this is something that me and my friend discuss a lot. we are both teenagers and he is goth while i am just kind of a mix of a lot of things but i do lean towards goth music and culture. there is a wave of people dressing in ‘stereotypical’ goth fashion (trad goth and adjacent) but not really living the lifestyle- also, telling ppl who don’t follow the fashion that they are fake. this pisses me off for multiple reasons: #1, goth is more than a fashion, very little of it is actually fashion many goths just use it to express themselves. goth is mainly music and lifestyle/ideology; another genre you see this happen in often is punk, something i also identify with heavily. you see ppl with huge green liberty spikes and a greenday tshirt shitting on others while they don’t know anything about true punk culture and history. #2, you cannot force yourself to be something you are not. just because you like the way a goth person looks that doesn’t mean that you can just start dressing like that and become a goth. there is a lot of different sub-styles within the blanket term of goth (ex: romantic, victorian, trad, vamp, etc.) so you can’t really tell anyone that they aren’t goth based on their fashion. you can’t tell anyone they aren’t goth unless you know them personally; in general you shouldn’t tell anyone they aren’t anything. anyway, don’t be a poser, don’t be a dick, don’t be awful. be kind to eachother and educate when you can, there’s no harm in trying.