Well it is actually two questions. First to mtf's how badly did you want to be a cheerleader? Were you on the football team, but sighed and wished to be a cheerleader waving those pom-poms around and chanting 'goooooo TEAM!' Thank goodness we don't have cheerleaders over here. My dysphoria would have been off-the scale!
FTMs, Were you a cheerleader? Did you sigh and think why can't I be playing football instead of wearing these goofy outfits?
I stole a netball skirt from the girls' changing rooms. It was short, red and pleated and I wore it in my bedroom until my mother found it.
Some people here are probably thinking. 'Jocks'? 'Cheerleaders?' ' I went to High School in the 90s and the noughties not the 50s. Somebody has watched Grease too many times. lol'
True story:
Me: Coach (female lady): I want to play "lacrosse." In my HS there was no Lacrosse boys team
Coach: OK but you have to wear the girl's uniform
Me: OK
Coach: OK then, see you Saturday
-after many training session the girls and the coach thought I was the cat meow. yet i was never allow to play in any official games.
Corollary: The Captain of the Cheerleaders was my girlfriend !!!
No.
I find cheerleading to be one of the most horrifically sexist and misogynist relics of this country's school systems.
Quote from: Happy Girl! on November 25, 2011, 05:40:42 PM
FTMs, Were you a cheerleader? Did you sigh and think why can't I be playing football instead of wearing these goofy outfits?
No. One year for Halloween (in middle school) I went as "the opposite of me" which entailed me borrowing the gym teacher's old uniform from when she was little, putting on makeup, wearing super flashy dangle earrings, and styling my hair like in a hairspray commercial. I did all of that for shock value because I really never showed any skin and never gave any thoughts to my appearance. I was generally a rather disheveled person who was 'mistaken' for a boy even though I had hair down to my waist.
I have always had a low opinion of cheerleading as an activity and people who subscribe to the image and mindset associated with it even if they're not actually cheerleaders(Yup, I'm prejudiced). I did a lot of things to try to please my parents and society. I sacrificed a lot of myself and my own well-being just to take the lead role in acting as a character I'm not for the sake of the world (Heck, most if not all of us here have done that), but there were limits to what I could do. Donning a skimpy outfit and thrusting my chest at a crowd while grinning was just something that I could not do.
As to the football thing, I hate sports. Being a guy doesn't make me a beer-drinking, football-watching stereotype. That was a bit of an obstacle when I came out. My parents knew that I tend to be almost Vulcan in how well I think things through logically before taking any action, but when I told them (though in a much more eloquent way) that I wanted to be the boy I really am, they assumed at first that I was simply a girl who desired that stereotypical male image. How could they not, when that's what society has taught them; that even though 'real' men can be whoever and whatever they are, a 'trans' man just wants to be that social image.
I cook. I sew. I clean. I read. I write. I draw. I paint pictures of bunnies. I have a fluffy white lapdog. I enjoy poetry and flower arranging. I am attached to a vagina, but I have more balls than any stereotypical football jock I've ever met. Likes and dislikes and preferred activities are not what makes a gender. Rather, society has generalized both genders and uses those generalizations to force everyone into a cookie-cutter. Society likes little boxes made of ticky tacky. History wants us to all be just the same.I know that that's not what you meant by the question. I know it was just a harmless, innocent little query, and I'm sorry for the rant. I sincerely apologize for that. I get frustrated when other transpeople say something that reflects the social stereotypes. I shouldn't. Heck, I'm guilty of it too! But, ugh, I've just had to explain that point so many times to cisgender people recently that I still get riled up over it. I'll delete this post if you would like me too. Eep. :icon_ashamed:
I'm not athletically talented by any stretch of the imagination, so it's just as well I never had a desire for either. Considering the kinds of injuries they both risk, it's another reason for me to be against them for myself, but I'm not opposed to anyone taking the risk voluntarily.
I was more of a nerd, so I got paid to tutor the cheerleaders. Football was never my thing, but I wouldn't have minded getting back into soccer.
Quote from: Happy Girl! on November 25, 2011, 05:40:42 PM
First to mtf's how badly did you want to be a cheerleader? Were you on the football team, but sighed and wished to be a cheerleader waving those pom-poms around and chanting 'goooooo TEAM!
