Straight edge as an Australian youth subculture

This paper considers the phenomenon of straight edge in the context of Australian youth culture, with examples from Newcastle, New South Wales. Two claims of USA-based research on straight edge youth subculture are critically examined – representations of ‘hypermasculinity’, and the ‘new neo-conservatism’. Preliminary research conducted to point the way to a larger project indicates: Firstly, that much of straight edge gendered subculture strongly resembles hardcore punk subculture, and there is constant mixing between the two, despite the application of the three basic rules of straight edge – no sex, no drugs/alcohol, no smoking. Fighting, for example, is common to both, challenging claims about the new conservatism. Secondly, rather than representing the achievement of ‘hypermasculinity’, for some male youth in Newcastle struggling with the successful accomplishment of ‘ordinary’ hegemonic masculinity in the night-time economy, straight edge provisionally appears to function as a temporary, clean-living, largely female-free, subcultural space of refuge.