Health goth

Health Goth is a goth subculture fashion style and aesthetic revolving around biotechnology, monochrome sportswear, fetish culture, extreme cleanliness, and rendered environments. Health goth has roots in "street goth" but focuses on trans-humanism, Net art, technical sportswear, bionic body parts, combat gear and an understanding of whole body and mental health. The creators have stated the following keywords they use when sourcing imagery: "mesh, moisture-wicking fabrics, BioWare, body enhancement tech, prosthetics, shoe dipping, various fashion and performance wear brands, transparent clothing, chains and light weaponry, tactical gear, elemental aesthetics, corporeal mortification, and rendered environments." Essentially a more modern form of cyberpunk.

History

Origins

The term "Health Goth" originated from Portland artists, Mike Grabarek and Jeremy Scott (also known as Magic Fades), and artist Chris Cantino who started the original Health Goth Facebook community in 2013. They have stated, "A lot of the influence comes from HOODBYAIR, Cottweiler, Whatever 21, and A D Y N." They also claim they were attributing a name to describe a feeling that already existed. "When we started we’d just see an ad or some clothes we liked, and we’d see something dark or sexual in them that wasn’t intended to be there. So really the subversive side was just portraying the ads in a new light, because we wished these aspects were intentional. Things sort of went from there." In addition to citing athletic wear, future fashion labels and the emotional spectrum, they also reference sources from other online movements and aesthetics; "It’s not just the colour scheme, a lot of the stuff we post are just futuristic or healthy takes on goth style... We find equal inspiration in our Tumblr feed, where you see a lot of 3D rendered images, which have no people or clothing shown. Images of mesh, or a blade with a tribal pattern and a fern or something. It might not be evident upon looking at our page but a lot of our imagery is very Net Art inspired."

Theory

Grabarek, Cantino, and Scott have stated that Health Goth "has to do with our history of net art obsession and fascination with the rise of trans-humanism. We want to create art that references evolution and relate it back to subcultures, things like bio-enhancement technology, anti-aging medication, and how it all feeds into this ideal of "pursuing perfection". We embrace a lot of these futuristic fantasies but ultimately we all have our own fears and doubts about it. So we like to blur the edges between things that are transcendental and taboo just enough that it begs a discussion." They later stated they were "followers of the trans-humanist movement" and related their approach to a rejection of retro-fetishism: "It's pretty fantastical when it comes down to it, and some may find that too strange or taboo, but we prefer that blurry, uncomfortable space over the conventional and twee bullshit you see everywhere."

Blog & Magazine Appearances

Health Goth was first blogged on AMDISCS who interpreted it as the following; "Health Goth relies on an anti-nostalgic dystopian present, refracting the other by means of an exaggerated profile and tribal-aesthetics ... Health Goth projects a completely un-reflexive subjugation of the individual in the urban ecosystem ... It may be hyper-masculine on the surface, betraying a distinctively sus interior of body-mechanized cyborgian humanity within." The trend became viral and was featured prominently by publications such as Vice, Huffington Post, Globe and Mail, The Guardian, i-D, Marie Claire, Esquire, Fader, Vogue, Complex, Nylon, GQ, New York Times (the NYT was particularly maligned by Grabarek, Cantino, and Scott), and many more. Health Goth was the #2 most Googled fashion trend of 2014, behind Normcore.

Analysis

Perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of health goth arrived with Adam Harper's article for The Fader deconstructing the trend. The article posited that health goth was a signifier of a post-genre world, in which aesthetics lead the way for subcultural and microgenre movements as they grow increasingly unique and amalgamated. The creators seemed to reflect this sentiment, as they stated in an article to Complex: "Health Goth is not a lifestyle, it's an exercise in aesthetics. Any publication trying to tell you that Health Goth is about working out has simply taken the two words at face value and opted for a less challenging, and extremely boring alternative." Cantino, Grabarek, and Scott refused to suggest lifestyle tenets related to health goth, instead encouraging viewers to "simply pick and choose which elements they like." Harper further dissected the origins, tracing the trends' origins to a group of musicians and artists from the Pacific Northwest, and examined the uniqueness of a subculture borne from a musical node that refuses to associate the trend with music.

Healthgoth.com

Johnny Love of DeathFace stated that he had seen the 'Health Goth' hashtag being used with photos of people wearing things like black Nike leggings and motorcycle masks. After contemplating his own lifestyle and how it related to the aesthetic, he reinterpreted the original aesthetic into a "fitness movement" and began selling T-shirts using the term Health Goth. During an interview with Thump, he inserted satire into the article named "10 Commandments of Health Goth" which contained tenets of how goths should work out at the gym. This clashed with the original creators' conception of Health Goth. According to Johnny, the re-appropriation offended many within the Health Goth community, who did not respect his commodification of the aesthetic. Johnny has stated, "... they all said I was making a mockery of Health Goth. So being an old Internet troll myself, I decided to go all the way with it. My friend actually bought the HealthGoth.com domain... and gave it me because we were like, "This is great -- these kids are going to get so mad." Grabarek, Scott, and Cantino responded to i-D Magazine concerning their frustrations with Love's actions: "The whole thing about working out came from this Jonny Deathface guy. He wrote the "Ten Commandments of Health Goth" and bought the domain name and started selling all these really tacky shirts. We accept we don’t have ownership of Health Goth, but we don’t want people thinking we’re just selling shitty shirts."