The Scale of Goth

[Scary Guy]

So, I came up with this in the fairly recent Daylife thread.  There have been many... long... debates... on what is/is not goth for decades now, and TSOG aims to help solve that by giving people a resource to determine what is/is not goth.  This is based on both the Kinsey and Dawkins scales and ranges from 0-6.  Much like both scales you kind of define the rating of something for yourself.  What is a 0-1 for one person may be a 5-6 for another for whatever reason.

 

I'll start off with a list of well known TV shows so you can get an idea:

 

Leave it to Beaver - 0

NCIS - 1 (Abby's character radiated it.)

Parks and Recreation - 1.5 (April and Oren.  Also yes fractional scaling exists.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 3 (She killed vampires and was basically a normie high school girl.)

The Munsters - 5 (Marilyn was so very much not goth.)

The Adams Family - 5 (That was actually a very colorful set they were on.)

What we do in the Shadows - 6

Now obviously other people might rate the shows differently.  Like WwditS might only be a 5 or 4 for someone else because it doesn't take itself too seriously (to which I would tell them to grow a sense of humor.) P&R might be a 3 because of the Halloween episode, etc...

 

Discuss

Edited July 1, 2023 by Scary Guy

[Anna Phylaxis]

I am probably the least goth of everybody here. However, I think that What We Do In The Shadows definitely ranks high on the goth-o-meter. I am so excited for the new season that’s coming out this month!
 

[Scary Guy]

1 hour ago, Anna Phylaxis said:

I am probably the least goth of everybody here. However, I think that What We Do In The Shadows definitely ranks high on the goth-o-meter. I am so excited for the new season that’s coming out this month!
 

Let's see...  tattoos, black clothing (thought that was a memorial so for all I know your main dress could all be pastels), enjoys goth media, hangs out on DG.N, went to the goth clubs, does her own thing, etc...

I would rank you higher than many with certain characteristics.  Probably a 3-4 I guess considering the self admission of "least goth" but that still has a lot of people beat.  Maybe those with imposter syndrome should automatically get a point added?

Though this really wasn't intended for people, I guess people will use it on themselves/others.  I guess that's fine as long as they don't turn it into a pissing match.  There are some goth/not goth quizzes out there that people have used for such things when in reality only posers really give a shit anyway.  Do what makes you happy and fuck what anyone else thinks.  If that happens to be goth then so be it, and if not that's fine as well.  I'm sure Leave it to Beaver probably had a Halloween episode or something too, and what we do in the Shadows has Colin Robinson.  My point is that nothing is an absolute 0 or 6 and everything is shades of grey.  Even not goth things are pretty goth, because they depress me and I hate them and what is more goth than that?

[Anna Phylaxis]

16 hours ago, Scary Guy said:

Let's see...  tattoos, black clothing (thought that was a memorial so for all I know your main dress could all be pastels), enjoys goth media, hangs out on DG.N, went to the goth clubs, does her own thing, etc...

I would rank you higher than many with certain characteristics.  Probably a 3-4 I guess considering the self admission of "least goth" but that still has a lot of people beat.  Maybe those with imposter syndrome should automatically get a point added?

Though this really wasn't intended for people, I guess people will use it on themselves/others.  I guess that's fine as long as they don't turn it into a pissing match.  There are some goth/not goth quizzes out there that people have used for such things when in reality only posers really give a shit anyway.  Do what makes you happy and fuck what anyone else thinks.  If that happens to be goth then so be it, and if not that's fine as well.  I'm sure Leave it to Beaver probably had a Halloween episode or something too, and what we do in the Shadows has Colin Robinson.  My point is that nothing is an absolute 0 or 6 and everything is shades of grey.  Even not goth things are pretty goth, because they depress me and I hate them and what is more goth than that?

I will take that as a major compliment. I do have a lot of black, but I also do some pretty weird shit with print and color lol. 

[Slogo]

I'm probably mid level. Most of my clothes are black, lots of goth music (depending on your definition of course). But I can't go over the top with it

[Scary Guy]

7 hours ago, Anna Phylaxis said:

I will take that as a major compliment. I do have a lot of black, but I also do some pretty weird shit with print and color lol. 

Wearing black does not a goth make, and weird shit with print and color can also be goth if done right.  The whole color/style thing is really just one facet of goth.

 

Again I think of the whole goth vs normie  thing kind of like art vs pornography:  "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." ~ Potter Stewart

 

 

1 hour ago, Slogo said:

I'm probably mid level. Most of my clothes are black, lots of goth music (depending on your definition of course). But I can't go over the top with it

 

If you have a job you unfortunately can't go wild with it unless you only want to work in tattoo and sex shops.  Modern society is getting more accepting (partly by force) but there is still a long way to go on this and they can come up with other reasons to fire a person pretty easy.  Corporate goth has been a thing for a very long time though and usually flies under the radar.

Just last week I saw a sales associate at MicroCenter who complemented me on my "trench coat." I promptly corrected her that it is actually a duster, but then complemented her on her shiny black pants.  Yesterday I saw two kids going into Home Depot as I was leaving who looked like they could have been going to City Club directly after.  Events like those make me happy and think that there is indeed some hope for the future.

[torn asunder]

On 7/2/2023 at 3:56 PM, Anna Phylaxis said:

I will take that as a major compliment. I do have a lot of black, but I also do some pretty weird shit with print and color lol. 

i associate bren with 'weird shit'... 🙃

[Anna Phylaxis]

On 7/6/2023 at 11:01 PM, torn asunder said:

i associate bren with 'weird shit'... 🙃

You aren’t wrong.