Goths look different. We like things that most people find questionable, distasteful, or even troubling. We don't fit in with "normal" people. Consequently, a lot of assumptions are made and stereotypes created about goths, and most of them are untrue:

We're not all satanists.

We don't think we're vampires.

We're not dangerous or violent.

We're not obsessed with death and killing.

We don't all do drugs.

We're not all into S&M. (Not that there isn't some crossover, but the two don't equate.)

Not all male goths are gay.

Not all female goths are straight.

We have jobs or attend school, pay taxes, raise families, own cars and houses, volunteer in our communities, and are generally just as productive as anyone else, if not more so.

We do tend to have some kind of artistic leanings, but we're not all musicians making glum music, pretentious painters, or freakish comic book artists. Some of us do those things, of course, but others sew, make jewelry, write everything from novels to humorous essays, cook, sculpt, take photographs, garden, do stained glass, dance, make films, design games, or engage in any of hundreds of other creative endeavors.

We're not out to terrify people (most of the time), steal their money, corrupt their children, or do anything other than live our lives the way we choose. In that, we're no different from the rest of the world.

More information:

Goth With a Sledgehammer debunks these myths, and others, with a lot more...um...candor than I have.