Massachusetts trying to ban goth look

Tatteredgoth · 11-08-2004, 03:27 PM

There's talk of outlawing the goth look in Massachusetts. I live there and if no more goths move to Mass well it's going to be a gothless STATE!!! Please respond it's a surfacing threat and rumor to others so please take this seriously! :twisted:And yes my accusation has been backed up by a school official.

mlwlildevil · 11-08-2004, 03:41 PM

the name of the post has to do with school but yet the post has onthing about school mentioned... but if it's just in school then wear whatever the hell you please outside of school and it isn't exactly possible to outlaw a way of living.... so no worries there and if all else fails say fuck you! and wear whatever the hell you want but re-name it or don't

Honestly my real advice here is

Be yourself damnit!!!

~Mellow~

edible_eye · 11-08-2004, 03:53 PM

i live in massachusetts also. is this "talk" happening amongst peers or have you heard it on the news from the mouths of politicians and lawmakers?

i've not heard of this and i lend at least half-an-an ear to what's happening in the news.

- mark

Disfunction · 11-08-2004, 03:54 PM

and to follow said response... What you look like doesn't define what you are...

I sure as hell don't look native, but I am decended from them, and irish and all of those other groups.

In short, turn that frown upside down.

centurion · 11-08-2004, 04:58 PM

Seriously, it doesn`t surprise me. Is Mass. a church state?? I`m thinking a good thing to do would be to outlaw any act committed under religious superstition. People are afraid of the unknown, and this is why the unknown has always got the better of them. It`s fear that destroys.

They also tried outlawing booze and marijuana at some point too, did that really make a fucking difference???

gingerbreadwench · 11-08-2004, 06:31 PM

I actually read about something like this in a magazine a while back. It sounds like all urban myths to me. Think about it... it just doesn't make sense. Calm down, princess. It'll all be okay.

Loy · 11-09-2004, 03:34 AM

This is that general fear of the "other" that society always goes through. In the early 60's it was the "mod/swinging London" thing, late 60's it was "hippies", 70's and 80's "punk rockers", etc....any group that hasn't become part of the main social set of "normal" will always be scapegoated. Just remember that this is nothing new, people will outgrow this all (including you), and you can always find something entertaining in it all. Like that special episode of "CHIPS" where Ponch and John taught all those punk rockers the greatness of disco.

black_and_blue · 11-09-2004, 05:28 AM

this is really going off topic... but i thought i'd link you all to an article i came across...

kind of boosts your spirits... or curse people for throwing tantrums over something as trivial as hair colour... whatever..

centurion · 11-09-2004, 04:33 PM

This is the thing about religious society I don`t get......
They can persecute and scapegoat everyone who dresses in a way or has religious practices that infringe upon their superstitious comfort zone(goths, Satanists), yet nazi skinheads and beer-swinging rednecks can go around wearing their swastikas, and beating up and killing people who are different to their hearts` content, and no one even cares??

Maybe it`s just me, but something seems incredibly wrong with a society like this.

Jane13 · 11-09-2004, 05:40 PM

The only thing in my school is that you can't wear chains or spikes because they're considered weapons by the state (don't wear them myself, anyway). My teachers are all pretty cool, and I make good grades I think they're more worried about the 'gang' thing than the 'goth' thing because all of the school board amins. are from Chicago. My mom signed up for teacher-parent conferences with all of my teachers (just to meet them).
My English teacher was talking to me in the hall at lunch and said, " Why did your mom want to see me, to ask how wierd you are *chuckle* I mean, you're making an A and you participate in class..."
My friend told me about an arcticle she read a long time ago... a bunch of chrurch groups down here in the bible belt asked for, and recieved, a bunch of money from the government for sort of "de-goth-ifying" centers. They gave the money back in about six months. Why? "We couldn't find any goths."

WolfMoon · 11-10-2004, 11:52 AM

I don't get this about schools lately,if they're not banning one thing it's another.

I was told I couldn't wear concert tees even though I wasn't a trouble maker.The skulls seemed to be offensive.

My reply?

Well it offends me that people can walk around with baggy pants showing their undies to the world!I'm attacked for being fully clothed!

Course I don't know if the stupid baggy-pants-let's-show-the-world-our-undies thang is still goin around.

Personally,I don't ever plan on sending my kids to a school with uniforms.That shit got way outta hand when I was a kid.And if they wanna go to school wearing corsets(have to be 18 ) or blue hair then I'll hire a lawyer to defend their rights if it comes to it.

