Soft Goth, or a New Name for an Existing Thing

Posted on March, 2025 by Lady of the Manners

(Note: an abridged version of this post appeared on the Gothic Charm School Patreon in 2019)

As the Lady of the Manners has said previously, she’s interested in the proliferation of micro-trends/aesthetics that crop up, especially ones based on previous ideas. Seeing how the younger generations, because they’re the ones “inventing” various micro-aesthetics, interpret what came before is both fascinating and confusion- and/or annoyance -inducing. (While she won’t go into it here, the Lady of the Manners has Strong Opinions on what The Kids Today call grunge. It’s a holdover from living in Seattle during the original grunge scene. Please visualize the “I was there, Gandalf” gif for added amusement.)

ANYWAY, yes, the constant recycling and reinvention of previous aesthetics is nothing new, and happens across everything not just subcultures. But the one that the Lady of the Manners keeps seeing pop up in her Google alerts for “goth” (yes, she has one, of course she does) or scroll across her Tumblr dashboard that gives her a combination of nostalgia and confused “But we already have that!” feelings: “soft goth”.

What follows is a deconstruction of the highlights from the perspective of someone who WAS that sort of goth in the 90s. Let the Lady of the Manners be clear, this is not an annoyed or rantycakes rebuttal, this is a trip down memory lane fueled by rueful amusement. This is based off a specific Tumblr post, but all of it applies to any of the various fashion or music blogs who invoke “soft goth”. (The Tumblr username has been redacted, because the Lady of the Manners doesn’t want to even inadvertently cause hordes of “You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about” replies.)

~ you’ve heard of soft grunge, now get ready for soft goth:

That’s Romantigoth. No, really, it is. This list almost completely encapsulates what the Lady of the Manners and a lot of other goths (especially the girls, but also some of the guys) looked like. 

Back In The Day there weren’t specific names for the different types of goth style. We were just those weirdos in black. (The Lady of the Manners thinks the names of sub-styles really got started in alt.gothic and alt.gothic.fashion, the usenet groups of lore, blessed be their memories.)

~ Black makeup with a delicate shimmer as opposed to the normal flat matte shades that are popular with traditional goths. Think sparkling inky lip gloss like a night sky, or black nail polish with a lightly galactic twinkle.

Super matte lipstick is only a recent thing. (Well, recent-ish, it’s been going on since, what, the start of the ‘00s?) The few black lipsticks you could find in the 90s were drying, and if you wanted other weird colors, you had to color your lips with eyeliner pencils. Using lip gloss over other lip colors was what you did to keep your lipstick from drying and flaking. Wet n’ Wild always had a sheer gloss and a nail polish topcoat full of tiny flecks of iridescent glitter; when high-end cosmetic companies started bringing out their own versions, we were all faintly dubious yet amused. 

~ All the sad poetry of our goth forefathers and foremothers that we revere so much, but also a heavy focus on tragic romances and erudite and/or classical stories of forbidden love and murder. 

But … how does anyone think that none of us were reading these things in the earlier goth eras? Hell, there were an entire series of collections of classic haunted gothic short stories with cover illustrations by Edward Gorey! (The Lady of the Manners personally has Ladies of the Gothics: Tales of Romance and Terror by the Gentle Sex in her collection, and it is a delight.)

Almost everyone had their favorite gothic classic authors and poets, and we all haunted used book stores and thrift shops to find old copies of their works, the more antique and crumbling-looking the better.

~ Guillermo Del Toro. Just like, everything about him. Everything he is. 

Not many people knew of Guillermo Del Toro at the time, but it was when Tim Burton hadn’t yetbecome his own industry, so we could rely on him to give us our aesthetic fix. We obsessively rewatched the Bela Lugosi and 1978 versions of Dracula, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Ken Russell’s Gothic and The Lair of the White Worm, The Hunger, and both versions of Nosferatu. The Addams Family movies had just come out. We had crappy VHS collections of the API Poe movies with Vincent Price. Yes, Guillermo is a joy and a gift to romantigoths, but it’s not like we were parched of blood and wandering the moors. 

~ A clean mix of the black lace and sweeping skirts the Victorian goths have brought to the table, married to the patches and leather jackets of an 80s London goth. Lots of leather and lace mixes, actually. 

Do you mean: the Lady of the Manners; wardrobe for almost the entirety of the early-to-mid 90s?

The Lady of the Manners in 1993

The sweeping skirts and flowing dresses were from tiny import stores that also sold cheap silver jewelry (real silver, and oh how the Eldergoths miss that), sequined gauzy scarves and shawls, incense, and belled anklets, bracelets, and belts. The guys who embraced the romantigoth style also went after the gauzy scarves, shawls, and stacks of silver jewelry, and the braver of them also wore the same sweeping skirts as the girls, usually paired with battered and faded T-shirts of their favorite bands. (Do male-presenting goths still do this? The Lady of the Manners hasn’t seen any for decades.)

The leather jackets came from actual motorcycle stores. Sure, some people bought theirs from Wilson’s Leather at the local mall, but the rest of us knew you could get better quality for less money if you went to a slightly scary store where the salesman had a massive beard and was named “Butch” or “Big Al”. 

Once you had your leather jacket, you (or an artistic friend) painted the logo of a favorite band on the back. You used metallic ink pens to write song lyrics down the arm. And you covered the lapels with buttons with weird sayings.

~ Florals on black. All the florals on black. 

Back In The Day, all those floral skirts and dresses were made of rayon or cotton, not polyester, and were from companies like Nostalgia and Starina. The only reason the Lady of the Manners is telling you the brand names is because she has snapped up all of the vintage ones she needs from eBay and Etsy, so anyone looking for one can be fairly certain they won’t get into a bidding war with her. 

(Useful search terms if you’re trying to find them: “grunge floral”, “vintage 90s floral”, and “vintage festival”.)

~ Cemetery dates, but not so the world can quiver in awe over how dark you and your love are, just because they’re pretty and quiet and a good place to talk. You’ll spend hours there walking among the tombstones and trying to piece together the stories of those laid to rest there. 

We went on dates to cemeteries for precisely those reasons. The melancholy aesthetic of gravestones and wilting flowers! The quiet, away from picnicking families! Taking paper and crayons with you in order to make gravestone rubbings to adorn the walls of your apartment! 

(However, the Lady of the Manners hopes that the sneaking into cemeteries at night to drink and/or have sex amongst the graves is an activity that no longer happens, as it is disrespectful, but most goths didn’t think so at the time.)

~  The music of Jennifer Thomas. 

Dead Can Dance. Loreena McKennit. Deep Forest. The Cranes. Cocteau Twins. Kate Bush. Enigma. Gregorian chants. Most of us even had some Enya or Tori Amos CDs in our collection.

~ Privacy, solitude, quiet reflection and occasional random crying. It’s an aesthetique now. Congratulations all, we finally made it a look. 

And this is the point in reading when the Lady of the Manners burst into disbelieving laughter. If you think this wasn’t aesthetic before, you are sadly mistaken. We draped our lamps in black lace shawls, wiped away tears while listening to This Mortal Coil, and wrote lonely and self-reflective entries in velvet-covered journals, flowers we took from the cemeteries pressed between the pages. 

~ Tending to a family of crows somewhere until they begin to follow you everywhere, bringing you surprise treats of random shiny bits that they leave on your windowsill in thanks. 

All the Lady of the Manners will say is that she once was told off by a landlord because of the crows that would land on the deck of her apartment, cawing their demands for snacks. 

~ That’s right people, you heard it here first: we’re bringing back tortured, dramatic vampires and no one is stopping us. And this time, we’re doing it right. 

But … those vampires didn’t leave? Sure, we had to retreat to rereading the first three of the Vampire Chronicles because The Body Thief was the first sign that the series was kind of going off the rails (understatement!), but those vampires never went away. They just got overshadowed by other types of vampire media that became pop culture phenomena as the years fluttered by. 

