BlogHer - The Cheerleaders Don't Want to Root for the Girls - Comments

Heat Rises

askyourmother — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 22:21:08 -0600

Ah, I'm smiling. Indeed, it seems so juvenile, but, there is a good way to let competition age us gracefully. I no longer try to out-hot my friends, (but I'm almost 40,) instead i revel in their hotness, and learn from it. I revel in their brains and learn from it. I revel in their strength and learn from it. And I do let it change me, I let it "improve" me. And I think that when we are all together, being hot and smart and fun and creative, the heat builds, and as it rises, we all rise with it. It's no longer competition, more like education, and it brings us all to higher ground. The view's good up here. :)

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Exactly! It's so darn true

Dana J. Tuszke — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 21:46:44 -0600

Exactly! It's so darn true it hurts. The fact that I wanted to "out-hot" (LOVE THE TERM) the other women is so true. I'm very ashamed to admit it. I was only 20 years old and it was 8 years ago, but I think there's something in our female brain that triggers us to act that way, whether we like it or not.

In fact, tonight I was at my old high school's hockey game and it still exists today. The girls compete to look sexier than the others. Even best friends try to out do each other. I suppose we women don't really learn our lesson until we become older and wiser and out of college. And those of us who do realize it early on are far better off in the long haul of life.

Dana from The Dana Files.

Women compete with, not support , other women

askyourmother — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:16:54 -0600

I LOVE Dana's post about being a bartender and putting on sexy outfits NOT to catch eyes of men, but to out-hot the other women. That's what I was trying to say earlier. FAR too often, women compete with each other, rather than supporting each other. The cheering issue is just a tidy metaphor, the kind of story you'd use in fiction to make a point. But it happens in the real world..... I see it in the workplace all the time. I SWEAR, I have an easier time negotiating deals with men because they don't get competetive with me. BUT, they get competetive with each other. It's almost funny, my CEO and I will often decide who will lead a negotiation based on the gender of the people we have to negotiate with because men compete with men, and women compete with women, so we can diffuse the situation sometimes by just putting the right one of us in there. That said, it's a cheap trick, and we know it. Within our own office, we work tirelessly to create a non-competetive atmosphere that allows individuals to thrive and succeed and be supported no matter what - but we still have to deal with the real world out there. (But then, I'm a woman boss, and that's how I want to run things. Like a family, not a foxhole.)And I don't know about all of you, but when I find a smart, sexy, strong, outspoken, dynamic woman who can be supportive and fun and open and honest, I hang on for dear life. My girlfriends are the most important thing in the world to me, and I will do anything to make sure they know how incredible they are, in every way.

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They were not wanted

Erin Kotecki Vest — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:10:57 -0600

As a HS basketball player I can tell you that (many years ago) we women players did not want the cheerleaders at our games. I can remember thinking, at the time, that they didn't belong at our "legitimate" sporting event because we found them to be be props.

I can remember, vividly, arguing with the head cheerleader to keep them away from our games. I think I told her their short skirts and slutty half time dances weren't wanted.

I don't know. It was high school. It was drama. It made sense when I was 16. Now, like all of HS, it seems very silly.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain

It's about the sex

Mata H — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:56:26 -0600

Cheerleading when I was in school was all about women cheering for "their men". The ideal dream couple would have been the head cheerleader and the captain of the team. Cheerleaders were gleefully and willingly ogled by every boy in the throes of puberty in my school.

To have women cheering for women athletes? Heaven forfend -- what if one of the athletes was a ...gasp..LESBIAN! (Shock, horror, homophobic apoplexy.)

I honestly think this is a sexuality issue.

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs relentlessly at Time's Fool

You know...I was driving

Dana J. Tuszke — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:42:31 -0600

You know...I was driving home from work tonight and the thought hit me.

Women compete with other women. We do it all the time. In fact, when I was young and single I had a bartending job. I would get all dressed up in the sexiest clothes I could find. Sure, it helped with tips, but I didn't dress up for the men. I dressed that way to look better than the other girls who were going out that night.

Guilty as charged. I hate to admit it but at that point in my life it was true. Thankfully I grew up and realized that women need to support each other.

Perhaps these cheerleaders feel the attention will be taken away from them, and given to the girls on the team. Just a thought. I could be wrong.

Dana fromThe Dana Files.

Lisa, you are STILL a cheerleader!

debra roby — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:35:09 -0600

Lisa,

You are STILL a cheerleader! You manage to encourage women (and men I'm sure) to grow, do, and be our best selves. In fact I think many of the contributors to BlogHer are cheerleaders in a must more positive way than those uniformed girls in high school.

But no. I won't wear a letter sweater or saddle shoes at BlogHer 07 in Chicago this summer. (do cheerleaders still wear those things? Or have I been watching too many '50 comedies??)

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

If you can't cheer for the female teams...

Liz Rizzo — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:32:57 -0600

...then cheering is not a sport and has nothing to do with school spirit. If you only want to cheer for male teams, then clearly it's just about sexuality and flirting and being popular and a whole bunch of stuff that a school system doesn't need to be funding.

I wish that school would kick every cheerleader with a problem off the squad. For one, because cheering is about school spirit and positive energy, and clearly these girls don't have any. And two, because there's probably tons of students with both who would love the opportunity to cheer.

