#you can't really discuss the objectification in cheerleading without discussing pep rally culture in america (or abroad if anywhere else has

[femmesandhoney]

are those people unaware that cheerleaders can be at sports other than football. our hs had cheerleaders for basketball who cheered for (you guessed it) girls and boys teams. marching band usually only perform at football games (aside from competitions) but people aren't making the same critique about those. (we had pep band at basketball games too but that is obvi not marching band as they didn't march. and pep band was at girls and boys games) cheerleading isn't all that different from a combo of dance & gymnastics and yet some wack jobs want to act like they're functionally equivalent to an audience shouting chants. weirdos. all of this to say you are correct and you should say it

i think there's just a lot of overlooking of the sport in general by most people, but i think people get too caught up in cheerleading itself rather than the culture of pep rallies and "cheer" leading, at least in an american culture. the idea of having people cheer on your team is nothing new and was apparently established by men in relation to more formal team settings. the nature of this "debate" is a bit finicky since cheerleading didn't use to be female dominated, but when it gained traction amongst women we saw more formal gender roles strike down the idea that it was ever something for men and it was a women's activity and sport, at least from what i gathered the gist of it to be. the professionalization of it is what seemed to spark the overt sexualization and objectification of cheerleaders across american culture as these super sexualized portrayals were then broadcasted to everyone in roughly the 1950s and beyond. this obviously had a lot of influence on cheerleading attire for non-professional cheerleaders and what cheerleading was apparently about now in the american mass imagination: pretty women waving pom-poms on the side of the football field.

i won't like lie and say that that isn't a huge problem and that i love seeing cheerleaders objectified while doing pep activities bc i don't, but i think the history of the sport and activity is quite important. a lot of similar sports such as acrobatics, gymnastics, and figure skating have also had this same typing of being female sports and demeaned as such. but i think the fact cheerleading can involve both sport and entertainment is important to acknowledge as well, like you said cheerleaders are there to "cheer" and contribute to the mood of a pep rally or game, men's or women's teams. they do not and should not have to objectify themselves to do this and i think, same as other female sports, cheerleaders should be able to wear less sexualized clothing while preforming and competing.

idk i think the obvious thing to discuss is "pep rally" cultures have been heavily typed female and are often thought of as female spaces and sports, when really they should be way more equal in representation. but since most pep rally activities involve things like dance and gymnastics, sports typed female and often female dominated as far as im aware, which mean women get the full brunt of supplying this pep rally culture and in the modern age objectified as they do it. i think the debate should focus on this culture and idk figuring out ways to fix it? instead of complaining about cheerleading as a sport itself which gets you nowhere in the conversation in my opinion

#you can't really discuss the objectification in cheerleading without discussing pep rally culture in america (or abroad if anywhere else has #as extreme a culture as we do) #there's like obvious layers here that need to be broken down and thought through before calling all cheerleaders insecure women with little #concern for the culture and environments these women are in that we could be addressing and fixing #like okay...anyways