Gothic as perceived in Contemporary Culture

 "Gothic" can be perceived as over exaggerated in contemporary culture in many ways, such as in fashion and appearance. My perception of the Gothic culture is based mostly on appearance and life style. I believe that many people see how a life style, or an amount of dark clothing can "label" a person as being "Goth." 

Appearances is one main factor. I'm not saying that any person that fits this description is Goth, I'm just saying this through observation. Most of the people that I could consider as Gothic would be those who have dark hair, wear dark make up around eyes or mouth, have a fair complexion, and quite a few tattoos or piercings. Another factor involves their style of clothing. Typically Gothic clothing is constantly wearing black clothing with rips, holes, pins, spikes, chains, dark band names, ect.

These two factors are so over exaggerated because it seems that in order to fit this description people have to either force it, or embody it. If a person must force this image to portray a Gothic culture, then they are in my opinion, not Goth. Those people who have been living and embodying this type of culture for a long time appear to resemble what the term "Gothic" means. 

In today's culture "Gothic" is usually used to describe something dark. This is different for those who think of Gothic Architecture and see it as beautiful, not dark. That's how I realized that peoples' perceptions over time can be changed just by the word and how it is used to describe things. Personally if someone were to walk up to me and say that the object they were holding was Gothic, I would think to myself "Is it dark and evil looking?" It's just out of habit that I think this because I have subconsciously trained my brain into thinking that's what it means. 

This is why I believe that in today's culture Gothic can be perceived as over exaggerated based on fashion as well as appearance. There are also many other things that show how Gothic can be perceived as over exaggerated in contemporary culture today such as images, books, and even T.V.