Goths: No Reaction

1. Who is the identity you want to imitate? Why did you choose this identity?

Goth subculture has made its name throughout history, and is present in various countries. It is a contemporary subculture found in numerous countries around the world. It started in England in the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, a branch of the post-punk classification. The goth subculture has survived any longer than others of the same time, and has kept on enhancing. Its symbolism and social tendencies show impacts from the nineteenth century Gothic writing, alongside with the genre of Horror films.

That being said, the goth subculture has a distinct taste in music and style. The music that goth people listen to incorporates various distinctive styles, including gothic rock, deathrock, post-punk, darkwave, ethereal wave, and neoclassical. Styles of clothing inside the subculture were inspired from deathrock, punk, and Victorian styles, or mixes of the above, regularly with black clothing, cosmetics, and hair. Usually, the goth would apply white foundation or powder to be as white as possible, then it is accompanied with dark cosmetics together with their outfit. 

Some say that Goth came from the Germanic Visigoth tribes where as Goth was seen as an uncivilized, unruly and barbaric. “Gothic” was a Renaissance term that describes different types of art such as Gargoyales. The Romans considered this as a low form of art. It was in the 18th century, when “gothic” was integrated into literature, which included elements of horror. During the 20th century, the meaning changed again and it now featured heavy eyeliners and all-black clothing. 

Kinds of Goths (as taken from Alicia Porter Smith’s Goth Website)

Weekenders

These are teens going through a phase in life, following and trying out some styles. They try to be dress up as goth to be cool. They don’t live the culture. They only dress up for occasions and events. These are the “poser goths” or “fake goths”. These gothic stage usually passes after some time. 

Ultra Goths

The real ones. They have been goths for quite some time. They are extreme dressers and real goths. They don’t just dress up, they live it. 

Satanists

“Satanists includes some Theatrical and Experimental Satanists and some Proclaimed

Satanists. This is a very small percentage of Goths. Satanists can be found in almost any random group of people. They are not exclusively Goths.” 

Vampires

A small percentage of Goths. These are the goths who try to dress up as vampires. They play with black, red and white. 

Mopey Goths

“Goths who have an overdeveloped sense of angst.” These are the goths usually found lurking in the corners and dark areas. They think about existence, heart breaks and life in general. 

Perky Goth

These are the goths who don’t dwell on the goth was that much. They usually play with some colours and glitters to funk up their style. 

The group decided to portray the Goth Subculture for deviance day because we were most interested in experiencing first-hand what it felt like to be the "other" figure in the society. Because the Goth subculture is so far from what we perceive as "normal", we wanted to test the effects of the sociological theories we learned in class especially the SI or the Symbolic Interaction perspective as to how people react to those who are "deviant" and "different" in the society. 

2. What is your identity’s main function in the society?

As is the case for many alternative subculture groups, Goths have made their contribution to the fashion industry, arts, music, and any and all sorts of culture. Their influence in these areas have grown considerably over the years. Together with their rising power, however, they have also been stigmatized, demonized and harassed physically and emotionally. Because Goths are a highly visible counterculture subgroup, the media, parents, schools, therapists, religious organizations and law enforcement authorities have paid considerable attention to them mainly as a potential threat to established norms and institutions. At the same time, concern has been expressed that publicizing and overreacting to the subgroup will increase its attractiveness or overall “allure” to the youth who are already showing tendencies or leaning towards the rebellious, antisocial, or attention-seeking behaviour. 

Typically, Goths do not associate with anyone outside their group and the way they choose to dress and act makes it very easy to distinguish them from any and all other subcultures. When looking at the Structural Functionalism (SF) perspective, wherein each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society’s functioning as a whole and where there is a belief that society is held together by social consensus or cohesion in which members of the society agree upon and work together to achieve what is best for the society as an entirety, we see that Gothic members do not relate well with this perspective. However, they do have a lot of the same beliefs as a group, though not so much as a part of society. For the members of the group, they believe and only aim to do what will help “stabilize” their group from the outside in, but do nothing that will aid society as a whole. 

3. How does he/she look like?

A person under the Goth subculture dresses as a reflection to their attitude and demeanour. Their fashion style is basically revolving around variations of black and silver. 

1. White makeup

2. Black or dark lipstick and eyeliner

3. Piercings

4. Black or dark shirt and bottom 

5. Chokers, chains, and any accessory that has metal or spikes

6. Boots or leather shoes

7. Usually shirts with messages that portray strong emotions (usually anger or despair)

For males, they often wear leather capes and long leather suits, achieving a medieval "dracula" inspired look. For females, they use fishnets and corsets and often dress provocatively. 

