(no subject)

[rosiedoes]

This came up from a conversation that likethepaint and I are having with eyerenderingfan, and I would be really interested in knowing the following:

[Poll #1290143]

Comments

[byabsence.livejournal.com]

I always feel like I can't to be claim edge, even if most people I'm around mostly consider my to be edge. While I follow it pretty strictly (no drugs, drinking, tobacco of any kind) and plan to continue to follow that for the rest of my life, the no sex part of it is the only aspect I feel I can't honestly say I'll abstain from and be able to be completely honest saying I will. I'm pretty young (almost 18) and while technically, I have abstained from sex so far but I can't say for certain that'll be the case in a couple years, so claiming to be completely straight edge is something I don't feel I can honestly do and respect what edge means.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Dude. As long as you're not wearing mini-skirts and fishnets on street corners or ho-ing it up on the counter at your local bar, most straight edge people don't worry too much about the sexual abstinence.

It's the core three elements that matter the most: smoking, drinking and drugs.

[byabsence.livejournal.com]

I've always believed that smoking and drinking and drugs were all the pretty much the stupidest things you could do to yourself. I often joke about how Panic is stoned all the time, but whenever pictures of them smoking show up I end up cringing. Even recently, I had a friend whose best friend choose pot over her loyalty to my friend and that baffled me. I never understood how anyone could do that.

I have one straight edge friend who I've know for like...1 years now, and he always prides himself in being sexually abstinent for the entire time he's been straight edge and so he's been my model for straight edge behavior for a while now. But if that's the case though, I'll proudly claim edge from now on.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Cool! Go you!

I mean, some people incorporate a vegan and environmentalist lifestyle into their straight edge pledge, but that's an evolution of the original ethos.

And besides, I don't think that anyone would think that if you were in a long term relationship and sleeping with your SO on a regular basis it could be considered immoral - not outside the boundaries of heavily religious groups.

Straight edge is (ignoring the aggressive, militant groups who basically miss the point of the whole shebang) essentially about living a good, clean life. Being in a healthy relationship is both of those. I can only see it being frowned upon by most people if someone was screwing around all over the shop - bed hopping, basically. I mean, look at Andy. He's vegan straight edge, but known for being a bit loose on the sexual abstinence front. Some people go so far as giving up caffeine, even.

It depends on you what additional elements you bring to it; those three are the core, and are non-negotiable, but if you want to add other sub-elements that's cool.