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'Marilyn Manson Is Giving Goths A Bad Name. Please Don't Tarnish Us All With The Same Brush'

Kimberley Bond

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'Marilyn Manson Is Giving Goths A Bad Name. Please Don't Tarnish Us All With The Same Brush'

Featured Image Credit: Credit: Nicola Hardwick/PA

"You can look at him and see he's insane. Why would anyone go along with him willingly?"

"He looks like hell. Someone who looks like him can't be mentally sane."

These are just a handful of the comments that have flooded social media since Evan Rachel Wood and four other women named Marilyn Manson in allegations of abuse, sexual assault and other forms of violence last week.

No one could dispute the disturbing nature of the allegations against the infamous musician - which he has vehemently denied - but should his appearance really be a factor?

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Evan Rachel Wood and Manson were engaged in 2010 (Credit: Shutterstock)
Evan Rachel Wood and Manson were engaged in 2010 (Credit: Shutterstock)

The musician's cultural influence arguably peaked in the nineties, when 'Marilyn Manson' was a by-word for controversy; accused of corrupting America's schoolchildren with his brand of industrial rock and elaborate showmanship.

But while the 53-year-old has become increasingly irrelevant over the years, the recent reports about Manson - real name Brian Warner - are giving cause for concern for goths and members of alternative subcultures.

Those who are part of the goth scene have already moved to distance themselves from Manson, with many venting their frustration that the distinctive look is now being conflated with disturbing and abusive behaviour.

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"He's another sick individual who makes alt people look bad," one wrote on social media, while another added "Real goths f***ing hate Marilyn Manson."

These negative stereotypes are something Nicola Hardwick has put up with for most of her life. Having first become interested in the goth subculture when she was 17 when a friend introduced her to rock bands Placebo and Nirvana, the 38-year-old from Wolverhampton started to embrace gothic style - dyeing her hair black, painting her nails to match and wearing black lipstick.

"People's reactions towards me changed," she tells Tyla. "I was just getting stared at. People would cross the road to avoid me. And it made me feel really uncomfortable. Being goth has got such a bad rep."

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Nicola has been a goth since she was 17 (Credit: Nicola Hardwick)
Nicola has been a goth since she was 17 (Credit: Nicola Hardwick)

Over time, she fully embraced the goth look - complete with multiple piercings and 37 tattoos.

"I thought, if I love it, why should I hide the way I look?" she says. "I look at pictures of myself before and I look at pictures of myself now, and I much prefer how I look now. I like myself with piercings and tattoos."

However, Nicola has had to develop a thick skin to learn to shrug off the comments, with strangers often making unsolicited remarks about her appearance.

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"A young woman came over to me on a night out said that I must have mental health issues because I had so many piercings and tattoos," she says. "Either that or 'daddy issues.' I had to really fight not to kick off.

"I've been called a bull because I've had a septum piercing. I've had so many silly comments about metal detectors. About my hair, people will make silly comments, saying I must have mental health issues and that I'm an attention seeker.

"Some of it is terrible, but I'm quite thick-skinned so it doesn't bother me that much. Some people have been really tormented by it - all because we look a little bit different."

The subculture has been associated with 'devil worship' (Credit: Pexels)
The subculture has been associated with 'devil worship' (Credit: Pexels)
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Nicola adds: "I had to come off dating sites three years ago because I used to get messages from men saying I must be a 'right dirty b***h in the bedroom' and asking 'what those piercings must feel like.' They automatically think I'm a dominatrix. I've got two sons, where have I got time to do that? It's creepy."

Nicola believes people's "narrow-mindedness" when it comes to Goth and alt subcultures come from misconceptions around devil worshipping, as well as some of the more extreme behavior embraced by Manson and similar bands.

"I don't even believe in the bloody devil," she adds. "I find people who judge the alternative scene are very uptight. They're not willing to see that people can choose to be a little different.

"Goths are the best people in the world. I've never had any trouble from people within the community, a lot of people are very quiet as they've been hassled so much before. They keep themselves to themselves.

"It's from 'normal' people from the outside I've felt most at risk. These sorts of people who are doing this have never sat down or had a conversation with someone who's alternative. Or got to know anybody in the alternative scene. A lot of these people haven't taken the time to get to know somebody before they judge them. They just condemn us straight away."

Nicola believes those who have negative stereotypes about the alt scene are 'uptight' (Credit: Nicola Hardwick)
Nicola believes those who have negative stereotypes about the alt scene are 'uptight' (Credit: Nicola Hardwick)

Nicola adds that she feels frustration that the Manson allegations will further perpetuate misconceptions about the community.

"If Marilyn Manson is guilty of the allegations, he deserves all he gets," she says. "He's a very extreme example.

"But it doesn't automatically mean that everyone who dresses a little bit different, and listens to different music is going to go out and abuse people. It doesn't.

"It's really narrow-minded to judge a human being based simply on that. There's plenty of people who have been arrested for sexual abuse and murder, and they don't look like goths."

With her 40th birthday coming up soon, Nicola says that some of her older relatives are expecting her to shed her goth look - but as long as she's comfortable, and her sons are happy, she's not changing for anybody.

Nicola loves her goth look and wont be giving it up (Credit: Nicola Hardwick)
Nicola loves her goth look and wont be giving it up (Credit: Nicola Hardwick)

She just hopes for people to be less narrow minded about alternative subcultures.

"I'm not going to change. My nan will say to me, you need to start taking their piercings out. And I'm like, no. I'm not changing the way I look to suit what people think people my age should look like," she says.

"We can like different things, we can look different and we don't have to like the same things. As the internet shines light on different subcultures, hopefully people will be more open-minded in the future.

"My sons are 13 and 10, and they've been given grief from kids at school, with their friends asking, 'your mum looks weird.'

"They always say, 'she doesn't look weird, she looks cool - and she's cooler than your mum.' If they can be open to it, so can grown adults."

Topics: Life News, Life, Fashion

Kimberley Bond
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