#the queer subculture

[astrobei]

90s grunge college will is something that can be so personal (inspired by the tags on this post)

self indulgent hc that no one asked for: will visits seattle in the early 90s and gets super into the grunge scene + bands like nirvana/pearl jam/alice in chains + jonathan gives him his old leather jacket and the rest is history

[deathtokillian]

Why am I seeing tiktok “punks” criticizing other punks vest, jackets, and pants because they don’t have any punk bands patches on them? You know you don’t need to have band patches right? Who tf are you the punk police?

[xxenbypunkxx]

if you’re looking for a cool new punk band to listen to, i highly recommend looking for local small bands before searching “punk” into spotify.

don’t know how to find them?

what i did is i looked up what some punk bars in my area, i started going on random nights and found bands i liked that way. (if you’re under 21, you can still look up the bars, but go to their instagram, see what bands are playing and see if they are on band camp, spotify, etc.)

this has worked amazing for me, i’ve made so many friends, it’s to the point where certain bands shows feel like monthly family reunions full of so much love and genuine compassion.

hope this helps anyone wanting to be more involved in the subculture

EDIT: if you live in a small town, just search the nearest big city. or honestly any city that you vibe with. every area has a slightly different sound and scene find what you blend with!!

[borninwinter81]

Queer horror from my teens

I periodically wonder whether these books are still known and read by young goths and horror fans as they were all extremely important to me in my teenage years, so I thought I'd share them.

Though I'm cishet, during the mid 90s two of my favourite authors wrote primarily queer fiction: they were Anne Rice and another author from New Orleans who is now known as Billy Martin.

He came out as a trans man in 2011, however these books were published prior to that so unfortunately you have to search for them under his deadname. This is why I've used that name in the tags on this post. I don't believe the books were ever reprinted with his current name.

Though I loved Rice, I always felt a more immediate connection with Martin due to his vivid portrayal of subcultures like goth and punk, and how it felt to be a teenager who was part of them. I could see myself in many of his characters as I had the same interests, listened to the same music, and shared the same sense of social alienation. Remember in the 90s the Internet was still a reasonably new thing, and many of us didn't have a home Internet connection at all. There was certainly no social media, no YouTube, and no real way to meet and interact with like-minded teens unless you were lucky enough to have another "weird kid" at your school. If you were a weird kid, you likely had very few friends and were bullied.

That as much as anything else led me to seek solace in books written by an author who I felt understood me, and characters who became my friends.

Lost Souls is about vampires in a kind of Lost Boys/Near Dark way. Fans of the YouTuber OfHerbsAndAltars might be interested to know that this book is where the name of his channel comes from - it's a description of the taste of Chartreuse liqueur.

Drawing Blood is about ghosts, a "murder house", computer hacking, comic art and a very beautiful (if rather messed up) romance. This one is probably my favourite of the three.

Exquisite Corpse is about serial killers, set against the AIDS crisis of the 90s. If you like the Hannibal TV series you'll probably enjoy this one - imagine if Dennis Nilsen and Jeffrey Dahmer had somehow met.

Martin doesn't pull any punches when it comes to descriptions of blood and gore, violence, abusive parents or his portrayal of toxic romantic relationships (of which there are many in his books), but if you can deal with those things there is also a great deal of beauty, phenomenally good writing, and a somewhat unique perspective on the supernatural.

Maybe I'm biased, looking at these through the lens of my teenage self. Maybe they'd seem horribly dated to today's young audience. But I still wanted to make this post in case there's someone out there who will end up loving them as much as I did.

[noideamyguy]

This is so true

[nugothrhythms]

University of Nebraska professor Laura Westengard wrote the book Gothic Queer Culture, a book about the correlation between queerness and gothicism.

You can purchase it for yourself on the University of Nebraska website. You can get forty percent off with the discount code 6AF19.

