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

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Despite considerable research into other possible origins of the straight edge subculture, no alternative explanations for its inception were found. In the meantime, Ian MacKaye, Minor Threat's songwriter, has been lifted to celebrity status within the punk-rock community. MacKaye's house is commonly visited by straight edge youth who, according to MacKaye's mother, arrive as "a little flood of them, maybe five or six . . . during school vacation" (Weiss, 2001, p.21).

As straight-forward as the straight edge subculture's origins is the symbol by which a straight edge youth identifies him or herself: simply with the letter "X". The "X" is a symbol expropriated from the early days of punk, when it was drawn onto the hands of an under-aged individual at a concert to ensure that the bouncers would recognize any minors attempting to drink. According to MacKaye, the "X" markings "were just what kids in Washington D.C. had to deal with just to see music, to be free" (Lahickey, 2001, p.100). But as some of these minors began to reach the age of majority and in so doing became old enough to legally consume alcohol, many continued to draw an "X" on each of their hands as a show of solidarity for those still too young to drink and to show that they didn't need alcohol to enjoy seeing a concert.

Attending a hardcore show today, one finds that little has changed since the days of Minor Threat and Youth of Today. Many fans in attendance sport a black "X" on each of their hands (regardless of whether or not alcohol is served at the location), and bands like Bane have provided the subculture with new anthems such as "Superhero", a song that asks an individual uninvolved with the straight edge lifestyle to imagine "How great it feels to be free."

With its own system of beliefs and its own symbols, straight edge's status as a legitimate subculture is solidified in its ability to "win space for the young" and to "mark out and appropriate 'territory' within the localities" (Clarke et el., 1997, p.103) Amongst the straight edge youths observed in Ottawa, the location of this appropriated territory was the SAW Gallery, a space to organize concerts and other events. In Toronto, the Jewish Community Centre provides a similar locale as hardcore shows periodically take place there. And finally, the teens described in the Journal of Drug Issues find their place in Long Island at the East End YMCA, where numerous hardcore shows occur over the course of the author's investigation (Irwin, 1999, p.366).

In his earlier work, Hebdige describes subcultures as being inherently counter-hegemonic; in later works, however, he admits that he "had underestimated the power of commercial culture to appropriate [and] . . . to produce counter-hegemonic styles." (During, 1993, p.357) That being the case, the issue becomes whether the straight edge subculture is simply buying into the values of the ideologically dominant, thus negating its potential as a truly resistant subculture, or whether the ideas expressed within this subculture do indeed remain counter-hegemonic by their very nature.

In discussions with other straight edge youths, they unanimously stated their belief that by abstaining from drugs, alcohol, and casual sex, they were still engaging in rebellious behavior. Perhaps, then, it is the target of this rebellion that needs to receive more focus: as Lahickey states in her introduction to the book All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge, "straight edge [provides] an untraditional form of rebellion -- rebelling against the traditional forms of rebellion." (Lahickey, 1997, p.xviii) With this argument in mind, a look at the straight edge subculture in the context of its opposition to the carnivalesque is worth investigating.

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