Daughters of Cain and the New American Gothic
Suburban America doesn't exactly scream goth subculture to most people. But the closer you look into suburbia, in empty lots and gas stations, there is the birth of the modern Gibson girl. The mother of that girl is Ethel Cain. Ethel Cain, whose album Preachers Daughter recently appeared on former president Obama’s list of top music of 2022, has a sound and fandom that can only be described as eerie, in the best way.
Graphic by Grace Livecchi
Beginning in 2019 with her debut album, Carpet Bed, Cain has cultivated her sound and associated imagery around the distorted puritanical. She utilizes Christian imagery mixed with muted goth elements, apparent in the phrase, “God loves you, but not enough to save you,” which runs atop her merch website. Since the release of her most popular single “American Teenager”, her fan base, which adorningly calls her Mother Cain, has grown to a powerful mass. They draw on influences like American Gothic, which in literature and art deals with themes of puritanism and depictions of western life in modernity. Her fans curate a way of life along with a style. Daughters of Cain listen to Ptolomea when they’re sad, wear camo print and lacy prairie dresses, go to Panera ( this is an inside joke within the fandom which originated via Cain’s TikTok), and give Cain their baby teeth after concerts.
Cain’s lyricism is the main draw for her fans. She both critiques American imperialism and violence whilst celebrating the youth culture which exists in the suburbs. Her opening lines of American Teenager state, “Grew up under yellow light on the street, Putting too much faith in the make-believe...Another red heart taken by the American dream”. This line is a great microcosm of Cain’s work, coming from the concept album telling the story of the character of “Ethel Cain” who moves through America meeting different men, and losing her faith in humanity. By the last three songs of the album, she is cannibalized by her last lover. The lyrics of her songs, many of which exhibit emo and goth influences, explore the complexities of American Christianity. Raised Southern Baptist in Tallahassee, Florida, Cain’s authenticity is what drives her fans to such lengths.
Something special about the Daughters of Cain is their anti-patriarchal dogma. The group is inherently matriarchal, because of Mother Cain. Cain has flipped the Christian script, creating a matrical society in which there are Daughters of Cain rather than Sons of God. Her fandom, therefore, is a mix of progressive men, women, and non-binary people, who have reclaimed aspects of traditional femininity and problematize the violence that comes with being a woman in America. Her music often pops up in discussions of female rage. This focus, therefore, attracts an open community of artistic types interested in further cultivating a gory transformation of the feminine by the feminine. A girl cult.