Gothic Discrimination in School

[Minyaliel]

Depends on where you are (age, location, school), I guess. I've always gotten strange looks or hurtful remarks about my clothing and make- up style at school, but now that I'm in University, I actually meet either indifference or people who love my style and give me lots of compliments *grins*

[sylas]

i dont know if some one has allready said this but i think its them being pussies well yeah the kids where goth but it dosent mean you just go around messing with everyone elese that fits in your fuckin sterotype chart ANY ONE can use a fuckin gun i hope they know that

[Peter]

If anyone else has said that, I'm sure they weren't as eloquent as yourself.

[DarkHeartedDemoness]

Originally Posted by sylas

i dont know if some one has allready said this but i think its them being pussies well yeah the kids where goth but it dosent mean you just go around messing with everyone elese that fits in your fuckin sterotype chart ANY ONE can use a fuckin gun i hope they know that

Which kids were goth? The Columbine kids? No, dear, they weren't. They were homicidal maniacs in trench coats.

[ASHESOFX]

Originally Posted by homo-adonis

I think I'm a little older than most on this board and I must say back when I was in middle school in the early eighties I had tattoos. And I got hell for them let alone the rest of my look. Remember tattoos were not a maistream thing like they are now and seeing Goths , Punks , or even New wavers back then in school was not too common. I thought things now would be much better.

i so have to agree with this...for me growing up in that era was hard. i surely didn't fit into the normal "preppie" style of the time here in america, i never felt comfortable in Sebago Docksiders and Lacoste alligator shirts...despite what my mother bought me. i would paint my shoes black and dye my clothes in the bathtub. i wanted blue hair...in the days before manic panic, we used kool aid and peroxide. my teachers tried to make me take the safety pins out of my ears in class, they said they were distracting. cheapest earings on earth is what they were...for my friends and i our "style" was all about emerging music --discovering bands like the cure and echo who came from england like Duran Duran but just weren't mainstream. art was our way of expression...art on paper, art in music and even art on sidewalks and the middle of the street. we lived in a cornfield town--there were no malls to go buy punk clothes and gothic gowns--we had to make our own. we were straight edge--with the x's on our hands--back in the early 80's and thought of as freaks, but somehow, in our school that was cool at the time. my best friend was the homecoming king for god's sake--not the high school quarterback!
how did being dark turn into such a sorry ass conotation over the years? how did the black trenchcoat become synonomous with Columbine when people have been wearing them for years?
And now with this poor slaughter of the Amish girls--what kind of symbol is going to rise from this? What cultural group is going to be blamed for the antics of the crazed gunman here?

[Godslayer Jillian]

Originally Posted by Peter

If anyone else has said that, I'm sure they weren't as eloquent as yourself.

I'm loving you, Peter.

[Crying_Crimson_Tears]

At my school the administration doesn't give a flying fuck what we dress like as long as it's within the dress code. No belly buttons showing, no cleavage, no underwear hanging out, no ass cracks, etc. But the kids can be really horrible about it. Thinking that just because you wear black and such it means that you're a cutter and that you probably do drugs or something. I find cutters and druggies are the ones who are "preppy" and such. The kids think that you're depressed just because of the amount of black you wear. I get the comments, sure, but I also get compliments from time to time. There actually is getting to be more tolerance at my school with the kids because they start to understand it's the person, not the clothing. I think that maybe if more Goth/punk people start to show that they can be loving, caring and understanding people too. It may take some time, but maybe people wil eventually start to understand and leave us alone.

[knightmare]

ASHESOFX, it's nice to hear a viewpoint of an original and mature man as yourself.
Goths are always going to be discriminated against, as all groups are. The misconceptions of the gothic people's fascination of death, and the dark side of humanity contribute to this misperception. These factors and our "morbidly original" sense of style are practically incomprehensible
to a society that focuses on success and "living your life to the fullest." Anything that society does not understand, they mislabel it as a threat. They do not know that we can be fascinated by the dark side of humanity and still be a normal, functional human being of society. Also, the media's negative portrayal of "goths" doesn't help either.

[Momerath]

I think in my old Jr. High School, they told me not to wear my little spike bracelets. I really didn't care, because I knew it wasn't a big deal anyways, and I knew I was more my mind than my clothing anyways.

[Cyntrox]

My teachers keep lowering my grades because they say I write too "dark..."

[Lady_Lacrimosa_Umbrae]

In my school we don't have a dress code, though we have a few understandable rules: We must be clean (in the take-a-shower sense), we can't go naked and we can't wear bathing suits (I have no idea why someone came up with this last rule, but well...)

If it helps, I'll tell you that in my friend's school they have a uniform, and some people were against it, so a group of boys protested by putting on the girl's uniform skirts... and, as it was a part of the uniform and nobody had thought that might happen, nobody had rules against that... and the boys wore the skirts to school for days and days. It was a good idea. LOL

Anyway, it seems that's just the prejudicing. It has nothing at all with the clothes being distracting or not, that's just the excuse to make the rules that their little narrow normal minds want. I suggest that you try to find some legal contradiction or something like that.

[KontanKarite]

Originally Posted by Mood

Again, because I can't pick up on the current conversation I would like to say that schools have every right to post dress restrictions. Also, I don't lend sympathy to people who are teased for what they wear to school if it was their choice to wear it.

