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| A great example of some more elaborate steampunk attire |
First we must define what a Counter-Culture is. Ask anyone who knows me, I hate hippies. I am absolutely appalled by them, everything they stand for, and their unbelievably lazy disposition all around. However, I have to give hippies credit, at the time, they were the first, and only, Counter-Culture. They rebelled against the societal norms. They did drugs, some of which were legal at the time, such as LSD, but that's beside the point, they had free and open sex outside of the confines of marriage, they sat around and did nothing with their lives, they fought back against Society and, probably their only good legacy, inspired almost every Counter-Culture to come afterwards. Therefore, we can define a Counter-Culture to be any Culture that knowingly and purposely rebels against the preconceived normalities in Society. Their purpose is to make people uncomfortable, they are there to make people think, to get their attention, and to question a fundamental problem they perceive in the world. Even some of the so called "Shallow" Counter-Cultures such as Steam/Cyberpunk are actually a call to the world to look at them in their odd clothing, to force Society to confront someone who is truly who they are inside, and to question themselves: "Who am I to tell them that is wrong?"
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| Possibly the most insipid, pretentious show on air |
The Counter-Culture I will be dealing with most today will be Goth as it is what spurred this blog. Today I was released from class early and returned home while my mother was still on lunch break. She was watching a show on some channel I didn't bother to check named "What Not to Wear". On this show someone's friends send in pictures and videos of the person in what they perceive as "horrific" or "unacceptable" clothing then the show's two hosts go and "help" the person become more "fashionable". The episode that was airing concerned a girl who wore semi-goth clothing. Generally her outfit consisted of a black dress and colored tights, long songs, or fishnet stockings. While I would agree with the statement that it is sometimes better to have a slightly diverse wardrobe, I find absolutely nothing wrong with the outfits she is shown in prior to her "transformation". As the show progresses the girl mentions that she isn't goth despite how many times the hosts continue to call her goth. However, all of that is beside the point. What is the point is how these two perceived "fashion gurus" bash on the goth culture. I remember a quote from the female host where she says and I quote "Goth went out of style fifteen years ago." As if it were a mere passing fad that had no cultural relevance or meaning. Goth, while it may have been hijacked over the years by emos and scene and turned into something little more than a music genre, actually stood for something upon it's inception. Goth was the beginning of the "dress up" branch of Counter-Cultures. They are the progenitors of the notion: Force people to deal with it, force them to question why they believe it is wrong to dress like this. While Goth as a counter-culture may have lost it's push or point over the years it did the same thing that hippies did, it inspired further Counter-Cultures. Goth gave way to two of the most well-known Counter-Cultures: Steampunk and Cyberpunk. While steampunk is more easily recognized because of it's emphasis on the Victorian Era, both Steam and Cyberpunk have worked the same angle early Goth did.
Where do gamers fit into this? Well TRUE gaming can itself be seen as a Counter-Culture. When I talk about TRUE gaming I am talking of the pen and paper RPGs. As the sixth-generation video game systems, PS2, Gamecube, and X-Box, all brought video games to the forefront and eventually under the umbrella of accepted society. The outcasts who continue to this day with true Dungeons and Dragons and Rogue Trader and Call of Cthulhu and Iron Kingdoms they are their own Counter-Culture, but more of an underground one, conducted mostly on the internet. They rebel, as so may have before them, and after them, against the oppressive normality that we are all forced to live under every single day of our lives. That we are forced to bow down to or be removed from the workings of Society. Those Happy Pariahs, they rebel against the bullshit and the preconceived notions with manuals and d20s in hand. They are warriors, fighting against oppression that most of the world doesn't even acknowledge, they just twiddle their thumbs, suppress their objections, and bow down. We do not, we will not.
That's all for today, HappyPariah
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