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Sunday 22 June 2014

Skinny, White and Blogging


I want my blog to be successful. Pretending otherwise would be a lie - though I love writing for it, and I would continue to do so even if nobody read what I wrote, I do want an audience who responds and engages with me. Though it would be egotistic to pretend that I've 'made it', I've grown a little and earned regular commenters and followers who aren't just friends and family. I also love reading other blogs and interacting and supporting them - this community aspect is one of the reasons I stay blogging.

Increasingly I've found, however, that I'm uncomfortable with the lack of variety in most successful blogs. Though the alternative fashion community is significantly more balanced, most of the successful bloggers look the same, come from similar backgrounds and blog about the same lifestyles. Both Cora Harrington in her discussion of the 'documentary' The American Blogger and Nicolette Mason on how mainstream values impacts bloggers have described this, and it's making me increasingly uncomfortable. We are skinny, white and blogging.


To describe these types of bloggers (including myself) as a problem is to denounce their voices, and ignore that it's a problem within blogging itself. Blogging itself - above all, fashion blogging - promotes conventionally pretty, able women who present an appearance of affluence, a safe bet for advertisers and already an ideal image to readers - and whilst there's nothing wrong with those bloggers, this system disadvantages the poor, the disabled, the queer and the different. That's not to say that readers deliberately pick which blogs to follow according to mainstream ideals, but we are not supporting blogs which are outside of these (and they do exist!), and it shows in follower counts, in brand partnerships, and in money.

It's uncomfortable for me realising that my privileges off of the internet extend to my work, but even more upsetting to realize that there are other blogs out there who are not receiving the attention they deserve because they are run by bloggers who do not have those same privileges. It's all very well promising not to photoshop my images, but I already line up evenly enough with the media consensus on what's pretty. I also control my lighting, my poses, hide my eczema - so what's being shown on my blog isn't even accurate to life.

One of the aspects I love about alternative culture is how open it is to all identities, and its conscious rejection of mainstream values - but although we are already miles ahead of everyone else, we still have problems. When is the last time you saw a goth model of colour? When was the last time you saw a goth model of colour on the front cover of a goth magazine? There are more complex reasons why people of colour don't identify as goth (discussed in this coilhouse article), similar to plus sized goths and even queer or poor goths - we are middle class subculture, after all - but the least we can do is include them in the blogging community.

I can't make myself more representative for the wider community, because that isn't me - and though skinny white girls are already drowning out everyone else, I have a voice too. My identity is as valid as everyone else's, and though I may be indirectly part of the problem, I have the right to blog and exist without being made to feel uncomfortable for my clothes size (I'm looking at you, strangers who regularly remind me that I am an eight and I should go eat a sandwich).

So what do I do? One of the most powerful feminist quotes I've read, by NUS UK Women's Officer Kelley Temple discusses how male feminists fit within feminism, and hits the nail on the head regarding supporting representation and being an ally -

“Men who want to be feminists do not need to be given a space in feminism. They need to take the space they have in society & make it feminist.”

—Kelley Temple, National Union of Students UK Women’s Officer

Though I can't just make everyone outside of my niche a successful blogger, I can strive to promote and support those who don't have a voice. I know some people dislike the concept of specifically featuring marginalised groups as they think it just makes the problem more obvious and that they should just work harder, but these bloggers are working hard, and they're not getting any spotlight. For my own blogging, I will avoid the temptation of copying what makes other bloggers successful, and try and focus on what is unique about me and my writing. Alternative culture supports and thrives on differences, and we should do the same online. Let's show the rest how to do it.



How do you feel privilege affects blogging? What's your opinion on editing images (for more on what is currently influencing my feelings, read Molly Crabapple's article in Vice here)? Do you know any bloggers who deserve more attention?





Fee



N.B. I do realise that making a post about this as a skinny white blogger is in some ways an example of the privilege to which I'm referring; I haven't found any articles more specifically looking at dark and alternative culture, but Cora Harrington's blog The Lingerie Addict features some exceptional articles on how fashion affects marginalised groups, and her article on IFB (linked to above) hits the nail on the head about this and blogging.