Yes i always wanted to be a cheerleader! very badly but yeah uh no not happening in this life! I wasnt on the football team but in the HS band so i guess i did sit on the bleachers wanting to be down there waving the pom poms in the cute skirts!
Football never appealed to me. I had fun with ballet and soccer, even though I was often the only boy. Cheerleading is even worse, I don't really like showing a lot of skin. Swimming was always awkward.
I'm kinda femme-y anyway, although I hate cheerleading.
Though I know two girls who want to play high school football and my ex-boyfriend wanted to be a cheerleader. In both instances they were all pushed away for sexist reasons.
as a rule, no.
I did like powder puff tho cause ...what an excuse to tackle the girls.
When I was a kid I went to the UK as a student ambassador. At one of the schools I went to I got cornered by a gaggle of girls who wanted me to teach them cheers. I said "what?" and they said cheerleading cheers teach us cheerleading! Lol I knew no cheers and just could not convince them that I knew no cheers. I've never even met a cheerleader, in any grade or at any age.
I have been to football games, though. Saw cheerleaders there.
Really sorry to hear you bumped into some idiot low lives, Felix. Hopefully that was the low point of your stay.
Like others, I didn't really fancy being a cheer leader, as such. Though my only understanding of it is from stereotypes. Some are, no doubt, really smart.
Since I'm in the UK and went to an all boys boarding school, my experiences are very limited.
But I'm sure most can understand the appearance of the clothes.
Cheerleading is very demanding physically. It requires strength, stamina, flexibility and suppleness. It is a form of sexism to classify them as bimbos. I was talking about this with my sister today and she said that she would have loved to try cheerleading.
It wouldn't surprise me if there were cheerleaders here now. We have adopted the Prom with its stretch limousine, and the concept of 'sweet 16'.
Cheerleading does seem to be a kind of uniquely American deal, pretty much confined to the big two, football and basketball, seems to have started in 1898 at the University of Minnesota by a student, Johnny Campbell. Female cheerleaders start in the 1920s, also on the college level. So it's pretty much a 20th Century American deal too. When it comes to large people in large groups doing stupid stuff, we're number one! U.S.A.U.S.A. But the Brits sing to their soccer teams, so the idea is the same, the level of formality is the only thing that changes.
And by 'be a cheerleader' do you mean getting out there and cheering my football team on to victory by using such clever tactics as chanting "We've got spirit yes we do, we've got spirit, how 'bout you?" while point to the other side taunting them into letting their team down? That kind of stuff? Always seemed stupid to me. Football is pretty distant from the crowd, even at the Pro level and on the field a lot of that is just a noise wash anyway. Basketball, yeah, that rocks. I've been in small town HS gyms, packed with people that were just at an elevated state of being while the game was on. Same too with the big college teams/games. It gets really loud at those places and the cheering becomes far more a part of the game.
So yeah, I bet being a cheerleader for K or K State in the big home game is a hoot. You do get to go to all the games, and for the big time college teams that's some nice travel perks.
Or do you mean 'be a cheerleader' in the sense that that's what I do on Friday nights, but I'm also student body president, head of the yearbook committee, homecoming/prom queen, National Merit Scholar and possibly one of the most popular girls that has ever lived?
What we need is one of the artistic types to design cheerleader outfits for the Roman Games. That would be hot.
I never wanted to be a cheerleader and I absolutely despised participating in the "rough and tumble" sports. I think I would have enjoyed gymnastics, but it wasn't in the Phys Ed curriculum for the boys and therefore denied to me. I thought about taking the music route, but there was a strong sense of "music is for girls and sissies" among my schoolmates, and I was still trying miserably to be a boy back them. That's one thing I would do differently if I had a chance to do it over.
My neighbour's son has a female P.E. teacher! Unthinkable in my day.
I didn't know that the cheerleaders were supposed to diss the other team. I thought that they just supported their own side.
Americans behave so much better than British people at sports events. Over here we have racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-catholic, anti-protestant, anti-women chanting,and the atmosphere at football grounds is often ugly and menacing.
