Is Music Culture Losing Its Teeth?
“Back in my day, being a goth used to mean you know how to fight.” — my goth friend
“I’ll give you $20 bucks to take off your top,” he said.
I was 18, freshly turned. In the outskirts of Virginia at a Hooters, with two of the people who were enslaved along with me plus a friend of mine who we trusted to keep us safe.
My two friends did not look 18. Neither did I. We were told to starve ourselves so that we could keep a “little kid frame” by our traffickers. We might have been young, but we knew walking alone was dangerous the way we dressed.
You see, our traffickers really liked Gothic Lolita clothing — emphasis on the “Lolita.” At the time, I was wearing spike heels, a corset, my slave “dog collar,” and a frilly dress. My other two friends were wearing similar, with one wearing flats to show how small she was.
None of us at the table minded the goth gear. We liked it. Unsurprisingly, Goth clothing was inextricably linked to goth music and happy hardcore back then. I was a huge fan of both for multiple reasons, the biggest being that those music genres meant something to me.
We had no problem fitting in among goths and cosplayers. Regular public? We were just “alt kids,” and yet, being alternative in…
