Tackling Teen Subcultures - Goths
Using Halloween to Teach Teens about Negative Horror Genre Issues
Oct 19, 2007
The article, Students Challenge Ban on Gothic, [by Megan Downs, Florida Today, September 14,2007] outlined a school board's decision to prohibit Goth fashions, citing the cult's orientation toward violence as a reason. Teen Goth subculture issues received national attention after the 1999 Columbine massacre in which two teens from Colorado killed twelve schoolmates. They were apparently wearing the black clothing and trench coats favoured by Teen Goths.
The Goth predilection for the supernatural could indeed direct teenagers towards the sinister activities of teen cult Paganism and the Occult. Goths adopt gruesome make-up and costumes throughout the year, but these are exaggerated at Halloween with its emphasis on fancy dress. Halloween can however, offer an opportune learning curve for older teens who are ready for challenging concepts involving the analysis of its darker negative side through critical thinking skills.
Teen Goth Subculture - Background
The popularity of Buffy, supernatural manga and anime graphic novels, and specialist gift shops selling ouija boards and tarot cards suggests keen youth interest in supernatural issues. However, youth preoccupation with Goth culture is not just a recent phenomenon.
In the 1800s, English author Emily Bronte was similarly intrigued. Society was suitably outraged to hear that the creator of sadistic, brutal Heathcliffe was female - the young, sheltered daughter of a churchman. The age and gender of the authors of Frankenstein and Dracula is similarly telling. (Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker.)
This 'Gothic Novel' genre reflected the style of the Middle Ages (vaulted church architecture, heavy dark furniture, flowing white Byronic shirts, and stained glass,) and was revived during Victorian times.
The word 'Gothic' is shortened to Goth and borrowed by today's Goth teens who relish its connotations of death, exorcism and vampires. The 'look' is achieved with heavy, deathly white make-up, black eyeliner, blood-red lips and nails, matt black hair dye, and is ornamented by crucifixes and chains. Goth and Paganist styles sometimes overlap with the addition of black leather biker boots, voodoo charms, spells and magic.
It may be productive to take teen interest in these issues on board and deal with them head on, if society is to avoid a deepening and damaging fascination with paganism and occult dabbling among the young.
Parenting Strategies - Critical Thinking Skills
Debating these contentious issues at home is an ideal way to resolve conflict and reach mutually beneficial compromises. Start from where teenagers are and ask their opinion. They may shout about freedom of expression, in some cases quite rightly. They are unique and valuable citizens in their own right, not just clones of adults. However critical thinking skills will enable them to present their case coolly, courteously and rationally.
When teen Goths argue back, parents can then use their own adult minds to stretch and challenge teens' intellectual skills in researching and presenting their argument coherently. Acknowledging the rights of others to a fair hearing is an essential lesson - teens could consider the anxieties of seniors or toddlers who are confronted by mobs of ghoulish Goths.
Evaluating the detrimental effects of Goth and Paganist dabbling can help teens to reach reasoned conclusions of their own, encouraging autonomy and reducing the dependency on the peer approval which leads to slavish following of negative behaviour patterns.
Talking to teens ensures that potential repercussions are considered. The effects of horror films on impressionable minds, for example, can include hysteria, paranoia, nightmares, anxiety-state, sleep deprivation and psychological damage and can be exacerbated by teen drug experimentation.
Teen Parenting Concerns
Encouraging healthy scepticism in teen thinking can be a leap in the dark for parents who may fear giving mixed messages. However, many teens are balanced, maturing individuals with valid contributions to offer - eager for the respect of adults in meaningful conversation at that level. Structured argument with them develops skills for weighing-up the fraudulent, empty promises of negative teen cultures and for avoiding the cynical demands for allegiance to dark codes of conduct.
Conflict is also a positive experience where it teaches resolution skills. Discussions on censorship ratings of horror genre PC and Playstation games or violent movies develops teens' skills in identifying risk, and in calculating the potential damage to young or socially vulnerable citizens.
Cases where knives, guns and violent movies have been in the hands of psychologically vulnerable individuals could be cited. Also worth mentioning are the ritualistic cults, intimidating costumes and anonymous masks which have been used in racist crimes and massacres.
Parents with strong religious convictions may be nervous of broaching negative dark cults and horror movies issues. However, ignoring them could lead to lost learning opportunities in discerning right from wrong and in making judgements. Teens won't always be safely ensconced at home. Increasing social activity such as sleepovers and parties mean that teens need to be autonomous decision makers in their own right when they are away from home.
Many faiths suggest guidelines for following a good path. Teens can learn how turning towards the occult could be a rejection of the good in favor of a path which could be unhealthy for their minds and for society.
Tolerant parents who accept their teen's need for fashionable self-expression with humorous forbearance and firm boundaries, are approachable. The trick lies in setting the boundary, and also in training teens to recognise it for themselves. Parents are well placed for this task as their teens feel secure in a relaxed home setting. Teens' final responses to supernatural issues can change from their initial ones, following some healthy family debate.
