i've figured it out...maybe.

[Henneth Annun]

i think i've figured out when we will be free of stereotypes and people not being so freaked out by us and other related subcultures.

goth and a lot of these other subcultures started in the 80's or 70's or around that time. we've only given people about 20 something years to get used of us and extinguish stereotypes. goth starts in the late 70's to middle 80's. punk starts in the mid-70's. older poeple have never had ANYTHING like that happen, i mean apperance wise and musically. it's something knew, they're scared, maybe freaked out. maybe they think these people have mental issues because they just dont understand these people or where they're coming from. like superstitions, people didn't understand something so they evolved theses myths around it. nothing like that has ever happened in history like this from when they where around. or maybe they had a bad experience someone who was goth, or punk, or another subculture like that. they dont want there kids to be like that so they put all these negative labels around us. i have to leave know but i hope you get my basic point. we just need to give it a bit more time. how many goths where around in schools in the 60's?or before then, now that more people are getting "in to it" (for a lack of a better expression) others in school will eventually come to see, hopefully, that we are just normal people and, well i'm not going into a list of stereotypes now.

try to help this process move quicker by being be nice, helpfull, don't purposelly scare people or joke around when mormons come to the door saying "yes i have found god would you like to be the next sacrafice?". in other words, give them no "reinforcers for this negative idea".

this revalation is recent to me. no longer will i scare little kids at malls.because if i do...

me:*scares kid*
kid:*runs to mom/dad and points out a Goth and explains what happened*
mom/dad:its okay honey...they're just a bad person

if enough of this happens, the kid will eventually come to think all goths are bad people. just dont give them reinforcers. please respond to this and dont be afraid to critisize my theory! i dont want to give false hope.  

[Choklit Teddi]

Of course..
People will always need to adapt to things.
Such as the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual thing.
It'll be another 50 years before they actually start to calm down about it.  

[Athiel]

well, you do have a point. However, just giving humanity time, I don't think it's worth waiting for.
I mean, look back, before the whole Goth/Neo-Romanticism started, there were other (at the time) controverial subcultures.
I'm thinking about stuff like the 50s and the whole Elvis deal. Back then all conservative adults were being suspicious and mistrusting of those, just like they run down on Goths today.

So, Yes, in a few years, people might have grown used to it, (mainly because no one will be left alive to tell stories about the Pre-Goth Era twisted ) But there will be something else, something we have trouble imagening today, just because it seems so bleeding unbelievable that someone would actually do it. And so, the cycle starts all over again, with the whining parents and the rebellious kids.

At least, that's how it will happen, if history does what it's sooo good at: repeat itself.
But then, the world grows more open minded each day, and frankly, the kids may soon run out of ideas for new, shocking subcultures.

So maybe you are right! One day we will all live in harmony, no one to whine about us, no one to ask her mom Why we look like this.
Peace on earth and good will towards man. Sounds kinda dull, if you ask me.  

[Fux this account]

....  

[lest_redemtion]

people will always find a reason to not like goths, freaks, etc. they will always use us for an escape goat for their own insecureties. they will always have to warn their children about the "bad people". it just so happens that their will always be people dressed in black, chains, make up, and spikes for them to scare them with. we are the new age boogie man. not to mention that it is humen nature to judge a book by its cover so that dosn't realy help.  

[GilAskan]

lest_redemtion

people will always find a reason to not like goths.

That's about the sum of it.

As with homosexuality, or with paganism.  

[.+Melanthios+.]

lest_redemtion

people will always find a reason to not like goths, freaks, etc. they will always use us for an escape goat for their own insecureties. they will always have to warn their children about the "bad people". it just so happens that their will always be people dressed in black, chains, make up, and spikes for them to scare them with. we are the new age boogie man. not to mention that it is humen nature to judge a book by its cover so that dosn't realy help.

man huamnity is so falable xp  

[lurichan]

One of the reasons I don't live within the confines of a sterotype. I don't really dress to the utmost apitomy of gothness, but I don't usually feel like putting forth that kind of effort.

I like to try to nuke sterotypes instead. Like yesterday I went to the part and fed some ducks. I shared my bread with three kids who were there as well so they could have a good time watching the ducks, fish, turtles, and swans all come closer to get some food.  

[Mavrikios1]

AH YOUR WRONG !!!-has criticized-

now for what i really think, and I agree with you,
people look at me as if I just commited a crime, sure I go out and have fun, but at the same time I hold doors open for people, smile and wave and all that stuff.
I hope it shows a few people just because others are different, doesnt mean they should assume we're bad people.

but I can't stay away from trouble either, so people are going to have to deal with how others act, because thats life.

-the end- im going to bed I gotta wake up in...6 hours
later all  

[Henneth Annun]

i'm saying that we can lessen these opinions, not eradicate them completely. that's impossible. although, we dont exactly conform to the societies "norms" so thats another reason why.i'm not trying to be rude or anything in the first sentance.  

[Henneth Annun]

lest_redemtion

people will always find a reason to not like goths, freaks, etc. they will always use us for an escape goat for their own insecureties. they will always have to warn their children about the "bad people". it just so happens that their will always be people dressed in black, chains, make up, and spikes for them to scare them with. we are the new age boogie man. not to mention that it is humen nature to judge a book by its cover so that dosn't realy help.

very true. hopefully as we become more...eh...intergrated...into certain...social settings such as,school, people will get to know us a bit better, so thats ONE person who doesn't hate us.

maybe its something to do with....black. today, black symbolises something along the lines of death, sorrow, evil and other related words. people are afraid of death so they see us wearing the color of it, andembracing it, and maybe even as they see it, glorifying it, they become afraid because these poeple represent the thing they fear and refuse to realize and accept. or they find black as an evil color and so to wear black more or less frequently and LIKE it means you are an evil person or devil whorshiper. of course, they avoid you because they think you paint pentagrams in virgin's blood on peoples doors. or are with satan or something...  

[UraniumMonk]

People will get over it eventually. Just look at hippies. With the exception of a few cranky old people, nobody cares about hippies, but back in the day they were shocking and different, and disliked because of their liberal use of drugs and free love deal. I mean, now days people are still like, "oh look a hippie," but with the exception of major d-bags (which will never change, they're always going to exist) nobody really cares. Goth will be the same in about 10 or 15 years.  

[The Reused]

its too long i kinda lost you at "i think"  

[GilAskan]

UraniumMonk

People will get over it eventually. Just look at hippies. With the exception of a few cranky old people, nobody cares about hippies, but back in the day they were shocking and different, and disliked because of their liberal use of drugs and free love deal. I mean, now days people are still like, "oh look a hippie," but with the exception of major d-bags (which will never change, they're always going to exist) nobody really cares. Goth will be the same in about 10 or 15 years.

Goth was accepted in the early nineties, thanks in particular to Neil Gaiman's "Sandman", which featured multiple goth characters.

However, by the late nineties, media paranoia following Columbine virtually destroyed goth's image to the public, despite the fact that the kids were neither goth, nor influenced by goths. The stereotyping and negative images have been kept alive by the media, books, and movies.