In today’s society we as a culture have set the standard of how a person is stereotyped. The cruel truth is that being judgmental of others simply because of that person’s clothes, gender, or language, is damaging to that person’s identity and also damaging to the trust that could have been built between individuals.The decision to choose which social group a person decides to be a part of should not define who the person is as an individual. People just like to do different activities that make them happy. A male cheerleader has the abilities that some girls may not, such as demonstrating strong muscle power in necessary situations. Cheerleading may make some males happy and they can do tricks or other things many females won't dare to do. …show more content…
From my experience I conclude that these stereotypes or misconceptions have harmed many athletes.These stereotypes did not show up from one day to another, people for decades have been starting up new stereotypes. I, myself have bumped heads with others because calling people names is a negative thing. I am sure others would not like if strangers came up to them and said something negative it would bring them down. Male cheerleaders are so positive and optimistic. My understanding is clear depending how a person is grown determined their point of view. If they grow up as in blue is for boys and pink is for girls, most likely they are not going to be as opened for certain things, such as boys cooking, or males as cheerleaders, or girls working. I have a cousin who is part of a cheer team in Ceres, Ca. The experience knowing someone who is part of this group is nice, but so many people are really judgmental. People call him gay and other rude things just because he does what he loves to do which is cheering for his team. In my experience this puts me so mad because it should not be like that people should not judge another for what they love to do or how they dress. Everyone should just mind their own business and not hurt others with they're rude words. Others say he is not manly enough or smart enough just because as in their point of view male cheerleaders …show more content…
The false accusations of many male cheerleaders being gay serve no purpose but to bring the cheerleader down. They love to do what they do and when someone labels them differently, it undermines what the cheerleader actually does. Male cheerleaders exhibit qualities that women do not, which gives men an advantage in certain cases. The misleading information of men joining the cheerleading squad to impress a girl also shows that people do not understand that everybody has different interests and how they chose to express that interest. The fact that a cheerleader is male should not affect how a person’s intelligence is measured, but their work ethic should reflect the grades of the person. Just because of the way society has placed genders on certain sports should not be the reason to judge someone as dumb, gay, or having interest for something fueled by someone other than themselves. So in the words of Megan Barlly, male cheerleaders are the “powerhouses [that] bring a whole new element to the sport”
In the article “Jocks vs. Pukes,” by Robert Lipsyte boys and girls both play sports. “ Boys- and more and more girls-who accept Jock Culture values often go on to flourish in a competitive sports environment that requires submission to authority, winning by any means necessary and group cohesion,” says Robert Lipsyte. In Kate Nolan’s article boys are only allowed to play sports. Kate Nolan mentions, “A lot of people like to justify women’s supporting role in sports media by saying, “Well, they’ve never played the game, so they just aren’t qualified to speak about it.” Women are known to not play football because coaches never give them the chance to try. Another difference is Bill Stowe in the article “Jocks vs. Pukes” Stowe is tired of fighting for what he believes in because people are still ignorant. For instance, “It’s time to give up the torch,” he says. “People are still living in ignorance, but I’m not running it up the flagpole anymore. Life’s too short to fight,” says Bill Stowe. However, Kate Nolan wants to stand up for the females out there. For example, “I wanted ask him why, when the NFL’s always talking about growing their audience and penetrating new markets, why would he not consider a larger suspension for Ray Rice to send the message to the untapped marker of female fans that the NFL actually cares about them,” says Kate Nolan. Furthermore, in Lipsyte’s article it mentioned that women are one-hundred percent included in being part of a winning team. “The drive to feel that sense of belonging that comes with being part of a winning team- as athlete, coach, parent, cheerleader, booster, fan-is a reflection of Jock Culture’s grip on the male psyche and on more and more women,” says Lipsyte. In Nolan’s article women can only be involved in certain things like reading headlines, assisting their male colleagues with sports related issues, and guarding the sidelines. “Women in sports television are allowed to
“They’re snobs.” “They’re ditzy.” “They are just brats.” Cheerleaders. There are many problems with stereotyping, and cheerleaders are no strangers to it. Every cheerleader could probably tell you a time when someone stereotyped them, whether that be them as a person or an athlete. While on some occasions cheerleaders really do fit the stereotypical vision of a cheerleader off of a movie, most are not your typical “cheerleader”; intelligent, polite, and athletic are all characteristics of these individuals. Making judgements about a person based on what sport they played is not deserved. Most people in high school would say they knew, or thought they knew how cheerleaders were, but if taking the time to get to know the kind of people they are, then people’s opinion would change.
