Dr. Carl Effin' Sagani just remembered a "story", and i feel itll be a really good story to freeblog for yall
before i start off, i need to inform you all on keyterms for this piece
a drum and bugle corps, is essentially, a very VERY competitive marching band
ive only come across three high school competitive marching bands who can compare to drum and bugle corps
drums and bugle corps, as the name implies, is related to military tradition
idk how it became what it is now anyway
a soprano is another word for trumpet, baritone is a smaller tuba, and a contrabass is a marching tuba (not a sousaphone)
imagine holding a pencil out in front of you, or your phone, and hold it out in front of you for 3 mins
then 10 mins (harder huh?)
now for 30 mins (damn that pencil is heavy)
a drum corps show lasts about 7 mins, and they train, compete, and practice their set all summer (across america)
for self training, some of the brass section (sopranos, baritones, and contrabass) strapped ankle weights onto their horns
i had two 5lb ankles strapped onto my baritone
visuals was the name of our marching practices, & music was when we where in the band room practicing
there was this one drill, that the head visual instructor, had us do
we marched around the track and field, and practice our set while marching in a parade block
this meant all the music and visuals
when we stepped off, any changes was a tap of our toe to the direction we WOULD BE MARCHING,
WHILE still marching with the corps around the track
any stop in the drill was still marched. the point of the drill was "how well does the corps know the show?"
it was mentally exhausting, it was physically exhausting
the sheer amount of focusing
because it was very easy to run into the person in front of you or behind you
and they wILL march over you
we had to really THINK about the show or we would do serious harm to each other
most commonly when we do this drill, we do the movements with our horns
bringing them down, popping them up
for one of these drills, i had decided to put the ankle weights on my baritone
these drills commonly dont last long- its one full rehearsal of the show (7 mins)
while he was counting us off, he decided to tell the corps, just fucking then
that we needed to keep our horns up in playing position
tapping gently the direction the horn would go in the show
a few of the instructors looked at me anxiously, because they noticed that i was the only one with ankle weights on their horn
i told myself, "i can get through this- its 7 mins~"
.......at the end of the FIRST run, he had us do the show again without stopping the block
the instructors from before, rushed over to me as the show was counted off again
they tried to take the weights off
i said, "no"
they had fear in their eyes, and one lady asked me, "are you sure?"
"yes"
"ok."
i was in a LOT of pain, and i still used good marching techniques, and executing my music beautifully
those instructors started to goad and taunt the rest of the corps because
"this little girl is outperforming you! this little girl is kicking your ass!"
"rise up to her level"
i was OUTPERFORMING
THE ENTIRE BRASS SECTION
WITH TEN LBS ADDED TO MY 10 LB BARITONE
those instrutors were cheering me on
one guy watched my horn angles, watched the other baritone horn angles, and lifted their bells up, to match mine
he never lifted my bell
the lady came up to me, and asked me if i was ok
i told her i was fine
she also yelled "this little girl is kicking your ass"
the asshole head visual instrutor, im not sure he was fully aware of this from his podium
and he told her corps, that we would go for a THIRD time without stopping
the instructors from earlier, looked at me panicked, i frowned
they whooped, and goaded, and taunted the band
BECAUSE I WAS
NOT
GIVING
UP
AND I WAS STILL PERFORMING MY BEST
when we finally stopped, when we were finally dismissed,
i walked to the edge of the field where my baritone case was, so i could put the baritone down,
the lady instructor came up to me and said "im so proud of you"
pretty sure that day was when the corps started to hate me...
...
anyway,
the point of this story, regardless of my personal gender, regardless of transition, i was, by all means, a very girly girl, and //hot//
i very very much LOATHE the whole "women are biologically weaker than men" thing
and the cis folks mostly mean hormones and dna- right?
by their definition, i was/am a woman
by their definition AS WELL i was biologically stronger than cis men in that moment
///i outperformed a drum corps, w/ weights added to my instrument, for 30 minutes////
T has made me strong in other ways, but regardless, personally?
i was strong before T when it was all E, and im //still// just as strong as i was with E
i dont think i would have been able to do what i did, if my body made T naturally
because it was the sexism that i was facing, that made me push //harder//
i wanted to prove //all of them wrong//
im not just a little girl, im not miss priss, im delicate
I WILL KICK YOUR ASS
....
uhhhh? thank you for coming to my ted talk
(also yall wanna TALK about stolen valour?)
im not doing this, i hope the thread ALSO indicates that as a theme
*not
uhhh this is why its a freeblog
addendum: anyway i also took down four grown adults, two of which were cops, when i was 22
no i will not be telling THIS story at this point in time
(i started T when i was 28, so this is another story in that line, but darker)
Coda Mazur | כוד מזר@joshua I'm begging you 🅱️lease tell me this story you just became a personal hero to me
@localwerewolf hahaha its really dark and ill do a thread of that soon then :'D
chaotic avocado goblin@joshua awesome joshua tales
@joshua astronomy brass bands