Friday, January 26, 2007

Hating on the Goths

I found this at Neatorama, and I think they sum it up pretty well:

Turns out there is a group called "Parents Against Goth" with a website called (really) GodHatesGoth.com, where they rail against the Goth subculture [wiki] and provide tips on how to "degoth" your children.

And of course, this being the internet, a counter website has sprung up, creatively called, GothsLaughingAtGodHatesGoth.com

Can’t we all just get along? Link - Thanks Andrew!

See also: Blue Spring Youth Outreach Unit combatting the goth problem with government money in Government Fund the Darnedest Things.

Having once been a goth, though without the ghoulish white make-up and the other freaky make-up, this makes me laugh. This little bit of wisdom is from the "Gothic Child Abuse" section of the GodGatesGoth site:

My point is that a mother who looks and dresses like a sick circus freak, who self harms in front of her child, who is obsessed with death and suicide, who holds BDSM parties that consist of bondage and rape, is hardly a fitting role model for children. That is why we are campaigning for all goth parents to be investigated by the child protection authorities.

We believe that goths are not fit to be parents in any way. Goths should have their children taken from them after they are born, and given to good clean-living Christian families who have decent morals and a good standing in the community.

Yeah, because there is nothing scary about eternal damnation in the fires of hell.

Out of all the possible people to go after (rapists, pedophiles [most of whom are Christian], drug abusers) they chose goths. And then they make them out to be horrible human beings, when in reality they have probably never even talked to a goth. What a strange form of enthocentrism.

I've posted on my own experience in Portrait of the Buddhist as a Young Goth, so you can check that out if you're interested.

A site called Goth Help Us seeks to set the record straight:
"Goth Help Us" started out like any other organization; with a simple idea. During a conversation with a depressed friend, Founder and CEO Rebecca Hohm said they needed a cause. They needed to get out of the house, and go help someone else because that is the only true way to feel better about one's self. They had also been discussing how they were truly bothered by the world's misconception that "gothic people are abnormal individuals who look scary." From that simple conversation, Goth Help Us was born.
Their mission is centered around the phrases, "Serving humanity from the underground up," "Turning darkness into light," and "Opening closed minds."

I find all of this very amusing. And I find it sad that adults are still into the us/them dichotomy that kids pass through when they are young, usually out-growing by high school or college. But then, I'm guessing the goth haters didn't ever go to college.


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