~ Accentuating a predominantly black wardrobe with everything but the standard blood red – emerald greens, royal blues, blush pinks, shimmering golds. 

Not only did we do that, but we also let friends know when we found their preferred colors at places like Jay Jacobs and Le Chateau. Back In The Day fashion magazines didn’t even whisper the word “goth”, but every autumn and winter ,the mainstream stores were filled with jewel-toned velvet and ruffled poet’s blouses. (Made from decent quality fabrics, dammit, that have lasted to this day. The Lady of the Manners will save her rant about the decline of quality of stretch velvet for another time.)

~ Soft, fuzzy black sweaters over high-waisted black jeans and velvet flats until it’s literally too damn warm for them anymore. 

Some people wore them even when it was too damn warm for fuzzy black sweaters and jeans, just saying. (Not the Lady of the Manners. Not only did she not wear jeans, but her weather-inappropriate garment of choice was her leather jacket.) 

~ Delicate jewelry made of bones and teeth and tiny bottles. 

What do you think we had clattering around our necks? In addition to the thrift store rosaries, the silver ankhs on long ribbons, the strands of black glass mourning beads, and the velvet ribbons tied around our necks, that is. Those little import stores the Lady of the Manners mentioned earlier? You could find tiny glass perfume bottle pendants, decorated with silver filigree. The day she unearthed her collection in one of her old jewelry boxes was a happy day indeed.

~ The day can be so harsh, burning, unyieldingly bright and demanding. The cool, soft night is where we belong, lacing fingers into someone else’s on an insomniac’s walk through silent city streets until a coffee shop rises, glowing like the moon, on the horizon. Exhausted paramedics drink coffee inside, hoping it will distract them from all they’ve seen that night, and the pang of empathy in your chest for all of them.

Finally, this is not Soft Goth. This is the philosophy, the entire foundation of the goth subculture. The music, the fashion, what and how we chose to live. This is where we sprang from, this is where we will always be, forever and ever, until the moon and inky sky rule over all.

This is when the Lady of the Manners summons the other Eldergoths; what are the things from that era that you embraced? For the younger of you reading this, speak of the newer things you/ve heard or seen that fall under the parasol of romantigoth or “soft goth”. The comments are open!

Posted in Eldergoth Life, General, Stereotype Technology | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Of Goths and Aging

Posted on January, 2025 by Lady of the Manners

Oh good lord, it’s 2025. The Lady of the Manners isn’t quite sure where the time has gone, but she is of the strong opinion that it’s moving too fast. Especially after she looked through the archives and discovered the last time she addressed this topic was sixteen years ago.

Anyhow! Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat: there is no age limit to being a goth. Goth is an all-ages subculture, no matter what a lot of social media tends to focus on or present. One of the great joys of aging is that you become more comfortable with yourself, and (hopefully) care less and less about what others may think about you. Embrace and show your weirdness! Be comfortable in your spooky skin!

With that said, there are certain things about aging that will possibly impact your gothy life. A lot of this applies to the goth population who are over 45, but younger goths and anyone dealing with a chronic illness may find some useful tidbits in this article. 

Socializing

  • You have to plan around your energy levels. If you’re one of the very lucky, you won’t have to think about this. For the rest of us, we may need additional rest. The Lady of the Manners has learned that she needs one or two days to recover from an event. But there is no shame in needing that additional rest! Listen to your body. 
  • This also means doing things you may never have considered. Take care of those aging knees and sit down when you can. If you’re indulging in Adult Beverages, make sure you’re drinking lots of water in between. Remember those days when we could stay out all night dancing and drinking then head to class or to work the next morning and get through the day by having some extra coffee and aspirin? Those days are almost certainly behind you. Speaking of coffee, your aging body may require you to cut back on that. (The Lady of the Manners hasn’t suffered that yet, but she dreads the very notion of it.)  
  • Sleep. You will need more of it. Remember, you don’t have to stay up all night to be goth!
  • You no longer may be able to Do All The Things or Go To All The Events. This realization will almost certainly make you melancholy (at the mild end of the scale) or depressed (at the far end of that same scale). That’s normal. Let yourself look back at previous years with nostalgia, but also know in your black heart that you aren’t less of a goth just because you aren’t participating in every goth and goth-adjacent event that comes along. 

Music

  • Directly support the artists when you can. Ordering music directly from the artist’s website or Bandcamp helps them earn more money, and also means you can order physical media. 
  • Streaming services don’t pay artists what they deserve, but are a good way to find new music via the “suggested for you” features of whatever service you use. If you find a new artist you like, then refer back to the previous point of “Directly support the artists when you can”.
  • Compilations! While, from what the Lady of the Manners has experienced, are less available than before, they still are a useful way of finding new music. Revisit any you already have and see if you rediscover bands you had forgotten.  

Social Media, AKA “I’m too old for this nonsense”.

  • Arguments and discourse about What Is Goth, Who Is Goth, Is This Band Goth, etc. haven’t gone away, no matter how much we all wish they would. They also haven’t fundamentally changed, just the examples being argued about discussed. If you decide to wade into the discussion, try to remember that many of the people participating in the discussion may only have experienced goth life online, and their opinions may be formed by the latest thing that scrolled across their social media. 
  • Try to be kind and level-headed in these discussions or arguments, but stomp out gatekeeping as soon as it raises its ugly head. If the phrase “You can’t be goth if …” appears, either get ready to repeatedly tell that person they’re wrong, or decide to leave the discussion to avoid frustration and possibly a headache.

Appearance

Makeup

Do what you want! There are no rules! Keep drawing on that swirly eyeliner, keep applying that glitter. However, some Aging Goth Makeup Tips:

  • Avoid sharp lines. The Lady of the Manners has (mostly) given up liquid eyeliner and has switched to a smokey, smudged style of eyeshadow. (She especially likes doing this with dark burgundy and bright pink shades.)
  • Stop using heavy, thick foundations, and instead switch to a tinted moisturizer or BB cream. You can still build up the coverage with these sorts of products, but using a product that doesn’t immediately sink into wrinkles makes things easier. An added bonus to these types of products is that they usually include sunscreen! Which leads us to the Lady of the Manners’ next tip: 

SKINCARE OMG

The basic important things haven’t changed – don’t sleep in your makeup, wash your face, make sure to wear sunscreen – but aging skin probably needs a bit more help. You don’t have to go crazy with multi-step, multi-product routines (this is where the Lady of the Manners says, “Do as I say, not as I do”, because her bathroom counter is a wonderland of potions), but you probably should use a moisturizer, and maybe a separate eye cream.

Hair

  • It’s sad but true that unnatural blue-black hair color can look harsh on aging bats. If you want that effect, fantastic, keep doing that! But if you decide otherwise be aware that removing black dye (especially decades of black dye) is a long and difficult process fraught with peril. If you’re determined to do so, the Lady of the Manners recommends saving up and going to a professional.
  • Thinning hair is a thing that can happen no matter what you do. Hair extensions and falls may be your friend, but be aware that too much tension on your existing hair may also cause it to shed. Wigs are another great option, allowing you to explore different hair colors and styles without committing to them. The Lady of the Manners is seriously thinking about emulating Anna Varney of SOPOR AETERNUS & The Ensemble of Shadows and shaving her head when she hits her 70s. 

