I didn't start hearing too much of that until emo crap became more popular a few years ago. Then, suddenly everyone dressed in black was 'mopey and depressed'. That is probably the biggest problem that most Goths in America have with the whole 'emo' thing. One day kids started thinking that dressing in black, cutting themselves and being whiny was 'cool', then other people started calling them 'Goths' because they're too ignorant to know the difference. Now, everyone attributes those stereotypes to Gothdom.

*staples hand to forehead*

Why? Why must the world be filled with such ignorant fools?



ETA:

My septum piercing makes me feel like a pretty, pretty Princess!

I like goth because it is extream individuality.I am goth because irregardless of normal clothes, or any exterior thing, I would still be set apart from normal people because of my dry and macabe sense of humor, the fact that when i see a painting i watch it move, when i see a movie i ponder its deeper meaning. I am different and set apart from the norm without thinking of it without trying to be something dark and effulgient. I am goth because i dont know how to be anything else.....

I tried to be ordinary, I really did. Currently recovering from being taken for 'normal'.

Something like that, yes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MP3gcGIx0o

-LS

I'm finding I have more in common with some people around here than with other friends.

For one thing, people around here seem to share my whacked sense of humor (example above) more than some of my other friends. One of my good friends here said something that I thought was funnier than hell (he, among others here, say a LOT of things that are funnier than hell) - but some of my other friends just didn't get it and ignored it (they were more interested in discussing a casserole recipe and the fact that one of them had just eaten oatmeal )
I like many of the same musicians as mentioned here - even the groups/singers that aren't my favorites I still find interesting - some scary - but never boring!
I like dark science fiction, the more surreal the better (Minority Report, AI, THX-1138, Soylent Green, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Total Recall, the Alien films, Babylon 5).
I'm more likely to see movies such as Coraline, Tim Burton films, etc. than chick flicks about people going on and on about their relationships
I grew up watching The Addams Family - my sisters, parents and I all loved it (and didn't like The Munsters nearly as much)
I feel more at home at a Goth club than at many of the trendy ones around here - even though I go by myself (oh, okay, I feel a bit shy and self-conscious at first because I don't know anyone, but then I start dancing and feel better - at least I don't need a partner)

HAHA...I remember seeing a South Park episode on this very topic. A group of kids in elementary school think it's cool to be emo vampires, and everyone mistakes these emo poseurs with the genuine Goth kids. To restore normality, the Goth kids burn down the newly opened Hot Topic store in the mall.

Amazing how much I have in common with people on here. So many points above got me covered. Hm, I see the beauty in all the dark things such as death, graveyards are breath taking.
But, oh! If I wasn't goth what would I simply do with all my black, crosses, chokers, and spikes!

I have always thought emo to be people who wanted to be goth, but had not the grace, self-confiendence or the intelligence to pull it off. Though i do not believe any of the stereotypes about emo (after all if i did, i would be a hyprocrite since i hate stereotypes- especially about Goth), i still do not like the whole emo trend.
The clothes, though somtimes can be cute and colorful in a morbid way, is just not anything compared to the beautfil clothes of gothic culture. I see it as a cheap immination. Not to mention how tight the pants are, i have concerns for same of the guys and certian parts of their body.

I also notice a lot of them mismatch (we have a ton of emos here). I hate mismatch, it grates me. Then we get into the hairstyles this a fifty fifty split. If it is colored and wild it is great, it looks good. But if it is the common, most well known style (Long bangs, that comes down to the eyes, and cropped short hair everywhere else- which is typically spiked) then i just cringe.

Then there is the music. Emocore- after which emo got its name (i know it started a music culture too, can you believe it?) I have listened to itjust to see why they liked it so much. It was so stupid it was beyond words, not to mention almost non-exsist in this day and age. The bands labelled emo today are nothing really like the bands label emocore from when it started. I know that many want to asso. My Chemical Romance to Emo and they were extremely pissed off by the idea and feel that their music has nothing to do with those people, and many true mos agree with this- their music sounds nothing like emocore.
The closest new music i have heard is from a ban called Blood On The Dance Floor. The only reason i knew of them was from an altern. magazine i read. I decided to listen, why not, right? Again, it was beyond words stupid and lacked any sopsitication that goth has in its music.

I understand their need for self expression, but at the same time, being a part of the goth subculture, their self-expression is severly lacking....

Okay going back on topic now.

Did i mention i really like dark artworks like Momento Mori? I also have black little plastic spiders adorbning my computer becuase i like the symbolizim of it.

Graveyard poet - Fully agreed!

I dated an Emo girl for a little while. She listened to bands like Sum 41, Blink 182 and Hawthorne Heights. I couldn't stand having to take turns with CDs in the car!

XD

Ever since I was a kid--as in 9 years old--i was drawn to the poems of Keats, Shelley, Byron, Wuthering Heights changed my life when I was 15, and even earlier the works of Tolkien completely altered my perceptions of things. The horror tales of M. R. James and H. P. Lovecraft have been my delight for as long as I can remember.

I always loved Hallowe'en, and the whisper of dead leaves along the ground in the weeks before and after that time of year has ALWAYS brought out the best in me, and led to some of my fondest memories.

Discussing keats and Shelley with a friend at 13 years old, I erupted with a senseless line: 'We're flying through the air with gothic speed!' and we both broke out laughing. but it summed things up.

This was in 1972 or'73, YEARS before there EVER was a Goth culture!!!

From childhood on, I was always a natural goth, it always came from the deepest part of me.

That reminds me - forgot to add that while other kids were reading Nancy Drew, I was reading Greek, Roman and Norse mythology. I also enjoyed Poe and Lovecraft while in high school (still do from time to time). I also love some of the Dutch Masters' landscapes that have black clouds contrasting with the sun.

Yeah, i hear ya!

Some Ruisdael and Hobbema landscapes are amazingly suggestive and moody.

But how about, in my opinion, the KING of the brooding romantic landscape: Caspar David Friedrich?!

And how about J.M.W.Turner? Talk about some stormy images!

Turner is one of my art GODS!!!

Read more than half a dozen books on him since October alone.


I'd sell my soul to paint like that!