Comments

if you don't already know what you want to do with your life, PLEASE look into journalism you would be great at it 

i actually didn't know about this, interesting (albeit sad) analysis you've got

as a black person who used to be scene/emo, thank you for including us. i was scene/emo but i didn't have the raccoon tails in the hair like the others did <3

lowkey this summed up all my modern day problems with the subculture <(＿　＿)>

one of the best written blogs ive read here! im not a part or involved in the scene community , but maybe through association i do understand the gist of it. i totally noticed the overlap of social issues but i never knew there are actual organized groups for scenesters. :0

this blog is written like an educational reflective essay with how you addressed the historical context and also included personal accounts of your own, i enjoyed reading through it! 

such an important blog, a lot of kids need to read this and learn to be fair and respectful to others while also realize some things about subcultures and how they came to be. 

10/10

" I don't even have TikTok or Insta"

Me neither, I don't have TikTok and I'm not interested on having one.... But I do have Instagram but only used it for a bit then stopped using it. LOL XD

I'm not scene but this was very educational and interesting to read! 

The Rewinders love it when you post blogs!!!!

You put serious time into this so have infinite spiritual kudos!

okay so how can i repost this on every platform to ever exist and make sure evry1 who tries to voice their opinion on the scene subculture reads this beforehand

absolutly loved reading this!!! i really like learning about the history of the scene so this post is perfect!! very well researched and worded, couldn't have done it better IMO :D

Gonna be honest, I only properly found out the subculture existed a bit over a year ago, but I’d say I somewhat qualify as far as the fashion stuff (more Rawring 20s than OG scene) and music stuff go (not so much the “go to concerts” stuff), and I have a basic rule of “Stop caring about what others say about you, unless it’s positive, then care immensely”.

I don’t consider myself an asshole (in the racist, homophobic, sexist, ableist, ED-promoting way, I am in the blunt, no censorship way), and I generally don’t really care about Perfection Groups or perfection in general, unless I’m creating something, then I try to make it as perfect as possible.

“Essentially, anyone who was in [VV] would be barred from joining or applying to any of these groups because they were in a group for "ugly" scene kids.”

Bruh, EVERYONE IS UGLY!!

In all honesty, petty gatekeeping does suck.

Also, I’m pretty sure the “You have to be politically left to be scene” argument is because some people who are politically right would probably consider the subculture (especially the music and how the people present themselves) to be “woke” and satanic.

I don’t know why I spent an hour writing this.

Thank you for writing this. Ive been waiting for someone to say it. I only made it about half way thru but ill finish later!!!

FINALLY someone said it. literally everyone on tiktok says "scene is about politics too you fucking mole rat!!!" and then they refuse to elaborate as to what politics scene follows. THEY'RE BEING VAGUE BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT

for all twelve year old ars0n knows, scene's politics could endorse kicking puppies and donating your entire net worth to daddy muskrat. they hate uneducated kids in the scene and then refuse to educate them .-.

Thank you SOOO much for touching on the misconception that scene is “political”!! I think it comes from people who mean well but it’s so untrue it makes me laugh.

I guess you could argue that some male scenesters were sometimes politically subversive when they challenged traditional gender roles with their fashion but there really was little to no meaningful political movement at all. 

I think this is a really great post. If you want more things to research I think you should look into, and then write about, how scene culture vastly changed in the early to mid 2010s (that was when I was a "scene kid" à la MDE lol) and how scene culture began to decay before it (in my opinion) pretty much died in the mid 2010s.

I think it's cool that kids these days are into it, but I agree, a lot of their beliefs are ahistorical at best and dangerous at worst. It's concerning how the resurgence of "scene kids" has coincided with eating disorders and body checking, if anything I find it kind of embarrassing how many of these kids think that enjoying 2000s fashion = preaching 2000s values.

I like how you mentioned that scenesters were largely viewed as posers. For kids to want to recreate this culture, but not even understand WHY it was it's own culture (because other alternative cultures hated them and thought they were fucking annoying posers) in the first place, is definitely... something. I guess it's morbidly ironic. They want to be scene, but there IS no scene, so in their own fucked up way they've recreated the shitty performative dynamics of it all, making it about who is the most specialist popular princess with the most hideous Shein outfit on.

I've always found it funny how they call themselves "scene queens" even though they have absolutely nothing to show for it, and that term was always highkey an insult. It's like, I would never proclaim myself as a "poser" so why the fuck would I call myself a scene king... but whatever. 20k followers on tiktok does not a scene queen make, in my opinion. A lot of these kids don't have the ability to network themselves into actual notoriety because they're fucking rude!

They want to judge other people for not being "authentic" (skinny, white, etc) but they themselves do nothing but redefine what the scene actually was, and redefine who scenesters were as a whole. So odd. Just do your own thing for fuck's sake!!

First of all, I just want to say that this was genuinely one of the most interesting posts I've read here in a while. You can really tell how much research, personal experience, and passion went into writing this. It honestly felt less like a rant and more like a proper analysis of how subcultures evolve when they move from smaller communities into mainstream spaces

One thing I really liked about your post is that you didn't just romanticize the past. A lot of people talk about old internet communities like MySpace as if they were some perfect golden era, but the reality is that those spaces also had a lot of toxic things happening. Nostalgia can make people forget the bad parts. I think it's important to appreciate the creativity, friendships, and self-expression that came from those communities while still acknowledging the problems they had

The point about scene being more than just an aesthetic really stood out to me. I think this happens with almost every subculture once it becomes popular. Something that originally came from a specific community gets reduced into a Pinterest board, a fashion checklist, or a "personality type." The same thing has happened with goth, punk, metal, and many other scenes. People see the visual language but sometimes miss the history and the people behind it

I also really liked your point about labels being complicated. It's funny because subcultures often form as a rejection of fitting into boxes, and then eventually people create new boxes inside those communities. Humans really love categorizing everything, even things that were created to escape categorization

The part about gatekeeping was especially interesting because I think there is a difference between protecting a culture and using it as an excuse to make people feel unwelcome. Wanting people to understand the music, history, and community behind something is completely different from demanding that someone has the "correct" hair, body type, clothes, or background

Also, I really respect that you included your own experiences. It's easy to discuss communities from a distance, but your examples show how these ideas actually affect real interactions between people. The story about the person who started a kandi trade and the story about the person who rejected you are such a good example of the contrast between what these spaces can be and what they sometimes become

Anyway, thank you for writing this! I really enjoyed reading it. It was a fascinating look at not only scene culture, but also how the internet changes communities over time. I'd love to read your future post about the "Rawring 20s" revival too, because that sounds like another really interesting topic <33

Well said. It seems like most modern scene kids or anyone of an alternative subculture don't care about learning the history of the subculture they are in. It's honestly so annoying to because they genuinely belive what they are saying about the subculture is true. When they can't even tell you the history of there own subculture