Movies portray cheerleaders as the popular girls that everyone likes and aspires to be. But when reality hits at Salem High School, it’s a completely different story. Cheerleading was taken as a joke by the other athletes and even students. It was considered a hobby, but to me it was a passion and something I worked hard to be. Being on the cheer squad in high school was difficult to deal with in school because we were constantly being snubbed by the other athletes and students in our school ever since we were kids in junior high which should not happen because everyone has the right to do what they love and they should not be judged for it being different than everyone else. It was always us versus them up until my junior year of high school when we finally earned the respect of our peers.
Last year, during one of my high school’s football games, a couple of students approached my friend and I. “Why do we need cheerleaders?”, “Don’t you think you guys are sort of distracting the football players?”, were the questions directed towards us. Because of my timid freshman self, I was unable to answer their question at the time. Why exactly did Cheerleaders matter? As the year went on, I couldn’t help but notice the drastic effects the
It goes without saying that a person's gender, racial and social origins influence their participation in sports. Particular races and genders often dominate certain sports. African Americans, for example, tend to dominate football and basketball, while Caucasians tend to dominate ice hockey. The same holds true for gender as well. Football is an entirely male dominated sport, while horseback riding, gymnastics and figure skating are much more female oriented. How and why did these divisions come about? Determining the origin of gender goes beyond the scope of this paper, however one can speculate about how gender classifications and stereotypes affect one's role in the sports arena.
There is two things in this world that you should be scared of. The first thing is spiders, and the second is a cheerleader who has just been told cheerleading is not a sport. There are approximately 400,000 individuals in the Unites States in this day and age that participate in high school cheerleading (www.varsity.com). If you ask, most of them would tell you that they work their butts off, and they would say that cheerleading is a sport. In some cases some cheerleaders are fighting for their right to be called athletes because their school districts tell them that they aren’t. By doing this the school districts are portraying the message that cheerleading is a joke, and that it isn’t a real sport. It sets stereotypes for cheerleaders, and they have to work to overcome those stereotypes everyday. The school districts all over US not classifying cheerleading as a sport are in the wrong. For several reasons, all school districts should recognize cheerleading
Reilly’s Sports Illustrated column is not only inaccurate and full of unreliable information, but also he targeted cheerleaders based on one of his personal opinions. He didn’t write his article based on statistics and reliable information. Reilly simply wrote it based on what he thought with very few sources. In the first sentence he states “Every Friday night on America’s high school football fields, it’s the same old story. Broken bones. Senseless violence. Clashing egos.” To an extent this may be true for some cheerleaders, but the way that this opening statement is worded, it makes it sound like Reilly is saying this for every cheerleader out there. If this state...
Cheerleaders are usually referred to as dumb, skinny, and un-athletic. The most commonly known cheerleaders are scholastic cheerleaders, or cheerleaders that cheer for school functions. Girls that cheer for their schools are often ridiculed for wearing too much make-up, or being stuck up. A large number stereotypes are given to cheerleaders through movies. Several people say that the typical cheerleader is skinny, and un-intelligent. Not all cheerleaders have a specific image, they’re all unique. Cheerleaders can come in a multitude of different sizes and shapes. To be a cheerleader being skinny is not a requirement. An innumerable amount of schools have cheerleaders who are bigger, these cheerleaders are the base of the pyramid-literally. Not to mention most cheerleaders are actually smarter than everyone thinks. Many cheerleaders are placed in honors classes and in advanced placement classes. Another stereotype introduced to cheerleading is that boys can’t be cheerleaders, and if there is a boy cheerleader, he’s often called gay ("Omni Cheer Blog"). Uniquely, boys are the sole reason that cheerleaders exist. Boys invented cheerleading to raise awareness and support for sports teams. Likewise, not all cheerleaders prance around in a short skirt, like everyone thinks. There are athletes who take the sport seriously. As of right now the odds are against competitive cheerleading to be considered a sport. People and schools refuse to accept competitive cheerleading as a confirmed sport because the “new” sport will require new guidelines and rules ("Competitive Cheerleading
Cheerleading is one of America’s oldest activities. Cheerleading started in the late 1880’s by all-male “pep clubs.” During a football game in 1898, Johnny Campbell was the first “cheerleader” to grace the field by leading the crowd in a now popular University of Minnesota chant. Afterwards, squads began to start up in colleges throughout the country as “yell leaders.” Although cheerleading is a considered a female sport, women didn’t show up on cheer squads until 1923. Female cheerleading became more frequent due to World War Ⅱ (Purvey). Many famous people are known to have been a part of a cheer squad, including George W. Bush who was “head” cheerleader at Phillips Academy in 1968 (Tho...