Americans behave so much better than British people at sports events.
For reasons I don't understand - so someone Brit please enlighten me - the British soccer fans have set the standard as far as bad behavior at sporting events goes. Really, they make Philly look OK. And Philly has a jail and courtroom right there at the stadium to process all the people arrested at those games. The Brits gave the world 'soccer hooligans'.
^my seats at the old "Vet" exited past the jail. Yes, that was like a preschool class compared to good old fashioned Euro soccer riots.
If I could go back in time 20 years as a girl, I would do all that stuff that Tekla mentioned prior.
Being a cheerleader sounds boring, I'd rather play soccer.
Quote from: Happy Girl! on November 25, 2011, 05:40:42 PM
how badly did you want to be a cheerleader? Were you on the football team, but sighed and wished to be a cheerleader waving those pom-poms around and chanting 'goooooo TEAM!'
Ummmm, not too, too bad. I did have a little bit of envy about it but I made peace with the life I had kinda. I played lacrosse (which made it funny when someone mentioned they only had a girls lax team) and we had our own cheerleaders, but I didn't really spend my time wishing I was one of them. My problem was more I DIDN'T want to feel like I did, not that I wanted to be a cheerleader, if that makes sense.
If I had been born a woman, I might have gotten into soccer in high school.
Maybe.
Quote from: Logan Erik on November 26, 2011, 10:23:00 PM
Yes, I would have played football.
I looove playing sports. Wild, fast, physical, rough and tumble, down in the mud, people getting hurt, aahhhh perfect. I have problems with teammates though. If you're only together to play the game, you don't talk about anything other than the game (if anything), you don't have to put up with each other longer than the game goes on, or pretend that any of you have lives beyond the game.... don't even have to learn each other's names... then we're good. But like as not I would have hated my football teammates. High school footballers have a tendency toward being jackasses.
Me too on all of this.
QuoteFTMs, Were you a cheerleader? Did you sigh and think why can't I be playing football instead of wearing these goofy outfits?
Very loud no to being a cheerleader. Had crushes on them, though. Still do. >:-)
Yes to part two. Loved playing football. Wanted to be on the school team. Played girl team sports, but always felt out of place.
I never wanted to be a cheerleader lols Just not my thing. My school actually never had cheerleaders so I didnt have anything to be envious about.
I was actually never really into sports, more like music lols. Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution!
- Keri
X8^
Quote from: Happy Girl! on November 25, 2011, 05:40:42 PM
Well it is actually two questions. First to mtf's how badly did you want to be a cheerleader? Were you on the football team, but sighed and wished to be a cheerleader waving those pom-poms around and chanting 'goooooo TEAM!' Thank goodness we don't have cheerleaders over here. My dysphoria would have been off-the scale!
FTMs, Were you a cheerleader? Did you sigh and think why can't I be playing football instead of wearing these goofy outfits?
Are you asking all Americans on both of the American continents?
I was playing music during high school and wasn't interested in being on the team or a cheerleader... But definitely I would rather have a cheerleader as apposed to jeer leader
I'm a genderless person who was a cheerleader, in 4th through 6th grades. My high school didn't have cheerleaders. I spent high school too busy with music and theatre to have any interest in athletics. I never really thought much about cheerleading as a gendered activity, especially at that age. It was just something fun to do.
As for sports , heck any sport , I wanted to just be a grown woman. Sports never interested me . I wasn't well liked in school, I spent my time learning how to be an artist and I taught myself everything I could in the Graphic Arts processes , ( Printing ). I was into antique cars also. today,I still posses the knowlege to do articles for magazines and to do exibits for shows .................. ellen
Correct me if I'm wrong.
It seems like American people are very into sport regardless of gender. A student from my home country said that even American females could outrun him in a warm-up exercise.
Personally, I can see that American people look vital inside out. Even though they may not be in shape, they are still fit. During the time I was volunteering in an animal shelter, it took me more time and effort to hold a dog still while my mentor, a white American woman who was older and shorter than I, was able to do it without difficulty.