26 comments:

  1. I follow a blog of one nu-goth/rock Polish girl who is on a wheelchair. She seems to be pretty popular within alternative blogging scene in Poland, moreover she writes books and has them published; she has few times more followers than e.g. I have and collaborates with local brands. Poland is totally not a tolerance paradise, more like an intolerance paradise, but even so she isn't excluded from the blogging scene because of her disability.
    But there is another side of the coin. A big part of her followers are girls who are also disabled. They look up to her, because she is just like them and additionally, quite popular. What I wanted to say is that everyone has their own 'groups' and for me it doesn't have anything to do with some kind of privilege. You see white bloggers, because you write in English. European, Northern American and Australian bloggers, where being white is predominant, write often in English, too, because in most cases it's the most widespread language they know and if they want to have a big audience, they use this language. But you probably don't know Chinese language, nor Arabic, nor Malaysian, maybe you know Spanish - you would find a completely another blogosphere written in those languages, which doesn't care AT ALL about having a 'white' audience. If you were deep into lolita fashion you would quickly hear opinions that not only black girls shouldn't wear it, but also white ones and that only Asians look best in it. So... no, I just simply cannot consider any privilege, because they differ within various communities.

    There is also another thing. Those bloggers who believe in existence of such 'desirable homogenous look' take pride in their difference from it. There wouldn't be anything wrong with it, if it weren't shoved in one's face. I see e.g. a flabby belly hanging over too small leggings and a tumblr tag 'f**k your beauty standards, FAT AND PROUD!' and... does this girl REALLY think it will appear beautiful to me when it's shown in such ugly way? Chubby girls are very aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, but such thing as quoted above is highly repelling for me. Same goes for people of colour and queer poeple: 'I perceive myself as genderless, so I'm better than all of you, who are still within prison of gender'. But why being 'fat and proud', 'black and proud', 'disabled and proud' is acceptable and encouraged, while my being 'white and proud', 'slim and proud', 'all of my limbs are working and I'm proud' would get me lynched? I, too, have beautiful and unique culture. I, too, can feel pretty with my bones sticking out. I, too, can be happy of being born with no genetic disease. I, too, can be happy I hadn't had a serious accident. So why the right to it is being taken away from me? Should I repent just because I'm white and slim? Or maybe I don't have to, because I find plus size girls and brown-skinned girls attractive?
    Oh well, it's probably a fetishization and I definitely should repent.

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    1. I don't agree that the only reason I see white bloggers is because I live in the west; obviously there's never going to be the same numbers of PoC bloggers in English language blogging as there is in mandarin, but popular fashion bloggers (speaking outside of the alternative sphere) are almost exclusively the same. Though readers don't consciously pick their blogs based on the privileges the bloggers have, the evidence is telling that bloggers with these advantages are the ones who get ahead. I think it's probably a mixture of bloggers with privilege being more likely to be supported by brands (being more like conventional models) plus being more relatable to mainly white/straight/cis-gendered readers.

      The reason for a lot of the 'X and proud' messages is because a lot of mainstream culture tells people to be ashamed of their identities, whether it's fat, black, trans* or anything; it's a proclamation of victory against a system that silences these voices. I do know that this sometimes makes people who don't belong to any of these groups annoyed because they feel like it's a double standard, but to marginalised groups this may feel like you're taking pride in the features that give you benefits over them. Doesn't mean you shouldn't be proud in your own identity, though. :)

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  2. This is an interesting post. Since coming into the world of blogging I've looked at a lot of blogs and followed a ton of them because I'm interested in reading a variety of content. I would like to say it doesn't make a difference to me if the blog author is of a different sexuality or race but it actually does, it makes me want to read their blogs even more so! I want to hear viewpoints of people from other walks of life. I used to follow a blog of a young African-American goth boy in the States (blog now defunct) and it was awesome to hear about his experiences through goth fashion. It's a shame these types of blogs aren't getting the recognition that they should be getting but I believe in time they will.

    I personally have felt the pressure with making my own blog more attractive. I'm not super photogenic, super skinny, or financially well off. In a perfect world I'd be sewing up a storm and reviewing products all the time, but I just can't afford to. I'm also not pretty enough to be snapping daily outfit photos. So what does that leave me with? Trying to deliver the best, most thought provoking content that I can. I like to write long, informative, and sometimes personal blog posts. Sometimes they're silly, sometimes they're helpful, but they're never just filler. I put a lot of thought and care into everything I write. I wish I had a bigger audience, certainly not for popularity (I'm a socially withdrawn loner) but because I want to help and inspire people. As long as I do that for somebody I'm happy. : )

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  3. Haha, I do know what you mean; I do enjoy reading the blogs of people from backgrounds different to mine more so in some ways. It's especially interesting with regards to goth, as goth is for everyone, and there's only so many pale, waifish femme goths you can look at before getting bored (I include myself here).

