Kynt and Vyxsin

A Q-and-A from the Gothic Charm School (sort of a Goth Miss Manners):

The other thing that was recently brought to the Lady of the Manners’ attention is the fact that there’s apparently a gothy couple on The Amazing Race. (The Lady of the Manners had to have The Amazing Race explained to her. The Lady of the Manners watches TV by viewing complete seasons of shows on DVD, and so is somewhat behind on current pop culture and reality shows.) One reader (who asked not to be named) queried:

I don’t know if you watch reality television, but I have some questions about the self-styled “Gothic” team Kynt and Vyxsin from The Amazing Race. I get that they wear weird makeup and fishnet T-shirts, but they seem to be way too happy (not to mention wearing way too much pink) to really be Goths. Surely no self-respecting Goth would be this interested about running around in the scorching heat in Africa, grinning from ear-to-ear with hot pink hair! Can you settle once and for all on whether these two are the biggest posers since Gumby, or is hot pink as Goth as Hot Topic?

Oh dear oh dear. People aren’t really still clinging to the false notions that Goths can never be cheerful, or never wear pink? Good heavens, the Lady of the Manners thought those cliches were put to rest ages ago! Yes, Goths can, and frequently are, very happy and cheerful. Goth is about appreciating the off-kilter, the darkly humorous, the (as the sainted Lydia from Beetlejuice said) “strange and unusual”. Goth is not about maintaining a seamless facade of woe and gloom, and never has been. Goth is more about embracing a dark and decadent aesthetic while simultaneously being able to laugh at oneself for sitting around wearing black velvet and reading Dracula by candlelight.

As to the “wearing way too much pink” comment: hot pink has been a wonderful accent color for black Gothwear since the early days of Deathrock and Batcave. (The Lady of the Manners personally prefers cupcake pink, but to each their own.) Goth fashion, while predominately black-hued, frequently dabbles in other colors. The Lady of the Manners thinks that the hot pink and black color scheme that Kynt and Vyxsin have adopted is striking, and also makes them slightly more approachable than an all-black wardrobe would. Which is a very clever move on their part, since they will need every advantage they can get to go forth and win this race thing.

Prairie got me hooked on The Amazing Race last year, and we’ve been having a lot of fun watching this season. The season started with a lot of teams that we liked, and while we’ve been a bit frustrated that we’ve lost some good teams while others that we’d like to see go keep hanging on, we’re thrilled that ‘the hippies‘ and ‘the goths’ are still part, and we’re really rooting for one of those two teams to win.

One of the things we’ve really noticed about both TK and Rachel and Kynt and Vyxsin is how markedly more mature their relationships are — with both teams, even when they’re behind, stuck somewhere, risking losing their spot, tired, hungry, or frustrated, they rarely if ever take it out on each other. They’ll express their frustration and anger, sure, but they don’t turn on each other and attack the other player. Even Kynt and Vyxsin’s ‘meltdown’ on last Sunday’s episode was worlds away from the regular abuse that Nate and Jennifer heap on each other in their good moments.

While sure, I’ll admit that part of the ‘drama’ of reality programming is the relationships (good and bad, but often bad) between the contestants, it’s been nice to see that at least two of the final five teams in this race actually treat each other like people should be treated — and it’s more than a little thrilling that it’s the two ‘counter-culture’ teams that have the best relationships.

Go weirdoes! ;)