It's shocking that individuality is getting suppressed in some schools still.

centurion · 11-10-2004, 04:59 PM

Actually, in my school those who weren`t rednecks were part of this Christian youth cult who would sit outside on the grass and pray and do whatever other "degrade yourself for jesus" practice most christian mormon cults do, and then they would go around trying to recruit others.....
I was approached a few times, but the strange thing is that they were actually afraid of me. Even so much as to complain to a few teachers how uncomfortable I was making them!!!
The teachers were on my side of course and ended up banning any sort of religious speech from them in school events...... our validicktorian was pretty pissed of at that.

Panther · 11-10-2004, 05:18 PM

I'm in college now, but I can sorta relate.

Thing is, when I got in trouble, I was purposely dressing in an odd fashion, until they instated the uniforms.

Pre-uniforms I amde a skirt out foa shower curtain and put shower rings in it, and wore that aroud. I painted my face over in lipstick, mimicing Psylock, Domino, and a few others. Mostly I wound up looking like a clown, because I'm so pale.

But that wasn't really what I dressed like, just a way of pissing off hte powers that be. Now I dress in a more natural way (normal doesn't fit, stil, but natural does). Mainly because there aren't any people to shock with the artificial.

Moral of the story: Trying to inhibt someone's doing something only makes them want to do it more.

Jane13 · 11-10-2004, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disfunction

and to follow said response... What you look like doesn't define what you are...

That's why I think it's wierd that people give a flying hoot about uniforms at school... I try my best to dress semi-normally at school because I don't want a detention over something so trivial... are any of us really doing what we want to at school, anyway? It's not super-happy-fun-time... it's school. I still wouldn't want one, because I guess having a uniform means no peircings or odd haircolors (A lot of my friends would be upset), so... bleh. It's scary how quickly I changed my mind in mid-post. uniforms=bad... I guess?

FenrisQueen · 11-10-2004, 07:41 PM

Personally, at my high school their okay with a lot. My friends, guy or girl, don't get ragged on for wearing makeup, and no one makes me take out my piercings(except when I hang chains from my lip) or redye my hair from its current rainbow incarnation. We can't wear hats though, because there is a large amount of gangs in my area. Apparently hats are the gang symbol now. I wanna get a carebear hat and tell my teachers I'm a drug lord.

Even though the dress code is pretty lax, the kids at my school, for the most part, are pretty bland. My new school is twice as big as my old school, and there were twice as many nonconservative people at my old school than at my new school. (:

auses:: wait. what the fuck did I just say?) we had druggies, punks, skins, god freaks, pretty much every group was represented. I learned a lot about beliefs of some groups. Here I have maybe ten people I can think of who are pretty open about things. Eh, thats life.

Giga · 11-11-2004, 01:31 AM

I'm quite happy at my college. I came there dressed both fancy/trendy and in my usual metal style and nobody bothered. One guy yesterday noticed I was listening to metal (I was wearing a Sonata Arctica tour tee from a Nightwish/Sonata Arctica concert I've been to a few weeks ago in Budapest (26.10.2004)) but nothing beside that. I've been going in my metal t-shirts and Shellys and nobody even noticed or if they did, said anything.

Also, I'm quite interested to hear more about the possibility of banning goth looks. Is there some article about it? It seems like a straightforward fachism to me.

HerGhostInTheFog · 11-11-2004, 05:33 PM

im surprised they havnt said too much to me.....
one thing i do dislike is that you can wear a religious cross but not something anti-christian... at least at my school
sure, it's to keep people from getting mad, but that cross makes ME mad
also, they used to give detentions for showing your stomache.... not shirts that showed it purposly, either, i mean regular shirts that just happened to be a little too short so a small portion of yor back and stomache showed..... :roll:
my friend got in trouble for an anarchyt patch.... i dont like anarchy, but i believe in her right to belive in it.

OnixxFilth · 02-18-2005, 09:50 AM

Well, I hope that Mass doesn't ban the goth look. The situation described about the spikes and chains being banned reminds me of how in high school there was a fuss for the last few years I was there about wearing leather "dog collars" was demeaning to women. I think it started because there was some girl who was wearing an actual dog collar with a leash on it and having a guy lead her around. There were so many protest petitions going around- I signed every one that was given to me! I don't think anyone took into consideration the fact that, in all likelihood, the girl was wearing the collar and leash of her own volition. I hardly think it's demeaning to women if they want to wear them!

Jane13 · 02-18-2005, 12:56 PM

I wonder if someone would say the same thing about wearing a corset? You can't wear that! You're demeaning yourself! 0.o That's wierd, Onixx. School officials are so strange...

drgnlvr · 02-18-2005, 02:09 PM

Back when I was in highschool (yes, we had them way back when...we just had to have people stationed at the doors to keep the dinos out :P )... Anyhow, back when I was in highschool, there was a big dust-up about uniforms. But at that time, it had less to do with squelching individuality, than it did to protect our children...at least, that's what the PTB said. Kids were getting attacked, and/or killed for their designer clothes. And there were others getting beat up, or just plain harassed because their clothes -weren't- designer. :roll:

Yes, this was in the begining of the "me" decade.

