gives autistic people a good excuse to unmask because we don't have to worry about being seen as weird if society at large already does.

I’ll be going to Michigan (around Ann Arbor) next weekend to visit a friend and celebrate my birthday. I’m looking for anything weird, creepy or spooky to do while I’m there. I really love oddity shops, horror novels, macabre art, clothing stores, dispensaries, occult stores etc.

Dm me!:)

Hi,, my sister is gothic and in love with platform style shoes (ex Demonias), but she is disabled and is unable to wear shoes that don’t directly support her ankles. Is there any other shoes or brands that have shoes accessorised like Demonias but aren’t platform?