Dark Aesthetics

Gothic spaces are often quite diverse, often offering a space of intersection between classes, ethnicities, and other marginalized groups. Gothic spaces often overlap with other music folkgroups, such as metal, rivetheads and other industrial identities, and shoegaze. These spaces also intersect with other aesthetic groups, with many forms of visual art being incorporated into identity performance. 

The aesthetics of goth often pull from dark romance and horror genres, occasionally focusing on the grim or morbid. (Goodlad, Bibby, 2007) Gothic aesthetics often see the coming together of the sacred and profane, as is seen in other performative spaces, such as Carnivale. (Matta, Green, 1983) There is also overlap with fetish lifestyles, and other subversive relationship expressions. (Nally, 2017) Although the movement titled gothic can be attributed to Germanic literature (Fischer, 2019), in reality the bricolage of the gothic aesthetic is far reaching.

The presence of performative bisexuality and gender expression is common, however there is also a large subpopulation of goths who identify as LGBT+, genderqueer, and/or transgender, and gothic spaces have long been havens for those performances of gender diversion (Nally, 2017). Although many express a gothic identity daily, gothic spaces become a place of permission to perform loudly. 

This welcomes both those who only engage in gothic performance for special occasions as well as those who always perform this identity. The ability to play with gender presentation often errs towards hyper-feminine presentations, including male identifying goths often wearing makeup, and feminine-associated clothing such as corsets and high heels, alongside masculine-associated clothing.

~Lived Experience/ Aesthetics:

~I love being able to pull lots of different styles into my daily presentation, and I think of my time in goth spaces as just “turning it up;” while a day to day outfit might be all black with come occult imagery and black eyeliner, that same outfit could be paired with fetish accessories, platform boots, and very vibrant makeup for an evening out.

~M

~I have always been impressed with the variety I see among my goth friends; I think there’s an assumption that goths just wear black and that’s the end of it, but there is so much more variety. I think that’s why, even though I dress in a more hippie style daily, I enjoy the process of going out.

~C

~ There are a lot of “black clad” subcultures and sometimes, when there’s an event where there are a bunch of us, it’s only those who are part of each individual group who can actually tell who’s goth, who’s a metalhead, etc. There are definitely markers of a gothic aesthetic that may not be observable to outsiders.

~D

~ My fashion definitely leans more into Lolita fashion, which overlaps really well with gothic aesthetics, while also allowing me to adjust myself to a more conservative look.

~A

~ A night out at the club, you will see so many forms of aesthetic; everything from the punkier “trad goth” look (jet black hair, kind of intentionally messy, black pants with patches on them, band shirts, that sort of thing) to more sophisticated “Victorian goth” looks (maybe with brocade vests and fancy dress shirts with sterling silver buttons, pinstripe pants, and custom-tailored suits), “cyber goth” looks (neon green dreads, goggles with biohazard logos on them, platform boots with neon laces, etc), and quite a bit more. 

~S