…….or it will end up here.

I’m writing this having lived in three different areas of the US in the past, and witnessing really awful people be given free range to do deplorable shit in the ‘scenes’ of all three of them. I noticed the other week that one of these people is still a promoter and a DJ in one of those cities and I am disgusted but not surprised.

As some of you know I come from the more punk side of things in terms of music and attitude. Meaning that if somebody is an asshole I will loudly point them out and confront them. I don’t care if they are in a band, a DJ, or a promoter because I won’t back down and I don’t actually give a crap about losing goth subculture clout. This has gotten me in ‘trouble’ through the years, but I’m still here listening to the music and supporting those who make the music who aren’t assholes.

An issue that the goth subculture has always had is that of people being very passive aggressive. Instead of voicing their opinions people will whisper behind their hands trying to start behind the scenes drama. When somebody does something really awful, such as being sexually aggressive towards others, people won’t confront them. Instead they’ll say things such as ‘That is just who they are.’. Seriously, I’ve heard that exact phrase used about a scene predator before. Those who say such things are enablers and in my opinion are as guilty as the predator.

If the asshole in question is a DJ, musician or promoter the more likely people in the scene are going to kiss their ass and ignore the crap that they have perpetuated. The case of Andy Deane, from the band Bella Morte, is a really good example of all of this. People ignored the stories about him for years until there were so many women coming forward that the evidence couldn’t be ignored any longer. People who still support this asshole are evidently perfectly okay with women being treated like garbage.

What needs to start happening in the goth subculture is that when people do heinous crap to others they should be automatically kicked out and not welcomed back. This happens very frequently in the punk subculture because people aren’t as afraid to speak their minds. Why are some of the people in the goth subculture so afraid to speak their minds? Because they don’t want to rock the boat and lose their precious ‘scene’ status. ‘Scene’ status is deemed more important in the eyes of some than confronting an abusive person. They worked years to achieve their title of ‘scene queen/king’, to have people grovelling at their feet for admittance to the goth subculture. If they speak up others might not look up to them any longer, and that is a fate worse than death for them.

The goth subculture can sometimes be its worst enemy, but it really doesn’t have to be. If you think maintaining ‘scene’ credibility is more important than calling people out who exhibit really abhorrent behaviour than you are nothing but a scene social climber. I’ll put it this way. If you find out that a person who regularly attends your local goth events raped somebody would you keep silent, or would you be proactive and work on getting that person banned from attending any local goth event? If you think that it’s none of your business then you are part of the problem and not the solution.