I'm Not Goth by Lucifer

Someone who sees me at first glance will probably think what most people think: he's a goth. Why do they think this? Maybe because I wear all black. Maybe because my pants look like these and my hair looks like this. But you know what? I'm not gothic. In fact, I'm quite far from it. Sounds crazy, I'm sure, but let me tell you why these misinformed views are so inaccurate.

The first culprit is always the "all black" thing. First of all, I like black. There are a lot of colors in the world, is it so crazy that my favorite is black? Of course not. Also, black is a very distinguished color. The secret service wears black, nice sports cars are black many times, etc. No, I'm not trying to look fancy, but surely you can agree that more times than not, black looks good. Oh, lets not forget about my shirts. I wear band shirts which are always black. I can't really help that in this case. And my pants? They're from Hot Topic and all of the "goths" wear them. Actually, my pants are the strongest argument for me being metal, not goth. I would like to tell you a little bit about Judas Priest. In their early days, they wore spandex, colored clothes--basically the glam band look. But, they changed that look. They wore chains, studs, and leather. This quickly became the "metal" look. Now, I don't have the time or money to find and pay for specially designed leather pants, so the pants I do wear work fine. They are a good representation of me and the music I listen to.

Enough about my clothes, though, what about me? First of all, my hairstyle isn't goth. If it were classed as any one style, it'd be punk. I'm not punk, I just like mohawks. In fact, I've wanted a mohawk ever since I was about 4 or 5, long before I cared about trends and styles. People just see it as abnormal, combine it with eccentric black clothing, and then slap an ignorant label on it. Really, it's more foolish than anything else. Besides, I don't wear eyeliner, face paint, or any other makeup that is common among goths. Keep in mind, certain black metal bands wear face paint, but that's just to compliment their image (many times involving spikes, studs, and occasionally even armor), not because they're goths.

How about my lifestyle? Do I fit the goth lifestyle? Well, I'm not a literal goth by any means (ie: Visigoth). But what about all of that stuff that goths do? Write gothic and depressive poetry, listen to gothic music, and do drugs? I don't write poetry. With the exception of epic poems and a few other specific poems, I generally hate poetry, reading or writing it. And music? I do like metal. All metal, actually. But, my focus is more on heavy metal (Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden), thrash metal (Slayer, Metallica), and death metal (Deicide, Nile). Gothic and industrial metal (quite easily the two most frequent forms of metal listened to by stereotypical goths) are far from the top of my list. Besides, where does it say that listening to a certain type of music makes you something? It generally corresponds with your particular style, but it by no means dictates it. Oh yeah, I almost forgot drugs. Drugs have nothing to do with being gothic. Nothing.

So lets review, shall we? I don't dress gothic. It may be similar, but my style has more roots in my musical tastes and subjective opinions, not any trend. My hairstyle is more punk than anything. My music is sometimes classed as goth, but is generally more associated with hard rockers, metalheads, and the like. So, basically...the only thing that makes me look gothic is my color of choice. Labeling someone based on clothing color is as naive a statement as you'll ever get. Oh, and I do not in any way associate with gothic heritage, lifestyle, or trends. Those just aren't my thing, so I don't do them. Clearly, the common stereotype about me has stemmed from ignorant and misinformed prejudism. Boy, if black makes someone goth, what would other colors make someone? Pink would be prep, green would be Irish, brown and grey would be hobo, and the list could go on.

I hope I informed and enlightened some of you by reading this article. Maybe you'll think twice next time before you label someone. If anything, though, I just hope that I don't get called a goth by any of you. There is nothing wrong with being a goth, but I'm not goth, so I don't want to be labeled as such. I'm sure you could say the same thing.