Straight edge: A review of a subculture and an examination of its roots in resistance.

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In the introductory chapter of his book Subculture: the Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige describes the transformations and appropriations performed by subcultural style as "gestures, movements towards a speech which offends the 'silent majority', which challenges the principle of unity and cohesion, which contradicts the myth of consensus" (Hebdige, 1979, p.10). Given some of the more extreme transformations performed on Hebdige's "humble objects" (Hebdige, 1979, p.10), the question arises: is the letter "X" on a teenager's hand enough to offend the "silent majority" that Hebdige speaks of?

I propose that the straight edge subculture exists within a relationship of resistance with structures of social dominance despite the apparent contradiction in championing what are ostensibly the values and ethics of the ideologically dominant. I have had the benefit of observing a group of straight edge youths living on the outskirts of Ottawa for over five years, and I will draw from the observations made over those years along with open-ended structured interviews conducted with various members of the straight edge community to obtain their views of straight edge. This will be combined with an analysis of the subculture within the context of popular culture to attempt to show its roots in resistance.

To begin, the common traits of members of the straight edge subculture must be defined. The Journal of Drug Issues describes a straight edge youth as one who is "rejecting drugs, alcohol [and] irresponsible sexuality." (Irwin, 1999, p.369) They also describe the members of the subculture as "overwhelmingly white and middle class" (Irwin, 1999, p.365), an observation that agrees with those I had made in the Ottawa and Toronto straight edge scenes. In interviews performed for the purpose of this paper, vegetarianism and other aspects of clean living were often suggested as extensions on the ethos of those who already prescribe to the straight edge lifestyle, but they are by no means requirements of it.

Beyond these simple lifestyle rules, straight edge youths unite around "hardcore," a faster, harder offshoot of punk rock, as their musical style of choice within the subculture; this choice finds its roots in the early history of the scene, when the term "straight edge" was first coined. Indeed, even the quote in the previous paragraph from the Journal of Drug Issues makes reference to the lyrics of "Out of Step," a famous hardcore song by Minor Threat that provides the band's summary of what it is to be straight edge: "[I] Don't smoke / Don't drink / Don't fuck / At least I can fucking think."

Minor Threat is also credited with giving the movement a name via a song entitled "Straight Edge" that was released in 1981. In his foreword to the book All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge, Ray Cappo, singer for the popular mid-eighties straight edge band Youth of Today, went so far as to describe the Minor Threat singles as "the straight edge version of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (Lahickey, 1997, p.xi), making a rather confident assertion as to the foundations of the subculture.

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