 |
| Official World Goth Day Logo, used hoepfully within their permitted uses. |
May 22nd of each year is World Goth Day, as the ::official website:: describes it: "a day where the goth scene gets to celebrate its own being, and an opportunity to make its presence known to the rest of the world". Considering what happened to ::Sophie Lancaster:: and that Goths worldwide continue to get harrassment and violence simply for having different tastes to the norm, I feel that a day to celebrate the subculture's existence is both necessary and positive. We ought to be proud of what the subculture is, what it has achieved (and not just creatively) and of the the sorts of people we are - eccentrics, artists, musicians, romantics of a modern sort, creative folk. Goth is a haven for the morbidly curious and weirdly interesting, it is a subculture in which we can find likeminded individuals and talk about our interests without scorn or derision, and we should be proud of Goth.
 |
| Work outfit. Selfies by HouseCat |
I always try and 'get my Goth on' on World Goth Day, but this year, it fell on a work day. I almost always wear all black at work these days anyway - today's outfit of black turtleneck and black trousers is pretty standard for my work attire. I obviosuly can't bedeck myself in spikes and studs at work although I did wear this belt with my jumper pulled over it because my trousers kept falling down. It was lumpy, but less obvious and I was searching before work for my one belt that isn't studded fruitlessly (I had left it attached to my archery quiver, as I found out that evening...) and this was slightly more appropriate than the belts with bullets, skulls and othersuch on them!
 |
| After-work outfit. Selfies by HouseCat, glasses removed to show makeup |
I added a spiked bangle, a studded cuff, a spiked collar, and the belt, and let my hair down literally. Accessories such as these are an easy way to make an outfit instantly visibly Goth without having to wear specifically-Goth items, so meant I could just stash my accessories into my bag, and put these on when I went into town after work, without much bother; a very simple transition between 'work' and 'casual' modes. This is actually, as far as outfits go, a very casual one for me to be wearing in my spare time as I prefer less contemporary, more anachronistic fashion of a Romantic Goth, Gothic Aristocrat, Visual Kei and Lolita sort - as my readers will know!
In the evening I went out in Inverness with friends, and while I was standing outside the pub we were supposed to meet at, texting my friends about where they were at as I was the first to arrive (ah, the joys of public transport), two drunken men of a chavvy attitude loudly made a wretching noise behind me, and shouted some comment about "puke green hair" and "fucking freak". It disquietened me enough to decide it was a bad idea to be standing around, looking that different, on a main street with several pubs on a Friday night, so I went to go sit in the nearby graveyard, which was deserted at that point - I guess thereby doing something most stereotypically Goth. We get harrassed on the streets by strangers, but we are not in the wrong - drunken jerks who yell insults at people they disapprove of are in the wrong. Never let people's prejudices change who you are; being Goth is neither immoral nor illegal (in most places), but insulting strangers in public is immoral, and I think it might actually be illegal in some places, especially if you are drunk (but I'm not a lawyer).
In the evening I went out in Inverness with friends, and while I was standing outside the pub we were supposed to meet at, texting my friends about where they were at as I was the first to arrive (ah, the joys of public transport), two drunken men of a chavvy attitude loudly made a wretching noise behind me, and shouted some comment about "puke green hair" and "fucking freak". It disquietened me enough to decide it was a bad idea to be standing around, looking that different, on a main street with several pubs on a Friday night, so I went to go sit in the nearby graveyard, which was deserted at that point - I guess thereby doing something most stereotypically Goth. We get harrassed on the streets by strangers, but we are not in the wrong - drunken jerks who yell insults at people they disapprove of are in the wrong. Never let people's prejudices change who you are; being Goth is neither immoral nor illegal (in most places), but insulting strangers in public is immoral, and I think it might actually be illegal in some places, especially if you are drunk (but I'm not a lawyer).
One and a half weeks ago, I had never heard of the word chav and had no idea what it meant. The word simply doesn't exist here in the States. I looked it up and quickly came to realize that we don't exactly have such people here. They strike me as unbelievably rude and obnoxious folks and I'm sorry that you had to deal with them.
ReplyDeleteHere in the American South, people are generally more polite, even if they don't particularly like you. There were no World Goth Day celebrations in my locale this year, but in previous years we met at an art museum some 30 miles away. People were curious about us and were generally polite and congenial, even to the point of helping us with our photo shoots. That's the kind of attention I prefer.
At least you got to celebrate with friends though. Thanks for keeping up the tradition.
I think they are 'Neds' in Scotland, 'Chavs' in England, and there's equivalents in Australia and parts of Europe. Some people say it's 'classist' - but I think it's only a classist term if you use it to mean very poor or unemployed people in general, rather than just people with a bad attitude. You can be really rich, and still act like a chav if you think that drunken thuggishness and vandalism is a reasonable past-time. There's regional variation in terms of prefered alcoholic beverage and insults shouted, but they occur in most parts of Britian. They are teenage delinquents of a particular sort, and what happens when said teenage delinquents hit adulthood.
DeleteConsidering what I hear about the American South being very conservative socially as well as politcially, I am glad to hear that people are polite about you being Goth. I guess you don't know a place unless you live there.
Meeting up at an art gallery sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate World Goth Day. This year it was the same evening as a friend's 21st birthday, so we had a joint WGD/Birthday celebration at a pub.