Worthless Reflections: Types of Goths

Note: I had to creat a few terms to better drive my point and due to lack of better or more commonly used terms some of them are corney:
Metalheads - Devout listeners to heavy metal and death metal.
Pseudo-Goths - People who have their own misconceptions about what the word "gothic" actually means.
Sister-Goths (net.goths) - Followers of the offshot Gothic music revolution and subculture. (Sisters of Mercy, Souxsie and the Banshees, Buahaus(sp?))
Spooky Kids (Mansonites) - Followers of Marilyn Manson, generally untrue to his unbiased philosophy.
Vampiric-Goths - Those people who believe themselves to be real vampires.

This portion of my site was partially a response to another webpage entitled...Destroy All Goths..but it appears since I first posted this reflection, that site changed dramatically..

The whole page seems a bit confusing, especially as it is explained from a "anti-goth" point of view, thus biased.. First off, I would have to agree.. those Marilyn Mansonites a.k.a. Spooky Kids piss me off to no extent, mainly because they do not even follow Manson's philosophy, rather the assumed anti-everything philosophy which is attributed to him, just because it is rebellious and kids need some social issue to rebel against, in this case Christianity and it's moral teachings. By the way, if you actually believe this is what Manson is rebelling against, read his book, watch his appearences on documentaries and tv specials or whatever, and read into his words in an unbiased manner, and above all DON'T TAKE EVERYTHING LITERALLY. It's much like the difference between common devil worshipping and Satanism, which aren't the same thing. Devil worshipping is an offshoot of Christianity which exists only as an Anti-Christian practice (ie.. lets do what we are not supposed to do) like the attraction to the forbidden.. Much like Spooky Kid's rebellion against society's misconceived philosophy attributed to Manson, rather than his actual philosophy. Satanism is a completely different religion by itself, having no ties to Christianity or any belief in the Christian good and evil concept. in Satanism, Satan represents attributes of a Satanist and has absolutely no connection with the Christian devil whatsoever. Why it is called Satanism despite its reality, is beyond me. I highly recommend The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey, if you wish to broaden your horizons and destroy misguided preconceptions.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not excusing Manson's extreme self- and socially- destructive behaviours, I just think that he shouldn't be passed off as something he's not and forgotten about. Anyway, as I was ranting, Spooky Kids piss me off considerably and if I had a choice I would personally sew all their assholes closed and feed them til explosion.
The page also (used to, not sure if it still does) places all Type O Negative listeners in this group of Spooky Kids, which, of course some do, but there are also "Sister-Goths", vampire-fetishers, and common "Metalheads" who like Type O Negative who dislike each other just as much as they do Spooky Kids. Therefore, it is completely unfair to categorizes an enormous diverse following into one category just because their interests expand far beyond mainstream Sister-Goth bands..

I don't know, the one thing that pisses me off about the Sister-Goths, or the members of the gothic subcultural scene is that they are so afraid of being associated with Spooky Kids, that they go as far as degrading them and selling into the false rumours that made Manson unfavourable in the first place. What pisses me off more than that is how pretentious they can be and the way they make up guidelines for members of the scene so they have their own sort of elite society and like ivy league colleges and preps, people often follow the rules and dress the part even though it isn't in their heart just to e accepted and saved from the rest of the world's degenerates.. The most famous rulebook includes: Take a Bite - Net.goth handbook..(more located at the bottom of the page)



Now, as for the Vampiric-Goths, I just don't understand it. Sure vampires are considered sensual and beautiful, but the mythic undying blood drinkers are not real, only perhaps Psychic Vampires and Mortal blood drinkers exist.. Rather they are only real to the people who think they are them, but come on people, no matter how romantic as they are, pretending to be one will not make you one, and although I follow mysticism closely, I find it hard to believe that will is strong enough to make you immortal or allow you to survive by only drinking blood and everything else that comes with vampiricism. I suppose it wouldn't be as bad if people who did proclaim themself a vampire realized that it isn't reality and can be no more than a proclamation. Some say it is better to let a person believe what they want, as long as it makes them happy, but in the world we live in today, nobody has the luxury of ignorance. After all, ignorance is bliss.


Now, the Psuedo-Goths, metalheads who aren't intellegent to care what humanistic gothicism is, but call themselves Gothic under the misconception that Gothic means dark things like violence, hate and evil, anyway. I really can't go too far with this one other than to point out who fits in this category. Spooky Kids do, obviously, though they wouldn't if they actually followed Manson's philosophy. Many of the people who are into Death Metal (not excluding myself), and a fair amount of Type O Negative fans. Type O Negative seems to have gotten a bad rap in terms of gothic music. Because they are considered merely goth-metal, many Sister-Goths disregard them as Spooky Kids because of the stereotype of ignorance, generally associated with metalheads. It may no be apparent, but in an interview with Peter Steele (lead singer/bassist) that Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy is a big influence on Type O Negative.

In conclusion, I want everybody to realize that I am not ringing my own bell and claiming sovereign intellect or anything, I just want to point out a few things about some of the different groups of people who call themselves "Gothic". And Please, don't think that I am claiming that I am Gothic above everybody who proclaims such, because I would be hesitant to call myself gothic altogether despite the fact I fit into many of the above noted categories... I am merely a scholar with an interest in modern and historical gothicism and wish to report my findings and perhaps break down some social barriers created by socio-labels.

I may not agree with everything you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it..
-Voltaire


Here are a few links related to this discussion..

Nihilism inc. Goth Test - Take this test to see if you are a true goth..
The Autumn Cemetary Text - Another attempt to harbour Gothicism..
Gothnicity - includes the "How To Be Goth" lessons.
Also, If you happen to have any suggestions on any subjects about which I should write, e-mail me
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