Clothing, or how to embrace comfort while still looking spooky

  • Go for flowing lines and draped layers of light fabrics Tunics! Leggings and floaty skirts! Elastic belts! Long dusters! All of these things can be worn by any gender and help give that “creature of darkness” air while not being strapped and cinched in.
  • Speaking of air, try to find things made from natural fibers. Even if that duster is made from a beautiful chiffon or flocked mesh, if it’s a polyester fabric, it won’t breathe as well and you run the risk of overheating.
  • Related to overheating, if you’re AFAB and a certain age, you’re probably going to want to carry a fan with you. And possibly blotting papers for your face and a handkerchief. Hot flashes are a real thing, and they are miserable. 
  • However, there’s also the chance that you’re on the opposite side of the temperature range and will randomly feel too cold. This means you may want to have a cardigan in every room of your house, and possibly carry gloves and a scarf or shawl with you when you go out.
  • Most “lifestyle” goth brands don’t cater to the aging goth demographic. Remember that goth fashion doesn’t have a strict definition, and goth-friendly clothing can be found from almost any retailer. Especially during autumn and winter, which is when some version of goth style tends to show up in mainstream fashion. (Along with the articles about “the return of goth” or how this year’s incarnation of goth-influenced fashion is better than goth fashion because it’s for adults. Almost all of these articles are written by people who aren’t aware that goth has no age limit, and there are almost certainly goths who have been this way for longer than that author has been alive.)
  • You can gothify your wardrobe with accessories. Leggings and an oversized black shirt are a great base to show off layers of jewelry, belts, scarves or shawls, hats, etc.
  • The comfort level of your footwear will become something you think about. You may have to give up tall heels and platforms, but don’t despair! There are companies out there, such as Strange Cult, who make spooky flats and low-heeled boots. (The Lady of the Manners still tends not to purchase those spooky flats and boots because she’s determined to only buy leather footwear, but that’s a discussion for another time.)

Nostalgia 

  • Wallow in it. Look at those old photos, reread those old journals, poetry, and letters. Don’t let them make you less accepting or feel bad about who you now are, but also make sure you look back at your younger self with kindness. CRINGE IS DEAD, EMBRACE YOUR YOUNGER SELF.
  • But don’t gloss over the bad things from that era; yes, a lot of it sucked, but it also made you the Eldergoth you now are. 

~~~

What if you’re older and have never been goth, but you want to explore the subculture? Lucky you! There is no age limit!  But the same advice for the youngsters and baby bats out there  applies to you:

  • Learn the basic history of the subculture; where it came from in terms of the music and aesthetic, then use that information as a jumping-off point for finding even more goth-related things you enjoy.
  • Remember that you don’t have to be Gother Than Thou 24/7. You don’t have to always “dress the part” or listen to nothing but the spookiest of dark music in order to be a goth.
  • Being yourself is much more important than trying to squash yourself into a “this is how to be goth” template you learned from social media. Yes, those images defining what types of goth exist (Corporate Goth, Trad Goth, Vampire Goth, Romantic Goth, etc.) and micro-style labels can help you explore and refine the things you’re interested in, but they aren’t boxes you have to fit into.

~~~

Are you an Eldergoth with additional advice? Do you have other questions around aging while goth? The comment section is OPEN. Be respectful and polite, but discuss!

Posted in Elder Goths, Eldergoth Life, General, Growing Pains | Tagged , | 10 Comments

This is Not the Goth Nostalgia We Asked For: Wearing All Black is NOT a Danger Signal

Posted on August, 2024 by Lady of the Manners

Welcome back to Gothic Charm School! The Lady of the Manners appreciates you returning to her, and especially appreciates all of you who have sent her messages over the past few years wishing her well during the hiatus of this site. 

What dragged the Lady of the Manners out of her extended nap? Ohhhh, just the news article that crossed her feed about a school in Texas deciding to ban black clothing, citing “mental health concerns”. 

:: a brief pause while the Lady of the Manners has a sip of tea to fortify herself ::

The Lady of the Manners frequently talks about goth nostalgia. Yes, everything returns, even in subcultures. The Lady of the Manners is all for the resurgence and remixing of goth music, art, and fashion, even if she occasionally needs younger folks to explain what the latest microtrend name means. (90s romantigoth by way of Pier One and tiny import shops full of gauzy scarves is now whimsigoth? A new keyword for the Lady of the Manners to search with!)

Where she draws the line, however, is when the hurtful and, quite frankly, stupid misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the past are resurrected. You would think, considering how long the goth subculture has been undead and thriving, parents and schools these days wouldn’t be concerned when their children decide to explore goth. And yet. (The Lady of the Manners is especially frustrated with the parents who are younger than her and latch onto this ridiculous bias, but that’s a somewhat separate rant.)

While the Lady of the Manners isn’t a fan of school dress codes, she understands the intentions behind the idea; level the field of sartorial differences during school to reduce bullying. Does the Lady of the Manners think that works? No, because people who are bullies will find any reason — or invent reasons — to torment others. 

Charles Middle School in El Paso, Texas, decided to make an adjustment to their dress code that specifically banned all-black clothing. “Nick DeSantis, the school principal, announced the decision ahead of the school year. In a letter, the school mentioned prohibiting all-black attire due to its association ‘with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality’.” 

:: another brief pause while the Lady of the Manners stares bleakly into the void. You are welcome to join her ::

Really? REALLY?! While the Lady of the Manners knows that many states in the USA are alarmingly moving backwards in terms of people’s bodily autonomy and choices, she somehow, possibly foolishly, didn’t expect to see a resurgence of this sort of nonsense. So let’s make it very clear, and the younger goths reading this should feel free, if needed, to make their parents read this as often as necessary.

Goth, and wearing all black, does not indicate or lead to mental health issues or criminal behavior. IT DOESN’T.

We may all laugh about “I wear all black to match my soul (or heart)”, but we laugh because it’s a joke. It’s about acknowledging that the world can be a terrifying and sad place and facing and/or coping with that on our own terms. Dark things won’t stop existing just because people don’t want to acknowledge them. Neither will strong emotions. Goth arose from some intertwined, entangled things: music that often explored the ideas of death, horror, and decadence; an acknowledgement that melancholy and darkness are part of everyone’s lives; and an exploration of what beauty and catharsis can be found in the darkness. 

As for the notion that goth encourages self-harm: not only is that horrifically and offensively wrong, but also an accusation that has been thrown at every subculture that has ever existed. For many who feel different, overwhelmed, and isolated the goth subculture helps by showing them they aren’t alone. That there are others who feel the same, and who strive to express and cope with those feelings through music, art, and self-expression.

Thankfully, El Paso community members spoke up and pushed back against this misguided policy. Some from the point of view that the Lady of the Manners and other goths hold, questioning how the color of clothes impacts the children’s emotional well-being. “Making students wear a different color isn’t going to magically make them a completely different person,” said Alexis Contreras.

Other parents complained about this being communicated so close to the beginning of the school year. Fabiola Flores, who had already done school shopping, wished that parents had been asked about the change before it was implemented. “We already bought the black pants, so we have to buy again, the pants. They should ask, they do like a ‘hey what do you think?’ like ‘we’re thinking about it’”.

Thankfully, the school district got involved and overturned the change to the dress code policy: “Unfortunately, the campus prematurely communicated the dress code change as a final decision rather than a recommendation. We regret the miscommunication, particularly the intent behind the changes” GOOD. 

All of this, of course, reminded the Lady of the Manners of these sorts of misguided moral panics of decades past. The idea that role-playing games and heavy metal lead to Satanism, self-harm, or murder. Or the infamous PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center), which was an American committee formed with the stated goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to have violent, drug-related, or sexual themes via labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers. And of course, the Lady of the Manners’ personal “favorite”, the Twinkie Defense. (While the term itself was invented by reporters and wasn’t actually used by the lawyers in the trial of Dan White for the murder of San Francisco city Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, White’s lawyers did argue that his depression, a symptom of which was an increased consumption of junk food, led to a “diminished capacity” which led to murder.)

Anyway, those long digressions all lead to the same point: subcultures, music, art, fiction, or other media are a way of finding community and catharsis, not a dark path that leads to depression, harm, and depravity. 