4. How does he/she speak or behave?

When Goths talk it is usually in a slow, airy manner. They speak with a few chosen words, or with the fewest words possible. They converse in a manner that shows very little emotion. When talking, their facial expressions remain the same, either in a blank and indifferent way, or with a negative emotion (sadness, anger, perplexing expression). Goth people don't really like talking that much. They express their emotions through their clothing preferences. They use dark words. They don't really say a lot of things. They talk slow to compared to usual people. In terms of behaviour, they are hardly seen expressing exuberant behaviour, unless with their group. They also have unusual practices that only those also in gothic subcultures can relate to like having a liking for pain to the extremity of inflicting self-hurt. 

5. What are their beliefs in life? What are their values?

A few values that Goth's are known for are first, Art or creativity. Goths are very artistic creatures. Nearly all Goths are artists in some way weather that's acting, painting, sewing/crafts, writing, etc. Despite the plentitude of black and dark outfits, in close study, the gothic subculture is very adept with artistic modes of self expression. Second, music. Because the subculture was basically born from music of the 70's and 80's. There's usually a huge hypocrisy floating around this one. Goths love to talk about music. Often some of the people who take the lifestyle more "seriously" tend to try to validate themselves by bully others for not liking the same music as them. As for beliefs, they have a love for darker aesthetic - It's not just a stereotype. Most Goths like "spooky" things on some level. That doesn't mean all Goths like cobwebs and rotting corpses, sometimes they just really have a thing for Victorian architecture. Also, the people who say it's not all about the clothes, are usually really into clothes. Another is their high regard for Individuality. Goths like to do things (like read such-and-such-a book) because they want to. Not because they have to because it's what's trending in the "mainstream". Though don't hold it against all Goths if some Goths don't really excel at being themselves.  Lastly, Knowledge. Just that most Goths are usually well read, open minded, enjoy learning (even if they don't care for school), and usually have a vast vocabulary. Research and understanding the roots of the Goth subculture is also usually pretty important. Sometimes religion (of any kind) can be important but that's one of those things that vary. There are some goths, on the extreme's that deviate from religion and call themselves Satanists. 

6. How does his/her day look like?

A goth person's day looks like a typical persons day. They do the same activities but the way they do things is usually different. Goths don'r follow the regular norms. They don't do what mainstream people do. They like doing things their own way. They hangout with fellow goths who appreciate their sense of goth-ness. They don't really associate themselves with other people aside from their carefully chosen peers. They don't talk about gossip, Hollywood or anything that doesn't concern them. These people really value their time. They think about things that really matter to them. They contemplate about things such as life, emotions and even relationships. A goth person's day also was music in it. Their choice of music is quite different from the norms. They usually listen the the mainstream songs in the goth realm. Goth people don't really care about what other people think about them. No matter what passerby's think, they would rather stick to their true selves.

This is an inside view on how members of the Goth subculture would be treated through their day, if they were students of the Ateneo. During our deviance day parade, my groupmates and I first planned out what we’re going to do. We practiced our plans as we walked from Bellarmine to Old Rizal. We discussed that we should walk in a line and all stare at the same people at the same time. Whenever we see someone from afar, we signal to each other that we will stare on that person and we play goth music. Once the person is inside our staring range, we stare at the person and look at that person’s reaction. Like earlier, most of them either looked away or got their phones and stared at them. Only a few of them stared back at us. We noticed that if they go by groups, we see them talking amongst themselves while occasionally looking at our direction. As we arrived, we first went to Red Brick Road. We walked slowly and we didn’t show emotion. We just stared at random people. We then went to the Kostka benches (the ones in front of the offices) and sat beside people and stared at them. The people played it cool and stayed on their seats and carried on. After some time, we transferred to MVP. We were greeted by the guard. We didn’t greet back. We just stared at her. After a few seconds, I felt so bad because she might think that we’re snobbing her and so we went back and apologized. After that, we went to Colayco hall. We remained in character. They posed on the background and I took a picture of them. The students who saw us were staring at us. We can see them in my peripheral vision. After that, we went around again for some more and we stopped in front of Dela Costa. We all sat down and people passed by. Some passed by as if nothing was happening and others took glimpses. 

7.Any sociological and personal reflections? How did it feel being another person for a day?

