Inside Straight Edge

[xbojanx]

On following page you can find links to youtube 5 parts of this documentary broadcast on National Geographic

http://community.livejournal.com/hc_pun ... tml#cutid1

Youth can be a minefield: drugs, sex, violence, and peer pressure. One group has an extreme way of dealing with it. They call themselves Straight Edge, and while they are being classified as a violent gang in areas such as Salt Lake City and Reno, they aren’t like any other gang you know: they reject drugs, drinking, smoking, and even casual sex. They’re rebels against a society in which everything goes. National Geographic goes inside this growing youth movement caught between being a refuge for Americas kids and a dangerous gang wanted by authorities.

See also:
http://ngcblog.nationalgeographic.com/n ... de_in.html

And I have this book in pdf format, so if anyone interested, PM me

[benzilla]

It's surprising to see sXe covered by national geographic. Hope it got positive coverage!

[Fallen_Horse]

Off topic: How do you pronounced sXe?

[tempehmomma]

The straight edge scene seems cultish.

[No other way]

i saw this a while ago. very poorly done. just like all media primarily focused on the bad even though i think they did show both sides of the story just not the whole story.

[baldy]

Not much talk about Vegans on there. Are all straight edgers normally vegan? Do they avoid leather, I thought I saw a couple of folks wearing skate shoes that probably are leather. They better watch out for the vegan police.

All this talk of 6 edgers taking out one guy. I would not want to have six XkillersX on my back!

[xrodolfox]

That gang sXe shit is mostly localized, and disowned by the larger sXe community.

That said, a slightly larger percentage of sXe people are vegan than in the dominant population, but not much more. If less than 1% of the general population is vegan, then only 10% of the sXe population must've been vegan where I grew up. (I clearly made up those stats for the sake of imaginary comparison.) The vast majority of sXe people were omnivores just like everywhere else, even with a higher than average vegetarian and vegan populations.

[runrevolt]

In the city I'm from you were pretty much Vegan SxE or you were ostracized. I don't necessarily support that, but that is how the community played out. Things have changed now though. Then again, SxE seems to be something entirely different in the scene from the time I was involved as well.

And what's all this eschewing casual sex stuff? Uhh..don't think so buddy.

[xbojanx]

sXe is very different in America and in Europe.

[JP]

differences between tightly knit youth subculture and a gang is hard to make, which is why its no wonder edgers get treated as a gang. I mean there is a dress code, social and moral codes, talk about unity, brotherhood, sticking together, separating "them" and "us" against the outside world, and so on.

Nothing wrong with that though IMO, it certainly helped me when i was a teenager.

[tempehmomma]

sXe is very different in America and in Europe.

xbojanx, how is it different?

[ninearms]

Straight edge in Europe is all old fogeys, and straight edge in the US is all 19 year old wiggers.

[Gamblor]

Straight edge in Europe is all old fogeys, and straight edge in the US is all 19 year old wiggers.

HA!

Probably true.

In NZ it was all skinny white guys who, 10 years previous, would've been just straight out bogans listening to ACDC and drinking bourbon (not that there's anything wrong with that at all)

Not sure if there are any SXE'ers around in NZ anymore. It probably has shrunk since it's mid 90's heyday.

[puppydog]

differences between tightly knit youth subculture and a gang is hard to make, which is why its no wonder edgers get treated as a gang.

In the US at least, if they were non-whites* they would be treated with a very heavy hand.

*I know there are non-white sXe but it's predominantly white from what I can see.

[tempehmomma]

differences between tightly knit youth subculture and a gang is hard to make, which is why its no wonder edgers get treated as a gang.

In the US at least, if they were non-whites* they would be treated with a very heavy hand.

*I know there are non-white sXe but it's predominantly white from what I can see.

What you see is 100% accurate.