So for the younger readers (hi baby bats!) who are facing parental concerns over their exploration and adoption of goth, here are some suggestions of how to have The Goth Talk with your parents:

  • Tell them what sparked your interest in goth, why it resonates with you, and why you want to express yourself that way. (An aside: telling your parents that you like goth because it’s “edgy”, “so hardcore”, or “it’s black like my soul” is not going to set them at ease.) Point out to them that exploring the gothic subculture involves reading classic literature, studying history and art, and encourages people to think for themselves and become who they want to. 
  • Arm yourself with examples of family-friendly goth media such as The Addams Family, The Munsters, Beetlejuice, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. (Those are  just a few examples – the Lady of the Manners is sure there are many more!)  Play them songs by bands they probably already know of, such as The Cure or Siouxsie and the Banshees, and introduce them to current bands that you listen to that fall under the giant inky umbrella of goth. Point out to them that the goth label applies to literary classics such as Dracula, Wuthering Heights, and everything by Edgar Allan Poe. (And of course, you could tell them to seek out a copy of the Gothic Charm School book!)   

What do you do if your reasoned explanations about goth and why it’s not harmful or something to worry about fall upon deaf ears and your parents don’t agree with you? Well, you may have to wait a few years to fully become the gothy creature you long to be; understand that you will able to sneak in the music, the books, and the general ideas of goth into your life, but that you may not be able to completely express yourself in the way you want. Yes, that’s a frustrating idea. If you feel so strongly about it that you are willing to deal with arguments and recriminations from your disapproving parents, the Lady of the Manners wishes you luck and emotional resiliency. She just wants to remind you that your gothness is also not determined by how much you rebel against your parents’ wishes, and that sometimes adopting a veneer of “normalcy” is worth it to keep the peace at home. 

Every time the Lady of the Manners reads about parents behaving this way she wants to shake them and calmly and loudly explain that their children are not clones of them; they are their own selves with their own interests and tastes. Lambasting them with cruelty for being different isn’t going to change the way they are; it’s going to make them withdraw from you and leave lasting emotional scars. Why would you want to do that to your child? 

The same goes for people with institutional power, such as school boards, teachers, and hell, even employers. Being different from “the norm” in any way — be it subcultural affiliation, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence  — doesn’t mean that person is dangerous or incompetent, and the Lady of the Manners is furious that these beliefs are still so damn prevalent. The people who feel this way may feel that they’re being “cruel to be kind” to get you to change into a person who will be safe from bullying and discrimination. They’re terribly misguided and wrong, but they may feel that they’re trying to protect you or “make you better”.

What can you do if you end up in one of these difficult (and stupid) discussions? Tell the person you’re talking to, in as calm and dignified a manner as you possibly can, that you don’t agree with what they’re saying and (if at all possible) walk away from the “conversation”. Go to another room, go for a walk around the block, but make it clear you will not stay there and be insulted or talked down to. If it’s not possible to walk away and end the conversation, do everything you can to stay calm and keep repeating “I don’t agree with you.” Avoid getting into an argument if you can.

Do what you can to find friends and communities that support you, and that will make you feel less alone. If you decide to seek out other goths online, please remember basic internet safety: don’t give out personal information such as your name, phone number, address, school, etc.; always verify information you see online instead of immediately believing it; be polite and don’t bully people; and if something or someone makes you uncomfortable, go to a trusted adult.

For the younger readers, keep reminding yourself that you will eventually get to be the person you want to be. For everyone, regardless of age, who is reading this: goth is personal. Goth is a wide range of music, fashion, and all sorts of art, and you can pick and choose what you want and what will best fit your life. No one, and the Lady of the Manners means NO ONE, is a perfect spooky creature of darkness in a glorious spooky environment 100% of the time. No matter what someone’s carefully curated social media may imply.

Now it’s time to open the comments! Do you have helpful suggestions? Words of encouragement? Stories of how you faced similar things? Discuss! Just remember that the Lady of the Manners moderates the comments very closely, and bullying or rude behavior will not be tolerated. 

Posted in General, Serious Matters | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Of Dealing with Parents

Posted on May, 2022 by Lady of the Manners

:: the coffin lid creaks open. a hand extends from inside, checking the daylight level ::

Gracious, the Lady of the Manners didn’t intend to take quite that long of a nap, but apparently needed to be in torpor for a while. Hello Snarklings! For the first (belated) post of 2022, the Lady of the Manners is going to revisit a topic she hasn’t written about in a very long time, but one that will always be a concern for younger goths everywhere: dealing with parents. 


In an ideal world, when a young person decides to explore the goth subculture, their parents would be supportive. Or at the very least, not react with fear and disapproval. But alas, that ideal world doesn’t exist. So what can you do when your parents react poorly to the unfurling of your spooky self?

Firstly, there’s the Lady of the Manners’ perpetual suggestion: talk to them. Ask them why they object to you exploring goth. 

  • Many parents are hesitant about their children expressing an interest in goth because the very foundation of the subculture is about exploring and examining ideas that are not always happy, ideas that make people feel unsettled and uneasy. Parents, with the best of intentions, want to protect their kids from that for as long as they possibly can, even if that protective attitude isn’t actually helping anyone. 
  • That concern is frequently paired with the VERY WRONG misconception that goth encourages self-harm. 

Dark things won’t stop existing just because people don’t want to acknowledge them. Neither will strong emotions. Goth arose from some intertwined and entangled things: music that often explored the ideas of death, horror, and decadence; an acknowledgement that melancholy and darkness are a part of everyone’s lives, and an exploration of what beauty and catharsis can be found in the darkness. 

As for the notion that goth encourages self-harm: not only is that horrifically and offensively wrong, but also an accusation that has been thrown at every subculture that has ever existed. For many, the goth subculture helps people who feel different and overwhelmed and isolated by showing them they aren’t alone. That there are others who feel the same, and who strive to express and cope with those feelings through music, art, and self-expression.

  • Another objection many parents have with regard to goth is because they have an image of goths as dangerously decadent types, and if their child shows an interest in goth, it means they’re growing up “too fast”, and becoming someone that the parents have no idea how to communicate with.
  • Hand in hand with the worries about decadence, many parents have a vague grasp of what goth is – their only reference may be the deluge of images on social media featuring provocative and “edgy” models or memes that come across as objectifying and fetish-y.

Again, any and every subculture has ended up with images that give the suggestion that the entire style is about sexualizing and commodifying the members of those subcultures. (The Lady of the Manners has had some very interesting conversations with her Dad about how this happened to the Summer of Love hippy counterculture, and how fascinating and frustrating it was to watch happen.)

Goth, of course, has its more adult sides. The subculture has been around for decades, and there has always been a thread of subversion by way of outre and shocking art and fashion. However, that’s not the only thing goth is about. There are plenty of “family-friendly” or age-appropriate aspects of goth. Which leads the Lady of the Manners to the second part of her advice …

Arm yourself with examples of family-friendly goth media such as The Addams Family, The Munsters, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Monster High, Coraline, Paranorman, Ruby Gloom, or the Vampire Kisses YA book series. Those are  just a few examples – the Lady of the Manners is sure there are many more!  Play them songs by The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Voltaire, or Rasputina. Point out to them that the goth label applies to literary classics such as Dracula, Wuthering Heights, and everything by Edgar Allan Poe. (And of course, you could hand them a copy of the Gothic Charm School book!)

Thirdly, be ready to tell them what sparked your interest in goth, why it resonates with you, and why you want to express yourself that way. (An aside: telling your parents that you like goth because it’s “edgy”, “so hardcore”, or “it’s black like my soul” is not going to set them at ease.) Point out to them that exploring the gothic subculture involves reading classic literature, studying history and art, and encourages people to think for themselves and become who they want to.

The Lady of the Manners does have to tell you there is a chance that no matter how calmly and clearly you explain yourself and how many examples you show to your parents, they won’t budge in their opinion that No Child Of Theirs Is Going To Be A Goth. So then what can you do? Well,  you may have to wait a few years to fully become the gothy creature you long to be; that you will able to sneak in the music, the books, and the general ideas of goth into your life, but that you may not be able to completely express yourself in the way you want. Yes, that’s a frustrating idea. If you feel so strongly about it that you are willing to deal with arguments and recriminations from your disapproving parents, the Lady of the Manners wishes you luck and emotional resiliency. She just wants to remind you that your gothness is also not determined by how much you rebel against your parents’ wishes, and that sometimes adopting a veneer of “normalcy” is worth it to keep the peace at home. 

