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Cheyenne Johnson
Period 4, 11AP English

Conformity

Attend any home football game held by Nordhoff high school and you guaranteed to see the band and color guard march, confidently and in coordinated steps, on to the cold grass. They’ll stand for a moment as the announcements are made and then, after a deep breath, they’ll jump in to their practiced and perfect routine. The flags will rise and fall in perfect unison. The flutes will all hit the same note at the same millisecond. Amongst all this, the color guard blurs in to a single person, a single girl with her hair pulled back in to such a tight bun that had it not been for the curves rounding out her vest, no one would know she was a she. The makeup plastered on all eight of their faces matches to the smallest brush stroke. Their outfits vary only in the sizes. The pant legs reach down to the same spot. Their shoes are laced in the same way and matching black socks keep their toes warm in the chilly night air. Buried in all of this conformity, as traditional and encouraged as it may be, it is extremely easy to become saddened by the fact that one’s father, even from a mere five feet away, couldn’t decide which one was his own daughter.
The main basis of a band is to look the same and as a part of the band, obviously color guard applies to this idea as well. The band all adorns the same outfit down to the white undershirt and all of their white shoes gleam on the green grass. This uniformity provides strength and a sense of belonging to the band. There’s no point in denying it: the conformity makes the entire band appear more professional and prepared to perform. The high school musicians have suddenly evolved into to young adult military men and women, answering to commands unwaveringly and confident in every stride. It’s a pride builder to see oneself belonging to the group. When I first joined color guard and found myself actively engaged with the rest of the band, I couldn’t wait to try on my uniform. I wanted to see how we all looked standing together and standing with the band, a separate piece, but still representative of the whole. Standing out on the field, I didn’t have to worry about my clothes or my makeup. My entire focus rested on the task before me and I won’t deny that I was thankful for it.
However, to deny that it bothered me would also be a lie. The outfit was understandable. Though I rarely care for tradition, I see it’s purpose. A person applying for a job at a law firm doesn’t wear a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He wears a nice suit or at the very least, a button up shirt and ironed pants. The same applied to our attire. We needed to look professional. We were making an impression not only on our fellow students, but on the entire community of Ojai. To stroll out wearing our everyday clothes would simply be an insult to the band and to the practice and trials we’d all worked through to reach that half time show. The outfits were not the only restriction on the color guard though and it is this level of conformity that I found extremely disconcerting.
The color guard is required to have their make up done exactly the same way, in exactly the same shade, and placed in exactly the same spot. All stray pieces of hair were required to be hair sprayed until they were glued to their owners heads and all ponytails were wound in to buns. Standing before the rest of the girls before half time, I could barely tell us all apart. Katie, a blond girl of roughly my same build, appeared to be my twin and even my father had to pause for a moment, fearful of hugging the wrong daughter. Had it not been for the few differences in hair color and body build, we would have blended all in to one person, undefinable and inseparable by all those who laid eyes on us.
A certain level of conformity is required to achieve the right look required to score high with judges who want to see a mature and calm band, but to take it to the point where all members of the color guard appear to be oct-tuplets is an extreme measure which should be discouraged and frowned upon. In an extra curricular activity so ingrained in marching the same, sounding the same, and moving the same, any way to express one’s individuality is a desperately needed relief from the norm.
In today's society, people, particularly women, are pressured into dressing a certain way and acting a certain way to fit in with the average crowd. Individualism, as much as parents and teachers believe they are encouraging it, is actually discouraged and frowned upon. While skipping through the hallways of my school in-between classes in my gothic black dress and black and white tights, I do hear snickers and rude comments fading behind me. Had I not been raised with a strong disregard for others concerns with my attire and attitude, these words would probably upset me and thus cause me to conform and return to a “normal” outfit of jeans and tank tops.
Amongst all of these pressures, small bits of individualism should be encouraged in the band and the color guard. Unlike expressing oneself at school, one is generally surrounded by friends and kinder people while engaging in band activities. Anyone willing to be a “band geek” is almost guaranteed to be a little weird themselves and within a group of fellow band members is a far easier place to proclaim one’s individuality then walking through the cold halls of the school with the glaring, following eyes of students one doesn’t even know.
Adjusting the hair style of each of the color guard girls and allowing them to wear it how they like along with their make up would not distract from the band or it’s performance. Anyone watching the band with a scrutinizing eye will not take the red head’s curls or the blonde’s french braid or the brown haired girl’s green eyeshadow in to account when scoring, but this small action would allow for the girls to distinguish themselves between each other. Being able to fiddle with their appearance, even in this small manner, would give them self confidence because they are managing to be one person, different from the rest, while still part of the whole, a hard balance to achieve in any group situation.
Briefly looking at this idea, one might think it’s miniscule, an argument against a single occurrence of traditional beliefs that holds no importance in the rest of the world and in many respects, it’s an accurate thought. If all of the color guard girls were suddenly allowed to do as they pleased with their hair and make up, the world would not shudder in amazement or be even temporarily changed. Life would continue as usual. In some respects though, that thought is inaccurate because of what this tradition represents about our society. The military and the band all dress the same and obey orders. The military, in particular, is honored in our country and the band is at least revered in our city. Both frown upon nonconformity. This trend has the potential to infect the rest of our society until we all look like copies of one another, mere clones of the next person, all fearful of the cruel remarks that might be stated from the onlookers one has never met. Standing up against the crowd maybe one of the most difficult actions to take in all of human history. To express one’s opinion when it differs from the majority or those in power takes a great deal of courage. Luckily, as the author of the Princess Diaries stated, “courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that something is more important then fear.” and we can only hope that the youngest of our society realize that being themselves regardless of the popular opinion is far more important then the fear they have of fickle public sneer.