Cheerleading Subculture Essay

Joey Peixoto

Professor Hughes

Sociology 120

8 March 2016

Cheerleading is a Subculture What is a subculture? As clearly defined in the textbook, a subculture can be described as “cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population” (Macionis 584). The way I think about it is, a various amount of people that define themselves as a group or team, or a culture within a culture. Subcultures are qualities and standards that are particular from those of the greater picture, and are held by a section outside of a more extensive society. In the United States, subcultures may incorporate radicals, Goths, gay/queer, hippies, aficionados of hip hop or heavy metal and even bikers - the examples are never ending. Subcultures can also

I was interested about this subculture because I am a dancer, and I have always been obsessed with cheer teams since I was little. I have always admired the teamwork and strength that it takes to throw 150 pound people in the air and then safely capture them from many feet up. At first when I first started studying the meaning of subcultures, I would not have even thought about cheerleading being an option to be a subculture. As soon as I found out that it was, I was assured that I would be writing my paper on this. This is something that I am very passionate about and a great pastime. From this study I truly hoped to learn how a couple of people throwing others in the air and doing various variations of flips across the floor could be considered a subculture. With much research and interviews, I soon learned that there is way more than meets the

Cheerleading is simply a practice for the larger arena of life. Also, cheerleading can also be a way to get our squad to do better in school. 80% of our team has at least a B average.” She also goes onto add, “ We value friendship, hard work, education, and discipline. In our team, we are a family. When one of us is hurt, we are all hurt. We do everything together and we are proud to be one big bulldog family.” The coach continues to explain her experiences with the bonding process, “There was a solid bond, and a harmony that was deficient from a large portion of the groups I was on in my school days. I assumed that was only the way it was. We hadn 't arrived to be companions, we hadn 't arrived in light of the fact that we were a group, we arrived on the grounds that we were all team promoters. As a mentor, and as a commander of my grown-up gathering pledges group after secondary school, my point of view changed. I encountered that it isn 't about whether a gathering of individuals gel or not, it isn 't a take it or abandon it circumstance. There are measures you can take, simple exercises and amusements you can utilize, that can really have any kind of effect in how a group interfaces with each other, and how agreeable they feel coming into a practice or occasion, working with