I really don’t see the point of cheerleading. How does our school benefit from girls running around doing flips? It’s mind-numbing. The only thing the cheerleaders actually do is inject their stupid cheers into my head. During two hours of JV football, the last thing I need is to hear is, “Let’s get a little bit rowdy, R-O-W a D-Y!” a hundred times. It makes me not even want to go to the football games, which is quite scary considering I live for football.
It makes me so happy that some pro football teams have actually gotten rid of their cheerleaders. The Pittsburgh Steelers refuse to participate, for example. And tickets to their regular season games are $600.
I love assemblies as much as anyone else; it's a chance to get out of class. Every once and a while, they can even be quite entertaining. But when the cheerleaders come out, I can’t help it, I always find myself doing one of two things. If I have a test, I study for it. If I don’t have a test, I count the number of times the cheerleaders fall. I can’t help it. I’m not trying to attack cheerleaders; it’s just that what they are doing seems pointless to me.
I know that counting how many times cheerleaders fall isn’t nice, because there are some well-rounded cheerleaders out there. Cheerleading injuries are actually a serious problem. According to a recent study cited by ABC News, 16,000 cheerleaders get hurt a year. It’s become much more dangerous in the last two decades, with injuries having increased by 110 percent. CBC.ca reported that a girl in Massachusetts even died last year after falling. What happens if one of the people designated to increase our school spirit dies? The point of cheerleading would be reversed. Ironic.
Article comments
1 - katie, danielle &jessica
cheerleading is a sport!! i dont think that you should be talking because im sure that you can't do anything that cheerleaders can do.its not everyone elses fault that ur cheerleading team sucks. u should mind ur own business and if u hate it soo much why are u writing a book about it. if u havent noticed people get injured badly in every sport not just cheerleading including football and u should apparently know that because u know everything about football so thats not an eccuse
2 - kt
Cheerleading is definately a sport. It encourages its teams and school spirit and is very hard working and fun. I happne to be playing basketball, cheerleading and am stil on high honor so its not brain washing. I also love the game of football and understand it perfectly. I would love to see u pick up a athlete in your hands or do u back hand spring. YOu Cant, we are athletic and energetic and keep the spirit alive. And its not a threating thing. Yes pople get hurt.but ive heard a story about almost everything invloving someone getting hurt. If we went by not doing things cuz we would get hurt, hockey and especially football would not be a sport. WE wouldnt drive or go to school or do ne thing, because there always danger we just need to be cautious and no how to deal with it, way to be a negative boring person who doesnt no the first thing about sports school or people ..welcome to the real world!!!!!!!
3 - CallmeMaddy
I'm sorry, but when did I say that cheerleading wasn't a sport? If you girls want to debunk my article, use actual arguements.
Kt, you understand football? Power to you. All I know is the cheer team at my school doesn't.
Why am I writing about this? It's controvesy. It was originally for my school paper, and that was the first time RANDOM PEOPLE were walking it to get it before we sent them out.
4 - Naomi
I agree Completely!!!!
5 - Anna
Hi,
I agree that cheerleading is outdated. Cheerleaders used to be only male, but when females started doing it, it became another means of demeaning women.
I don't see football as being that important of a sport, and I certainly don't think it requires as much skill as say, a female gymnast. It is built up because men do it. Women are supposed to build it up and support it, but when was the last time a man ever showed admiration for female skill?
Of course, the other aspect of the this is the sexual objectification of women. This is another way of showing how men are so "important" and is a backlash due to all that womena are acheiving.
This is one of the issues we are fighting in my media group, Women in the Media on Yahoo.com. Please join!
6 - ciara
i think cheerleading should be allowed. so what people say. cheerleading is fun. and it`s healthy becuase you run around alot. and it`s work i know you do not think it is not work but picking up someone is work. in fact i`m a cheerleader. and i think you are mean for saying that i mean you never been in cheerleading. so you do not know how muck fun it is!
