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confused This question came to me - as I'm sure it has to all of you, at some point - while I was lurking in this subform, staring blankly at all of the different titles of different discussions. And it made me wonder...what makes a person gothic?
I know all of the different answers I will get, be they arguments about clothing and style, or retorts from others that argue it is so much more than that: thought processes, culture, lifestyle - from the way in which we speak, all the way to how we hold ourselves when we walk. I have, however, deliberated for a very long time on what any of that even means.
I know that the majority who consider themselves to be gothic - and who are also justified in doing so - all have many defining characteristics about them: the tendancy towards macabre, towards the regal, towards the industrial, towards tolerance, towards open sexuality, towards uniqueness...just to name a few. And even still, they do not hold true to everyone. I'm sure someone will argue that. Because even as goths, we are each a blossoming individual, as any person from any other subculture would be. We are just trying to find ourselves, and what we do find is that we have the same problems as those who we believed we had nothing in common with.
Because, in reality, none of the characteristics that I listed above (tendancy towards macabre, towards the regal, etc.) are really reserved only for the gothic community. As people, the only things that I have ever found to be truly different between us and the rest of the world is our taste in music and clothing, be they superficial differences.
You will say, "You don't understand. There is a lifestyle; a culture." I will say, "I know. I lived it." What I am posing to you now, esteemed guild members, is a simply question, which in actuality, is quite hard to answer: "What makes a person a goth?"
Disclaimer: I'm well aware that someone has most likely posted a thread such as this before me, and I'm well aware that some of you will be offended, and for that, I apologize. I do not mean to offend anyone - just to pose a question. I also know that the same question could be asked for any other subculture - that is not what this thread is about.
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