My goth hot take of the day is that I don't think it's misogynistic to call out women for participating in the widespread hypersexualization/fetishization of goth as a subculture and in fact I actually find it more misogynistic to reduce womens' interests in a music subculture down to a porn category.
Yes, sex work is real work. No, there's nothing wrong with doing sex work and being goth, or dressing any type of way you want. There is something wrong with conflating goth and sex work, reducing womens' participation in it to a caricature and telling us we're hysterical "overreacting" or that it's "not that deep, bro" for bringing up the legitimate harassment women in alternative spaces have to face because of it.
Not to even mention how unsafe this entire issue has made things for minors within the space. I feel like they're constantly left out of the conversation. I and most other goths I know discovered the scene when they were teenagers. You can "it's not that deep bro" "ur just a gatekeeper" all you want, but if children are being followed home and leered at and barked at and shouted at by grown men on their way home from school because they wore the wrong lipstick color or whatever, and there's a group of people egging them on to keep pushing it farther and farther, I'm GOING to say something.
I get it. There's been a rise in puritan and right wing politics in nearly every space recently, I understand being worried about the potential for harm in some of the takes people have on this subject. But the content creators participating in goth fetishization are NOT your allies. They don't give a shit about misogyny or other women or the rights of sex workers or even the broader kink community (the term "safe, sane, consensual" is NOT being applied by these folks). They're there to make a buck at the expense of everyone else, and more often than not, they're the same conservative grifters who used to mock and berate us for our nonconformity. They're no different from the ragebaiting pornbots on this website. Stop giving them a platform, stop giving them a seat at our table. Call me a gatekeeper, some gates are meant to be kept. I'll give you the key if you're genuinely interested in learning what's behind the door, but if you come screaming and making a scene, don't expect us to let you in. Plain and simple.