Society often labels an activity a sport if it is rugged, requires endurance, strength, and masculine qualities. Because cheerleading is a predominantly women sport and is characterized by attractive uniforms and cheers, society often shuns the idea of men participating in this activity. Often times the activity is not considered a sport and the males and females are not considered athletes. Both males and females have to fight to encourage others to perceive them as athletes. In 1997, only one all female division participated in the NCAA all-collegiate cheer and dance team national championships. This proves the point that despite the social and cultural costs involved, males are still eager to participate in the sport that they originally founded and feel many more benefits as well.
The New York Times states that cheerleading is the fastest growing girls’ sport, yet more than half of Americans do not believe it is a sport. A sport is defined as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature” (dictionary.com). Cheerleading at a competitive level is physically demanding and requires team work to be the best. The misconception of cheerleaders being weak, nonathletic crowd entertainers makes people believe cheerleaders are not athletes and that cheerleading is just a hobby but cheerleaders that compete at a competitive level are in fact athletes because it meets the standards of what a sport is, which includes rules and regulations, and overcoming air resistance.
One Generation Later, by Huffman, S. Tuggle, C. & Rosengard, D.S, explore the relevant discrepancies in media coverage. The authors assert that more boys than girls indulge in sports activities in school. Studies have examined the impact of Title IX on media coverage given to female athletes as opposed to male athletes to determine if there has been a shift away from negative social stereotypes that are traditionally associated with women’s sports participation toward a more socially accepting view of the female athlete. This has become a huge source of concern. Male students take active part in sports activities.
In Amy Moritz’s article, “Cheerleading: Not Just for Sidelines Anymore,” also explains this by saying, “For decades, female athletes were relegated to the sidelines - physically and metaphorically speaking. The cheerleader, the girl who looked pretty and cheered for the boys, became a symbol for many women's sports activists and second-wave feminists of the place athletically inclined females occupied in the sport world” (660). This quote from Moritz proves that the students and administration in my high school didn’t come up with these stereotypes by themselves and it also explains how cheerleaders are stereotyped as girls who only cheer for the skirt and for attention from males. This quote ties into my thesis because these examples are how the students and administration in my high school think of us. The Lake High School Cheerleading team is breaking this stereotype by cheering competitively. In this competitive routine, we have to tumble, dance, cheer, jump and sometimes stunt to music for two minutes and 30 seconds straight without stopping. To be able to do this, we condition daily, go to private tumbling classes to improve our tumbling skills individually and as a squad, and we also practice many times during the week to perfect the routine. It takes great athletic ability to be able to perform a
From an outsiders perspective one may see brainless and beautiful robots, which scream and perform neat tricks. This is not the case from the inside; cheerleading is so much more than that. Many people are under the impression that cheerleading is not a sport. I am the voice of reasoning that will let you in, and I will show you that cheerleading, in fact, is a sport. Cheerleading requires much physical demand from the body just as any other sport would. Cheerleading, in general, is a team effort. There are many sides to cheerleading, which make it a versatile sport. When it comes to cheerleading there’s more to it than what meets the eye.
The concept of hegemonic masculinity, as described by R. W. Connell, is becoming more applicable than ever, namely in the world of sport. This notion was developed nearly twenty-five years ago, yet remains highly influential in the social construction of gender roles. In current Western societies, there is an automatic assumption that women involved in sports are all lesbians, and men posses more masculine traits than one who is not involved in sports. This double standard emphasizes the inequalities within the athletic community. The emphasis on masculinity brings forth different consequences for men and women, where men are regarded as strong and powerful, while women are intrinsically seen as more masculine (Baks & Malecek,