Is it possible to 'become' Goth? Or is just natural?

[[ D i z z y ]]

Consider this:

Do you think that you can just "become a goth", or is it just natural, something you are born with? Is it the attitute you've always had? Or can you just "learn" to be goth? Do you think its more than just the attitute, style, or music?

Tell me what you think.  

[ceilisidhe]

There are some who are born goth since studies have shown personality isn't built on stimuli alone and others who, by cruelest fate, have so much pain in their lives their inherent beings are altered. That's not to say that everyone who has a bad life becomes goth- some become more chipper despite. The answer is as varied as goths themselves I'd imagine.  

[Yamir N. Mordecai]

Looking back on my life and attitude, I believe i was born with the thought; but i was not the "look" i grew into that. I have always been this way up here ->(-_-)<- but not always here ->[]<-  

[eereesa]

Actually, you can become Goth, and I suppose you can 'learn' it, but I think it really depends on how traumatic something is if it happens. That can make you Goth and change your whole outlook on life.

I was born with it, but I wasn't. I was always half-and-half. Think bipolar or multiple personalities. But I'm not diagnosed for anything but mild asthma.  

[lurichan]

I'm going to have to say it's a half and half thing. People can always be predisopsitioned towards a mentality, but how they where raised really does tend to push them one way or the other generally speaking.

Many people are just naturally optemisitic or pessamistic, but parents, friends, teachers and other peers really can influence greatly how someone views the world. I know my mom would always try to get me to look on the bright side of things even though I was often times prone to fits of despair, usually spiked with rage and anger. I used to cry a lot when I was younger over things that perhaps in reflection I would see as trivialities, but at the time they where my whole world, or what I threw the entirty of myself into. She would do everything her power to help me smile, to give me a safe place to come home to every day, and to help try to chase away the worries of the world... I think if it hadn't been for her being there for me I would be a much darker person than I am. I think she really did push me closer to the light side of things than I would have been otherwise since I was always a bit of a pessamist when I was younger...  

[Isobel Bellamy]

I think quite a few people (goths and non goths) are at least born with half a 'goth gene' (something inside them that makes them attracted to 'goth') but there are only a few that seem to act upon it; how many people do you hear saying "oh I love all that goth stuff!" - I believe that these are people who were also naturally attracted to goth but they have had different stimuli and circumstances that people who are goth and so have not turned into goths. It's not just people who are currently goths that have an affinity to it, many friends of mine say that they love the whole goth subculture and they would like to be one but there is just something that stops them from being goth or that they used to be goth but have changed. These people by the way, I know are not goth, but they are people who were probably born semi-goth but have had to oposite push to people who are now goth.

Personally I have no idea whether I was full or semi goth when I was born, I guessI have been quite lucky being born into a family where my dad used to be punk (and so has a kick arse cd collection and loves my gothness) and quite a liberal mum (but who still wonders why I wear so much black - she's still catholic so pagans and witches are automatically evil in her eyes). Both of my parents have been supportive and they just sit back and let me be my own person so that I become who I really am (many goths I feel only become goth to rebel against their parents - what about someone who has had nothing to rebel against? Are they more or less goth because of it?). As for pessimism/optimisim I'm a bit of both, but now that I'm a lot happier in who I am (since become far more goth by the way) I've become a hyper loony, it seems to me that people who are more optimistic and happy are the ones that are who they want to be, dress how they want to and act how they want to - which kindof supports my opinion that a lot of kids now a days are using the goth subculture to rebel against their parents instead of becoming goth because they want to.  

[Anti-pants]

Well, I think to become a goth is more like a choice. I find that a lot of kids that do turn out gothic were abused in their childhood. You can chose to be anoyone you want. Whether it be a preppy,a punki,a goth, or a gangster. You are who you are.  

[Kuchiki Soren]

I too believe people have a 'Goth' gene, or sommewhat of one. I think that there are a lot of people, or at least a few, who like me were kind of born 'Goth' but were sheltered by there parents so they didn't have a large impression of things ninja  

[_Built_to_Offend_666]

If someone was born gothic, that would be one sad ******** up individual who deserves the sympathy of the world. I beleive goth lifestyle is something that evolves overtime from personal experiences. No matter how you consider yourself gothic (from true social-reject/anti-conformist/on-the-brink-of-suicide goths to those who just like gothic culture), its a form of expressment. And to beleive someone could be born with a built-in- structured system of beliefs, to me at least, seems assinine.

