Oh Please...you act gothic?! please, define for me what "acting gothic" is?! You go round sacraficing sheep?! Hell, it's what thing to dress one way, but to actually believe you act in exactly the way you dress?..that's just plain pathetic...you think "actual gothics" go round making sure they're acting "as gothic as they can" and that's what makes them so "gothic"?...If they do, they're just as pathetic... You say how you're more gothic than anyone just because you wear a trench coat and act depressed...then yes, i define you as a poser... It's not "gothic" to be depressed, half the fucking world is depressed, not just "goths". you're totally contradicting yourself by saying you're not a poser, then saying you wear a trench coat and that makes you "gothic"! Purlease! stop wasting people's time with such a pointless topic...great, now i'm angry...

Labels period are kinda stupid. They tell you absolutely nothing of what the person is really like. No one is just a "prep" or a "goth", they are shy, antisocial, psychos, pyromaniacs, and all the other traits that make them who they are. Such plain labels are nothing. All a label does is put a whole bunch of people into a loose-fit group, within which there are thousands of subdivisions of people and mindsets where the original label is completely lost in the collective minds that were grouped under it. In my eye, there are only 2 kinds of gothic. One of which is gothic dress. Any one can dress "gothic", whether they wear Victorian-Era clothing or new age chains and trenchcoats, all they are are clothes. They don't really mean anything to most people as anyone can wear these things. Different however, is the Gothic mind. I believe that someone truely "gothic", is someone who has a love of the darker things in life, someone who sees the beauty in the darkness, in death. Someone unafraid to talk about death or their own demise, how they want their funeral to be, who has no qualms talking about the things that hide in dark and who is open-minded enough to see the world in all it's perverse cruelty and recognize it for what it is. We tend to be gifted in the Arts, whether they be in literature or painting, like Edgar Allan Poe and others, an unfliching endurance of hardships(some have, at least), and thought they may constantly think or talk of death they are some of the few people who are truly alive in this world. Most wear black because it Means something, because it reflects on their mood, their past, their mind, on who they are, they may be depressed or anti-social because of some great hurt in the past or other. And though we may be cold toward some people, when people of the same mind gather together, it's amazing how much we open up and how much fun you can really have. Dress ultimatly means nothing. I have friends who don't dress "gothic" in the slightest, yet because of their mind, their more "gothic" than half the people in this school. You can't be a poser if in your heart, you really are "gothic". Anyways, I have to go. I might write more later. Night Wolf out.

No offense or anything, but when I saw this title, I laughed. Why label Yourself? That is the job of rest of idiot humanity. I get called gothic a lot too. I just ignore them. Who cares whos gothic and who's a "Poser"?I just think labels are useless, you are who you are.

Not only are labels useless but they are ignorant. Why are you going to limit yourself and who you are going to meet but smacking people with labels everywhere you go. It's pathetic and shows an extreme lack of intelligence.

if said this befour and i will say it again i am niether goth nor meteler nor rocker i am me i like rock i wear black because i like it and it suits me , i am called a goth but i am not one i am nothin i am me . end of story people can say im a goth or whatever they want but i dont really care it doesnt make me one .

it really doesn't matter how you dress( though with the gothic culture- you probaly do wear all black and prefer to), unless you are claiming your goth and you got on white pants and a pink shirt and it isn't sunday morning either A: you have a idenity crisis or B: you're a poser.

if you think you are a goth, then you are. i dress like a goth, and various other things, and i think i am a goth, so i am. thats what i think.

we goths were once outcasts and strange, now everyone is trying to _be_ us. I'd say ignore them...you are what you are, you feel that your a goth, then it must be so. Don't let others deside who you are. I think its stupid that they'd lable a person a poser anyway, Have the "strange" become so desired that they have to fight over the title?

everyone's a poser, you can't escape it.

these ppl are sitting here going "oh please what the hell is gothic" you knowdamn well what "gothic" as a term is limited to, stop trying to be clever.

I don't agree with stereotypes as such as determining who a person is or wether they're 'worthy', but if soemone said "who is Josh?" i'd say "the goth over there" if he was wearing everything the same as the group, but with a pale face and black make up. whats the big problem?

yeah . stop labeling yourself & other people.

i really hate labels and stuff...it doesnt matter how you dress or anything...i mean if you wanna dress all in black and stuff then that doesnt necessarily mean your gothic...take me for instance, i like to dress "dark" but im not gothic....

Stop labaling your self otheres can do that for you. If you go around and say Look at Me im a goth then you a big poser becase your posing for them just be your self.I dont conform to anything so i let people shot things like "derty Grebo/goth" i dont care whet they call me im an individual i dress how i like and lisen and acot how i feel. When peopl try and lable me i give them a single finger salut and thell them where they can shove it. dont try and labe your self

Okay people, you want to end this debate, go here: http://blood-dance.net/goth/grant.html Personally, I am gothic culture, as is my mother and stepbrother. IT'S A LIFESTYLE NOT A WARDROBE!

Does this debate about 'gothic or not gothic' really belong on a philosophy site i mean cmon get a life!

I only label myself as Me. All highschool is, is just people labeling all the different groups and basing a heirarchy on it. It's meant to stay in highschool and all you're managing to do is bring it into reality. Everybody should be able to be their own person, regardless of how they dress, and not be afraid to show it. Sadly, the Highschool Heirarchy kills a lot of kids' confidence and they're forced to conform to a label just so they can fit it. Wouldnt that make everybody who owns a label a poser?

You are a blithering idiot above everything else.

No. Really. I can be a poser too! Watch; I'm pretending to be something I'm not! (No offense meant to any one-I just like irony! tee hee, inherent contradiction is fun!) Incedentally, the coolest type of goths invaded rome a long time ago and don't really exist anywhere but in history. Also, a label is a useful tool. When you're talking about something meaningful you can start with a label and then break it down from there and move into a more meaningful conversation. Or, you can use labels to make casual conversation possible, because-get this-a label is a category of nouns, a very important part of our language. Observe: "There is a large and furry, brown creature with claws eating our assortment of sandwitch foods, salads and prepackedged beverages enclosed in a basket!" Translation: "There is a bear eating our picnic basket!" this same basic principal can be applied to people as well. The true non-conformist does what they do because they want to, not because it's the opposite of what's mainstream! I like to read graphic novels and play role-playing games, but I also like to watch TV and I don't give a care whether or not it's popular to do so! rawr.

I am neither, because I do not exist.

Are the people who don't dress completely gothic posers?