Straight edge

From RationalWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
I'll just have some 'erbal tea, thanks.

Straight edge is a subculture within the hardcore punk music scene. Straight edgers are those who do not use drugs or alcohol. Those straight edgers who end up partaking of drugs and/or alcohol anyways are referred to as having "broken edge".[1]

Contents

[edit] Origin

The movement started in the early 1980s as a reaction against the drug and alcohol use prevalent in the punk scene, often by people who had turned to punk in the first place as a reaction against the drug and alcohol use prevalent among their Van Halen-addled high school peers and were not at all pleased to find the same self-destructive behaviors in the punk scene.

[edit] Name and symbol

The name comes from the song "Straight Edge" by Minor Threat. The song decries drug use: "I'm a person just like you/ But I've got better things to do/Than sit around and fuck my head...I've got the straight edge".

The letter X became a symbol of straight edge. The origin of this was clubs which marked the hands of those who were underage with the letter X, indicating they were too young to be served alcohol. Straight edgers began showing up at clubs with the letter X already on their hands, indicating they too didn't want any alcohol. A variant on this is sXe (se for straight edge).

[edit] General denial

Some straight edgers went further, adding celibacy, vegetarianism (and sometimes veganism), and even the avoidance of cigarettes and coffee to the list of requirements.

Hardline was a particularly strange offshoot of straight edge, incorporating a mix of everything from straight edge, to animal rights and hard green, to religious right views on abortion and homosexuality. There were also some instances of straight edgers (whether "hardline" or not) taking it upon themselves to take "direct action" against drugs and alcohol in the punk scene, which may have negatively affected straight edge's reputation in some quarters.

[edit] Unfair policing

For some strange reason, straight edge is treated as a gang by law enforcement in at least one locale (Salt Lake City, Utah). Bizarre! -- the police want kids to say no to drugs and alcohol, but when a group of kids comes along who actually do, they are treated as a gang anyway. Oddly, straight edgers are probably the only youth in Utah (Mormons included) who actually follow the Mormon "word of wisdom" concerning alcohol, tobacco, and coffee. You can't win, I guess.

[edit] Don't miss

  • Crucial Youth, a 1987 spoof of straight edge bands, who took the fusion of hardcore punk and Boy Scout ethics deep into Poe's Law territory with such songs as "Positive Dental Outlook" (promoting brushing and flossing), "Put Litter In Its Place", and "Be Kind, Rewind" (promoting ethical returning of rental videotapes). Scroll to the middle for lyric sheet, complete with illustration of Mr. T saying no to PCP, and mp3 files, or go here for Crucial Youth comix, featuring safe moshing tips from Safety Squirrel.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. E.g. "Can you believe that Bob broke edge last night?" Cynics in the punk scene would describe this as more or less inevitable.
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support