This is the clip about the topic that the student I mention says. If you understand Vietnamese, you will the understand the clip.
http://ngoisao.net/tin-tuc/24h/2011/12/sau-sex-du-hoc-sinh-my-noi-ve-the-thao-184542/ (http://ngoisao.net/tin-tuc/24h/2011/12/sau-sex-du-hoc-sinh-my-noi-ve-the-thao-184542/)
Quote from: Happy Girl! on November 26, 2011, 04:56:48 PM
Cheerleading is very demanding physically. It requires strength, stamina, flexibility and suppleness. It is a form of sexism to classify them as bimbos. I was talking about this with my sister today and she said that she would have loved to try cheerleading.
It wouldn't surprise me if there were cheerleaders here now. We have adopted the Prom with its stretch limousine, and the concept of 'sweet 16'.
Don't see anyone callin' them bimbos.
Either way, that's not what the inherent sexism of cheerleading's about. It's the fact that, with little exception, the cheerleaders (almost exclusively women) cheer for almost exclusively male events (like the football and basketball games), and are often put into objectifying outfits and positions. Sure, you have to be a good athlete to be a cheerleader, but you're also subscribing to a whole host of sexist notions.
A friend of mine was a male cheerleader during his college days :) I asked him if he felt awkward about about it? He said hecks no, he got to hang out with beautiful, energetic ladies for several hours nearly every day and that's how he met his wife :laugh:
Quote from: mynhii on December 12, 2011, 04:53:35 PM
Correct me if I'm wrong.
It seems like American people are very into sport regardless of gender. A student from my home country said that even American females could outrun him in a warm-up exercise.
Personally, I can see that American people look vital inside out. Even though they may not be in shape, they are still fit. During the time I was volunteering in an animal shelter, it took me more time and effort to hold a dog still while my mentor, a white American woman who was older and shorter than I, was able to do it without difficulty.
This is the clip about the topic that the student I mention says. If you understand Vietnamese, you will the understand the clip.
http://ngoisao.net/tin-tuc/24h/2011/12/sau-sex-du-hoc-sinh-my-noi-ve-the-thao-184542/ (http://ngoisao.net/tin-tuc/24h/2011/12/sau-sex-du-hoc-sinh-my-noi-ve-the-thao-184542/)
LOL... There may well be some folks who talk about sports after having sex :laugh: But for some reason I doubt it would be the most popular after sex talk for the majority of the populous
I could just imagine the conversation...
Him - Oh, you were great honey
Her - So were you dear... How's 'bout them NY Yankees huh!?! Yeah! let's break down today's game!!!
Quote from: Happy Girl! on November 25, 2011, 05:40:42 PM
Well it is actually two questions. First to mtf's how badly did you want to be a cheerleader? Were you on the football team, but sighed and wished to be a cheerleader waving those pom-poms around and chanting 'goooooo TEAM!' Thank goodness we don't have cheerleaders over here. My dysphoria would have been off-the scale!
I didn't want to be a cheerleader. Who the hells wants to yell out letters like a psycho and move around like a robot? LOL. I did, however, join the pom poms dance team. We actually DANCED at every football game, and did no cheering. I was the first and only "boy" on the team at my high school. It was sooo much fun and I loved every minute of it.
Your right about American girls and sport. Lots of them do it, physical fitness is held in high esteem, and in most places people don't look down on girls doing things that involve an aggressive and competitive nature.
Quote from: Wonderdyke on November 25, 2011, 06:07:04 PM
No.
I find cheerleading to be one of the most horrifically sexist and misogynist relics of this country's school systems.
Where ever I went to school (high schools and colleges), there were both male and female cheerleaders. The girls did not always wear skirts (sometimes shorts or trousers), but the boys always wore pants!
I tried out to be a boy cheerleader. My backflips were off... as in I could only do one out of every two or three. I did run long distance track. I was never interested in football. I loved basketball but I was definitely not basketball material.
I din't have an intense desire to be a female cheerleader though. I could look at any girl and sink into a new level of depression and fantasy. Since I "grew" up, I've long thought that pushing young girls into cheerleading is a travesty. Wouldn't it be great if girls could have real sports instead of cowing to the boys?
