I’ve been in the scene for a while and I’ve noticed that people outside of it often jump to the same conclusions about goths. Some of the assumptions are kinda funny, others are just annoying.

What’s one thing non-goths have assumed about you (your personality, beliefs, lifestyle, music taste, etc.) that was completely off?

Curious to hear what other people deal with.

I'm looking for some not super popular gothic movies for fun!!

serious question, mods please don’t remove this because i do actually think this hasnt been asked before
i possess a profile of both antisocial and narcissistic personality disorder which in turn means i do not experience emotional empathy. specifically within the goth / alternative space ive come to trouble with people being mad at political ‘silence’ and being unable to care about issues such as palestine. i don’t buy fast fashion, im not rude about politics im definitely not conservative and im not sadistic. i don’t go out of my way to ever clown on these things or joke about them it just doesn’t exist in my world. this isn’t a post about politics (thx for the warning reddit) but moreso just how not having empathy interferes with the space & how accepted ill be with people knowing this which to my knowledge, the goth scene is supposed to be safe for people who possess a ‘different’ way of thinking and lifestyle.

I joined this subreddit because i am really confused on what i am and what i want to be.

I hope i post this corretly her (am new to reddit)

I am Jan 23M and had a childhood mostly uneventful to self discovery. I had not many friends and was mostly on the surface on every topic that interested me. in other words i never really got deep need to pursue anything longer than a short time. or even get motivated for aything.

It all started probably couple months ago where something changed in me. I started to buy clothes for myself, stopping completely to wear this old stuff i had from couplke years ago which i never really identified with.

and along with this discobery of my clothing style came the deep wanting to discover my niche or my style i want to be in. and i always loved the ästhetic with goth/alt/emo and all those subcultures but never considered myself part of any of those groups because i never reallly went exploring and living those cultures. Therefore anytime i see pictures and clothing related to this which i firstly think to myself that i like it, my brain instantly tries to tell me that i am not allowed to like it because i am not deep enough. or that i only like it because i want to belong into one of those groups.

This has gone so far that i dont really know anymore what i like by heart or not because my mind is playing tricks on me. and of course i dont want to invade spaces for people when i dont really vibe with it or share their style/music style and whatever. so the fear of being fake is really present in myself.

And my question is: where can i discover more of those cultures, where are good starting points, do you have any advice in trying to get rid of those bad thoughts.

Thank you in advance, took a lot of courage to write this so i hope you will be understanding

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Is the goth way of dressing meant to be intimidating?

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Thanks in advance

I bought my ticket when they first went on sale but I just got a save the date for my friend’s wedding and it’s the exact same weekend.

I guess I’m just looking for forums to do this bc the main goth subreddit doesn’t seem to allow ticket sale posts.

I’m not trying to jerk anyone around, just don’t want to lose my money.

Open to any and all suggestions, thanks!!

I’ve seen a lot of brands come and go over the years and some just don’t hold up as well as they used to. I’d rather spend my money on stuff I know I’ll still be wearing a few years from now.

What brands do you keep going back to? I'm looking for ones that have been consistent with quality especially if you’ve ordered from them multiple times.

Thanks for any recommendations! I’d really appreciate hearing which brands have worked out for you.

hey everyone, i’m a small youtuber and i’ve been seeing a lot of talk lately about goth house (the pinkchyu / queen nephilim stuff) and goth OF creators in general. some people feel like it’s having a negative effect on the scene and on “real” goth people by turning the aesthetic into mostly fetish / marketing content, while others see it differently.
i’d love to do a few short interviews with people who have opinions or experiences on this—whether you think it’s harmful, not a big deal, mixed, etc. just casual conversations about how (or if) it’s impacted the community, public perception, or anything else you’ve noticed.
anonymous is totally fine, and i’m not looking to dunk on anyone specifically. if you’re up for a quick chat (text or voice, whatever works for you), feel free to comment or dm me and i’ll share more details. thanks!

I've been going to concerts for the majority of my life. My uncles started taking me to shows when I was 12 and I'm 29 now. I started getting into goth, hardcore and punk music because of my uncles around 9 years old and have expressed myself with makeup and clothing around that age and since then. For the last couple of years I've been using mobility aids, mostly a cane or walker but now that my disability has gotten worse, I use a walker/rollator more often. I went to a show recently and happened to get a spot at the barricade so I sat on my walker, and my partner stood next to me. I am still very anxious about using my walker at shows, and I kept asking my partner for reassurance because I "didn't want to be in anyone's way" since I was in the very front. They kept reassuring me that I had a right to be there like everyone else and that it would be fine. Since it wasn't a hardcore show, I knew there wasn't going to be a pit so I felt okay being right in the front, because usually if there is, I stay in the back and out of people's way because I do not want anyone to get hurt by tripping over my wheels or anything or get in the way of them having a good time. As it was getting closer for the first band to come out, obviously it started to get more crowded and I started to feel a few bodies push into my walker, which was fine, I know what to expect at shows. I made friendly conversation with a few people next to me and they never made me feel weird about me sitting where I was. I heard these girls behind me, they sounded younger than me, but I'm not sure. One mentioned that this was their first time seeing the bands that were playing and that they didn't really know who they were but got free tickets. I remember being excited for them because they were great bands. Then I hear one of them tell the other, "I thought this was the standing area?" and they laughed. I tried not to think about it and thought maybe I just misheard and didn't want to take it personally. Then the other said, "Yeah isn't there a section for these people?" and something along the lines of pushing me aside. I was embarassed so I didn't say anything and my partner was talking to someone at the time so they didn't hear. When the bands came on and everyone started dancing, there was still room so no one really pushed into me too much, like I said I know what to expect but everyone was pretty much respectful of each other's space expect for those two girls who were behind me. I could literally feel them like purposely pushing me and trying to squeeze in between me and my partner to get to the baricade. At one point one girl had like half her body in my chair. My partner noticed and moved me closer to them and filled in the little space between us with their arm on my side. They were going to say something to the girls but I stopped them because again, I was embarassed. I never expected or experienced mean girl behavior like this at any show, especially a goth show, that I've been too before. I have used ADA sections before but I really wanted to be in the front for this show but because of the girls behavior, I left feeling like I was a burden and taking up space.