    I do get the pressure too; though I'm still struggling to capture my photography style, I can't always take the photos I want to, particularly outfit photography (I don't have space in my flat, and though outdoors shots look good they're draining). I like filling my blog up with content too, as a) I like writing, and b) have far too much to say.

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  4. I get what you mean. I think the internet / blogging community reflects 'regular' society quite well in terms of who are popular and who aren't. In my opinion this isn't so much a blogging issue, as it is a societal issue. Only when we address inequality in our society can we expect to see change in other areas of life, such as blogging and online communities.

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    1. Unfortunately so; blogging is an interesting microcosm to look at, however, as one of the appeals is that it shows 'real' people and their lifestyles - which is disappearing when it's refined to this instagram-perfect middle-class lifestyle.

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  5. For lack of time/better words... Fuck yeah. We would all do better to acknowledge our privileges.

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    1. I think it's a really important thing to acknowledge - though it's hard when most bloggers have grown up not realising how fashion caters almost exclusively to their shape/race/sexuality/etc., blogging offers an alternative and we need to uphold that.

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  6. You are so right. I constantly find myself looking for people of color who represent the same aesthetic as I do and I'm not finding them. Its very frustrating but I hope with time it will change.

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    1. Thanks - I'm not sure how the current overabundance of blogs will affect bloggers of colour, but I hope more of an effort goes into supporting them and other oppressed groups.

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  7. Ehm...I get what you mean and I do agree with some of your points, but I also think, that the popularity of certain blogging groups or styles - such as skinny white girls or curvy black ones..., etc. - is defined by the readers. I, for example love variety; I love to meet different people with different cultural backgrounds, but when it comes to fashion blogs, I'm more interested in those, that match my style. And I, as an average European white girl dress in an average European fashion...I hope it makes sense, but what I actually mean is that whatever exciting and interesting they look, I cannot truly relate to plus size, disabled or trans bloggers or those, who feature some kind of folk, tribal or other culture inspired fashion simply because they have a certain way of dressing up - and living, of course - that is great to watch, but still irrelevant to me...Just like - privileges or not - I'm irrelevant to them.

    Of course, there are other plus size, Asian, black, and - to a lesser extent - transgender, disabled,...etc. bloggers, who feature absolutely casual or widely popular trends and topics, but still, they tend to differentiate themselves from other - for example skinny white - bloggers quite aggressively and to be honest, the 'X and proud' thing, that came up in a previous comment doesn't sit well with me either; I generally avoid these bloggers simply because I feel like this whole 'X and proud' campaign is quite pretentious and unnecessary. No offense, really, it's just me.

    On the other hand, I think it's only a matter of time until these 'queer' bloggers find their own voice and strip down this otherwise quite limiting 'X and proud' cliche and become successful. Like the quote says, if they want to become part of the blogosphere they do not have to be given a space in it, they will eventually find it, take it and make it theirs...Or that's how I think it should be. :)

    I'm pretty sure I missed a couple of things that popped up in my head the first time I've read your post, but I'm sure you get my idea. I do think, that 'queer' bloggers need more publicity and support, but I also think, that first they have to find themselves and their own voice and decide what they want to stand for in the long run...

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    1. I don't want to make followers read the blogs of those who they don't think can offer them anything; I personally like reading some style/lifestyle blogs even if they don't have anything relatable to me, though I don't think everyone has to do the same. But the top tier of bloggers, as decided by both advertisers/brands (as it's something reinforced from the outside by conventional fashion) and followers, is made up almost exclusively of this group. As I said - there is nothing wrong with this group of people, but the fact that they make up the most successful group of bloggers is concerning.

      I think assuming some of the 'X and proud' campaigns come from a bad place is ignoring what prompts them; black women are constantly told that they're dirty or tragic welfare cases, trans* people are accused of trying to trick people into having sex with them, and disabled people are either fetishized into inspiration porn or flat out forgotten. Whilst there's no real reason for someone like me to be proud of my identity, these groups have historically not been allowed to own their identities. I also think that whilst things are improving for marginalised groups, to say 'they shouldn't have to be given a space' ignores how much harder it actually is for them to earn a space; sure, they shouldn't need to, but a lot of fashion blogging alienates these groups, often unintentionally.

