Black Clothing and Inverted Crosses: Fashion as Evidence in the American Satanic Panic

This article analyzes how fashion functioned as a visual marker of alleged teenage deviance that helped fuel the "Satanic Panic" by examining over fifty American newspaper articles from 1981–1992. These newspapers identified specific teen fashion choices as evidence of Satanic experimentation, fostering the construction of the stereotypical teen "dabblers" as misguided and potentially dangerous, and endangered, youth. In response to this perceived threat, public schools attempted to prevent, control, and rescue alleged dabblers through dress codes that prohibited "Satanic" fashion. However, fashion history shows that participants in and those influenced by the emerging Goth subculture were identified as teen dabblers. These fashion choices amplified Panic fears, demonstrating how clothing and jewelry functioned as material evidence that helped people "make belief" in Satanic threats. This paper highlights fashion's central role in translating abstract anxieties into concrete social action during a moral panic.