Hi everyone,
i am working on a project about stereotyping of band and color guard members. i was wondering if anybody who had been made fun of or anything because they are in color guard and/or band could reply with their experiences so i have data for my project. it doesnt matter if your experiences have been good or bad, it helps me out a ton either way. thank you so much for your time and/or replies.

Sincerly,
Susan

Most people are ignorant and don't have a clue what colorguard and band is all about. They think it's a thing we do in our spare time probably once a week when in reality it is a major commitment thats takes away a LOT of your time. My band practices 3 times a week for 3+ hours from 6-9+ pm. not to mention the Friday night football games and the competitions on Saturday/Sundays. I know that some schools practice even more. People are dumb and I think the major reason people in marching bands are "stereotyped/made fun of" is in the TV and movies. The media has taught us since we were young that people in marching band are "nerds". Yes, I have been made fun of, especially by our cheerleaders. I've heard the geek comments and have seen our cheerleaders make fun of opposing drum majors as well as our own while they are just trying to direct. I know that not all cheerleaders are like that, but I wish ours were at least respectful. Our last football game the opposing team had a wonderful marching band and while they performed their cheerleaders cheered them on, then after we performed, they complimented us on our show. I thought to myself, "Wow, why can't people at our school do that?" I just realized that no matter what we do, we will always be stereotyped as "geeks" and I accepted it and I'm proud of what I do. I put too much work into what I do to be embaressed like people expect us to be.

^ You Go!!

Both my kids are in their school bands, one HS color guard and one college brass. These kids (and all other band kids) put in so much time and work, they deserve respect and admiration! And more than one college credit hour.

The kids making fun of band kids are the REAL LOSERS!

kk~

There was a stupid stereotype at my school that the color guard were girls who could not make the drill team or dance company.

In reality, some were great dancers, others just got into it because they were in the music department and enjoyed the social aspect of it.

I was tempted to join my collegiate color guard, because it looks like so much fun, but from my little sister-in law, who is Rifle captain for her top-of-state guard, it is a lot of work.

I have a lot of respect for colorguard and the directors and choreographers who are constantly creative!

I am in my highschools colorguard currently and no one seems to even acknowledge it. It is a huge commitment and others just think it is just flag tossing. But, there is so much more like drill spots, counting, and preforming. But, the guard and band both put a lot of effort into itwe don't care what the others think.

When I was in guard (which was just last year...i just graduated in may) sometimes the guard girls would be stereotyped as being the "cheerleaders" of the band with that cheerleader stereotype. Sometimes they would also assume that guard girls were dumb or slutty which was entirely not true. Well...for the most part lol.

Okay this will sound mean, but i dont mean it to. In my guard the guard girls were sterotyped as all sharing one brain. I loved this sterotype, because one of my best friends made it up the year I decided to march my clarinet. The whole brass and some of the woodwinds had a big laugh at it for like two years, and I think our director got into it to. You see the guard has this habit of not being able to do anything unless everyone on the guard does it. If one of the 18 decided to do something they pretty much all did it. It was great to see them at parties. If one left the room all of them did. I think that sterotype died though after I graduated this last spring though.

I was in colorguard in high school, and I don't know what exactly other people thought of us, but they certainly didn't show us any respect. At football games we would get spit on, and have our flags and other props stolen. We ended up having to have someone watch over our stuff constantly. We also used to put up locker tags before games or competitions, and people would tear them down. So I'm not sure of any stereotyping that went on, but we were definatly not treated very well by people outside of the band.