Do You Judge People Based on Long Hair/Dyed Hair/Piercings

I can relate a lot to you, Sylvia.

When I was little I had NO idea what "goth" was, but I was in love with black clothing (particularly Victorian and Renaissance), listened to mostly minor-key classical music growing up, and always wanted to visit and take pictures in cathedrals and cemeteries... I didn't really dress the part till middle school/high school, but as I got older my style evolved a lot. I also added a LOT of music to my library over the years.

I haven't gotten married yet but am engaged - I've already picked out a beautiful black wedding dress. I never, ever wanted to get married in white, because it doesn't and has never felt "right." It's going to be a pretty nontraditional wedding though - even though I don't follow a specific organized religion, I am a very spiritual person.

I had a ton of friends in high school, though I wasn't necessarily accepted by everyone. I would get pegged with the usual stereotypes, but as I got older I found I subconsciously tuned it out. The way I figure it, if people are going to be that shallow I don't need them around, so I won't bend over for them.

I know it wasn't directed at me but I felt compelled to answer

As someone who wears black nearly 24/7 (I say nearly because I *do* have this really beautiful blood-red corset... anyway), I feel more comfortable dressing the way I do because it feels like ME. At the risk of sounding corny, I find it very soul-nourishing. I find a certain spirituality and depth that most are never aware of, and I feel I carry a piece of that depth with me at all times.

I am also not Christian, but I do wear crosses, along with the Egyptian Ankh and the pentacle. I've never combined all three, but I have been spotted wearing both a cross and a pentacle for instance. I wear all for different reasons. The cross is of course the trickiest one - even though I don't believe in the religion I do love a lot of the older Orthodox Christian aesthetics (an Orthodox service is COMPLETELY unlike a Catholic or Protestant one) as well as the older Gothic churches. Moreover, never in history has a symbol had so many meanings - while many see it as a sign of peace, you can't forget the blood and brutality (it was, after all, a method of execution), and the cross was used before Christ ever came into the picture... To sum up, aesthetics, fascination, and brutality all rolled into one.

I also realize that people often have misconceptions about the Ankh and Pentacle, or my reasons for wearing them. I once had a friend versed in ancient Egyptian religion, or Kemetic Reconstruction, and that was probably the closest connection I'd ever felt to an organized religion. I don't follow it, per se, but am influenced by and am fascinated by ancient Egyptian beliefs. The Pentacle often gets grouped into DIABOLICAL SATANISM (tangent note about Satanism: there are the sick f**ks, who of course give the rest of us a bad name and therefore should fall off the face of the earth; then there are the Levayans, who, while self-empowerment is great, they take it to the extreme and basically become assholes; then the Luciferians, who feel that Lucifer the Fallen Angel was punished for bringing knowledge to the world - the latter two don't actually worship Satan, but rather worship themselves and become narcissists or feel grateful for said knowledge), or Wicca (which many people misconstrue as the be-all-end-all of paganism and the occult... it's not even 100 years old, and has quite frankly become a hodge-podge because it spread itself so thin), neither of which I am a part of.

Interesting fact... up till about the year 1000 the Pentacle was also used as a Christian symbol. It's been used so many times that no one can really give it a singular use.

Sorry, I know I went off on a ramble, but those are my $0.02