Cindi
Ummm, since Title IX there are exactly as many female scholarship jocks in college as there are male ones. I'll bet there are almost as many girl's soccer leagues as boy's baseball leagues. American girls kick ass at the Olympics.
Anyway my school had both male and female. The males were either that big class-clown guy who everyone liked, and/or, the two super rowdy guys from the Football/Basketball team who were not playing in the opposite sport. My senior year it was the class clown (oddly enough, not me) and the guy who was the All-League linebacker. And most of the female cheerleaders did either swimming, volleyball (in California volleyball is considered a real sport) basketball or softball.
Quote from: tekla on December 14, 2011, 08:48:46 AM
Ummm, since Title IX there are exactly as many female scholarship jocks in college as there are male ones. I'll bet there are almost as many girl's soccer leagues as boy's baseball leagues. American girls kick ass at the Olympics.
Anyway my school had both male and female. The males were either that big class-clown guy who everyone liked, and/or, the two super rowdy guys from the Football/Basketball team who were not playing in the opposite sport. My senior year it was the class clown (oddly enough, not me) and the guy who was the All-League linebacker. And most of the female cheerleaders did either swimming, volleyball (in California volleyball is considered a real sport) basketball or softball.
I'll catch women's beach volleyball on TV and wonder, "Why can't I look like that?"
Quote from: tekla on December 13, 2011, 10:25:42 AM
Your right about American girls and sport. Lots of them do it, physical fitness is held in high esteem, and in most places people don't look down on girls doing things that involve an aggressive and competitive nature.
I think so too.
i did football to make my dad happy for the spring and then went right into cheer after. it took a while for them to figure it out :)
Yes!! I wanted to be a cheerleader sooo bad... I wanted to wear the short skirts, wear my hair in a pony tail, date the cute football players and be the most popular girl in school! Instead, I was a nerdy boy, lonely and depressed without any friends.
no to cheerleading never really wanted to but did play soccer and did gymnastics most of my life.
and my school had all main sports for males and females.
Quote from: Jamie D on December 15, 2011, 02:12:48 PM
I'll catch women's beach volleyball on TV and wonder, "Why can't I look like that?"
I think why can't the guys wear short tight jocks, I'd watch more often to make sure the balls stay in play
Quote from: Cindy James on March 24, 2012, 03:26:46 AM
I think why can't the guys wear short tight jocks, I'd watch more often to make sure the balls stay in play
With that
double entendre, you are perilously close to slipping into Devlyn-style punning.
But seriously, have you never watched male figure skating?
Dedicated to Cindy:
Beach Baby by the First Class (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii4ON7XHGCA)
Oh thanks Honey :laugh: :-* :-*
I loved the beach boys. Adelaide beach culture is very similar to Cali from what I hear. Girls in teeny bikinis and guys in board shorts. Seems such a shame, Even our surf life savers are covering up to protect against skin cancer.
I didn't do football and I rarely wanted to become a cheerleader. In both cases I was and still am out of shape for that.
Quote from: Malachite on March 24, 2012, 05:19:43 AM
I didn't do football and I rarely wanted to become a cheerleader. In both cases I was and still am out of shape for that.
I was good at football because I could take anyone and never got knocked down (or knocked out). I wasn't so great at throwing the ball, I guess. It was really hard for me not being allowed on organized teams. That kind of seemingly-pointless hurt is why I spent so much time playing in the woods and reading books by myself.
I confess to complete bafflement regarding American Football ( how can it be called football when the ball is hardly ever kicked for instance), but the Cheerleaders are a totally different thing. :)
I would have loved to be a Cheerleader, and be surrounded by all those gorgeous girls! Fitness is a total turn on for me. I know, I know I am just a totally girly dyke! :laugh:
Karen.
I never went into extracurricular sports. I did the minimum gym class (2 years). I was too thin and too shy for any of those. I didn't have a passion to be in the glee club in high school either. We did have a large number of girls in the glee club judging by the large number of them wearing their uniforms on certain days to school. Pleated one piece skirt and top vest combo with a white long sleeved shirt in the school colors under it didn't tickle my fancy either.