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  8. Couldn't gave said it better myself, as another skinny white blogger I wholly agree
    Lauren
    livinginaboxx

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    1. Thank you! I feel awkward writing about this as a skinny white blogger (complaining about privilege whilst being privileged is one of the most annoyingly privileged things out there...), but in alternative fashion blogging I haven't seen anyone talking about it at all.

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  9. Couldnt agree more with this post. Im always looking for more bloggers of colour but they are fairly tough to fine. Its one of my goals to break through and make that niche more popular!
    XO
    http://aprettythought.org/

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  10. I'm having problems getting comments to post. Apparently my post is reading over 4,096 characters here, but another character counter tool is saying it 4,037... If my post appears twice, it's because of this.

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    1. I think it's shown up okay, don't worry!

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  11. All the blogs I follow are based on them having content I find interesting - a lot of them aren't fashion blogs, but Gothic lifestyle and art ones.

    I've noticed that DIY and crafting blogs tend to be especially popular if they have budget projects, and many of those are written by people who DIY due to financial constraints, so while the bloggers must have at least access to the internet (although that could be a friend's internet or library internet access), there is a space for poorer bloggers in the Goth blogosphere. I, on my meagre wage from my part-time job and having to busk to pay my bills, am hardly an affluent Goth either.

    There are quite a few bloggers outside of mainstream beauty norms. Jillian Venters is a commercial success and a very popular blog, and she's both an older and slightly rounder lady - yet she's still regarded by many as a style icon as well as a font of good advice. 'This Is Corp Goth' is also run by an older and larger lady, but is very popular for both its niche audience of more mature working Goths wanting wardrobe inspiration (something also done by Sophistique Noir, who is slimmer and therefore closer to these mainstream beauty ideals) but for her thoughtful articles. I think Sophistique Noir mainly has the edge of having slightly better produced photography (I think Mr. Kitty is a photographer), and page graphics (I think she's a graphic designer), not because she is more slender.

    If you, or anyone else here wants to read a few blogs from people with other perspectives, I can think of several blogs run by Goths with darker skin and a broader ethnic background and range of body types, and they don't all blog primarily about their experiences of being a minority within a minority. I think it's a bit unfair of those who expect that to be the only thing that darker skin Goths should blog about - if we're being truly inclusive and not prejudiced, then we shouldn't pre-judge expectations of content based on skin colour or gender identity or sexual orientation or any other minority group characteristic. - that's not a dig at you, Fee, more something I inferred from some of the comments. A Goth is a Goth regardless of that, and you aren't a Goth without having Goth interests of music, fashion and culture. Anyway, Madame Mari Mortem is one of my favourite blogs. She's very creative and does a lot of DIY sewing and there's definitely a readership for that. I used to read A Dark Mind In Dark Times while it was running, but Mar is now running The Blaqueboxx Texts which is not Goth centred. She's a Goth of colour and was a Muslim, too, although I think she no longer follows that religion (although I may be wrong on that). Colour Me Goth was a very interesting blog on Blogger, but Dismantlynn has switched platforms to Tumblr earlier this year and I don't have a Tumblr account so I'm not following her as actively as I did. There's quite a few Tumblr blogs run both by and for Goths of colour, although as I'm not really on Tumblr, I can't really help with that. The only way for these blogs to become more popular is for them to be more widely read - and a lot of these blogs SHOULD be more widely read (especially Madame Mari Mortem, in my opinion) because they're putting out interesting content, not because of some special push for minority Goths.

    While I can find quite a few female and genderqueer/androgynous/ Goth bloggers of any size, age, race, skin colour, sexuality, etc. what I can't find is many male ones, either cis-gendered, trans, or primarily male identifying. I can only think of Nightwind and a couple of music bloggers. I presume there are more on Tumblr, but I feel Tumblr is more social image-sharing than it is blogging, and as I've said before, I don't have an account or really use that platform.

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    1. There is a lot of enthusiasm for budget friendly style/DIY and goth is ostensibly open to poor goths; it's a very middle class subculture, however (which isn't all bad, as it's very positive in encouraging education), and there's still a status attached to owning certain brand items (new rocks and demonias spring to mind) or obviously gothic items. I also wonder if that intersects with race, as goths of colour statistically are less likely to be as wealthy as white goths.

