#2000's goth

I didn't reblog it because I didn't really feel like having a disagreement or open debate with someone because I'm far too tired for that and I just don't care for the conflict. It did make me think, however, and I wanted to put my thoughts out there on the concept of "mallgoth" as it's used in modern nomenclature.

My thoughts can be summed up as simply: it's fine. It's not really a big deal. See, I think that it's difficult to define tropes of an era while still in an era. When you lived in the 90's you didn't really analyze what "dressing" like the 90's meant. You didn't analyze what "2000's" style clothing was yet. You understood the tropes of the 60's, 70's, and 80's, but the tropes that define the decade you are living in are difficult to codify when you are IN it. It's only looking back that you really see the primary surviving remnants of what people remember.

"Mall goth" may have been an insult used towards "goth posers" in the 2000's by "real goths" but let's be real. That was just gatekeeping bullshit to keep young goth kids who were enamored with the culture but didn't fully understand it yet OUT of the scene. It's the same bullshit you see in every community on the defensive. Lots of "mall goth" kids were fascinated with the culture and drawn to it and while some grew out of it, many still consider it part of who they are. I still heavily identify with goth aesthetics, culture, and interests despite not openly always appearing as a "goth person."

This is to say while "mall goth" may have been coined as an insult; I feel like it's unfair to reject the term in modern language because, as I said, it's difficult to define a subgenre of style/culture or its codifying tropes while you live through it. It's only after the dust settles on an era that the shining gems of what defined that era really come through. To say "mall goth" wasn't a "real" era of goth culture or that it could never be a sub-variant like gothic lolita seems like a flawed take to me. History is written and interpreted after it happens.

I personally think the term "mall goth" isn't a bad term, and it does describe a lot of that era of gothic pop culture understanding in a very easy catch all term. I personally have no issue with zoomers identifying with it or waxing nostalgic about something from my teenage years. Granted, it freaks me out that kids today are nostalgic for MY youth like a lot of goth and punks from the 90's and 2000's were nostalgic for the 80's era we didn't live through, but that's more to do with the fact that it reminds me I'm "aging out" of things.

When we look at back at that era of cheap chains and black polyester and way too much Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise, I feel there was a certain sense of fun to it. A means of expressing one's self freely for their macabre and morbid interests-- a want to be a part of an interesting culture bigger than one's self. The accessibility of said culture for the youth of that era largely came from stores like Hot Topic and Spencer's-- the "mall" in "mall goth."

I'm completely okay re-appropriating and redefining the word as a specific era of young goth culture with its own distinct style. It's the recontextualization-- the codifying and understanding of the tropes of that era. My era. Fuck thinking of it as an insult.

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