[ghostofsnails]

so did you guys know theres this character called tristan vik disventure camp and

[mxmorbidmidnight]

The other day a friend asked me about the political ideals of goth and it has had me thinking and I have decided that goth in its nature is art.

It values the creation of art without societal constraints and bigoted ideals that restrict true creation. Exploring and learning to love what is considered macabre or morbid. As an offshoot of punk it is about escaping the restraint of filtering the aspects of oneself in order to not be disturbing to our society. It’s about throwing everything out to the world whether that be alternative music, poetry or prominent eyeliner.

Goth music and literature explores deep emotional expression through guttural and gory imageries, dark sound and human fear, its about acknowledging what frightens us in order to create and be in full trueness.

Bigotry is against the nature of goth as true art is created when all people can be a part of it as who they truly are. That is why I think a person cannot be racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexiest or any other kind of discriminatory and also be goth. It goes against what goth is built off and what it represents

Goth holds many of the same political views as punk, however I find by seeing the recurring themes and messages in goth media, literature and music it centres around identity and therefore art in all trueness, regardless of how society reacts or whether it is frightening. That and copious amounts of melodrama.

(Let me know your thoughts, these are just my observations).

[transsexualfiend]

"You can't be conservative and punk!!" Wow yeah super helpful statement. All the conservatives in the punk scene just turned heel like the sad ant with the bindle. They all saw your post and realized the errors of their ways and are leaving the punk scene for good. You did it you kept the scene safe you saved us all.

(My point is that this is an unnecessary statement that overlooks the real, tangible fact that there are many conservatives in the punk scene and acting like it doesn't happen would be a lie)

[socte-blue]

XENOGENDERS ARE GRUNGE AS FUCK!!!!!

NEOPRONOUNS ARE GRUNGE AS FUCK!!!!!

ALTER-HUMANITY IS GRUNGE AS FUCK!!!!!

[deathtokillian]

You're not punk if you're

Racist

Homophobic

Sexist

Transphobic

Ableist

You can't claim to be apart of the punk subculture and be a bigoted asshole

[thatonegaybrit]

; I'm like so scared of dressing and being how I want to be in public because embarrassment physically pains me but then. I js realized. I'm gonna feel bad anyways bc I Hate Being Perceived so like... why not Hate Being Perceived while also looking cool as shit yk...

[rainbowresurrection]

Kinda got a love/hate relationship with the history of K/S because it's like. Can I please have a queer discussion about this 1960s television show without it being reduced to "shipper discourse". I thought Spock and Kirk were homo long before I knew that their characters spawned a fanfiction counterculture. The bisexual dude who wrote the episode that really kick-started the movement didn't know it was going to coalesce into the fan phenomenon that it did, he was just writing what he knew how to write best: the repression of burning male desire, and two dudes doing homoerotic shit. Can I just talk about the repressed burning male desire please, and the implications of a gay angle to Kirk and Spock's story, without it being referred to as shipper discourse. Can I do that. Does this make sense

[areyouthisidentity-polls]

Are you...

Voidpunk is a subculture for those who often feel rejected or disconnected from humanity. This is popular within aromantic spectrum and asexual spectrum communities but also includes groups such as neurodivergent individuals, disabled individuals, non-binary individuals, individuals of color, and other groups that are frequently dehumanized or called "subhuman" by society. Voidpunk is based on embracing the idea of being "not human". While some individuals within these marginalized groups seek to prove their humanity to their oppressors, voidpunk instead recognizes that these oppressors are bigoted and taunts them by saying "Maybe I am not human up to society's standards. What about it?"

[belovedbluv]

Alloura Jourdan as Carrie, 2001: source ballroomthrowbacks

Sissy Spacek as Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma, 1976

[ot3]

i'll be the first to admit i don't know a ton about the punk subculture and its history/core identity but based on the sheer number of incredibly stupid sounding and outright contradictory posts i see on this website i don't think any of the rest of the people on this website really do either