Please explain this sXe movement

I just ran across an article on the www. about a youth culture movement called
"straight edge"

I have never heard of this cultural phenomenon. Anyone here in the movement that can educate me?

I'm not in the movement, but I know a few people who are.

Straight edge is about keeping yourself pure, no alcohol, drugs, promiscuous sex etc.

I said this in a thread not long ago about straight edge violence.

Just before everyone goes "I hate straight edge kids" I would like to say that there are militant and non-militant types.

The militant are basically idiots that would try and burn down a pub, more than likely because they've had a bad experience on alcohol/ or a bad experience due to someone being on alcohol (Or smokes, drugs, promiscuous sex)

The non-militant (like my cousin who is a wonderful guy) Take it easy, they can speak to someone having a cigarette without mentioning that it's "The enemy" and use the motto "It's your decision" quite a lot.

I don't know what the situation is like in America, but here in Australia it's pretty tame. Not all straight-edge "gangs" are bad, just remember that!

Thread

Wikipedia goes into it in a bit more detail, I'm not sure about the exact historical transformation of Straight edge but in general the information seems pretty accurate.

Straight Edge - Wikipedia

reply to post by WishForWings



Thank you! and for the link. Who are the hero's, bands, lifestyle, etc.

To me this is a very strange type of youthful rebellion.

Yeah no doubt it's strange, from my experiences most people that are straight edge have had issues with abuse in the past either due to their own actions or someone else.

The main reason for doing it is health obviously, either that or just to fit in to the cliche.

The hero's are... Well most straight edge people look up to straight edge bands, infact my screen name, WishForWings is a band from my city. They WERE straight edge but then "broke edge" which lost a large amount of their sXe fan base.

Straight edge people hate people that "break edge" and by breaking edge, I mean... Ahh it's hard to explain, Once you make the decision to be straight edge, it's meant to be for life.

Hope this wasn't too difficult to understand, I'm not the best writer!

Strait-edge has been around for a little while now. I'm 27 and remember it when in high school. I'm all for it. When I was in school, it was still somewhat against the norm to smoke, do drugs, & have sex before 15.

Now that it seems most people are going bonkers at just about any age, this sort of makes sense to rebel against the norm in this way. I partied hard when I was younger. While I had a lot of cool experiences at the time, I don't much remember a lot of it, and there were many messed up situations, too. Wish I would of had the wisdom not to be such a fool and screw up my body like I did. It took years to regain my health after all the hard drugs and endless times of partying all night.

[edit on 10-11-2009 by unityemissions]

reply to post by WishForWings


You explained it well. But isn't this quest for personal purity elitist, quasi religious, and very unrealistic.

It sounds similar to the "Jesus Freaks" back during the hippie days.

Is this movement an offshoot of 12step programs such as ACOA or AlAteen?

reply to post by whaaa


It seems like that, not everyone has had some kind of actual reason to be sXe though.

Some people just make friends within that genre and that's all the friends they have so their easily brainwashed I guess, plus some of the bands lyrics really don't help.

I'm a person just like you. But I've got better things to do. Than sit
around and f*** my head. Hang out with the living dead. Snort white s*** up
my nose. Pass out at the shows. I don't even think about speed. That's
something I just don't need.

That's from "Minor Threat's" song entitled "straight edge"
Source

I don't know what's so hard to understand about it. People make the choice to live clean, healthy, educated, prosperous lives.

How is that quasi-religious or even unrealistic?

I don't do drugs. I don't drink. I don't run around having sex, protected, unprotected, or otherwise.

Am I Straight Edge? No.
Is being S.E. a bad thing? No.

I don't know if he would be considered a role model of sorts, but WWE Wrestler C.M. Punk is Straight Edge. He's been proudly promoting his lifestyle choices for over a decade. As far back as when he was a wrestler with ECW, before WWE bought it.

reply to post by Detailed Perfection


By all means straight edge is a good thing, but it's the fact that it's getting a little nasty, as in attacking people (in gangs) for not believing in their "lifestyle".

I wonder whether it's the Straight Edge people who are becoming militant, or whether it is just some militant types who claim to be Straight Edge. This happens with other groups - you've got so-called "Christians" who commit all kinds of un-Christian crimes, etc.

The idea of living purely is fine. Watch what you eat, don't do any drugs (not even legal ones like tobacco or alcohol), keep your partners to a minimum, how bad could it be? Just don't try to make other people live that way. Persuasion is fine; coercion, not so much.

Hey hey hey hey

They're just those people who will never feel what it's like to know everything one second, and forget it all the next.

Originally posted by chiron613
I wonder whether it's the Straight Edge people who are becoming militant, or whether it is just some militant types who claim to be Straight Edge. This happens with other groups - you've got so-called "Christians" who commit all kinds of un-Christian crimes, etc.

The idea of living purely is fine. Watch what you eat, don't do any drugs (not even legal ones like tobacco or alcohol), keep your partners to a minimum, how bad could it be? Just don't try to make other people live that way. Persuasion is fine; coercion, not so much.

From the documentry I heard about it on cable about a week ago, (don't quote me on this) but the 2 guys that started it got out after 5(?) years or so. Most of the 'culture' they have now is gang related and it's against gays, lesbians, drug users, list goes on and on..

From the videos that were shown, they didn't look good at all and I certainaly wouldn't call it Christ-like in any way, shape or form.

Straight edge has been around since the early 80's. I remember the punk/hardcore scene split when the sXe movement came along. Before then it was the skins against everybody. Minor threat was kinda the first sXe band and i remember how militant these guys were, they seemed more like disaffected skinheads who just wanted to tell everyone else how to live. Later on, sXe got more connected to skatepunk bands in the late 80's. Where the movement went after that I don't know. Check out a magazine called Maximium Rock and Roll, I think it's still published and it always had a good barometer on what was happening. Man, i miss the music scene from back then, the energy was so intense. Getting old sucks! No more slam dancing for you old fart!

reply to post by Asktheanimals



Getting old certainly does suck! But I find youth culture an extremely interesting and accurate way to predict trends, fashion, and societal attitudes in general and often politically motivated.

I completely missed the sXe movement. Was it nation wide or localized?
And did it start as an alternative to "grunge"

The fact that clean livers can adopt the gang mentality and become violent boggles my mind. How can clean living and violence coexist in the mind of any rational person? IMO this is a type of social schizophrenia.

God help us!



[edit on 10-11-2009 by whaaa]

Originally posted by WishForWings

The non-militant (like my cousin who is a wonderful guy) Take it easy, they can speak to someone having a cigarette without mentioning that it's "The enemy" and use the motto "It's your decision" quite a lot.

Your idea of non-militant is actually another type of militant.

It is one thing to make a personal committment to "purity" but when you start pushing it on other people by making Judgements and "correcting" others (subtle harassment) it is Dominionist Behavior.