Another problem is that when you claim to live a life that is not harmful to your body (like not drinking or doing drugs), how do you justify all the tattoos, earlobe stretching, and other body modifications that most edgers have had done? Hopefully someone who is straightedge will show up and explain (or even debate in GD).
I think it’s more about what you do to your brain than your body.
I’m going to take a wild guess that xgxlx is of this clan. and there’s another xgirlx or such as well.
What about: minxxx or Markxxx or xxxxxxx or piebaldxxx or Airblairxxx or Maxxxie or ShaolinRabbitxxx or Mycroft.xxx or xxxxlaw or texxxas57 or xxx_man or XXXXX or xxxxyyyy or vixXxen or frixxxx or xxxx or bheadxxx or RACHXXX?
And how do we know that they’re sXe or just x-rated?
Peace.
Unfortunately, can’t do a member search on x*x or just those with an ‘x.’
It used to be very popular (and probably still is) to put x’s around your name on AOL because it looked cool or the name you wanted was taken. XchrisX, XjessicaX, and it went beyond with things like IXIjasonIXI, etc. I’m sure straightedge people do it but I would not say they started it or are the majority users of it. There simply aren’t enough straightedge people to account for all the ornamental x’s in screen names out there.
I assume by xgirlx, you mean **XJETGIRLX **and if so, no. She created her user name before she had ever even heard of the straight edge movement.
It’s a little complex because of changes through time. For the first 8 or so years I think pretty much every sXe band sounded pretty similar… hardcore punk. You started getting some more differentiated sounds, mostly out of DC, by the end of the 80s… acoustic guitars, longer “post-rock” song structures, etc. Most sXe bands are still pretty much straight ahead hardcore, but now - unlike 1982 - some of them sound different. If you name a sXe band in 1985, sight unseen, you can guess not only what they sound like but how they dress with a 99% accuracy.
I think it’s a question of when you’re talking about. One good analogy would be reggae and Rastfarianism. I’m sure that there are non-reggae rasta bands in the world, but the % of rasta bands who are is so high that you could almost use the terms interchangably, and many people do as shorthand. And yes, sometimes that ends up being inaccurate.
I’ll go you one better. I was a fifteen-year-old punk in the DC area in the '80s. This thread is bringing back some serious memories.
At some point in the late '80s the DC skins all went straightedge. I was gone to San Francisco by then, but my brother told me about a skinhead approaching him to ask for a cigarette. When he took the pack out, the skin grabbed it and stomped on it, then stuck his finger in my brother’s face and snarled, “Straightedge or die, motherfucker!”
Here’s an article on BME about the straightedge culture: Straightedge and Modified
Personally, I don’t drink or do illegal drugs, but I would never identify myself as straight edge. I’m not a vegetarian or vegan, and I take prescription drugs, and some people are so vehement about the definition of straight edge that they’d argue that even eating cheese, wearing leather shoes, or taking ibuprofen means you aren’t edge. It’s easier just not to argue, because some of those edge kids can be real assholes (as evidenced by the “Straight edge or die, motherfucker!” episode). The only time I’ve ever worn X’s on my hands is at concerts at bars, because I’m not 21. I do have stretched earlobe piercings, though, so take of that what you will.
Also, I can tell you that xgxlx isn’t straight edge. His name is short for Green Lantern, and he is not always sober.
I have a confession to make.
I still, to this day, dot my lowercase i’s with x’s instead of dots. I started when I was in high school and into being sXe and just have never broken the habit.
As a kid who was scared to drink/smoke/do drugs, and too dorky to even remotely consider having sex, the straightedge movement was very attractive. I already listened to the music, so it was kinda like “Hey, SOME people think it’s cool to be a dork like me!” Gave my teenage rebellion a good bent, at least. As I got older I did see what many here are talking about; the co-opting and violence just like any other “movement”. But as a scared kid who felt like she was never good enough/“in” enough, straightedge gave me something “cool” and different to identify with.
Can we talk about krsnacore now too? 