The Lady of the Manners is sadly aware that some of you will receive disapproving scorn and cruelty from your parents – especially if your true self is also counter to their expectations of gender or sexuality. Every time the Lady of the Manners reads about parents behaving this way she wants to shake them and calmly and loudly explain that children are not clones of yourself, they are their own selves with their own interests and tastes. Lambasting them with cruelty for being different isn’t going to change the way they are, it’s going to make them withdraw from you and leave lasting emotional scars. Why would you want to do that to your child?

To any younger goths facing this: be strong. Your parents are probably saying these things out of fear, because society does try to freeze out those who are different, and your parents may feel that they’re being “cruel to be kind” to get you to change into a person who will be safe from bullying and discrimination. They’re terribly misguided and wrong, but they may feel that they’re trying to protect you.

What should you do if your parents talk to you like this? In as calm and dignified a manner as you possibly can, tell them that you don’t agree with what they’re saying, that you do not deserve to be spoken to like that, and (if at all possible) walk away from the “conversation”. Go to another room, go for a walk around the block, but make it clear you will not stay there and be insulted. If it’s not possible to walk away and end the conversation, do everything you can to stay calm and keep repeating “I don’t agree with you.” Avoid getting into an argument if you can.

Do what you can to find online communities that support you, and that will make you feel less alone. If you worry that your parents will check your phone, your tablet, or whatever you use to go online and use what they find as another reason to be disapproving, go to your local library and use their computers when you can. And let the Lady of the Manners assure you that your gothiness will not vanish just because you aren’t able to indulge in dark shades of makeup. There are many gothy people who don’t wear any makeup at all; black eyeliner and an inky-hued wardrobe  is not a prerequisite for being a goth.

~~~

Now is the time when the Lady of the Manners opens the virtual salon to all of you: do you have helpful suggestions? Words of encouragement? Leave a comment! (As always, comments will be moderated, so be polite.)

Posted in General, Growing Pains, Serious Matters | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

True Tales of Eldergoth Life – Finding Music

Posted on September, 2022 by Lady of the Manners

Hello Snarklings! The Lady of the Manners has decided it’s time to regale you all with some goth history. (An earlier version of this article appears on on The Lady of the Manners’ Patreon.

Back in the Lady of the Manners’ day (she says, waving a stick of clove incense around because she stopped smoking 20+ years ago), finding new goth music was hard, especially in the early 90s. Barely any of us were on the internet, and band websites were virtually non-existent. Which meant any or all of the following:

  • You hoped that the DJs for your local goth night, if you had a local goth club night, played new-to-you music. At which point you ran to the DJ booth and shouted over the din to get a band name, which you probably misheard thanks to the club volume, or would have forgotten by the next morning. Yes, some of us carried a pen and notebook in our lunchbox purse, but deciphering something scrawled by candles and blacklight when you were probably a bit tipsy was often an unsolvable mystery.

  • You went to the local alternative record store or Tower Records, and you flipped through Every. CD. There. Most stores didn’t have a way to preview every item in stock, especially if the CD was from a small independent label, which meant most times you made your decisions based on the band name, the cover art, and the song titles. Did the cover look like an Aubrey Beardsley illustration and have song titles like “The Decay of Midnight” or “Lilies”? Then you probably (well, possibly) found a band you’d like. Good luck ever finding another album by them.

    While you could ask the clerks for musical selections, you never knew if your question and examples of bands you liked would get you a sneer and a reply of “Yeah, those aren’t goth”. But sometimes the sneering reply would be helpful, because the bands the disdainful employee then rattled off would lead you to something interesting.

  • You bought compilations because you recognized one or two bands on it, and then spent months searching for albums by the other bands. More often than not, those other bands had released one other album before they broke up, and it was only available in Germany.

  • You squinted at the ads in whatever goth zine found its way into your hands. Squinted, because the fonts used in the “classified” ads section were always tiny and blurry (with an added layer of blurry if it was a photocopied zine), or the actual quarter page paid-for-ads were masterpieces of goth design that were so aesthetic that you were lucky if you could make out the name of the band. (The fonts used by black metal bands owe a huge stylistic debt to those goth zine ads, even if they don’t know it.) The independent record labels usually had slightly more legible logo designs. Slightly.

    If you were able to decipher the name and address, then came the step that is probably incomprehensible to The Kids Today: sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address in the ad to get a catalog. Or getting a money order to send the to address in order to buy a cassette without knowing what type of music you were getting. (Sometimes we wrapped actual cash money in layers and layers of paper, hoping it was well-disguised enough that someone wouldn’t intercept and tear open the envelope to steal the money.) There were no order numbers. There was no way to prove you’d sent off an order. You sent it off through the mail and hoped for the best. (This is how the Lady of the Manners discovered Trio Nocturna, Faith and the Muse, The Shroud, Mirabilis, and many other bands.)

  • Finally, you and your friends traded mix tapes. Sometimes it was a way to introduce them to new music, sometimes it was a subtle (not really) declaration of romantic interest, and sometimes it was a way to console your friend after a breakup, but making those mixtapes was a Serious Undertaking.

    In addition to painstakingly selecting every song for maximum coolness or emotional impact, you spent hours creating the perfect cover – be it a drawing you made, a collage of photocopied illustrations from out-of-print books, or a photo carefully chosen and snipped from a fashion magazine – and hand-lettering the list of songs and bands. Does the Lady of the Manners frequently lament the loss of the mix tapes that were given to her Back In The Day? Please forgive her while she takes a moment to sob and dab her eyes with a black-edged handkerchief.

Let the Lady of the Manners end this installment of True Tales of Eldergoth Life on a “We live in the future! It’s amazing!” note: she doesn’t know what sort of dark algorithm magic is behind Music Map, but she adores it, and has yet to search for a band that Music Map can’t find and suggest similar music to!

~~~

Speak, oh other Eldergoths! How did you discover new music? Do any of you still have mixtapes of that era languishing on your shelves? (If you do, please leave a comment with the track list!)

Posted in Eldergoth Life, General, Music, Stereotype Technology | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Goth Fast Fashion, and Why It Isn’t Always a Good Thing

Posted on October, 2021 by Lady of the Manners

For this installment of Gothic Charm School, the Lady of the Manners turned to Twitter and ran a poll to narrow down what topic she should tackle next. It turns out that many, many Snarklings were interested in the Lady of the Manners rant opinions around the rise of gothy fast fashion.

As some of you may remember, the Lady of the Manners has always been a defender of goth clothing and goods being available at mainstream and mall stores. (Hi there, Hot Topic and Torrid.) (Yes, when Torrid first opened, they were the plus-size offshoot of Hot Topic, and plus-size femme goths rejoiced.) The Lady of the Manners’ opinion was anchored by two beliefs:

  • Not everyone has the time, money, or ability to find and customize thrift store items, or afford a wardrobe of custom clothing. A budget-savvy goth can take advantage of the never-ending discount offers from mall stores and get good foundation pieces for their wardrobe of darkness.
  • Mainstream “normal” culture shows tolerance and acceptance toward “fringe” cultures through the availability of mass-market goods. Babygoths have an easier time convincing their parents to accept their spooky tendencies if stripy tights and skull-bedecked clothing are available at mainstream stores. When mainstream cosmetic companies endorse dark lipstick and sharp eyeliner as “must-have” styles, people’s unease around our spooky subculture lessens, and perhaps the legacy of bullying and harassing anyone who is “other” starts to ease.

