When I first googled Dark Academia, some of the first results were essays and videos criticizing it. The first major complaint I saw was that it promotes an unhealthy lifestyle of all night study sessions, mental illness, and alcoholism. I laughed a little when I saw this. I mean, I wanted to take it seriously but it’s just such an odd bit of moral panic I couldn’t help myself. I mean, the internet finally coughs up a subculture that promotes reading and museums and wearing literally anything besides tube tops and ripped jeans and some people still can’t be pleased. If you don’t want young people to educate themselves and appreciate beauty, what on earth is it you do want from them?

Okay, some of this is the wisdom of age. I got into goth in the 1990s and never entirely left, so I’ve been hearing for decades now that wearing black and listening to Dead Can Dance too much will drive me to suicide, or possibly Satan, and so far it hasn’t. This experience has made me biased–when anyone claims a subculture will ruin the young people, I need a lot of evidence before I’ll take their fear seriously.

In this case, though, the morally panicked crowd seems to be reaching pretty hard. First, young people will want to stay up all night no matter what. They’ll do a certain amount of unhealthy things, like drive too fast or drink too much or live on ramen and coffee, no matter what. That’s kind of what young people do, isn’t it? I spent all of high school and most of college sleep deprived, and so did probably everyone else, because I was young and full of energy and didn’t really worry about things like that. I also occasionally got stupid drunk or had way too much caffeine and didn’t feel that great. Again, I was young and bounced back quickly so I didn’t worry about it. Then, like most people do, I got too old for that shit. Now that I’m forty-five, I exercise and eat vegetables and drink moderately and avoid caffeine in the evenings and almost always get to sleep by 11 PM. At this age, I pursue my darkly academic interests responsibly. As far as I can tell, the generations before me also did stupid things when they were young and then fixed their habits once their backs started hurting and all that booze and coffee made their heartburn act up. I have no reason to think this generation will be any different. In fact, these coming generations already seem more careful about their health than I was at their age. I’m all for healthy habits, but I think it’s silly to worry that DA is ruining people’s health. I mean, worrying that much can’t be healthy either, right?

I think it’s less silly to worry about people being depressed or otherwise struggling emotionally, but again, people made the same panicked claims about goth. In my experience, it wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now. Dark Academia doesn’t glorify mental illness any more than goth does, they’re both just misunderstood.

There’s a certain part of society that pushes the idea that you can and should be constantly happy, and I actually think those people are the dangerous ones. That forced cheer feels deeply corporate to me–if you achieve it you can be more productive for your employers, and if you can’t achieve it there are hundreds of self-help gurus and lifecoaches and supplement peddlers who will sell you a solution to your “problem.” Accepting and even romanticizing life’s low points can be a healthy rebellion against that pressure, in my opinion.

Sure, some Dark Academics have mental health issues and some probably even wallow in them or build too much of their identity around them. Some goths do, too. I don’t think they’re doing it because of the subculture, though. I actually think that’s a problem with mainstream culture. I think this is actually the dark underbelly of the forced positivity movement–if you can and should be constantly happy, people who aren’t must be terribly ill. Of course, most of us feel anxious or angry or sad sometimes, which means we’re all encouraged to see ourselves as ill. But if everyone has some diagnosis or other, I think we’re either overdiagnosing or mainstream culture has become really bad for people’s mental health. I don’t know which it is; maybe a bit of both. Even as subcultures rebel and do their own thing, it’s against the background of whatever the mainstream is doing. Things leak in, and I think this “glorification of mental illness” is one of them. I don’t think DA (or goth, for that matter) glorifies mental illness any more than the mainstream does, it just handles these issues in a different and perhaps more honest way that makes society’s mental health crisis more obvious.

The fact is, having a creative outlet and a group of people to share your interests with is good for your mental health, even if your outlet is too weird or dark for most people. I know when I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety in the past, throwing myself into books and music and online subculture groups has been more helpful than anything else. I’ve actually found it more helpful than the therapists I’ve been to. Not to knock therapy–I found it helpful and if you’re struggling you might also–but spending time, even online, with people who share my dark taste and won’t pressure me to act positive and “normal” has been a lifesaver. In my experience, gloomier subcultures like goth and Dark Academia are generally more understanding of loneliness and trauma than most people are, while still being fun and passionate about life. Maybe you have to be involved with the subcultures to really appreciate that. Maybe it’s not obvious unless you experience it for yourself.

I remember reading somewhere that back in the Romantic era, it was considered very noble and manly to be emotional. Truly great men would be moved to tears by a beautiful symphony or become deeply angry when someone’s honor was insulted. I also remember reading that women, being less emotionally deep than men, were less capable of true nobility and friendship. Leaving aside the obvious sexism, I’m fascinated by how completely this attitude is reversed in today’s world. Today, we associate greatness and mental health with machine-like stability and often treat tears or anger as immature or unhealthy. (And now that emotions are bad we associate them with women, because sexism is still a thing.) The original Romantic era was a counterpoint to the Enlightenment’s attempt to make everything more “scientific” and mechanistic. I can’t help but think Dark Academia is part of a sort of new Romantic era, this time a counterpoint to corporate productivity and conformist consumerism. If so, I hope this new Romantic era will prove to be as imaginative and exciting as the first one.