7 - AJ
This dude's position is correct, Cheerleading is for the brain dead, and is decidedly not a sport. That is just what it is called in these days and times when the concept should have gone the way of the dinosaur. The rebranding of selling sex does not make it a sport. If I want to see tumbling and flipping, I'll go watch real gymnastics performed by real gymnasts. If I want to participate in yelling, then I'll head on down to the mosh pit. If I want something sexy, I prefer the real thing. That, my friends, is not a spectator sport (I imagine it is for some), and most assuredly I won't be watching football at the same time. Come on folks, cheerleading is really about one thing ... selling s-e-x. Honestly, I would imagine that you bright girls would have figured out that the entire concept of the activity is in fact degrading to women (or men as the case may be). How has this institution managed to cling on for this long?
8 - Amanda
Cheerleading is without a doubt a sport. I was captain for my school and I'm still in AP classes and i get good grades. Our outfits don't flaunt anything either these days are shirts completely cover our chests and our skirts are long enough. wow i think this arctice is ridiculous.
9 - Dominique Minor
Thanks for writing about this. It's definitely a topic that needs to be explored. Here's what I think...
1. Cheerleading a sport, but...
2. It's EXTREMELY sexist (and outdated)
It's a pretty complex dichotomy...
10 - RedRocPhilosophy
Anything that becomes all or mostyl women is AUTOMATICALLY decried as "sexist".
WTH? Many girls try to get on the cheerleading squad- nobody forces them.
11 - kayla
I am a cheerleader and I love it...it gets our croud going and routing for our team. well have to keep the same gpa as you do to play any other sports. Its also way harder than it looks we go threw alot. we have to learn all the technic to be able to throw people in the air and be able to catch them corectly. 76% of high school injurys are related to cheerleading....we play tough.
12 - jess
heres the thing, honestly cheerleaders work harder than other people because they juggle grades and work and cheerleading, and everything else. im sorry you are unable to appreciate the positive attitudes and dedication that cheerleaders put into everything. and for those of you who commented and are cheerleaders know how hard it is, and you also know that at the end of the day the football players really do appreciate all the signs, goody bags, and banners you work so hard on
way to speak up cheerleaders!! and keep cheering
13 - Tami
Hello, I just wanted to say how impressed I am that a 17 year old girl would write this article. Not only was the points you made perfectly stated, but they were backed up with very intelligent followup. Koodos to you!! I agree with you 100%. I myself was a cheerleader several years ago. Hind sight is 20/20 they say. Luckily my parents made me quite after 2 years. I am now a mother, and would absolutely under no circumstances allow my daughter to be a cheerleader. You said it perfectly when you said that it is sexist and degrading.
What purpose does a cheerleader really serve? Cheerleaders do not build school spirit or pep anyone up. The only pep they give is raging hormones to young adolescents or old pervs. They are there for one purpose and that is to be seen. I personally think more mothers & fathers should say no to this fiasco.
If it is showing too much flesh for school, then it should also be considered too much flesh for school events.
Congratulations and keep speaking your mind.
14 - Joanne Huspek
Maddy, I was much like you when I was your age. Anti-cheerleader, anti-jock. Better watch out. You don't know what kind of offspring you will have. In my case, I had a rabid cheerleader. I don't know where she got that from...
15 - Lilith
Women are often too complicit in thier own objectification. Cheerleading is a major form of this complicitness. If it was truly a "sport" as others have defended, it would be called gymnastics and they wouldn't be rah-rah-ing at male games in skimpy outfits. Unfortunately, it's why women will never gain full societal respectibility / credibility. Women should avoid anything that depicts them as objects of sexuality/desire i.e. movies, modeling, beauty pageants, porn, cheerleading, stripping and prostitution to name a few. If society sexually objectified men on the same footing, you wouldn't hear a peep out of me. Some will say that a man is objectified for his wallet but not ANYWHERE near to the extent that women are for their bodies.
16 - Meep
I think cheerleading is a sport but i agree in some ways . I think that cheerleaders distract the audience to much and the players. and yes, some chearleaders outfits are appropriate nowadays but in some places it is not. in our school the teenager's .. private areas were showing ; this girl wasnt even wearing underwear !