      Alternative culture is definitely many times better than mainstream culture for supporting those outwith modern beauty ideals, but it does certainly slip up; I notice this most in photoshoots, where I'm not actually sure of the last time I saw someone who wasn't statuesque and moonlight pale. I definitely don't expect goths of colour/goths with a disability/LGBTQ+ goths to take up blogging just because there isn't a lot of successful bloggers with their identity out there, or to focus their blogging on their experiences relating to it, but as a community we need to support them as they do exist. I'm probably going to do a feature on these bloggers at some point, because there's definitely some that deserve more attention.

      Male gothic bloggers are certainly something of a unicorn; I've mentioned Sinister Sartorialist till I'm blue in the face, but you're certainly right in there being more on tumblr.

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    2. I tend to see Goth as an educated rather than middle class subculture. I don't like how education is tied to class; you get people brought up working class who get doctorates and people with doctorates who work as labourers, heck I knew a guy that worked as an agricultural contractor after he got made redundant from a university science job... I also think it makes education seem like a middle class value, and working with children from a disadvantaged background, I feel like education should be seen as universal, for everyone, whether your born and raised at the top of tower-block or in a big country house - /everyone/ should value their education and think of it as something achievable for them. I don't ever want to hear someone say that it's silly to think of them going to university because they come from a council estate, and people from their estate don't go to university (there was a really interesting article in a recent-ish issue of T.E.S.S about this).

      The subculture is becoming middle-class as it has become more materialistic and I think it's deviating in a bad way from the Punk roots of the subculture. As I mentioned in Part 1 of the recent posts you inspired, I really I don't like how owning 'shinies' has become such a status symbol in the Goth community, especially to the point where people who can afford expensive clothes and trinkets are idealised at the expense of the DIY roots of the subculture, at the expense of people learning crafts and making stuff. The problem with Goth becoming too middle-class is that doing so is likely to turn it into commercial adornment stripped of meaning; I already see it becoming 'hipsterised' and that, to me, is the antithesis of how Goth ought to be something where the meaning of thesubculture's cultural artefacts is more important than superficial coolness.

      Partly this is because the bookish teens that joined the subculture 10 and 20 years ago grew up to put their education into use at professional jobs and therefore have greater spending power, and partly this is because like all subcultures, people identify it as a niche market, and not all of those people are from within the subculture; some of them are people just milling out mass-produced tat that's almost making a mockery of us, because they know someone whose tastes have not matured yet will probably buy it.

      Trying to give a class background for me is difficult, because I was a poor kid that got into boarding school on scholarship - I came from a one-parent family that seemed perpetually on benefits in a tiny terraced house, and we didn't always have enough food to go around, enough money to pay the bills, fuel the car, and I remember the threat of the house being repossessed hanging over us like the sword of damocles, and while I have a job and a flat and my independence, I'm still perpetually broke, and working all the hours I can to barely make ends meet. I've come to Goth as someone that's poor but educated, prepared to spend my time picking caterpillars off cabbages, digging holes, working in the supermarket and doing any other job that will pay me, very much into the Union movement and worker's rights (because I've been on the receiving end of employers that don't respect them) and I don't want people assuming that because I'm good enough at bargain hunting to put together a Gothic wardrobe that I've got middle-class affluence and a middle-class background or that I have no connection to Goth as a form of self-expression that grew organically and coalesced around certain bands, but came from the people, not the fashion houses and the rich bourgoise and that should still value self-expression in forms that are grass-roots lead... I see another post coming on! You're always thought provoking, and that's a good thing :)

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    3. I don't think placing value education is (or let alone should be) restricted to the middle classes, but education is certainly taken advantage of most by the middle classes - but that's a debate for another time entirely. I worry that some of the value placed on education in goth can sometimes produce/influence class snobbery; more so in Britain, I've seen lots of derisive comments aimed at those sporting Geordie Shore aesthetics, which is definitely rooted in class politics. There's also a perception that goth is mainly the preserve of those from middle class backgrounds, though I have no idea what the actual statistics on this are (but I'd love to find out).

      Values within goth towards education definitely give goths an advantage of sorts towards working for a decent income, and I do agree that the subculture is very materialistic. There's a very interesting academic article floating about the net looking at how goth has survived because unlike punk, it is not counter-culture and has no strong political leanings. I think the subculture has actually improved with time, as we're no longer devouring anything alternative brands churn out as was the case in the nineties/early 2000s, and have made an effort to support smaller independent brands and crafters (probably partially the result of the increasing goth presence online and explosion in sites like etsy). I also don't entirely mind some of the hipster influence, a) because I quite like nu-goth, and b) because it avoids stagnation in goth. There could certainly be more support for DIYing, but there's been a rise in the popularity of sewing and DIY blogs in mainstream blogging which hopefully may spur on more crafting; I'm certainly planning on having more DIY projects on here.

