Defending your kind!

[DerZuhalter]

Honestly I've never been made fun of and I've never had any of my friends made fun of. Every school I went to goth and skater punk was the norm and preppy was the weird/odd thing.  

[i-- M a r i e --i]

I don't bother poeple wearing gothic clothes, but when they start to call it a lifestyle,i don't take it serious anymore.Some goths feel better then you ((not all goths)) because they're unique, and you're not, and they say you are too afraid to be different.

Or when they start "i will curse you "and such, Or when they say they are a witch because they're wiccan.I respect real wiccans, but i think there are alot of fakes out there...  

[Divinity Rage]

My little stepbrother and a girl who's basically my little sister both considered Gothdom at one point or another. I had a long talk with him about what, why, and how. He reevaluated and became a skater kid, which is probably more his speed. He wanted respect and maybe a bit of fear, which is what he gives to a lot of the Goth kids at his school. Now he's friends with the group, though he walks a different path of his choice. I'm proud of him.

The little sister, however, has made her own blend of Goth and punk, and wears it well. She's even got other girls her age starting to emulate her style. And as I told her, 'imitation is the ultimate form of flattery'.  

[Myollnir]

A lot of the goths around here are real snobs, and are kind of hard to defend on an individual basis because of that; but I make a point of defending the style as best I can. My school's a bit weird about that, though... it's the people in the alternative culture who make fun of people more than anything (nazi punks, metalheads and emos spitting in my bag and intimidating the Jews, the gay people, nerds scenesters and such), which is really sad: for a lot of them, their style is basically a response to the teasing they had to endure in elementary school, and it's a bit depressing to think that they'd just turn around and do that.

To be fair, though, that's not everyone-- I've had punks and goths both humiliate and look out for me, and it'd be a shame to put the responsibility of a few people's actions on a whole subculture.  

[perrenthezombie]

I don't really care, honestly. Religion and gay bashing bug me a lot more. Plus, so many people have know idea about what goth is, it would be impossible to get to all of them, and the type of people that make fun of things they don't understand are usually the type that either wouldn't listen if you told them off or don't matter enough to bother. So whatever. If they ask, I'll tell them.