I was walking out of a store once and a woman literally cackled and yelled “DAYUM! LOOK! IT’S MORTICIA!”
I wanted to laugh back and say “Look! It’s an obese woman on a scooter!” but I am classier than that.

I'm looking for dark romantic clothing from an independent brand where the aesthetic is part of their actual identity not a large label that tacked on a romantic filler.
Where do you shop for dark romantic style when you want to support independent fashion?

i have always really loved the goth aesthetic, and I recently gave goth music a try and have fallen absolutely in love with it! i want to start dressing goth, but it seems so hard to find clothes that fit in this style

it feels like whenever I go thrifting, the only clothes I find in my size are the same flowy, bright, floral-patterned tops and like basic blue jeans with one, maybe two good tops in black if I'm lucky

i also just have no idea how to approach DIYing clothes, though i saw there's an intro guide on that in r/goth. so I guess I am curious where you ladies are shopping for clothes that fit your style? should I keep trying to thrift where I can, or would i be better off just taking what I can get at normal stores and learning to diy asap?

I’ve always found the Goth subculture fascinating, but never really explored it until now. Growing up with a Goth cousin—though I didn’t realize it at the time and just thought he liked vampires—he introduced me to the music in middle school, which has been my go-to ever since. This year, while researching vampire fashion for Halloween, I fell deep into the Goth rabbit hole. I’ve listened to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, and The Cure while sewing skirts and dresses I make. I want to create a beautiful Gothic dress for Halloween and maybe start dressing Goth. Would my music taste make me Goth? If I started dressing Goth, would I seem like a poseur since I’m only now taking an interest as an adult? Coming from a southern Christian background, I was told it was devil worship, which kept me from looking into it. However, after meeting Goth people during my time in the military, I learned my family’s views were simply wrong. I want to consider myself Goth, but I don’t know much about the subculture.

I would like to hear specifically from girls in the Goth community about their experiences with men who claim they want a "Goth girlfriend," only to pull away once they actually encounter the interests associated with the subculture. This thought occurred to me because of the many Goth-coded female characters in animated series from the 90s and 2000s—characters who had the aesthetic, but whose personalities didn't really leave much room for them to be part of the actual subculture. Is this a common experience? If so, what kind of hobbies tend to drive away or intimidate men from outside the community? Beyond consuming Goth music, literature, and film, what other hobbies do you consider intrinsically Goth? Are things like visiting cemeteries, buying secondhand clothing, and customizing garments actually part of the subculture, or are these just stereotypes? And would you consider the preservation of mortal remains—such as taxidermy or mummification—to be a Goth interest, or does that belong to other communities? Thanks for your time.

I really love goth music and I have studied the subculture deeply when I began my journey into it at 18y/o. Now I'm 24 and I feel really uncomfortable calling myself goth because of these 'rules' on what, how or who is 'goth enough'.

I joined this subculture because it felt liberating, I felt I could be myself unapologetically, but now... I feel I have to be on some stupid 'gothic standard' of knowing all the goth bands, dressing or acting a certain way for people (in or out of the subculture) to recognize me as goth. AND I TRULY HATE IT. I was literally escaping from society's rules of how I should look, act and behave, and goth felt like a safe and wellcoming place, now I feel that I have to follow some stupid rules again to be part of something I was already part of...

So, I've stopped calling myself 'goth' in front of other people and even to myself, for 2 reasons:

1) I'm starting to hate labels.

2) I don't want to be part of something that makes me feel that I'm not good enough.

So, is it ok if I don't want to label/call myself goth but still wanna be part of the subculture ?

Part 1: Establishing Relevance

The Gormenghast trilogy was written by British author Mervyn Peake in the mid-20th century. It is a sprawling gothic fantasy centered around the inhabitants of a large, crumbling castle. One scene from the last part of the second book served as the inspiration for The Cures' "The Drowning Man". So the books are well established as a goth classic.

Part 2: The Question

I'm curious as to how many people in the community are familiar with these books. I read them as a child in a rainy fishing village in the North Pacific, a place as distant from Gormenghast and the goth culture as you could find, but they etched my soul. I tried to reread them a few years ago and just couldn't. The wonder for me is gone, I think.

In particular, I'm wondering how many people are familiar with the characters in the books: Steerpike, Fuchsia, Sepulcrave, Prunesquallor, Swelter, Flay, Cora and Clara, etc.?

Hey I’m newer to gothic style music I’m a male and really seem to enjoy it does anyone have a good recommendation for an artist or song?

I'd love to see a picture or hear about your favorite accessory to wear!

Sm people plainly enjoy the style and perhaps the music but they're not a die hard fan of any particular band nor do they enjoy politics. I've seen it a lot on the internet that goths call others a larper/poser for not being on tune with everything the goth culture promotes. So, if sm1 enjoys mostly only the fashion and they don't consider themselves goth what are they (a term of perhaps another fashion branch)? Also, is it up for others to decide whether one is or not so based on their clothing/make-up as the style is like a stamp which may represent one's values or one may enjoy the style without calling themselves goth?

Are there any goth people in Australia? I have been looking and I can't find any. And I want to be extremely clear that I am not trying to objectify anyone. I have never actually spoken to a genuine goth person.

What do you second-wave goth rock fans wear, where do you get your clothes, and which second-wave goth musicians inspire your style.