My HS did take state in basketball 2 of the years while I was there in 1968-1971, but I haven't seen that school take state in anything since then. Also I knew very little of the jocks on the winning teams, as they were in their own special classes. The life of the pampered jock with the top notch coach was prevalent then as it is now. Funny, I was never bullied by those in the high school extracurricular sports teams, just by those who think that they were tough.
Joelene
I enjoyed sports in my younger years but NEVER liked watching sports in ANY form. I played baseball in through much of 6-12th grade and ne year of college but I had to quit due to intense arm pain (from throwing balls at 90+ mph since 7th grade). I played football my 11th grade year but yes, I was envious of the cheerleaders and would have rather been one of them but I had to settle for dating a few of them.
I was trying hard to be the guy that everyone thought I was supposed to be and even tried proving that to myself but my true self never really bought it. I even did the whole Airborne Infantry thing and was in for the invasion of Panama and Desert Storm.
I think a lot of the American love for the school spirit deal in HS and college, as well as the public team worship for pro sports, is just a method of making the motto of the US: E pluribus unum, a reality. It's a way to unite disparate populations and give them something in common. Yeah, you're __________ (Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Mutt, none of the above), but as long as you are in Giants colors, and I'm in Giant's colors, then that no longer matters (or its not supposed to) because we are both sharing something together - in the Giant's case usually heartache.
But the unity can be and is a very real thing. Ask any sports fan in a winning city or campus what's it like, it can be a very overwhelming feeling, one that does overwhelm a lot of other differences.
And, as American as it is, it's not omnipresent. Baseball does not have cheerleaders. And since soccer was imported without cheerleaders it continues to be sans them. Track and field, motor sports, horse racing, swimming and a host of others do not have them either. Pretty much it's football, basketball and wrestling.
And in football its a side-show, its just that the rah-rah nature of cheer-leading went perfectly with the rah-rah nature of the game and the spectating sides were split on opposite sides making it pretty easy to work the cheer deal. That and it had its real start in college which is all about cheers for the above reason. But since football is outdoors, it's big and the crowd is far away, and in those helmets and all that noise is not really a factor in the game. But in some things like college basketball it makes a huge difference.
The clip below is of KU singing it's alma mater song and then doing the 'Rock Chalk Jayhawk' chant before the game. They do this for every home game. Look at the amount of KU blue in that fieldhouse, and listen to all of them using that stuff to all get on the same page, the cheerleaders can then use that unity to really rock the house. Imagine how loud it is in there - all directed down to the court itself - during the game. Last year against Mizzou they were up to 120db inside that field house, that's like trying to play b-ball inside a couple of jet engines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h51be27dN8c
I was in the band. It was kind of cool because our uniforms are unisex so I didn't have to worry about the "Cheerleader" or "Footballer" thing. I just got to play trombone and be a general goof at football games. The band is really where the most fun is at imo.
Quote from: Quinn_Smith on April 25, 2012, 12:45:39 AM
I was in the band. It was kind of cool because our uniforms are unisex so I didn't have to worry about the "Cheerleader" or "Footballer" thing. I just got to play trombone and be a general goof at football games. The band is really where the most fun is at imo.
Ha. I'm glad someone else feels that way. I used to go to football games just to see the bands play. Didn't give a damn about the scores. ;D
I rummaged around my computer and found a photo I took of our uniforms
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi45.tinypic.com%2F15331ch.png&hash=443e39acbf7119361381b346de1388654fbc09b2)
Orange, grey, and cream are probably the least flattering colors but I mean, on the bright side we had capes.
I have never ever understood the fascination of bands at USA college football (I'm Australian BTW) what is it all about? They are all over the place, marching playing, it seems totally weird.
Quote from: Cindy James on April 25, 2012, 02:53:38 AM
I have never ever understood the fascination of bands at USA college football (I'm Australian BTW) what is it all about? They are all over the place, marching playing, it seems totally weird.
You mean TOTALLY FUN. :icon_yes:
Quote from: Quinn Smith on April 25, 2012, 01:37:01 AM
I rummaged around my computer and found a photo I took of our uniforms
Orange, grey, and cream are probably the least flattering colors but I mean, on the bright side we had capes.