So if the Lady of the Manners still holds that opinion, how can she also believe that goth fast fashion isn’t always a good thing? For several reasons:

Quality vs. Cost

Clothing from gothic and alternative “lifestyle” companies such as Killstar, Blackcraft Cult, and Dollskill are known for clothing that will potentially fall apart after a few wearings. There are also issues with unfinished seams, hanging chains of thread from serged edges, misaligned trim ”¦ 

Some of the issues are easy enough to fix on your own – dangling threads can be snipped, buttons can be reattached – but for the prices that the lifestyle companies charge, that sort of basic garment maintenance shouldn’t have to be done as soon as you pull something out of the box.

The quality of the clothing fabric is also hit or miss: scratchy, stiff, or may not survive laundering no matter what the garment care tags say. The Lady of the Manners has been told that Killstar is better about this, as they do have some of their fabric exclusively made for them, but she hasn’t gotten her hands on anything (yet) to find out. (Yet, because the Lady of the Manners is going to take advantage of discounts in order to write a review.)

For these sorts of quality issues, plus the items themselves being churned out in factories, the prices don’t reflect what you’re actually getting. If you want to purchase from those sites, always look for discount codes and sales.

Going hand-in-hand with the quality issues:

Vegan “leather”

The Lady of the Manners wholeheartedly supports vegan folks! If it’s a lifestyle that works for you, fantastic. But “vegan leather”, “PU leather” and PVC are all plastic. Shoes, boots, bags, and other accessories made from those materials can’t be repaired. Once those pointy toes get worn down, once those boots or purse rip along a seam, there’s no saving them, and all you can do is throw them in the trash.

Leather can be repaired, and will last for decades (or longer!) with proper care. The Lady of the Manners has leather shoes and boots from the 90s that she still wears on a regular basis, and her current purse is from the 40s. Vegan and PU leather sound like a great and environmentally friendly option, but are ultimately destined for a landfill.

Sizing

Everything the Lady of the Manners has ever heard about the spooky lifestyle companies’ clothes sizing is that it’s inconsistent at best and misleading at worst, across all the size ranges. Size charts exist, but they’re generic, not garment or production-specific, which means a lot of guesswork when trying to decide if you’re going to order something. Yes, this is an issue that plagues all mass-produced clothing, but again: if you have to ask on multiple social media platforms to find out how an item might fit, frustration is the norm.

It’s worse if you are plus-sized. Plus sized garments are notorious for weird fit issues, because most companies don’t look at the proportions for a garment, but just scale up the pattern. Plus size clothing often means strangely proportioned shoulders, overlong sleeves, and weird proportions in the body. Also, many of the items are made in Hong Kong or China with no additional input from the fashion company about the size ranges; a 3XL could mean it would fit someone who is a US size 14, or it might be too tight on a person who wears a US size 10. And to add an additional layer of frustration, asking online about the sizing and fit of plus size clothes opens the door to strangers making insulting and hurtful comments about plus size folks. When the Lady of the Manners gets annoyed is when people tell her to “eat a salad and exercise”; when the comments escalate to threats and insults, well, she becomes incoherent with rage and despair and ends up taking a break from the internet before she tries to burn the whole thing down. 

The Big One: Design Theft & Poor Business Ethics

It’s an unspoken secret (but becoming less of one) that the big name “lifestyle” brands are known for watching the websites, stores, and social media accounts of indie designers and artists to see what’s making a splash, and directly copying designs or making a few tiny changes to them. (Supposedly Killstar has stopped doing this, but the Lady of the Manners hasn’t had the time to do intensive design cross-referencing.)

As for the business side, well ”¦ Killstar has had a history of treating BIPOC employees very poorly, and Dollskill is no better.

Dollskill has been notoriously racist, selling products such as copies of Native American headdresses for costumes or “festival wear”, and “Goth So White” t-shirts. There’s also accusations of them being ableist, asking an IG influencer to work with them and then cutting ties when they learned she used a wheelchair.

Other Fast Fashion “Options”

You may ask, “But what about those companies who have advertisements all over social media? Their things look cute, and are super-inexpensive, right?” Stay away from them! Those companies are notoriously terrible scams. 

They steal photos from everywhere and everyone to use as catalog images on their own “retail” sites. If you buy something from them, there’s a high chance you’ll never receive your order, and will have to go through the laborious process of getting your money back from PayPal or having your bank perform a chargeback. If you do receive your order from one of these companies, it will be nothing like the photos you saw on the site. Clothing will be terrible quality reproductions that look and feel like cheap Halloween costumes sold in a plastic bag. The chances of the sizes corresponding to whatever size guide they provided are very low; indeed the sizes probably won’t correspond to any adult human measurements. Home decor items will almost certainly have wildly misaligned printing, may be covered in blobs of hot glue or epoxy, or arrive broken. Finally, each package is a mystery, and not necessarily a fun one. You may get the “item” you ordered. You may get a random towel, packages of expired snack food, or an extra sleeve. Not attached to anything, just a single lonely sleeve. 

Always do your research on these “stores”: look for online reviews, perform reverse image searches on their catalog photos, and if you do decide to order from one of them, use a payment method that will help you get a refund if necessary.

Better Options

So where can a goth buy clothing? The Lady of the Manners’ traditional recommendations still hold true:

Finally, buy items from independent designers. Yes, it’ll be more expensive, but artists deserve to be paid fairly for their work! Some of the Lady of the Manners’ favorite designers to purchase or windowshop include:

You can also turn to social media and ask for suggestions for where to find ethical/sustainable goth fashion. Here’s one such thread from Twitter.

With that, Snarklings, the Lady of the Manners opens the floor to all of you: share your suggestions for stores and designers! Do you have reviews? Commiserations? Leave a comment. (As always, comments will be moderated, so be polite!)

Posted in Being Fashionable, review: clothing, Stereotype Technology | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Of Reclaiming Goth for Yourself

Posted on July, 2021 by Lady of the Manners

Hello Snarklings! Now that the Lady of the Manners has drifted out of her crypt again, it’s (finally) time for a new Gothic Charm School post.


Dear Lady of the Manners,

I am a young trans “baby bat” trying to get a handle on what gothic style I want to pursue. I’ve always adored the goth subculture and wanted to be part of it, but I didn’t want to be like my mother, who has been a goth since she was young and raised me as such.

I won’t go into detail for your sake and mine, but she is not a good parent, for many reasons. However, I’m close to moving out (hopefully within a year!) and have started to make the transition into gothic style (I’ve always listened to the music).

I want to know: do you have any advice on how I could separate the gothic culture and scene from its ties to my mother in my head? I want to be able to move on and enjoy my life without thinking of her and wincing every time I see a velvet maxi dress.

With love,
Eden


The Lady of the Manners has been prodding at this reader mail for a long while; it’s an emotionally-fraught subject, and the Lady of the Manners wants to do it justice. 

First things first: Moving out and being in your own space, and having emotional distance from your mother will be an enormous help. Day-to-day ties and reminders are weighty things, and getting out on your own will lighten them. Congratulations and good luck!

Don’t feel you’re alone in this. The issue of needing to untangle and reclaim things that are important to you from upsetting and painful associations is hard and can be almost as emotionally wrenching as the origins of those associations. Almost. However, in the Lady of the Manners experience, the emotional strife of reclaiming those things is worth it. Some of the things the Lady of the Manners has done:


– Write a list of the things you “want back”. Songs, books, fashion styles, and so on. For each one, write why it’s important to you. Don’t feel you must write an essay filled with flowery prose; “Because I love it and want it to be mine” is a good reason. Make a copy (or copies) of that list, then destroy one of the copies. Soak it in water until it turns to mush, tear it up, burn it ”” it doesn’t matter how, just obliterate it. (If you do decide to set it ablaze, do so in a safe manner in a fireproof container.)

Once you’ve destroyed a copy of that list, use another as a checklist of sorts. For example, if there’s a song on that list, listen to it  (as often as you can) while thinking about why it’s yours. After you do that, treat yourself very gently and kindly. You just poked at an emotional bruise, and now you need to take care of yourself.

