Androgynous fashion of Goth

Gender diverse fashion was a thing in the Goth fashion culture even before it became cool in the mainstream society. In fact, dressing up androgynously is one thing that I love about this subculture. In fact, we love the fact that straight men have the entire liberty to dress up in female clothes and not be judged for being ‘manly’ enough. We all know the don’t wear pink you’ll be labeled a gay crap in the American and British culture. like, seriously, you being insecure about your masculinity to such an extent that you attribute a color to lessen your masculinity is just the way to go, people. *slow claps*

The Goth fashion was always open to the LGBTQ community because of its idea of freedom and expressing your authentic self. There are no rules to men or women in this culture. Like to wear makeup? Go ahead, nobody is going to stop you. You think that skirt would totally look good on you? Just grab it and pair it with a shirt. The Goth community is so open about the acceptance that it is in open revolt to the idea with a lot of westernized religions (We specifically point to the west because before the colonization, a lot of colonies and their cultures were swept up by them and ‘westernized’. There is a huge history behind this but briefly, a lot of traditions took a patriarchal turn from their equal or matriarchal societies because the West brought upon them a lot of violence, epistemic and otherwise to put them under their control) which demands and defines a version of masculinity. Their version of masculinity creates a hierarchy (sometimes subconsciously), placing the woman under the protection of man making her the weaker sex.

Also, building the binary of man and woman and anything that counts as the ‘other’ (the LGBTQ community in this context) is to be marginalized or eradicated.

Wow! Long rant. Anyway, there have been several unisex ideas in the Goth and horror community. Pop culture reference of dressing up as Pennywise is an idea taken up by a lot of women creators even though he is a male character. Likewise, there are several males in the community that dress up as females. Here, the stereotype is subverted in two ways. First, it defies the idea of ‘masculinity’ and secondly, it acts as empowerment to the LGBTQ community because here is a straight male that is comfortably dressing up as a woman who does not have to fight for his identity. He is a straight male that has proven his sexuality and yet decides to defy a hierarchy that favors him.

Thus, the androgyny in Goth fashion should be something we should be all proud of. A bigger shout-out to people who are trying to tell other people that your fashion sense does not open a forum for you to hurl judgments at. We are glad that both a man and a woman would look sexy in an all-black form suit and jewelry alike.