I just wanted to say that that is the the best uniform I have ever seen.
On topic: If I were to be a cheerleader - in any circumstance - I imagine the only way it would happen would be as a joke. I'm very clumsy, not very athletic (due to the clumsiness), and I'm not very good at getting into cliques, which is probably a necessary skill in cheerleading; otherwise, it would be totally boring, because even though you would be surrounded by people doing the same thing as you, you would still feel alone because they're excluding you.
Overall, it would be a very negative experience in all probability, before I factor in how boring football is, and how cheerleading, as a concept, is contemptable.
Quote from: Cindy James on April 25, 2012, 02:53:38 AM
I have never ever understood the fascination of bands at USA college football (I'm Australian BTW) what is it all about? They are all over the place, marching playing, it seems totally weird.
Not a lot of people know about the marching band world it would seem. There is competitive marching band here in the USA, where bands from different regions from all around the US compete with each other (Drum Core International is one of the organizations that kind of runs the competitions.) And the various college marching bands do compete with each other much like the sports teams. While you aren't necessarily fighting the other band like you would in a sport, you compete to perform to your best ability while marching, which is a lot harder than it looks. There are some bands that even practice year round to get their performance level as high as they can. It's very strenuous and requires a lot of talent and stamina, but having been in a marching band it's some of the most fun you can ever have.
Also bands do a great job of getting people hyped up with music and general goofiness. Our band usually dances and has their own chants for our school at sports games, and when there's any sort of goal or point earned in a game we attend we're usually the first people in the crowd to go crazy and that usually spurs the rest of the crowd on. : ) We also play the school's fight song, which is usually an immediate way to get everyone in the stadium riled up.
And thanks for the compliment Kelly! We got new uniforms this year but the one in the picture is still my favorite. It's incredibly outdated but I always liked it because we looked extra goofy with the capes and parade stripes.
OH, and here's a pretty good video of some of the best performances in DCI. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsMRPlSmADo&feature=related It's a good example of how awesome it is to see bands perform. (And if you've never had a chance to see a marching band perform, you should try and do it, because it's kind of mind blowing in person. : )
Not me. Not by a long shot. I specifically selected schools that did not have American football teams or cheer squads. Don't like the American football culture. I did play soccer/football and took ice skating as a kid, though Barca and Michael Weiss might have given me unrealistic expectations.
yea i was on the dance team and step team, but by then i had already transitioned. as for being a cheerleader? i usually got into fights with them lol...they didnt really like me and i thought they were a bunch of stuck up bitches anyways so yea lol NO lol
Quote from: Quinn Smith on April 25, 2012, 01:49:20 PM
... While you aren't necessarily fighting the other band...
that invokes some quite awesommetastic imagery ^^^
Quote from: ffern on April 29, 2012, 10:28:47 AM
that invokes some quite awesommetastic imagery ^^^
LOL, now that I think about it yeah. XD I used to make jokes about attaching a bayonet to the end of my trombone slide. It would be pretty epic.
Quote from: x_momoXpanda_x on April 29, 2012, 12:01:51 AM
yea i was on the dance team and step team, but by then i had already transitioned. as for being a cheerleader? i usually got into fights with them lol...they didnt really like me and i thought they were a bunch of stuck up bitches anyways so yea lol NO lol
I loved watching step performances.
Step performances?
Oh by the way I think it is great that there are so many ways of getting involved, in the band etc I think that opportunity is fantastic for people.
Brass bands in the UK and Australia seem far more associated with more staid performances.
I saw a performance of "Stomp" in Las Vegas a while ago.
Fascinating
Headache
Quote from: Jamie D on April 30, 2012, 03:25:51 AM
I saw a performance of "Stomp" in Las Vegas a while ago.
Fascinating
Headache
Lol. Trash can lids. ;D
Quote from: Felix on April 30, 2012, 01:35:13 PM
Lol. Trash can lids. ;D
Sticks, tubes, all sorts of loud things!
Quote from: Cindy James on April 30, 2012, 03:20:49 AM
Step performances?
2012 Camille Stepshow w/ The UAB Nupes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGfxw_LDS_s#)