If you’re thinking “This sounds suspiciously like something a therapist would say”, you’d be right. This is something the Lady of the Manners learned from her therapist, and it’s apparently something a lot of therapists recommend.

Please remember the Lady of the Manners is NOT a therapist. If you feel doing this would be too overwhelming, trust your instincts. 

(The Lady of the Manners does feel that making lists and destroying a copy would be a low-stress way to approach things without going through the emotional stress of rewriting your reactions part, but again, use your own judgment.)

– Another thing that has worked for the Lady of the Manners is to explore the music, movies, books, aesthetic, and so on that are adjacent to the ones that have uneasy associations. For example, there have been songs that the Lady of the Manners loved that became tainted because of associations with certain people. So the Lady of the Manners searched out other versions – covers, instrumental, whatever – of those songs. Something just different enough that they didn’t hit the “And now I’m stuck thinking about [person] and the bad parts” button, but similar enough to help her find her way back to enjoyment. For the velvet maxi dresses you mentioned, search through Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and so on for images of velvet maxi dresses that are slightly different than the ones you associate with your mother.  

– Then, of course, there’s good old fashioned spite. You deserve the glorious darkness of goth! Those things don’t solely belong to your mother, they are yours, and by heaven and hell, you will take them back and enjoy them.

The Lady of the Manners has had varying degrees of success with motivational spite. There are times when it works wonderfully. There are other times when the Brain Raccoons rummage in the mental and emotional trash to fling things around. At which point the Lady of the Manners decides to put cheerful motivational spite on hold for a little bit.

The very most important thing to remember is that your mother doesn’t own anything related to goth. You deserve to make your own version of it, and keep all of the lush and darkly glittering bits that delight and comfort you.