But thats just what i believe, meaning all of you are gonna want to dissagree because you all hate all essense of my beleifs wink xd  

[lurichan]

_Built_to_Offend_666

If someone was born gothic, that would be one sad ******** up individual who deserves the sympathy of the world. I beleive goth lifestyle is something that evolves overtime from personal experiences. No matter how you consider yourself gothic (from true social-reject/anti-conformist/on-the-brink-of-suicide goths to those who just like gothic culture), its a form of expressment. And to beleive someone could be born with a built-in- structured system of beliefs, to me at least, seems assinine.

But thats just what i believe, meaning all of you are gonna want to dissagree because you all hate all essense of my beleifs wink xd

Actually I would have to say that I am more on the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate. I see environment to be a much more key factor than genetics.  

[Umberella]

I think you can be born goth, but I don't see alot of toddlers running around in black pvc rompers and wearing black eyeliner.
What is weird is that you can have a goth attitude and mindset without dressing pretty. I like goths to look sharp and well put together, but some people don't even think about what they wear.
I guess that's other people misinterpreting depressed people as goths. Or do you have to wear black as part of the uniform? I wear black everyday, but I don't wear cool stuff from Hot Topic (or Torrid).
I was not born goth, but I think having crafty or unusual parents helps a person decide if they like creepy stuff or not. Your parents don't have to be abusive. You can also get jocks and Mary Jane from the Spiderman movie following that formula.
I grew up in an antique shop, played in my grandmother's dollroom, and read Edward Gorey and Poe from the time I was about 7 years old.
Are goths now just people who wear black and scare "normal people", or are there still the sub-categories?
I think I'm a Victorian kinda goth, but I love bondage pants and I live in a Japanese-style studio apartment.
So, basically, I've rambled on a bit here. The age is catching up with me.
I am just happy that goth still exists! However people decide to do it.  

[tsako]

I mostly think that it comes from your environment, not genetics. But i only think that because, well i suppose if my mom hadnt been goth i think i might not be goth xd (i think she is bi-polar too) and my dad is a really morbid person and used to have a band until he lost one of his fingers (he has an awesome CD collection as well) but they both are really morbid and dark and i suppose that it might have had a little bit of influence from my parents.  

[OverlordMMM]

..To really discuss this I guess it really depends on what your veiw on what being Gothic is.....for me it is more of a state of mind more than anything else.....its about being true to yourself.....with a littlbit of darker thoughts mixed in, but not all the time.....

because of how I think....it just depends on the person.....Some have always thought this way..while others learn to be this way....Like with me..I've always wanted to be who I was..but I had no idea how....So I just really started a couple years ago to learn about myself...so..I am now what I am....thats it.....as for "dark" thoughts....Its not so much as thinking dark as much as thinking differently.....and maybe too much....most people tend to think that when a thought is not like theirs its bad...and people associate bad with darkness.....  

[gothicsaddness]

[ D i z z y ]

Consider this:

Do you think that you can just "become a goth", or is it just natural, something you are born with? Is it the attitute you've always had? Or can you just "learn" to be goth? Do you think its more than just the attitute, style, or music?

Tell me what you think.

well for me and where i come from it would not have been that i learned to be goth for as long as people have known me i have been in a way goth i was when i was in grade school i so loved to freak out the other girls with worms and stuff and inever realy fit in anywhere and when i got older i started to go heavy on death and the fact that you can not out run it or get away from it everyone and everything dies one day and well i did not try to hide from it and so i was and still by many people labled as a goth .

I have three children of my own now and they are each dirrerant people .
If goth was learned would not all of my kids be full fledged goth ?
My hubby is a bit of a glam goth and i am a bit of teh freak/punk goth .
You could not be further from the trueth if you said that goth is learned from teh parents lol . Only one of my children is showing any goth to her lol she is 7 years old and way to smart to hang out with people her own age even her teachers are saying this . And she has no problems with death, vamps, goths,gouls,ghosts,or anything along those lines . How many kids when they are 4 in head start tell their teacher " you are going to die before me and then you will see that i was right"
I was asked to keep her home a week after that lol
hope someone can understand this i am stuck on cold meds right now and my mind is a little foggy lol  

[Isobel Bellamy]

...What's with this whole genetics thing? I only put 'goth gene' because I couldn't think of any other way to put it. Isobel does not think that in the genetic make up of people there is a little bat chromosone or gene, just some kind of predisposed tendency to prefer the less 'mainstream' subcultures that are available at any given peroid in time....

Ok, I majorly sucked in A-level bio so sue me, those lessons on genetics and the like just went straight over my head, it could be genetics and DNA, it could be inhearited memory (which does actually happen) from previous generations, but nurture is also extremely important in the way people turn out whether rebellion or follow by lead.