Rasa, I am so there with you. I’m glad I wasn’t the only dork around, Krsnacore and all… 
I just want to add that Ian McKay (founder of Minor Threat) has said that he never wanted to turn sXe into the movement it became. His original purpose with his songs was to curb the overindulgence and waste that he saw his “scene” endorsing. He wanted to let kids know that not giving into the pressures of society to do intoxicants was ok, and that they should make their own personal decisions and not follow the herd mentality that teenagers often have. He wanted them to use their energy and youth and anger and create something positive, rather than channel it into self-destructive behaviors. He was also very much against the racism and sexism that he saw examples of at shows he attended and played.
sXe has turned into much more now of course, with those violent and sometimes racist undertones that others have illustrated (as well as the trendy factor,) but as a Fugazi fan I have to say that he was a kid being a kid and started something that became much more violent than he expected or wanted. Every interview, show, and show footage I have ever seen has confirmed that he himself is generally respectful and intelligent, and he tries to maintain a sense of mutual respect at his shows.
Hoshiko, from SLC (which remains the wannabe sXe capital of the world.)
I like to think I’m pretty up on subculture, you know, down with the kids these days and all that…but at an age of 21, I must say I have never encountered this particular group, ever. Aside from hearing about it on discussion boards such as now, the only reason I know about this group is through a report on Dateline or 20/20 or something a few years ago. Evidently it has a fairly large following but throughout my 5 years of highschool and currently 3rd year of University, I have never once encountered this culture. Now, I grew up in white, (upper?) middle class suburbia outside Toronto. Perhaps this subculture is more of an American thing, or more restricted to urban areas?
Not necessarily. The only Straight Edge kid in my high school (suburb of Chicago) did it to piss off the other punks. Then he had a chance to get laid and dropped it (as it were). After that, the next guys I met were in college and came from rural Minnesota. While I’m not familiar with the Chicago punk scene, those I know who are in it are only vaguely aware that certain people are in it and don’t know many (if any) personally.
Of course, we’re all mid-20s and I think it’s more of a high school-age thing.
[minor hijack]
Have any of you heard of the sXe band Tear it Up?
[/minor hijack]
Hoshiko , aah how I love krsnacore! Still do, to this day. The two scenes were fairly intertwined. For what it’s worth, I’m 28, so I grew up in the heyday of Shelter, et al.
I’m from the 'burbs of RI, and the straightedge movement wasn’t at all popular or widespread; I can only think of maybe 4 or 5 other kids that I knew that were into it as well. Wasn’t much of a hardcore following in my suburban area back then!
I basically agree with this, although I do think Ian himself took it a bit too far sometimes. I remember being at a show that Embrace (his post-Minor Threat, pre-Fugazi band) were playing at. In the middle of their set he stopped and said “Uh-oh, I see a circle forming back there”. And he refused to allow the set to continue until the circle had broken up. Now I wouldn’t be a circle dancer myself, but what the hell was wrong with letting people who wanted to form a circle do so? I thought he was being a bit of a dictator on that occasion. Like, he doesn’t like circle dancing so therefore nobody should do it.
Hey, don’t involve me in this sordid little group! I’m all for smoking, drinking and shagging!
And now the awful truth: I spell my nick like this because… wait for it… I’m triple-X rated baby!
Max
It’s amazing what random vanity searches uncover!
I’ve been under the impression that a major strain of “straightedge” goes so far as to impose this lifestyle on others. Light up at a show in view of a few sXe’rs and you may be swinging by the hospital before you go home.
Straightedge punk checking in.
I’m vegetarian (i’d like to go vegan, but according to my doctor, i can’t do it without becoming anemic), never drink, smoke (tobacco or weed), or get laid (and i am proud to say i have had the chance and turned it down. i didn’t think i’d be able to do it).
One of my main tenets is live and let live. I know most people on the scene aren’t so into this, but to me, it’s part of being straightedge. I don’t pester anyone about giving up what they like to do in their free time unless they try to make me do what I don’t want to.
Most of my friends are not straightedge, and I don’t think it’s so much of a nonconforming to conformity thing. If I wanted to go that direction, I wouldn’t have ska as my second favorite subgenre.
I’d love to start an “ask the” thread, but unfortunately, I’m going out of town for a week on Tuesday, and I will not get a chance to use the computer tomorrow. If there’s still interest then, I’ll start one. Knowing the pace of this board, though, you’ll have all forgotten about it by then.
Oh, and I forgot.
I’m also not into violence, except for the dumb— who was trying to get the 9 year old kid to light up for his first time in front of a venue.