Goth Clichés,

Do you go walking in cemeteries at night? Read Poe by starlight? Paint your walls black and blare the Pornography album till dawn approaches?

The Goth community certainly has a few Clichés. Some are well deserved, and others are out right fabrications. How many Goth Clichés do you embody and how do you feel about them. Do you avoid them? or embrace them? Feel "corny" when you try them? What are your experiences with said Clichés and did you conceder them positive or negative aspects of your life?

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To go first, I must admit I find them fun, and often enjoy embracing them whole heartedly.

Some of my Favourite Clichés:

• I'm always "Dressed up" and always in black (I don't own any "lounging cloths" or "other colours").
• A quiet evening reading in the "Study" is never without a glass of Absinthe (Taboo or Pacifique) or Snakebite.
• A pair of boots and a long black coat are essential for leaving the house.
• I love Vampire movies, (older) Anne Rice novels, The Crow, etc…

I have many more I will list if the thread gathers interest.

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Edit: Changed to "Clichés"

I appear to have had a major brain malfunction, and "Clichés" is what I was looking for, rather then my original "Stereotypes" that I labelled the thread with... I'm Looking for your thoughts on Clichés... If a Mod. wanted change the title of the thread, it would be appreciated, or nuke it entirely..?

Well I told a newbee which was interested in Satanism to walk in the winter at midnight three times nakedbackwards around the graveyard. When the delirium starts Satan has arrived. I don't know whether she believed it or not.

But I like the Pornography Album, and I don't like blue jeans and silly people at the party. All in all, it becomes much to funny in the last years.

[*]I dress up almost all the time
[*]I love almost anything related to Vampires
[*]I wear a lot of black, and I mean A LOT

I like graveyards but personally I think walking in a graveyard at night would be rather dangerious, I mean who knows what kind of creeps are hanging around there. As pretty as it would be it would be dangerous. Especially for a 16 year old girl.

When I was a Baby Bat someone told me their favorite Sisters of Mercy song was the one from 'The Lost Boys'. Some newbs are more gullible than others, I knew better than to believe them.

Cliches are fun.

I wouldn't go in a graveyard at night unless it were one that no longer had anyone to set rules. If the cemetery is still active and has rules posted [i.e. closes at dusk] I follow them. Not sure whether I'd follow a "no pictures" rule though. I've yet to see that but I have heard of some having that as a rule.

I can think of a lot of cliches. All my windows are covered up with thick layers of bed comforters and then "hidden" with ceiling to floor black crepe. For any natural sunlight I have to go outside.

I use halloween lights for interior decorating all year round.

Except for what I have for when I am doing messy car work all my footwear consists of boots. I have a pair of heels in case of court dates or job interviews but otherwise it is all boots.

I buy any "cheesy rubber" bats or spiders I come across. I put the bats in my cars and the spiders in my room.

I have bouquets of dead roses scattered around the apartment.

That's all I can think of right now.

I am almost always wearing all black, with exception to my decidedly not goth-cliché hiking shoes and the occasional sports tshirt.
I've been walking and doing other things (nothing vandalous) in cemeteries since my teens and I'll remain doing so.
The windows of my apartment all have black sheets or black linen in place of proper curtains.
I write bad poetry about dark romance.

I must say that I can be the embodiment of Goth Cliches. I find them fun and I rarely feel foolish for it, because I am honestly do things I like and being myself.

Absolutely perfect statement.

- My room is purple and accented with black
- I take pictures in cemeteries
- Most of my wardrobe is black (or white)
- I wait till Halloween to buy most of my accessories, mainly the black candles
- I really like Tim Burton movies
- Most of the time, my curtains are drawn
- Favorite season is autumn; favorite holiday is Halloween
- I like creepy animals (except for house/cave centipedes)
- Anything remotely medieval gothic looking (gargoyles, Memento Mori, black candle holders, etc.) I buy, and I regret it terribly when I don't buy it (or have room for it)

+1
Clichés = FUN
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When I was younger I thought that clichés are boring, and I wanted to be different, unique, so I tried veeery hard to avoid everything remotely "cliché" ... In retrospect, I think I failed at it: trying too hard not to be a goth cliché IS a cliché, right?

Anyways, when I met my boyfriend things changed enermously: he likes walking in the cemetery at night, wears all black all the time, decorates his room with skulls, candles, dead roses and Victoria Frances posters, always wears an ankh and black nailpolish etc... He taught me that embracing the cheesy goth clichés is not a bad thing at all, and now I can barely understand why I wanted to miss this sort of fun so desperately when I was a young babybat.

So, here are a few clichés I emobody and enjoy:
- Walking in the cemetery. At night.
- Cheesy nicknames: I quite often call my boyfriend My Vampire Prince. XD
- I like zombies. Zombie films, zombie books, zombie whatever, I like it all.
- I also love bats. Like, LOVE them. I also like to collect bat shaped jewelry and things and stuff.
- My fave The Cure album IS Pornography.
- I like Tim Burton movies, and my favorite is Nightmare Before Christmas.
- I like to read Poe.
- I LOVE winklepickers.
- I love The Crow, and it never fails to make me cry like a child.
- I love Halloween.
- I met my boyfriend on Halloween, and it makes me a happy bat. X)
- I hate the sun. I hate summer.
- My fave alcoholic drink is absinthe, but I also like snakebite very much.

Well I'm glad to see so many others who embrace the parts of the culture that I find the most fun. I too use to be self conscious about some clichés, but as I grew older and gained more self respect I have learned to enjoy these things. Now I can't imagine my life without enjoying these pastimes.

A Few more for me?

• For Halloween i dress in my everyday cloths, but put on a white shirt...and some fangs
• I sit at a writing desk and do calligraphy by candle light...
• I never go outside without sunblock
• My wife and I often go for walks in the rain, with a big black umbrella.
• Black sheets and blankets
• We have more candles in our house then light bulbs

Oh the candles. I count how many I have in my room numerous times and I swear there's more every time I count. It's like some sort of spontaneous reproduction.

I guess to get into tune with the season, I reserve most of my spider, bat, coffin, and skull themed clothes and accessories for Halloween, since that's also when stores sell all of those items (duh).

Talyjanahawk, sounds like you have a sensible head on your shoulders. I would at least recommend being with a group of trustworthy friends.




Not the only one who heard that ^^;; I thought that for a while too....it really doesn't help that when I was looking it up for download (I didn't know the artist so I just put in "The Lost Boys Soundtrack") the artist came up as Sisters of Mercy. When I learned otherwise later on, I changed the title on the file, but it still says that on my MP3 player -_- I tell you, this kinda thing doesn't help. I've seen downloads stating that the Cure wrote "Come on Eileen" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" XD

Oh and I once downloaded a song that was supposed to be Fragile by Lacuna Coil but turned out to be Elegy by Leaves' Eyes- which has the word "fragile" in the first verse XD.

I've seen 'Gothic Girl' attributited to Type O Negative before. WTF??? When I saw that I went digging through my albums to see if I'd somehow missed this treasure....then I saw the video on youtube(still attributated to TON) and saw that it was 69 Eyes. Doesn't even sound like anything TON ever did.