Music in Schools: Masculine or Mistake?

According to student athletes, they feel they can’t join the choir department.

TJ Rintimaki, a student athlete in choir, said “When conflicts arise people question your commitment, it’s hard to be yourself because you need to block off parts of your personality from people. Teammates especially don’t connect to music. Then doing something that seems traditionally masculine can be seen as bad in the choir department”

Choir student Martin Bala agrees: “Colleges want you to do all these activities and you just can’t, cause everyone is shoving you into a corner where you eventually just crumble” Another student, Sam Dean, of the music department had this to say ,“there is a different type of community associated with Drama Club and Choir there is more acceptance, you don’t have to be good at what you do to be loved by everyone” it seems that the music department has kinder people and a more welcoming environment.

Student Athlete Porter Chatterton feels differently because of “societal pressures to be masculine” which he says choir is not.