A good analogy to this is a book. I have always hated the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover."

We all judge a book by its cover if we know nothing about it. We look at it. If it interest us, we read the prologue to know a little more. But it's only until we read it that we can understand it fully.
The only way you reached this level of understanding is because the book had a physical je ne sais quoi that attracted your attention.

Yes
but a book is still an object
This is people we are talking about
A book doesn't care how you judge it, it doesn't care at all. People do.

What makes me a goth?

The benefits, surely. And the stock options.

--SKot

I've honestly stopped caring what it means. I really screwed up my time here once because of that. I still consider myself goth, but am much more supressed to whom I confess that fact. If I were to go around telling everyone I'm goth, they'd naturally assume things about me that most likely aren't true. Telling someone I'm goth would only serve as a little ego-boosy anyway, so I mostly avoid it. Besides, most people are going to figure it out sheerly by my apperance and it won't matter what I tell them.