| Adherents to sXe say it's no trend
by
Margo Varadi
Jan. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM
"Don't drink, don't smoke, don't f--k." That was the message spread by Ian MacKaye, lead vocalist for the hardcore punk band Minor Threat when he unknowingly spearheaded the straight-edge movement back in the early '80s.
Straight edge, also known as sXe, has become a counterculture lifestyle. The X is a symbol of abstinence originating from the X used to mark the hands of under-aged concertgoers to prevent them from getting served alcohol.
Brian, 17, from Etobicoke, used to drink, smoke and do drugs until a friend introduced him to the straight-edge way of life. I am chatting with him and his friends through online instant messaging. (Some comments have been cleaned up grammatically.)
"The last two months of smoking before becoming edge, I got really sick with a lung infection. I thought it would help if I became sXe and it did. Now, I don't drink any alcohol, have caffeine, do drugs or have promiscuous sex."
"If you're with someone and you love them, then it's not promiscuous, but you can't just go have sex with five people and say you're pure," Brian says.
Such commitments — known as "claiming edge" — are taken very seriously by devotees.
"The whole thing about straight-edge is that you're supposed to be it till you die," says Chris, 19, from Markham, who met Brian at an sXe concert. They later became friends through communicating over MySpace.com.
"I have a couple of shirts with XXX on it and a couple shirts that say `drug free,'" says Chris, who's also thinking about getting a tattoo.
Some straight-edgers hang out together in groups called crews that often use peer pressure to hold each other to their promises to lead a purer life.
"I've been in an sXe crew for about five months," Brian says in his email. "My group is the Pure Hate Crew. Pure = sXe; hate = no ignorance; and crew = friends. We have a lot of good people in it, some of the greatest people I have ever met. We are kinda on the same track. And we are looking for the same gold."
Like watchdogs, crews can wield a painful bite for those who "break edge."
"Some people just stop talking to that person or bad mouth them after they break," Brian says. "I think that's shitty."
Credibility and respect are very important in the movement.
"Some people just don't understand sXe and think it's a joke," Brian says. "They think it's a trend and I feel like they might be doing it just because everyone else is. Some sXe people do fool around with girls — and that's not sXe."
Breaking edge by drinking alcohol or having casual sex can be taken very personally.
"If someone says they're a part of what I am and then disgraces straight-edge, it's like spitting on who I am," Chris says.
But Chris says he has never badmouthed anyone or stopped being friends for breaking edge. Others have, though, and intolerance has given this counterculture a bad name, mostly owing to a gang-like subgroup of sXe called hardliners who are known for violent behaviour.
"One of my friends saw someone smoking inside a venue and he punched the person in the face," Brian says. "I don't understand it. It doesn't happen a lot here in Toronto."
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