The Social Conflict (SC) perspective presents societies in a different light. While other perspectives focus on the positive aspects of society that contribute to its stability, the SC perspective focuses on the negative, conflicted and ever-changing nature of society. The conflict theorists challenge the status quo; encourage social change “even when this means social revolution”. They believe that the rich and the powerful are the ones able to take control merely because of the fact that they can force social order on the poor and the weak. When we look at the Gothic subculture in comparison to this perspective, we see that there is a clear structured inequality in the existing subcultures, especially towards the Gothic members who are typically associated with being poor, abused, repressed, suppressed and misunderstood.

The last perspective tackled will be the Interactionism perspective, which directs sociologists to consider the symbols and details of everyday life, what they mean and how people interact with each other. Gothic individuals have shown a tendency to instantly favor anything that is considered “dark” or possibly even evil to the average person. They are fond of dark colors, such as the color black, they are often seen dressed in ensembles of different black combinations with many layers regardless of the external weather. They accessorize themselves with silver bangles, earrings, piercings and the occasional tattoo. Their choice of music is often of the heavier kind such as heavy metal, heavy rock and screamos. Several documents have also recorded their penchant for using Egyptian symbols that appear dark, or even satanic to the untrained eye. It is clear that the Goths’ dislike of the mainstream tends to reflect a positive and necessary enjoyment on their part of feeling collectively different and, more specifically, “superior” to the “outsiders”. Among Goths, the strength of the distinction (or how different they are from the others) is seen as a good thing and it is believed that this want of distinction is a result of the prejudice and occasional violence Goths were prone to receive in light of their unconventional appearance.

Individual Reflection (Male Perspective):

As a guy, I didn’t know how to put makeup on so during the morning, I asked my mother to do my makeup. Her first reaction was, “Ha?? Bakit?” During this scenario, I immediately realized that something sociologically-related was already happening. My mom was surprised because her son is asking her to do his makeup. The reason why she reacted is because it is not normal for men to wear makeup on a regular day (gender roles). I explained to her that it was for deviance day for sociology. She did my goth makeup and after a few minutes, my driver arrived. As i entered the car, he inquired immediately about my makeup. He was the first one to react. I tried practicing my role as a goth to him but then he knows me too well to fall for it. Even though he knows it’s for something, the important thing about this event is that he reacted to it. The reason why he reacted is because I broke the usual pattern (him seeing me in a normal outfit). I arrived in Ateneo and a lot of people looked at my direction but I noticed that whenever I look back at them, they look away. People who knew me went to me asked me why I’m dressed like that. I told them that it’s a phase I’m going through. All of them laughed at what I said and they didn’t believe me and they assumed that it’s either for an org or for academics. 

So we went through the deviance day parade and After the bell rang, we all had to go to our respective classes. I went to ISO to eat lunch with my blockmates. All of them were shocked and one of them told me that I looked like a lesbian. I ordered food and in ISO were old people. One of the old ladies looked at me in a certain way. It was more of an “Ano ba naman ‘tong mga kabataang ‘to ngayon” look. I remained in character and ordered sisig. The cashier woman interacted with me normally as if she sees and accommodates goths normally. The other people, on the other hand, the waiters and waitresses, were somewhat giggling but then I’m not too sure if it’s because of me, although I catch them taking glimpses. When my class started, the professor immediately noticed me and told me that she likes how I look. 

(Female Perspective): 

I went to SA class wearing the all black outfit at around 8:45 in the morning. I noticed that even then, even just the outfit without all the eyeliner and lipstick was enough to catch attention. I quickly noticed a few stares. During the deviance day parade itself, everyone we passed by was turning their heads or giving us odd looks. I think the fact that we were all walking in either a straight vertical line or a straight horizontal line, while playing goth music was the main reason why. Throughout the parade, i felt how it was to be excluded from what was "accepted" and "normal". I realized that when other people dress and act in a way that was very different from others, people and society would immediately react differently as well. It was an enriching experience and I also figured out that even if you "think" you're not obviously staring at someone who happens to be different from you, its actually very very obvious that you're giving them odd looks. It helped me become more open to those who decide to deviate from the norms of society. One hour in their shoes helped me gain a little more perspective on those who are classified as "deviant" like the Gothic Subculture. 

Members: 

Abigail Chen 

Sunshine Estoesta

Marco Lasam

Patricia Jaranilla

Renz Jaranilla 

SA-21 B

Sources:



Marasigan, Cherish. "Pastel Goth: An Introduction To Goth's Lighter Side." Rebels Market, 8 June 2014. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. .

The Goth Culture: Quotations; Why Discuss Goth Culture Here? Description. History. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. .

Gill, N.S. "Where Did the Goths Come From." Ancient History. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. .

Fino, Christophe. "Gargoyles of Notre Dame." N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. .