Before I start I would like to tell Gothic Booty, I mean Beauty, that I own the domain and website of this blog and that I answer to nobody as to how it is run. So take-down threats aren’t going to work on me. Hiya!!!!!
So, for the last few weeks a bunch of people have been calling out Gothic Beauty for the AI images that they are using in their social media posts. How have Gothic Beauty responded? By getting the posts of people sharing the AI images taken down for copyright claims. Does that sound like an innocent company to you? It sure as hell doesn’t to me and it is the major reason as to why I am sharing this information. Shit like this needs to be called out.
The thing that is really pissing people off, myself included, is the fact that the AI images are of thin white young women; a stereotype that needs to just die already. It really just shows exactly who they are trying to cater to; thin white young women and the men who have a fetish for them. Do they give a shit about those of us who are over fifty and have been into the music for literally decades? Nope. I am very used to not being represented in goth online spaces because of my age, but each time it happens it still pisses me off.
I am known for questioning Killstar and not once have they ever tried to copyright claim me. Not a single time. It is a sad state of affairs that a so called ‘goth’ magazine, that is supposedly catering to the ‘alternative’ community, can’t take criticism and choose to perpetuate a stereotype rather than listening to their readers. They aren’t using AI in their actual magazine right now, but judging by their response it sure seems like they want to go into that direction. Not to mention the fact that the images they use in the magazine are manipulated to hell and back. They are making their real models look like AI images by their overuse of blurring tools. You can’t be goth apparently if you have pores or wrinkles in your skin.
I think more and more ‘alternative’ companies are going to try to pull this and each time they do they need to be called out for it. Make your disapproval of this kind of thing known to them, because if you don’t it is going to get far worse than it is already.