Wednesday Can't Name Five Goth Bands
It's My Party And I Can Turn Into A Teenage Goo Goo Muck If I Want To...
The Wednesday Netflix series is sparking polarizing conversations among goths online. The debate is fueled by a viral trend on TikTok where users reenact the goth dance that Wednesday performs on the show--typically to the song "Bloody Mary" by Lady Gaga, rather than "Goo Goo Muck" by The Cramps, as originally featured in the series.
Many goths express frustration seeing neurotypical "conventionally attractive" influencers participating in this trend while having no familiarity with goth subculture. These are the same people, they argue, who would mock a real-life Wednesday Addams (coded neurodivergent goth girl). This begs the question: who gets to call themself a goth and why?
Many argue that you need to listen to the music, understand the history of the subculture, and don the aesthetic to declare yourself a goth. Reasonable enough. Yet, by those standards Wednesday may not even be a goth...I mean, does she even listen to The Cramps? Or is she appropriating goth culture?
What I mean is this: even neurodivergent alt people can gatekeep and bully other people. Especially, shocker, the white boys.
A lot of people see themselves in Wednesday…and by people, I mean goth queer nerds addicted to social media.
Whenever a weird alt girl becomes a pop culture icon she also becomes a billboard for alternative media consumption: Sylvia Plath poetry, babydoll collar dresses, Urban Decay eyeshadow, Kate Bush’s entire discography. People who identify with the subculture of the weird alt girl (WAG for short) may see this rise in popularity as an affront to the integrity of their scene. “It’s not about buying stuff,” they’ll say, “it’s about understanding the scene, knowing the bands, knowing the history of the aesthetic.” As if any member of a subculture hasn’t actively established themselves through purchasing power: tickets to the show, the silver Christian jewelry (blasphem-YAS!), vinyls, and mesh fishnet crop tops. I don’t meant to sound like the Grinch who stole Gothmas, but I do see a lot of gatekeeping from white people mad at other white people for liking the same stuff they do.
At one point we were all posers. Like Ru Paul said “we’re all born naked and the rest is…proving yourself worthy by naming five bands from your subculture of choice.”
I do understand where goths are coming from. If you’re going to identify as goth you should know the actual music and familiarize yourself with the local scene—which can very fun and comforting (a lot of people are more gatekeepy online than they are in person!). Check out this Wiki page to start. Listen to Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Dead Can Dance, The Birthday Party, and (my favorite modern Goth band) Vision Video. Read some Gothic literature: Poe, Baudelaire, Bronte. Watch Suspiria and old B list horror movies. Like, work, banshees….boo hoo hoo.
On the other hand, I see how goth discourse can get dense and…annoying. Like ok, maybe I can’t call myself a goth because I don’t listen to these bands as frequently as I should, or I don’t go to the clubs as often as my old ass would like to. But when I’m wearing black thigh high boots, fishnets, black mesh crop top, black leather jacket, spiked collar, black rosary beads, black (or blood red) lipstick, black eyeshadow, and black nail polish while listening to Megan Thee Stallion on my way to the gay bar, are you really gonna-like-sue me if I say I’m dressed gothy or that I have a goth aesthetic? If I call myself a goth bimbo for this reason, are you gonna ask me to recite the lyrics to “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”? And I’ll have to be like “sorry, I meant to say I’m dressed like an alt girl Tumblr weirdcore, paint it black boots, Mama!”
Please let’s fight over more important things: whether or not Wednesday is aroace and why we fail to recognize Enid’s autism.
Go watch Wednesday and be a goth girl is the message of this week’s newsletter <3
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