Introduction

Welcome to my Documentary Website! This website contains my book, photo gallery, and bios of my interviewees. My project is on how women are treated in drumline, and investigates the traits successful female drummers have. Since drumline was originally for men only, it still carries a culture that underestimates and isolates women. I interviewed three women: Dani Millan, Kristin Dumdumaya, and Isabella Leedeman, all who have different experiences with the culture in drumline and different ways of handling it. Some cases contain extreme forms of oppression, including sexual and physical harassment, and assault. Others have noticed more subtle forms of sexism, such as small comments or low expectations from fellow members. All forms of the oppressive culture are harmful, but women in drumline have learned to be successful by building an immunity to the way they are treated.

My intention behind making this project was to reveal what women go through when trying to fit in with a predominantly male activity. It is not a list of guidelines for how to be a successful woman, but a presentation of the untold stories of female drummers and how they have managed to cope with the sexist culture. As captain of the Mountain View High School drumline, I felt encouraged to express the importance of spreading awareness of this issue.

This is a screenshot of me working on my Intro Video in the app After Effects:

Book

My book explains the stories of the three different women I interviewed, as well as my own. I used the application InDesign to combine my design elements, photos, and writing. I used Photoshop to edit my photos and Illustrator to create my design elements.

Click on the drum on the left to view my book!

My goal was to create a simple, clean aesthetic. I kept my book from looking cluttered by limiting the amount of pictures and design elements on each page. I felt it was important to have a simple background so it didn't distract from my writing. The majority of the pages have dark blue tones. I lowered the capacity on each photo and put a dark blue background behind it in order to give a darker effect to my photos. While I kept a sense of darkness on each page, I wanted to shock the reader with pops of color. I added 3 bright red pages that each include a small narrative. These narratives are true stories and explain the thought process a woman went through after experiencing verbal, sexual, or physical harrassment. I put these in 1st and 2nd person so the reader can understand what my interviewees and I experience on a daily basis.

This is a screenshot of me working on my book in the app InDesign:

Photo Gallery

Isabella playing drum set in the Jazz Band

Bios

I interviewed three women in drumline. All of them have leadership experience in their drumlines and have seen varying types of sexism. Since each have such different experiences, I was able to get different perspectives on how girls become successful in drumline.

Dani
Millan

Kristin Dumdumaya

Isabella
Leedeman

About Dani Millan

Dani Millan is a Junior at Los Altos High School and plays snare in the marching band. Being a girl in drumline and the only girl on snare, she was forced to manage being put down and excluded by other male members. Dani worked hard to earn her spot on snare even after many people, including her own instructor, told her she couldn’t do it. After all the hard work, Dani was welcomed into the snare line with emotional abuse from her peers. She has learned how to live with the harsh treatment for now and finds it easier to be immune to it than stand up for herself. Dani found ways to move past the isolation and feelings of inferiority in order to fight for her goal of becoming Drum Captain. Her goal is to create an inclusive community for all members and make sure no one in the future has the same experience.

About Kristin Dumdumaya

Kristin Dumdumaya is the former drum captain of the Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets, a Drum and Bugle Corps in the Bay Area. She didn’t make snare after her first audition, but her charisma and work ethic stood out so much she earned a spot as the back conductor. Since her high school did not have a successful music program, she used her first year in the corps to learn how a professional drumline runs, and to educate herself on the skills she needed to be in a drumline. She made snare the next year and in 2014 became the drum captain. As a girl in drumline, with her limited background, she felt encouraged to “shut the naysayers,” and worked hard to earn her spot as captain. Kristin feels gender discrimination held her to lower expectations than the boys because Drum Corps is a predominantly male activity. During Kristin’s time in the drumline, she learned how to ignore other’s assumptions about her abilities, and trusted that her hard work would bring her success in the end.

About Isabella Leedeman

Isabella Leedeman is a Sophomore at Mountain View high school who participates in the drumline, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Band. Percussion has always been a passion of hers, and is an activity passed down by her mom. She was the bass drum leader during the last drumline season, and she is currently working towards playing snare. She also plays drum set in the Jazz Band and multiple percussion instruments in Wind Ensemble. During her time as a percussionist, she has already endured the harassment and condescending culture that comes with being a girl in a male activity. Isabella comes from a strong family that encourages her to be tough, and she has learned about how to cope with sexist culture from her mom who was in drumline, and who currently works as an electrician and experiences the same sexism in that profession. She has been raised to be strong and face problems head on, but she realizes that sometimes it takes strength to be able to ignore the issues as well. Isabella believes that learning how to build an immunity to harassment is the only way to be a successful woman in this activity, even though it is not fair and should not have to be that way. Her strong work ethic and the high standards he holds herself to will lead her to success.