Examining Sub-Cultures: The Goth Culture

Social Norms can be defined as expectations, or rules of behavior, that develop out of values or morals. Someone’s values can be defined as their idea of what is desirable in life. People develop expectations of what is the right way to reflect these values. When norms are violated people are usually shocked and form sanctions from the norm that is being broken, either positively or negatively. For this paper I was required to violate a norm.

Androgyny and the third gender are present in many cultures and each combination of masculine and feminine qualities make it a unique phenomenon that is on an individual basis. Since ancient times to present day, the idea of the third gender has been discussed by many scholars, as well as what gender truly can be defined as. It is undeniable that androgyny has become more mainstream as of recent, especially with help from the fashion industry in the early 2000s when they began to employ androgynous models as well as designing androgynous clothing. Since this third gender is finally receiving more recognition, it is important to understand where the term comes from, and how it exists in many cultures. In this paper, I intend on exploring the history of androgyny, discuss figures that have analyzed typical gender roles, present the multitude of cultures that have a third gender, and finally examine the fashion industry’s relationship with androgyny.

Candance West and Don Zimmerman are the authors of “Doing Gneder” that was published in ‘Gender Society; on 1987. The point that the authors were trying to get accros in “Doing Gender” was that people fullfille their ‘gender’ just like any other rutine that people do in their life. It is hard for people to avoind ‘doing gneder’ becae it is almost a never ending activity. We do gender each and everyday to where we are onlivion to it. We step into our gender unknowingly while we are interacting and socializing. Children learn frm a ver yound age how to do gender. From a young age girls care about things like lip glass. The little girls associate wearing lip gloss with looking prettier. We make sure that they know how to be a ‘boy’ and ‘girl’. Gender is not at all who we are and it is not our identity. Gender is a mask that we put on when we face others. We don’t act in public like we act when we are alone. Just as stated in “Doing Gender” by Creative Sociololy, “It Is a product of social interaction… production…..A social construction. “ We do gender to avoind being judged by others. A man takin on the characteristics of a femal and vise versa is risky. As stated in the article “Doing Gender”, “…behave outside the boundres…risk…judge harshly…” Society treats the individuals who break the statues quote unfairly becase they are challenginf the system. There is a raise of unequal distribution of power by every person who participates in doing gender. Whne you compare men and

The Gothic heroine and the young heroine’s identity changes once the moment of refusal is brought upon them and the powers of villain no longer make them feel fear. Their refusal gives them strength and female empowerment that allows them to face the villain and his oppression. This identity of the young heroine embodies who they are as characters, resulting them in becoming stronger, more matured women. Their lessons, their knowledge and will power allow the heroine to thrive in a world of power and control over the choices the women made. The young heroines are no longer girls. They transformed and become women as they stand against the political-societal views that held them back for so

This set of photographs shows couples from the project “Switcheroo.” The clothing in which the couple wears expresses defining gender qualities. Dresses are viewed and labelled as feminine while pants and dress shirts represent masculinity. These photos contribute to Margo DeMello’s perspective on the gendered nature of men’s and women’s clothing. Both models can express their gender through their facial expressions, stance, and posture.

However, the roles for women have changed in both America and England. As time progresses, women have gain control of their rights and attained some gender equality in society such as working outside their homes and having an education. One way of examining this change is in Gothic fiction by looking at how women have evolved themselves from the patriarchal culture. Women were able to live their own lives and not in a men’s world.

‘The role of women in the gothic genre is as victims always subjected to male authority’, compare and contrast to which this interpretation is relevant to your three chosen texts.

The novels ‘Lady Audely’s secret’, Rebecca’, and ‘The wasp Factory’ possess analogous elements of the gothic. They present diverging concepts of femininity rebelling against imposed gender stereotypes, and focalise on the usually marginalised ‘abjected’ figures of society. (Kristeva, 1982:3) This essay aims to argue how the gendered the monster are embodiments of social anxieties and ideologies and how challenge these projections. Mutual notions within the texts such as: the use of gothic tropes, uncanny gender subverting society’s ideals, and monsters as metaphors will be explored.

In “The Female Uncanny”, Taniya Modelski examines core elements of female gothic literature, the cultural and social circumstances its emergence, and how gothic narratives indicate patterns of development in order to trace female pathologies to its root and “probe the deepest layers of the feminine unconscious” (IV,7). The unique familiarity found within gothic literature can be attributed, according to Modelski, to the mirroring and evocation of experiences of social isolation, abandonment, and anxiety unique to women and girls brought on largely by social and political inequalities, and it is through gothic literature that women are able to confront, at least in part, these emotions.

When young girls break gender norms, it is acceptable because masculine traits are desirable. Girls who play sports, wear boy’s clothes, and play with toys marketed towards boys are seen as tomboys, and stronger for it. Conversely, boys who play with girls’ toys and wear girls’ clothes are considered effeminate and weak. This attitude that society holds was reflected in the results of Kane’s interviews with parents.

“What happened to you, Austin powers?” you ask. “When did you become a gothic?” people question.” When in the world did you become a girl!” On a calm day, Jocelyn decided to make things a little… interesting in class. Wearing her Austin Powers cloths and prancing down the halls she brought the class to life.

The Gothic genre is an increasingly popular area for feminist studies, showing contrasts in society at the time and the expectations of women within it. In pre industrial times, women were expected to play a subservient role to men, they were expected to marry young and bare children, they would simply care for their husbands and support the family, they were denied the right to vote or own property and were expected to be the innocently silent, supportive backbone behind patriarchal society. It is noted that female characters in Gothic novels and plays often fall into one of two categories: innocent victims, subservient to the strong and powerful

Previously I had little to no understanding of drag culture, in honesty the concept of drag was daunting to me because I didn’t understand why people did it. The application of performativity to drag culture helped me to understand the reasons people participated in drag performances. I learned that performativity in drag is not simply pretending to be another gender, it is the de-naturalization of certain mannerisms associated with femininity and masculinity contingent on biological sex. People performing in drag shows do not necessarily want to become another gender, it is the idea of destabilizing the heteronormativity of males being associated to masculinity and females to femininity that our society is so accustom to. I truly believe that applying both performativity and liminality to a real life situation in this project helped me to improve my understanding of what the theories mean in the world, rather than just on

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein conceptualise how the confusion between central character’s appearances and the reality of their personality marginalise the capacity for independence from that character. The unique implementation of characterisation, setting, and symbolism are used by both authors in their respective texts to illuminate the complexity of human relationships both with each other and with themselves. Characterisation is used in both texts to explore how protagonists are unknowingly trapped in the preconceived ideas about their appearance held by society. Ibsen and Shelly use the social setting of both texts to explore how the independence of an individual can promote a change in societal views. Additionally, both authors utilise symbolism in their texts to communicate how the characters view their situation and to incorporate foreshadowing within the texts. Ibsen’s naturalistic modern tragedy and Shelley’s gothic novel both examine the relationships between the protagonists and the culture they were created in to explore how a society can marginalise a person by their appearance.

Women in the 18th and 19th century were expected to follow the orders of the males in their lives. They were forced into arranged marriages to connect families in a pursuit for social power and they were expected to abide by anything the males in their lives asked of them. Free will was nonexistent. Much gothic literature effectively highlights the women’s expected role of the time. However, another aspect that seems to surface in gothic literature is whenever there is a woman who is not following the social norms, they seem to be the driving conflict behind the plotline and ultimately lead to any present happy ending.