What say the rest of you? Do you have any words of comfort or advice you can share with Eden and the rest of us? Please comment!

~~~~~~

On a completely different topic: summer has arrived with a vengeance in the Lady of the Manners’ part of the world, ugh. Therefore she wants to remind you of previous Gothic Charm School posts on dealing with the burning orb and sweltering temperatures, plus some DIY tutorials to help you stay a bit more comfortable.

Posted in General, Growing Pains, Serious Matters | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Vampire Fiction, a Personal List

Posted on April, 2021 by Lady of the Manners

As some of you know, the Lady of the Manners likes vampire fiction. Really likes vampire fiction, to the point of having a very large bookcase to house her collection, and really does need to get another bookcase, but that would involve opening an inter-dimensional portal or something. 

So, after years and years of threatening promising to write titles down, the Lady of the Manners presents to you her “by-no-means comprehensive, but I like them” list of vampire fiction, in alphabetical order. Are all of these brilliant works of genius? No. But they all, in some way, tickle the Lady of the Manners’ velvet-draped heart.

The Well-Known “Classics”

  • Carmilla – by Sheridan Le Fanu
  • Dracula – by Bram Stoker
  • ‘Salem’s Lot – by Stephen King
  • The Vampire Chronicles Trilogy: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned- by Anne Rice

Those with a Vaguely “Historical” Setting

  • A Delicate Dependency – by Michael Talbot
  • Anno Dracula – by Kim Newman
  • Beguiled by Night – by Nicole Eigener
  • Blood to Blood (original published title: Mina)- by Elaine Bergstrom
  • Claudia’s Story (graphic novel, a retelling of Interview with the Vampire from Claudia’s point of view) – by Anne Rice and Ashley Marie Witter
  • Covenant with the Vampire – by Jeanne Kalogridis
  • Daughter of the Night by Elaine Bergstrom
  • Dowry of Blood – by S.T. Gibson
  • Hôtel Transylvania – by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
  • Lord of the Dead: The Secret History of Byron – by Tom Holland
  • Renfield: Slave of Dracula – by Barbara Hambly
  • The Blood Wine series: A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance In Blood Velvet, The Dark Blood of Poppies, The Dark Arts of the Blood, Nights of Blood Wine – byFreda Warrington
  • The Parasol Protectorate series: Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, Timeless – by Gail Carriger
  • The Stress of Her Regard – by Tim Powers
  • Those Who Hunt the Night and Traveling with the Dead – by Barbara Hambly

Those with a Vaguely “Modern” Setting

  • Blood 20: 20 Tales of Vampire Horror – by Tanith Lee
  • Blood is the New Black – by Valerie Stivers
  • Gothique – by Kyle Marffin (Caveat: the writing in this is a bit clunky in places, but I read it for the rush of 90s goth nostalgia it always gives me.)
  • In the Blood – by Miranda Luna (Caveat: the writing in this is also a bit clunky, but I read it for the rush of 90s goth nostalgia around what all of us imagined the goth scene in San Francisco was like.)
  • Lost Souls – Poppy Z. Brite
  • Pretty Dead – by Francesca Lia Block
  • Prince Lestat – by Anne Rice (Caveats: This book reads like Lestat decided to write MarySue fanfic of his own life. You don’t need to have read any of the books between Queen of the Damned and this one, Lestat will explain everything.  This is the book that led me to invent the game of “Who said it? Lestat or Fall Out Boy?” It is gloriously cracky, and I love it.)
  • Still Life – by Michael Montoure
  • Suckers – by Anne Billson
  • Sunshine – by Robin McKinley
  • The Blood Opera Trilogy: Dark Dance, Personal Darkness, Darkness I – by Tanith Lee
  • The Hollows Series: Dead Witch Walking, The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, Every Which Way But Dead, A Fistful of Charms, For a Few Demons More, The Outlaw Demon Wails – by Kim Harrison (Caveat: the series actually runs 15 books, but I drifted away after book six.)
  • Tourniquet – by Kim Lakin-Smith
  • Vampires Don’t Sleep Alone – by Elizabeth Barrial and D.H. Altair
  • Voice of the Blood – by Jemiah Jefferson

Those from the “YA” Side of Vampire Fiction

  • Bunnicula – by Deborah and James Howe
  • The Den of Shadows Series: In the Forests of the Night, Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror, Midnight Predator – by Amelia Atwater Rhodes
  • The Morganville Vampires Series: Glass Houses, The Dead Girls’ Dance, Midnight Alley, Feast of Fools, Lord of Misrule, Carpe Corpus, Fade Out, Kiss of Death, Ghost Town – by Rachel Caine (Caveat: I feel the first five of the series are the strongest, and it goes downhill from there.)
  • Tantalize – Cynthia Leitich Smith
  • The Vampire Kisses Series: Vampire Kisses, Kissing Coffins, Vampireville, Dance with a Vampire, The Coffin Club, Royal Blood, Love Bites, Cryptic Cravings, Immortal Hearts – by Ellen Schrieber (Caveat: This series is adorable, cotton-candy vampire fluff, and may not be to everyone’s tastes.)

Anthologies

  • Blood Is Not Enough: 17 Stories of Vampirism – edited by Ellen Datlow
  • Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories – edited by Michael Sims
  • Love in Vein – edited by Poppy Z. Brite
  • The Best of Dreams of Decadence: Vampire Stories and Poems to Keep You Up Till Dawn – edited by Angela Kessler
  • Visions of the Vampire: Two Centuries of Blood-Sucking Tales – edited by Sorcha Ni Fhlainn and Xavier Aldana Reyes

If you decide to read any of these, remember to read the descriptions. Many of these works include and explore dark themes and dubious or reprehensible morals. There is nothing wrong with curating the media you choose to engage with, and not everything is for everyone.

Go forth, Snarklings! Read about vampires. And if your particular favorite vampire book isn’t on this list, please mention it in the comments!

The Lady of the Manners in her vampire form.
Posted in General, Nocturnal House | Tagged , | 22 Comments

Of Goth Nostalgia

Posted on January, 2021 by Lady of the Manners

For this first Gothic Charm School of 2021, the Lady of the Manners pulled an anonymous question sent to her Tumblr inbox:

How do you deal with nostalgia as an older Goth? Sometime I just get this overwhelming sorrowful feeling where I yearn for things that don’t exist anymore. As in things about the scene that have gone away or just aren’t popular anymore. I don’t want to romanticize my past but I can’t help but feel like a relic sometimes. How do you resolve this feeling?

Oh Snarkling, the Lady of the Manners is right there with you in this. There are many, many things from Ye Olde Goth Days (Nights?) where the memories spring forth, flatteringly colored by the flickering candlelight of memory. And it takes a determined effort to also remember that the distance of time blunts the sharp, painful edges of those memories. 

On the indulge in nostalgia, wrap it around you like a velvet shroud side of things, the Lady of the Manners will page through her precious stack of Carpe Noctem, collect other vintage goth magazines (when she can afford them, because back issues of Propaganda go for mind-boggling prices), and assemble Pinterest boards to look at again and again.

Then there’s the tried-and-true method of putting on a playlist of music from the peak nostalgic era you miss (the Swirly Goths – Deep Gorgeous Cuts playlist assembled by Meredith Collins is perfect), lighting candles, pouring a glass of absinthe or Chartreuse (if you partake of Adult Beverages), and rereading the oh-so-goth books of that era. The Lady of the Manners will, of course, return to The Vampire Lestat at the drop of a lace glove, but also finds herself pulling her copy of Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite (now Billy Martin) off the shelf when nostalgia hits.

(If you want a book that perfectly encapsulates the sense of hazy 90s goth with additional vampires, In the Blood by Miranda Luna, while rough in spots, is a velvet delight.)

But the trick with indulging in nostalgia is to ponder many of the good ways that The Scene has changed over the years. Some examples of things the Lady of the Manners misses with a fierce sense of nostalgia, but has also realized the good of the modern versions:

The neighborhood where all the “weird” small shops were clustered. They were the retail neighborhood where the alternative types went to shop (window and otherwise), to go on first dates, and to hang out in general. They usually had a record store, a vintage/second-hand clothing store, a used bookstore (with at least one shop kitty), a tiny import shop that sold incense, cheap silver jewelry, and gauzy skirts and scarves, a coffee shop, and a place that had cheap, tasty food. (The Seattle version had a pizza place, Pho, and Greek.) 

And even before the pandemic, the internet (and the tech industry boom, which led to cheap rents withering away), was making this sort of weird retail area extinct. Brick and mortar shops couldn’t compete with the advantage that online shops had with lower overhead costs. 

But the internet meant that goths stuck in the middle of small town nowhere could still experience The Scene in some way. Sure, they couldn’t get the ”˜zines, browse the bookstore shelves and choose a book solely on the title, cover art, or back cover blurb, and buying clothes from indie goth designers was an adventure in “this looks great in the moody catalog photo, what will it look like when it gets here”, but the trade-off of making goth less insular is worth it.

(However, the Lady of the Manners will always miss the in-real-life sensation of just wandering those neighborhoods. She fears that will be lost forever more.)

That particular fragrance we all associated with goth. Nag Champa incense, clove cigarettes, sandalwood candles, dried roses, patchouli, red wine, and the faintest hint of AquaNet. (The Lady of the Manners gets especially nostalgic about clove cigarettes, but now we all know that clove cigarettes are absolutely terrible for us, health-wise.) And again, that particular fragrance has been gilded by memory: we forget that the incense would occasionally have a bitter scorched scent, the dried roses hung on the walls didn’t always dry, but moldered instead, and most of all, while many of us associate that idealized fragrance with goth clubs, the reality included the undertones of spilled beer and vomit (if your preferred club was on the more dive-y end of things).

But! The Lady of the Manners discovered some indie perfume companies with scents that are aimed directly at nostalgic Eldergoths, without us having to impair our breathing with cloves:

  • Goth Club ’89 from Whisper Sisters. This is it. This is the fragrance the Lady of the Manners was eternally nostalgic about. It is GLORIOUS.  “If you were there, you know the smell. Heavy resins, candle smoke, nicotine, clove, incense, absinthe, with a hint of intoxicating florals and vintage dark patchouli to balance everything out.”
  • Oh Bela, also from Whisper Sisters. Take Goth Club ’89, subtract the nicotine and the absinthe, but add dust and honey. (Or at least that’s how it seems to the Lady of the Manners’ nose.) “Oh Bela – the sweetest clove, the reddest rose, the tombiest of tombs, the most velvety of velvets, the blackest of capes.” 
  • Clove Cigarette, a collaboration between Thorns Clothing and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Sadly, it’s sold out, but there’s always a chance it will be rereleased.

Finally, did you save any of your art, journals, or letters from friends from those years? If so, pull them out and re-read them. DO NOT give in to the “cringe” mindset of “Oh G-D this is awful crap, ugh, I was so dumb”. Do not. Re-read them as what they are: a time capsule, an artifact of your younger self, and think of that younger self with fondness and compassion.

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Come forth, oh other nostalgic spirits. What do you indulge in to relive the wistful melancholy of the past? 

Posted in Amusements, Elder Goths, General, Stereotype Technology | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

A Reminder, and Festive Cookies!

Posted on December, 2020 by Lady of the Manners

First things first, Snarklings: the Lady of the Manners is SO HAPPY to see people showing their delightful faces and using the #EverydayGoth and #ThisIsGoth tags on Twitter and Instagram. Keep doing that! And feel free to tag the Lady of the Manners on Twitter ( @CupcakeGoth ), because she is determined to retweet every photo she sees with those tags.

In case you missed the original post, “Not Pretty Enough” to be Goth, there is now a movement to show that goth is for people of all races, ages, body types, anyone. GOTH IS INCLUSIVE, DAMMIT.

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And now, festive cookies! Perfect for any occasion, but especially delightful for holidays, the Gothic Charm School gingerbread bats recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 C. flour (with an extra ½ C. set aside, just in case)
  • 1/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. cloves
  • 2 tsp. ginger
  • 1 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp. pepper (yes, really)
  • 1/2 C. butter
  • 1/2 C. molasses
  • 1/2 C. sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1-2 tsp. fresh ginger, very finely minced
  • 1 Tbsp. lime juice

Directions:

Combine the molasses and butter in a saucepan over very low heat until the butter melts.

Add the sugar, minced ginger, and lime juice, stir until the sugar dissolves, then remove the saucepan from the heat.

While that mixture cools, sift together all the dry ingredients.

(Note: The measurements given for the spices are guidelines. The Lady of the Manners usually adds several extra dashes of each spice, until the dry ingredients are a dark beige color. Yes, baking is supposed to be about exact measurements. The Lady of the Manners still adds extra ginger, nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon to hers. She wasn’t kidding with the “very spicy, very ginger-y” comment.)

Fold the dry ingredients into the lukewarm butter/sugar/molasses mixture.

Add the egg (just crack it into the bowl!), and mix everything together until the dough is smooth and slightly glossy looking.

(Note: You may need to add a smidge more flour at this stage. Sometimes the Lady of the Manners does, sometimes she doesn’t. But if your dough seems sticky or not holding together, add a spoonful or two of flour, then keep mixing.)

Gather the dough into a ball, wrap up in plastic wrap or wax paper, and chill for a minimum of 2 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 325* F.

Roll out the dough on a floured cutting board, then cut out cookies with appropriately-festive cookie cutters. Bats, of course, are the holiday cookie shape of choice at Gothic Charm School.

Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes (the cookies should look slightly glossy, and feel slightly soft if you touch them – do not burn yourself!), then take them off the cookie sheets and let them cool. (On a wire rack, if you have such a thing. If not, setting them on some paper towels works just as well.)

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The Lady of the Manners hopes you have the best holiday you are able in this strange and unsettling year, and may 2021 be better for all of us.

Posted in Holidays & Special Occasions, Tutorials | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment