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A few years ago, I noticed a disturbing trend in how people were being treated based on how they were dressed. As of late, I've noticed a similar recurring trend.

The discrimination? Alternative fashion criticizing popular fashion.

While preference is more than valid in terms of commentary, I find there to be a growing number of rude and cruel comments against popular fashion, and more often than not, it's taken from an elitest stand point.

I regularly come across threads based around people who have been denied access to certain clothes, particularly younger goths who complain about not being allowed to dress the part. Often, these complaints allude to how it's "unfair" that "Girls can dress like sluts" or "Guys can wear their pants around their knees".

I'd like to specifically address the point in this thread that these fashions, disdained as they may be within the goth culture, are far more discriminated against in popular culture, and are so with greater frequency.

Nationally, I know of dozens of cities and counties with LAWS preventing people from dressing this way. I don't know of a single school that DOESN'T have rules against these things, even if the rules go unenforced. Pop culture constantly mocks these fashions as well. Comics, film, television and literature all take cheap shots at popular fashion, while alternative fashion (in our case, goth) is only occassionally mentioned.

Examples:



Discuss-

- Inconsistencies between popular conscent and popular use of fashion trends
- Whether or not my commentary is valid
- "Slutty"- Is a low cut skirt inherently more sexual than bondage pants, whose design is based upon sexual fetish?
- Is a corset (an expensive, inconvenient, and commonly uncomfortable device) any less absurd to be worn than ultra-baggy pants?

Alot of the girls I've spoken to that dress 'alternative' actually look waaay sluttier than the the girls they complain about.
It just seems stupid to complain about something when your pretty much wearing a dyed-black version of it.

A hooker skirt! biggrin

That just looks stupid to me,it looks like it would be akward to move in...And especially to bend and stuff.
So it's for either wearing pants or something under..or for stripping? xp

Personally, I find the pants-underneath-short-plaid-skirt fashion to be a bit tacky.Yeah me too

It'd be really scary to see a fat cross-dressing guy in that though O_o

scream holy... thats a skirt?! are you sure?!!
i saw a girl wearing something like that at the mall... she had to get her boyfriend to tie her shoe when it came undone. she wasnt goth, though.
the shortest of a skirt i've worn... mid thigh. seriously, that skirt looks like a belt.

A hooker skirt! biggrin

That just looks stupid to me,it looks like it would be akward to move in...And especially to bend and stuff.
So it's for either wearing pants or something under..or for stripping? xp

Alternatively it has other uses, I won't go into details, but when you see a girl grinding to 'NiN - Closer' in a skirt that short, she often is actually off the dance floor, focused on one are of the guy who often has a stupid grin on his face.... in short, people use it to shag covertly in clubs and other public spaces.

I'm sorry to hear about that, though you answered your own question.