How long are you planning to be goth?

[ieatyourtclol]

*sighs*

I have been trying to ignore this topic for the last several hours now and it seems to creep to the top of the main forum again and again.

Here is my opinion:

It, for me, is IMPOSSIBLE to determine if or when I will ever stop being "gothic." I view my present persona as a manifestation of past incidents and circumstances; I am who I am because of select events. Unless those events become unimportant in my future life or more relevant future events negate those of my past, I shall forever be "gothic."

The same might be said for my citizenship. I am Canadian not because of personal preference, but because I was sorted by socities filters. I wasn't born in America; therfor, I must be something else? Gothic, punk, emo ... even nationalities are all products of a socities filter. Someone is different, therefor, we shall call them this.

I shall summarize my opinion with: I have NO choice as to what I am or what I am called or even the duration of these things. I am Gothic until people view each other as equal human beings without terms or labels. Wheter I be black or white, goth or punk, Canadian or American, it shouldn't matter! I have a name. I am not "hey, goth" or "hey, white kid, or even "Hey, Canadian"

I would much like this to be a great world with no labels ... but we need them to distinguish quickly between who we we like and who we don't. Human nature is a cruel thing in many ways; especially for those who are against the norm.

 

[Oterys]

I don't know, I may never stop being goth...hard to say, I mean that's like determining when I'll stop reading books, or loving music...  

[GilAskan]

I will stop being a goth when the reasons which now make me goth are no longer valid. I consider myself a goth because I am a fan of goth-rock, enjoy gothic literature, and am fond of gothic fashion. I'll be a goth so long as those things remain so. I'm not planning on "stopping", just as I never planned to "become" goth. I didn't just become goth all of the sudden, but I gradually grew into it, my styles eventually matching those of what I consider to define goths. I'll cease to be a goth once it falls out of interest for me.  

[Lila Malvae]

I guess I'll stop being goth when everyone else becomes goth. I'm an aquarius, so that pretty much settles it. I believe I read once in a zodiac summary of that sign that "Only when the last traditionalist, caucasian, middle-aged, entirely-mundane republican has vanished will you become one of them".

Being goth isn't a punishment, there isn't a time limit to it. I keep thinking EZ bake oven bat cookies and emo pie when I see the title of this thread.

Ping!Oh! 20 minutes, it's done.  

[.+Melanthios+.]

I plan on being goth for a looong time.....

after I have kids, I'll raise them, but if they're goth, they are, if not, oh well  

[Plan-Galere]

A wrote a big long comment about myself, but decided not to post it because it sounded arrogant and hateful. Oh well.  

[wantondestruction]

I don't really plan on being or not being goth. It's just who I am. That's like saying how long are you going to like chocolate? I don't know. I'll stop being goth when either it becomes inappropriate to be such (I plan on becoming a schoolteacher) or when gothism no longer fits me. Whichever comes first. And by rights, as a schoolteacher I just couldn't dress goth, which I don't do very severly anyway. At least I couldn't at work. So I could still be goth. Err...I'm rambling. Bye.  

[wantondestruction]

GilAskan

I will stop being a goth when the reasons which now make me goth are no longer valid. I consider myself a goth because I am a fan of goth-rock, enjoy gothic literature, and am fond of gothic fashion. I'll be a goth so long as those things remain so. I'm not planning on "stopping", just as I never planned to "become" goth. I didn't just become goth all of the sudden, but I gradually grew into it, my styles eventually matching those of what I consider to define goths. I'll cease to be a goth once it falls out of interest for me.

I must say, I couldn't have said it better. I tend to read the title post, make my own, and then go back to read everyone elses. This is exactly what my feeble attempt was meant to be.  

[ceilisidhe]

To me wondering how long to be a goth is like wondering how long to be hetero, homo or bi - there is no question. I am who and what I am and shall ever be so no matter the clothes I wear from one day to next. A cat is still a cat even if you name it Fido.  

[[the_Lioness]]

I don't think anyone knows when they are going to change. They just do. Wait for that. I you wake up one day and realize that you don't want to do the Goth thing today, then don't. Just do whatever you feel like.  

[Joselle`Stark]

Knowing me, I'll stay a weekender until I get sick of it. Of course, my fiance recently pointed out that I'm going from street goth to board room goth,lol. He's joked several times(actually, I don't think he was joking) that we'll be buying baby clothes from Hot Topic. I can see that happening,lol.

The "goth thing" is just part of me,though. I can literally trace it back to seeing Beetlejuice as a child. I envied Lydia, and ,in some ways I still, do. From the movie to the cartoon, I was always keeping my eye on the little goth girl with the pet ghost. She's the first dark influence I can really point out, aside from my own instincts.

I've been spending time in cemeteries, petting stone gargoyles, and donning the stereotypical black since I was a small child. When I became a teenager, I started with the makeup and began to walk the streets downtown. When I hit college, the makeup toned down, but the clothes remained the same. Thrift-store clothing and band shirts added a little color, and finally this year, I've moved up to the business suit with the asskicker boots or shiny pleather Mary Janes.

I really don't think it's going to end.  

[CGurp]

I'm never going to have kids and I plan for my jobs to be a professional artist and musician, so I'm going to be one for the rest of my life. My religion is LaVeyian Satanism, I'm never going to be "normal" in the eyes of "normal" people.  

[m a r l o w]

I don't think there is a "planning" on being Goth. You either are or you aren't, you can't wake up one day and say, "I don't want to be Goth today." Basically once you realise you're Goth and start changing your lifestyle to suit it, you usually don't change back. I mean, you can stop wearing black or doing all those "gothy" things, but what really constitutes as making you "non-goth" even then?

Not only do hobbies and daily activites make up what is said to be Goth, but I think personality has a hand in it as well. That being the case, personality is pretty permanent and is hard to change or alter. Therefore, to go from Goth to non-Goth is probably equally difficult.

I mean, if Goth is something you can pickup and put down from day to day, would it still make you Goth? Or would it just be dress-up? I guess that depends on how you view it, as well.  

[A Little Retarded]

I personally trashed the whole major goth style. I grew out of it because it started to bore me. I still wear the clothes; just not as bad as I used to. My eyes used to have designs around them and all that s**t. Some people never grow out of it and others call them childish. It's not something total adults should do. Goth is a personality and music liking anyways. Just trash the style of makeup and clothes once you hit 20. I'm not a total goth personality. I'd say I'm more punk than goth and even my friends say that.  

[lurichan]

An intersting notion that would tie into the idea some parents put forth of it all "Just being a phase"

Being 24 years old, I will say that my clothing was more influenced back when I was in high school than it is now. So in some ways you could say I don't really "dress the part" as often now as I used to, but I don't think I've ever actually grown out of it so much as gone beyond the bounds of the sterotype into more freedoms of personal expression instead of conforming to any one sterotype.

Since I have no plans for children... ever I don't really feel too much in the way of compunctions to change any aspect of my life to suit that of others. Myself and ceilisidhe get along in our own strange ways, and the cats are rather non-judgemental about all that we do, so I don't think I'll ever leave that part of my life behind, I just don't dress as controversially as I might have done in the past for the sake of keeping my job, or if I don't feel like being stared at as much.