<p>Cheerleaders at my school are really crazy stuff. And they’re super hot. It’s a really great thing. Every guy wants to be on dating with them.</p>
<p>Ugh
I’m a high school cheerleader, and I don’t want to get too defensive, but a lot of what you said is ignorant and incorrect.
First of all, I’m a cheerleader AND a feminist. These two are not mutually exclusive. Cheerleading isn’t about “cheering boys on.” The only reason why we cheer for boys is because there is no girl’s football team. Come basketball season, we cheer for GIRLS and BOYS basketball. Thus, it’s not about diminishing ourselves and being objectified for men. It’s about cheering our school on and increasing spirit, regardless of what gender we cheer for (that really is irrelevant, since we cheer for boys and girls…)</p>
<p>It’s really rude for you to say that we’re a sideline attraction, and football is “the part people care about.” We’re not trying to steal the spotlight; we go to football and basketball games to cheer our school on and make sure we win. It’s not about us–cheerleading at football games is a selfless act, volunteering our spirit and happiness to support our school. (If you’re going to harp about us being a sideline attraction, go get mad at band. They only play when we score a touchdown, how degrading! Degrading themselves to men and not being the center of attention. How dare they.) Cheerleaders are a support system, and our time to shine is during halftimes. Our football and basketball halftimes consist of three minute routines of intensive jumps, tumbling, stunts, pyramids, cheers, and dances. We don’t just “look pretty.” (You should see us, sweaty, smelly, and gross at our five hour practices.)</p>
<p>“I hate how the school takes the activity seriously.”</p>
<p>You can’t be serious. I’ve countless hours in the summer conditioning to prepare for football season. Stunting at practices to perfect my double-full down. Falling from ten-feet in the air after a basket toss gone wrong. I’ve committed time, effort, sweat, and tears into cheerleading for the past four years of my high school experience. It really ****es me off how you just diminish me, and hate how i “take the activity seriously.” Maybe when you find something you’re dedicated to, and sincerely love, I’ll make a thread about how much it upsets me that you found something you like and something you take seriously. OF COURSE we should take cheer seriously. If you don’t see how much hard work it is by now, I don’t know what else I could to do prove it to you.</p>
<p>Finally, there is such a thing called competition cheerleading. We perform an intense routine of pure cheerleading. By the end of our routine, I’m out of breath and exhausted. The three minutes are physically and even mentally taxing. Try doing a toe-touch while screaming a cheer from your diaphragm–it’s not easy to enunciate a cheer while physically working your butt off. Competition cheerleading is cheerleaders against cheerleaders competing for the gold. Cheer isn’t just a sideline attraction; in competition, we ARE main the attraction. And for the record, my cheer team has won first at State for the past two years.</p>
<p>PS (this should be irrelevant, but your narrow-minded post is so prejudiced I feel I need to mention this.)
I have a 2300+ SAT score and have received almost all A’s in high school. Don’t think I’m an idiot because of a particular sport I choose to participate in.</p>
<p>Pretty sure pretty much everyone agreed that it’s not true for ALL schools. I said at MY school the cheerleaders don’t have 2300 SAT scores. And at some schools cheerleaders don’t work hard, they just stand around looking pretty. At my school they do work very hard. It’s school dependent and no one said ALL cheerleaders are idiots who don’t do anything.</p>
<p>@CE527M
lol I wasn’t upset with you, more at migraine who started this whole thread, which seemed to glorify the stereotype.
I just wanted to clarify that
- Cheerleaders can be feminists
- Cheerleaders should be taken seriously
- Cheerleading is not a merely a sideline attraction
- Cheerleaders can be intelligent</p>
<p>And I think what you said is very reasonable. The only thing is I don’t see how you would for sure know that the cheerleaders at your school don’t have the 2300 SAT scores. Perhaps they do, they’re just not showy about it. I personally don’t like to share my test scores and grades unless asked-I find that quite obnoxious. Maybe there are cheerleaders at your school who perform well on standardized testing but just don’t like to share their scores.</p>
<p>You’re right, I don’t know for sure, but I do know they aren’t that great of students and probably score average on their SATs. But you’re right, I could be wrong. But that would be me judging them based on themselves as students, not because they’re cheerleaders.</p>
<p>I cheered competitively for quite a while. The stereotypes aren’t completely untrue. Honestly, I have yet to hear of a cheerleader in real life with stats considered good on CC/ “Ivy material.”</p>
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<p>Interesting first post.</p>
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<p>I have yet to hear of anyone in real life with stats considered good on CC. :D</p>
<p>No one really makes a big deal out of cheerleaders at my school. They don’t do much, they don’t have superiority complexes, and most of them aren’t any prettier or skinnier or dumber than the non-cheerleaders.</p>
<p>our cheerleaders aren’t even attractive it’s so disappointing</p>
<p>I honestly can’t tell the difference between cheer/song/dance/drill/pep squad/etc… and neither can the rest of my high school, haha. </p>
<p>I knew an ex-cheerleader that ran XC with me. She was a flyer, but she quit after her teammates accidentally dropped her in a routine or something, shattering her tailbone. That doesn’t sound very pleasant! So I guess you could say that cheerleading is a dangerous sport.</p>
<p>To the ones who said so…
Competitive cheerleading is not a sport</p>
<p>Also, at a local public hs you are lucky if you survive more than 2 years without getting pregnant,</p>
<p>They sometimes like to go in the locker rooms of 10 min after a football game when guys are in a shower</p>
<p>This is the most judgmental thread I think I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>Well, you should’ve been on here during the summer
U would be so shocked</p>
<p>Cheerleading, when the programs are set up like they should, are really similar to gymnastics, since most schools don’t have a legit gymnastics program. And gymnastics is one of the hardest sports out there (I say that as a guy who played American football, rugby, and wrestled). I agree that a lot of the time they are portrayed in an unfortunately degrading way, especially here at more traditional public schools in the south, but usually that’s more of the school’s fault and not the kids’…</p>
<p>As a cheerleader, on a team that competes and performs intense routines, I would just like to say that EVERY CHEER TEAM IS DIFFERENT. At my cousin’s high school, the cheer squad was a complete joke (I even thought so), and at my school, we have gradually gained respect as we’ve improved. At other schools, the cheer team may be the only team that’s ever won a state title! Whether or not cheerleading is a sport varies completely from school to school.</p>