While hair dyeing, I had some Thoughts on the conversation that @CupcakeGoth started today with this post: https://bit.ly/2HzB3vi 

The topic of gatekeeping in the goth scene brought up something that has been on my mind through all my years in subculture--

Namely, that the reason subculture is called SUBculture and not an alien culture is because it is still a part of its parent culture.

As such, in spite of a subculture being formed as a reaction against a parent culture, the people in it are still as susceptible to parent culture BS as anyone else.

This includes all manners of bigotry, fatphobia, reliance on gender roles, upholding absurd beauty standards, etc.

Sometimes, especially among younger people, there is a naive sense that if you are in subculture, you are somehow above it all, separate, better. But we're still people.

There are still going to be assholes, Mean Girls, trends and cliquish changes with them.

What subculture does is create a space for what you WANT your world to be like. It's a cultivation, but it's not in a controlled lab setting.

If I see someone whose appearance signals that they are a part of my subculture, they're signalling the potential for us to have shared interests and values.

It's a potential, not a guarantee.

I'm pointing this out for two reasons.

First, because if assume the values are a given, we stop doing the work.

You can't be complacent and assume that because your appearance scares old people, you are wholly unlike everyone else in your country. You're not.

That's how you end up with something like parts of the punk scene that are overrun with self-righteous Political Bois who assume they're enlightened because they think "fuck society" and never do the work. These scenes are toxic.

So if you want your subculture to cultivate and maintain certain ideals, it has to be a continual process. Just as we've been discussing lately about democracy.

My second point is this:

That people in subculture are human and therefore fallible doesn't negate the opportunities that subculture provides.

The people who share your values and fight for them are still there, and they are the heart of your scene.

So there's a two-pronged approach:

Fight the BS and continually reassert that it may exist in your scene, but it is not welcome.

Then amplify what you want to be louder and more visible.

I see punk and goth as basically the yang and yin of subculture. The first is a masculine-coded place where anyone can be masculine, the latter is often feminine-coded.

I think that these preconditions set us up for some problems, like misogyny in the punk scene, but I think it's also the reason that the goth scene has historically been a place for genderfucking.

Because it created a space where men could engage in feminine-coded behaviors without it having anything to do with their sexuality or gender identity--

and this also created a welcoming space for trans people and all kinds of non-binary identities.

There's a lot of androgyny, basically. Androgyny is appreciated, which means that all kinds of blurring of gender presentation is a part of the scene, and gendering of certain behaviors is stripped away.

No matter how many bigots and assholes may exist in the space, this is still woven into the character of the scene.

It ain't a big leap from accepting cis men in skirts and lace and makeup to accepting trans people, because you're used to people asserting their OWN identity, as they want to be.

So to summarize, it's important to always remember that, ahem, we live in a society and any sense that we are separate from it is delusional.

But, this doesn't negate all of the OTHER values that are present. The multiplicity is the value, because it gives you opportunities that are not present elsewhere.

If parent culture gives you a choice of A & B, your subculture ideally adds on room for C through J. A & B are still going to be there, and that's ok. The point is that you have a choice.

And if you don't see yourself in C-J? That's why we have many subcultures. You pick the ones that reflects you and your values. Another scene might give you K through Z.

So, don't worry too much about A & B still being present in your scene. As long as a range beyond those choices is present, your subculture is doing its job.