Hey, you're right - look at me all pissed off! ;)

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess, The SexySmart Blog, and On The Lot.

...laughing...

Lisa Stone — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:24:10 -0600

Killer headline Dana.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

In all honesty, I think it's

Dana J. Tuszke — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:14:47 -0600

In all honesty, I think it's the teen girl phase of "I'm only a cheerleader to be cute and interesting so that boys will like me and I will have a date for the prom."

It's infuriating because girls' sports are just as important as the boys'. Ten years ago when I was in high school, we had cheerleaders for all sports both boys and girls, but I noticed the squads with the most "prestige" were the ones who cheered for the boys.

It's almost reinforcing sexism and this is coming from the women of the future!

Dana fromThe Dana Files.

I'm glad to see

Sarah — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:09:54 -0600

I'm glad to see people saying that they cheered for the girls teams and liked it. I was really surprised when I was doing the research for this post. I was disappointed in the girls. School spirit should be the same no matter who you are cheering for.

Right?

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sports and Fitness
Sarah and the Goon Squad
Draft Day Suit

Rah, rah they suck

Mamalogues — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:07:32 -0600

I was a jock who decided to try out for the cheerleading squad in my junior year so I could get a special pin on my jacket. Ha! I cheered for both guys' and girls' teams and I had fun cheering for both but for different reasons. The guys games were bigger and it was easy to feed off the crowd's energy. A couple of my close girl friends played basketball, so it was like an incentive to keep their spirits up when they were on the court.

Some of the other cheerleaders resented me because I was a jock; a few of them also didn't care to cheer for the girls' team. I suspect it was because the girl players didn't oogle them the way the guy players sometimes would; the girls couldn't be "sex on parade." I loathed cheering, but I got that pin, by gawd.

Dana
Mamalogues.com
In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Pop Mama
Since Eve

For shame - Sassy is right!

Lisa Stone — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 15:46:09 -0600

When I was a cheerleader,* girls basketball and volleyball ranked right up there with boys football and boys wrestling. Despite my high school alma mater's lack of a Web site, our girls athletic program was fantastic and gave many student athletes an opportunity for college via scholarships.

Great post Sarah -- sounds like crummy leadership on the part of these girls' parents and schools. At ours, cheerleading was a sport, and came secondary to anyone's other sports. We had holes in the squad in the fall and the spring because some of the us also played soccer and varsity volleyball. Girls basketball was my favorite since my sister played JV.

* Yes, I cheered for one year -- tried out for my very bored senior year in high school to act out against my parents' wishes. It worked -- and I was surprised to find that it kicked my suddenly short-skirted fanny. Most of my colleagues on the squad had been doing it for four years and were in much better gymnastic shape than I.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Basketball Player

mama2bna — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 15:06:34 -0600

I played basketball in high school and I know that most of us (the "us" referring to the group of us that played sports year round while the cheerleaders cheered) resented the cheerleaders. Their absence was sort of symptomatic of how the entire system - parents, teachers, guys- ignored our events. The feeling was only in uniform though, they made sense at the other events. And it was just that, the guys games were events, people went and watched. I suspect these girls aren't as interested in cheering because they are doing it to a very small crowd.

Where does it come from?

sassymonkey — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:57:21 -0600

The feeling that cheering for other women is bad or wrong - where does it come from? Why do they feel that way? Is it because girls teams are so often considered second-class to the boys teams and therefore not good enough to deserve it? It is because we're not supposed to be nice to other girls? Is it because cheerleaders is seen as a sexual fantasy (to some) and it's "wrong" to display that when it's women that they are cheering for?

These girls are teenagers. Something in our society has fed this feeling to them.

Sassymonkey, Sassymonkey Reads, and Sassymonkey Eats

The Cheerleaders Don't Want to Root for the Girls

Sarah — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:40:08 -0600

Feminists look away. This is just going to piss you off.

Cheerleaders in upstate New York are begrudgingly following a new policy laid down after a parent filed a discrimination suit with the US Department of Education under Title IX. Their tragic fate? Having to cheer for the girls' basketball team.

-Patti Nichols on Strollerderby

That is right. More than half of the cheerleaders at Whitney Point in Binghamton, New York decided not to go out for the squad when they found out they would have to cheer for the girls basketball team due to Title IX.

Angie Burrell of The Diversity Team has even quoted one of the Whitney point cheerleaders as saying:

â€œIt feels funny when we do it,â€ said Amanda Cummings, 15, the cheerleading co-captain, who forgot the name of a female basketball player mid-cheer last month.

Great ladies. We should all be embarrassed that teenaged girls "feel funny" when they have to cheer for other girls.

I don't know about you, but this makes me feel sick. Where have we gone wrong? Why is cheerleading only okay if it is for boys?

Roxanne at Rox Populi says:

So, the answer to giving female athletes greater publicity and emphasis is to have other girls grind it up inject "a level of excitement and spirit" in their honor? Hmmm. Right. Okay. Gotcha.

Exactly Roxanne. I'm sure that the female basketball players at Whitney Point High feel much more "charged up" to play now that they know the cheerleading squad doesn't even want to be there.

Contributing Editor Sarah also blogs at Sarah and the Goon Squad and Draft Day Suit.