Ja

That’s a good question.
For me Gothic is a lifestyle.
The way you dress, the way you behave, how you live your life,
(many Goths are vegetarians for example, as am I),
the people you feel comfortable with, this is what I have found in what people call Gothic.There are many prejudices about Goths, this is probably because the lifestyle is unknown and probably also because Goths look different from the average man in the street.
There are many myths about Goths, for instance people think we worship the Devil and that we make offerings or drink blood. You also hear a lot that we live in a dream world and that we are depressed.
This could not be further from the truth.
Most Goths have both feet firmly on the ground and live life very consciously. And the story about the devil… well, I will not go even into it.
Some of us are involved with so-called natural religions such as Wicca.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about this too.

The prejudiced opinion that Goths are depressed adolescents is a statement that is totally unfounded. It is true that many Goths are relatively young but I think this is because the people in this generation have got more guts than the older ones.
My boyfriend and I are not exactly adolescents, we are 39 and 41.
So that story does not wash either, because we are not the only ones to have this lifestyle. However, the answer to the question what Gothic really is, well, like I said before, for me it is a lifestyle in which I can be myself and that you should do whatever makes you feel comfortable, without causing nuisance to other people, of course. This means that I often wear Gothic clothes (in any case I always wear black clothes) and certain jewellery, my hair is dyed black and I do not care about what other people have to say about my appearance. The same goes for my boyfriend who has his own style. We love Gothic music and we go to gigs regularly.
We feel fine with that audience, even though most people are younger than we are.
There is another thing that is very characteristic of Goths, namely that most of us are very creative and that we think about life and death.
Death is not a taboo in Gothic, but part of life.

What do vampires have to do with Gothic?
People always bracket them together.
This is not really strange if you think that the vampire and horror stories were created in the time when the early Gothic reigned supreme in the 18th century.
Modern Goths do not occupy themselves with fairy tale characters.
Many “wannabes” think they have to act like a vampire to belong. This is totally wrong.
What does belong to Gothic is the colour black. You can find this everywhere, in the clothing, the hair, the make-up, etc.
However, you also see colours such as purple, burgundy, dark blue and green.

Most Goths are night persons, although they do not wander around church yards and sleep in coffins to feel comfortable.
Most of them have jobs and/or families.
If possible they dress according to how they feel, but often this is not possible during working hours.
Goths look up one another at festivals, gatherings and concerts.
The atmosphere is always friendly at such events.
Nothing is strange, no one is surprised at how extreme (or ordinary) someone looks.
Goths feel very strongly about accepting someone how he or she is.
Most Goths are open-minded and do not pigeon-hole people.

We are very curious about what other Goths think Gothic is.
If you want to share your opinion, just send us an email.

Would you like to read other people’s opinions?
Just go to “opinions”.