      Haha, thank you! Nothing wrong with inspiring a bit of discourse. :)

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    4. I remember some really awful 'Goth' stuff for sale in the late '90s and early 2000s, with designs that looked almost like Halloween costumes, but with prices at around £40, which was even more 15 years ago than it is now, and some of my old sampler CDs have some... really /not/ so good bands that seemed to be trying VERY hard to be Sisters of Mercy or Bauhaus without coming close to either.

      I don't think it's at all fair to judge someone for wearing tracksuits or for wearing fake tan and very high heels. Fair enough, I don't think it's sensible to wear your tracksuit trousers around your butt as was trendy a couple of years ago (or skinny jeans! for a while the local 'Alternative' kids were wearing their skinny jeans so low that their pants were showing, too) and some fake tans are a better (less unnaturally orange!) colour than others but that's more about execution than stylistic choice (like, for example, using halloween face-paint for white foundation while being a Goth!). I think this was something I blogged about in the first few months of my blogging!

      I think a whole discourse could be made about how fashion and class intersect, and why designs that seem tacky (neon colours, leopard print, etc.) end up being seen as a class indicator (including something about marketing and advertising aimed at the 'lower' end of the market) and how taste and class are a lot less inherently related than some people think, and that there's so much of this tied to advertising and marketing, as ridiculous trends exist at all financial demographics and people follow them, despite them being the kind of stuff that people will look back on in the future as an ugly dated thing that they are glad passed! (And it's weird how trends like '80s neon, which was very rapidly looked back on in retrospect as being a bit tacky, sometimes re-emerge!)

      I think somewhere along the lines, I've read that academic article, but I've forgotten most of it. I'll have to hunt it down and re-read it.

      Nu-Goth seems far more a revival of Trad Goth fashion than many of the other styles, and I think it may actually attract a few new people to the subculture, and also means that there's more stuff for us in mainstream shops and secondhand! It's also a good style for when fanciness isn't appropriate, as it works more on matte fabrics, forms and shapes, and sheer fabrics than on fancy textures like velvet, satin, brocade, etc. Some of it is almost /minimalist Goth/.

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    5. The intersection of class and fashion is one of my favourite nerd topics (never get me started on it), as well as how trends cycle and are reinvented (or not) for another generation.

      A lot of bloggers have pointed this out about nu goth as well; it's mostly as a result of the eighties influence than direct ancestry, but a lot of it seems more relatable to the original goth look than a lot of the more modern iterations (which is amusing if you're a believer in the 'the truest goth is the oldest goth' philosophy). There's also a definite eighties goth revival, which I'm equally pretty happy with. Most of the Japanese subcultural crossover influence seems to be stagnating and falling back, which I can't say I mind because I was never particularly keen on it.

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  12. Sounds pretty accurate! I probably follow more African American bloggers and whether I found them more easily because I am African American or am more attracted to them because of that similarity can be up for debate. Sometimes I think it's comical. I mean how many Instagrams of Diptyque candles, Lauduree macarons or Chanel boy bags does it take to be a fashion blogger? Certainly wealth is a key ingredient in the formula that makes a popular blogger. It's not all that surprising though because fashion does only allow for a certain viewpoint. Either you're talking about x, y and z designers or you're an outsider. That probably explains why I have an aversion to the title "fashion blogger" and all that it suggests. Instead, I try to write with a humorous lens on fashion and lifestyle topics (articles topics range from "Can Footwear be Racist"? -http://bit.ly/U5XU2l to Met Gala superlatives -http://bit.ly/1r0cYvn). You can let me know if you think I've succeeded.

    www.otisunfiltered.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks - I dislike the name 'fashion blogger' too, as it conjures up images of blonde, tanned middle class 20-30 year olds blogging about the latest it bag gifted to them by a brand. Which is quite obviously not my blog.

      There's a certain privilege in going along with the norm in fashion and fashion blogging (showing the same styles, ignoring cultural appropriation and other prejudices), but that doesn't mean that objecting and standing against the issue isn't worthwhile - and more power to you if you've found a way to write about this which you think works!

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