I thought the whole idea was moronic in the extreme, because these kids who were committing these crimes would find a different reason, if the first is taken away. Why? Because they were not being taught personal responsibility. And before you flame me, I didn't see this particular "trend" as being very prevailant. It was just a handful of kids (at the time). But at that time, we slammed head-first at warp 10, into the "PC" craze. And we're still suffering from it. (anyone who works in the service industry -knows- exactly what I mean).

Schools trying to enforce extreme dress codes and restrictive rules are responding to the parents who think that little Johnny shouldn't be held accountable for his own actions, and that it's cruel to flunk him if he didn't do any schoolwork, and got straight "F"s, and they should never, -EVER- have to be forced to encounter anything even slightly offensive. :roll: They don't want to hurt the child's self esteem.

Sorry, I'm rather "Old School". To me, self-esteem is something that is gained through accomplishment, not handed to you on a silver platter.

*ahem* But I digress....

Public schools are run by administrators who are incapable of thinking outside the box. This is what they are elected for. They are not allowed to see anything other than black and white. Period. The parents with the money, and the time for alot of involvement in the system -WANT- a non-thinking puppet running their schools, so they can pull the strings. Individually is scary. It's unpredictable. And this is a "bad" thing. :roll:

Another thing is, they are at the mercy of these parents when it comes to discipline. IOW, if you're a Goth in a school populated by mostly rednecks, it's much easier to punish you, and make you wear "normal" clothing, than it is to punish the 10 redneck kids who beat you up, and deal with their parents, who blame the whole thing on the lone goth kid ("Why, my precious was antagonized into beating that goth kid up! He was afraid for his very soul with that evil devil-worshiper running around the school in all black, and make-up. And besides, you know all those Goth kids are just time-bombs waiting to go off! Remember Columbine?")

The limits of a dress code in a public school should be clean clothes, no foul language on the clothes (and I mean George Carlin's version of the 7 things you can't say on TV, foul), and no extreme amounts of skin showing (sorry, but most people really don't want to know if your carpet matches your drapes, okay? Especially when you're 14 y/o).

When it comes to personal responsibility, and personal choice, prohibition is only going to make things worse. But the sheeple can't grasp that concept. There's no room in their brains for it, because it's filled with their incessant bleeting.

It is NOT the job of the school to parent our children. It's OUR job, as parents, to take the responsibility for our issue, and try to bring them up to be civillized human beings.

*steps down off her soap-box*

WolfMoon · 02-19-2005, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jane13

I wonder if someone would say the same thing about wearing a corset? You can't wear that! You're demeaning yourself! 0.o That's wierd, Onixx. School officials are so strange...

People do say that, Jane.But to me it's much more empowering to see a bunch of men's reaction to a corset.It completely spellbinds them.And once the prey is hypnotized you can pretty much do what you want with them.Trust me, it's much more demeaning to men.

:twisted:

drgnlvr · 02-19-2005, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WolfMoon

People do say that, Jane.But to me it's much more empowering to see a bunch of men's reaction to a corset.It completely spellbinds them.And once the prey is hypnotized you can pretty much do what you want with them.Trust me, it's much more demeaning to men.

:twisted:

I have to agree with that. I've never been brave enough to wear a corset, but I've seen the reactions to the women who do. It's delicious, to say the least.

And the Feminazi's are saying that it's demeaning to women because it sexualizes us. Well, fucking DUH! All of us are sexual beings. There's not a damn thing wrong with playing it up, if you're not being exploited.

Sorry, folks, but I am -ALL- woman, I am not some sexless, nueter ....barbie-doll.

WolfMoon · 02-19-2005, 06:44 PM

Hear! Hear!

Embracing your feminenity(sp?) is what's truly empowering!

This makes me miss Maimy, *sniff*

drgnlvr · 02-19-2005, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WolfMoon

Hear! Hear!

Embracing your feminenity(sp?) is what's truly empowering!

This makes me miss Maimy, *sniff*

I've read some of the older posts she commented in. Hope she comes back. I think I'd like her, alot!

Jane13 · 02-19-2005, 07:19 PM

I miss maimy, too! She's really smart and pretty and funny... and doesn't post much anymore

Back on the corset deal, I think it's funny when I go the movies with people whrere there are period costumes that happen to include corsets.They always say things like "I would hate to wear a corset! Why did people do that?" or "We should force guys to wear corstets", when they don't realize that in some subcultures some people (male and female) enjoy wearing them! :P