If you don't want to be descriminated against, don't dress differently. And if you feel that strongly about your subculture, I suggest you google "coporate goth" to get tips on how to dress goth and yet still function in society.

Unacceptable. This train of thought is almost as bad as the idea that certain people get discriminated against because they wear black. It is NOT okay to have prejudices. It makes you into a shitty person.

It's a social change though. I would never expect or want any sort of law to protect me or make it okay for people to be goth. I would just rather someday that people find that the aesthetic of goth isn't so fucked up and it really isn't that important. Yes, the goths understand that compromise is a part of life. But goths always compromise. Now it's your turn. Understand that it is okay and stop making such a big deal about it like others do. Just because we can learn to not hold our "gawthyness in high regard doesn't mean that we change ourselves as the only answer to a problem. Why don't you change your mind and be a better person for it instead of having me change my clothes because you're afraid of my looks. I swear I wont bite. I'm probably more afraid of you than you are of me.

[KontanKarite]

Originally Posted by Cyntrox

My teachers keep lowering my grades because they say I write too "dark..."

Now THAT is some bonafied bullshit. I would highly suggest you bring this up to you principal. Dark art is just as much art as any other. This IS discrimination. How dare they give you are hard time because of who you are.

[maggot]

Actually, Kontan, this is where you and me disagree.

People will always have prejudices, and if people are going to aggregate those prejudices, they can't whine about it.


It's like someone cutting themselves, and then complaining when they almost die.
"Yeah, no shit, asshole." would probably be your first response, not "Awwww! Poor baaaby!!! "

See what I'm saying?








That came off far more hostile than I meant it to. I don't care, though.

[KontanKarite]

Originally Posted by maggot

Actually, Kontan, this is where you and me disagree.

People will always have prejudices, and if people are going to aggregate those prejudices, they can't whine about it.


It's like someone cutting themselves, and then complaining when they almost die.
"Yeah, no shit, asshole." would probably be your first response, not "Awwww! Poor baaaby!!! "

See what I'm saying?


That came off far more hostile than I meant it to. I don't care, though.

Well, I know what you're saying. I'm more miffed about people making a bigger deal about it than the ones that actually do it. All I'm saying is that people let the goth look bother them and then it's okay to be hostile about it. They CHOOSE to hate it and make a big deal about it. I just wonder why it's always got to be the goth that changes themselves instead of the ones that would be better off changing their minds.

Maggot, I don't like your blue hair. Change it, it bothers me.

[maggot]

Actually, I get the hair thing a lot. It amuses me more than offends me. :P

And people don't choose to hate things that are different, they just grow up that way.
I mean, SOME choose, but others have no choice, really.

[KontanKarite]

Originally Posted by maggot

Actually, I get the hair thing a lot. It amuses me more than offends me. :P

And people don't choose to hate things that are different, they just grow up that way.
I mean, SOME choose, but others have no choice, really.

Magg, I love your blue hair. I was just trying to make a point.

It's an issue of respect for me. I'm seeing it come from one side, but not the other. That's not cool in my book.

[maggot]

I knew you were trying to make a point, I was just showing the rational conclusion that I hold.

I choose to have something that tends to offend, so I don't bitch when I get complaints.




So, uh, Kontan... Are you gonna pay for everyone to get hypnotherapy?

[KontanKarite]

Originally Posted by maggot

I knew you were trying to make a point, I was just showing the rational conclusion that I hold.

I choose to have something that tends to offend, so I don't bitch when I get complaints.




So, uh, Kontan... Are you gonna pay for everyone to get hypnotherapy?

Nope. Social change should never be forced. I may have something against one sided respect issues, but I'd hate to see people forced to accept something they don't want to. Peoples' ability to choose comes before my own comfort.

My views are my own and not for anyone else unless they feel the same.

[maggot]

Good boy.


This means you're not allowed to complain, either, though. :P

[KontanKarite]

Originally Posted by maggot

Good boy.


This means you're not allowed to complain, either, though. :P

Nah, you can't stop me from speaking my mind. Then again, I kinda like the idea that goth is a threatening look. Though I'm not violent, it for some reason, keeps the would be criminals and violent ones at bay. I don't know why, but I just don't care.

[maggot]

It's threatening because people are scared of what they don't know.
Now you know, and still don't care.


It's good to learn how to do some death glance.
People don't mess with me because I have one.

[KontanKarite]

Yeah. The gang activity in my town seems to be on the uprise. Looking down right scary seems to keep strangers from talking to me when I'm walking out at night.

[Tismine]

My school has never given me much of a problem. My public school (up to mid 8th grade) used to be fairly..unhappy about it. Now, thankfully, I attend a private school. While the dress code may be much more strict (uniforms), I managed to convince them to leave me alone. How? By volunteering in the library, baking and cooking for them, and being polite to the point of Victorian.
I'm basically regarded as a slightly insane kitten, and no one blinks an eye at 7-inch patent vinyl boots anymore. It's fairly exclusive, though, as I'm the only one able to get away with it. I just smile at them if they say anything vulgar.
I'm fairly lucky, I suppose. In my previous school, my father and I had to manipulate like crazy for them to leave me alone.

[Lapin]

(laughs hysterically) My school would kill for your problems. They're happy if we show up. Dress code violations? Priority #352

Hey, Tismine, where'd you get those 7-inchers? I want a pair.