GOTH QUEER FASHION SCENE

GOTH QUEER FASHION SCENE

Before we dive right into it, what is the denotation of the word ‘queer’.The word in itselfhas quite a journey. The term literally means ‘peculiar’ or ‘strange’. It was used as a derogatoryterm in terms of defining gender up until its new meaning in the 21stcentury. Queer is an umbrella term for all those who do not identify as cisgender or heterosexual. The term Queer has gained new meaning with more and more people embracing their sexuality and turning towards the term to define themselves. Queer is a term contained in the LGBTQ flag.

When it comes to Goth, a lot of debate has arisen over the fact the question of why weneed a ‘queer’ goth fashion as such when there exists the idea of androgynous clothing in theculture which the cisgender and heterosexual can also use. It is still a disputed idea but lets just say that not including it in the culture would be again a sort of epistemic violence where we try to hide the fact that these people do not have a gender. And since fashion is a tool ofcommunication, it would be an absolute denial of someone’s right to express theirsexuality.

Queer fashion, to be honest, in the Goth scene has a mixture of a lot of cultural elements along with reference to gender. It does make the use of a lot of androgynous clothing that is available in the community as well. Most vibrant, in our opinion is the hair and the hairstyles. Some of them do not make a gender statement, for example, the traditional Goths rocked a hairstyle that was and still is accepted within both the gender based and queer community. Others, such as the Victorian Goth were very much to make a traditional statement.