17 - jill
okay. cheerleading is definately a sport...this article is ridiculous. like all things in life, if u dnt like it, then dnt do it!!! no ones forcing u to watch cheerleaders or do cheer, so u should just mind ur own business! and cheer is much more difficult, complicated, and serious than u may think. next time, think before u write something tht can be offensive to other ppl.
18 - Krystal
Cheerleading is a sport if anyone thinks differently let them do cheerleading for i game and watch there feelings change. They dont understand that we work 2x as hard as tenis players or even Baseballplayers...ect. The cheerleader is sapos to incurage the players to win and to make the aduence help to cheer them up.
19 - Ashley
So, I understand what you're trying to say. However, I just want you to think about the overall picture. You may think cheerleading is outdated and overrated, but to those of us who put in around 20 hours a week into this "mind-numbing" sport it's a bit more personal.
I understand that you're cheer team may not be the best, they may not get whats going on out on the field, but they are trying. Many teams aren't technically "the best" teams, but they have a right to be included because they put time and effort into what they do.
Cheerleaders may get on your nerves, we may say cheers that seem redundant or superficial to you, but we do it to encourage our team. We do it to put confidense back into our players. Yes, I agree, sometimes we do not succeed in doing more than being a distraction from the game, but we have always put 100% of ourselves into everything we do.
We love our sport. We work hard to prove to the world that we will stop at nothing to be taken seriously. They are even going to incorporate cheerleading as an olympic event! We have a right to be out on the field, encouraging and inspiring our guys and our fans! We love what we do and we refuse to let anyone get in our way of gaining the respect that we should have.
Point is, even though one cheerleading team may not be the greatest, don't diss the whole of us. We are athletes, we are determined, and we try our hardest at what we do.
20 - Matti
Last year i was captain of my schools jv squad and you wouldn't believe how hard we worked to be a good team and earn the respect of our school. It's people like you who make it so hard for cheerleaders by constantly shutting them down and telling them how stupid they are. Even though i am no longer cheering i know how hard cheerleaders work all the time and how much they do for the other sports teams. You don't see any other teams taking time out of their day to make the football team or whatever feel encouraged and that people actually care about what they do. I have seen first hand the cheerleaders at my school get the crowd so pumped up during a football game that when at the half the score was 23-7 got the team to come back with a vengeance and almost beat our biggest rivals. Think about that before you write something like this again
21 - Megan
I'm a varsity cheerleading caption, and for you to write an article on how cheerleading should not be allowed and should G-O A-W-A-Y
is upseting, actually im not upset im mad. Idk what cheerleaders you watch and what your cheerleading teams uniforms looked like but a classy school has nice uniforms and the cheerleaders are not all what you say them to be.. I dont think you could last a day in a cheerleaders shoes. we spend hours training a day and dedication to our team. idk what your high school experience is but i feel that you hate on cheerleaders because you never could be one.. its hard theres more to it then yelling and jumping, were ambassordors for our schools, people look up to us and were role models. i do agree some cheerleaders dont know the game of football but i can assure you my squad does and without us cheerin the football game would be boring without us. some people come to watch us NOT the football game. and you should prob hit up a VARSITY GAME and stop playing around with JV =]. cheerleaders work just as hard as anyone else, we practice the same amount of time and train the same amount of time im not saying you cant have your own opionin just stop slashing cheerleading and stay in your own enviroment and we will stay in ours and where we belong, FOOTBALL GAMES AND BASKETBALL GAMES..
THANKS
22 - brandon
I agree that cheerleading is assanine.
Guys who enjoyed the cheerleaders enjoyed it because it was supposedly attractive girls lifting up their legs. It was a free stripshow for kids too young to go to strip clubs. Everyone else just hated it or ignored it outright.
I don't necessarily have a problem with cheerleading existing... I just don't understand why they don't contain it within itself since hte only people who really seem to like cheerleading... are cheerleaders.
Why infect football with it?
And to all the girls who defend the merits of cheerleading by saying it's hard... that doesn't even make any sense. It's hard to do a LOT of things that have no worthwhile application or value.