Is Cheerleading A Sport?

All cheerleaders are:

Girls

Dumb

Stuck Up

Skinny

FALSE FALSE FALSE

All cheerleaders are not girls, both girls and boys have the equal option to cheer.

All cheerleaders are not dumb, in order to cheer you have to maintain a certain GPA.

All cheerleaders are not stuck up. Everyone brings something different to the table, not everyone is the same. From experience on various cheer teams, I have met the most genuine girls.

All cheerleaders are not skinny. Cheerleaders come in all different shapes and sizes, just like any other sport. You don’t have to be a size 0 just to cheer. All you need is a dedicated heart and a positive spirit.

Cheerleading is:

Not a sport

There are so many stereotypical assumptions about cheer leading.

I can understand where people may be confused with cheering, maybe because they never witnessed or lived through the life of a cheerleader. But there is WAY more to cheering than just “yelling and shaking their butts”, stated by anonymous.

Based on the NCAA and high school associations, cheer leading is not technically a sport. But, just by the definition of what a sport is… Cheerleading should definitely be defined as one.

According to Oxfords Dictionary, a sport is: “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”.

Cheerleading requires a lot of training, skills, practice and agility. When competing, doing very difficult flips and stunts is not an easy task. It’s not something you just wake up and know how it do. You have to work hard and practice over and over in order to master it. People don’t give the credit to cheerleaders where it’s due and it’s not fair. 

Cheerleaders aren't given the proper protection because of the fact that it's not considered a sport.  Cheering is just as dangerous as playing football, or even worse. Think about it, these girls are risking a lot when being thrown 20-30 feet into the air. Depending on someone to catch you when you fall can be such a scary thing. 

According to the Washington Post,cheer leading "is as rigorous as many other activities that high schools. Something seriously needs to be changed when it comes to taking this situation seriously, but how?

Taking A Trip Down Memory Lane

 

Cheering has been my go to sport since I was six years old. I cheered from elementary school, all the way throughout high school. Looking back I have gained so much from cheering.

 

My mom was probably the best cheer. She was so heavily involved with every team I’ve been on. My family would never miss a competition! Looking back I'm so grateful to have such a supportive and loving parents. At the end of each competition they would always have flowers for me and they would tell me how proud they were, even if my team didn't win.

In middle school, my mom put me in gymnastic classes just so that I would gain more skills. I was such a fast learner. I learned how to do a back flip in less than a month, and I was able to master a back tuck even faster.

Competitions were my favorite part of it all. At my high school, everyone was super supportive of the cheerleaders, mainly the varsity team. The gym would be filled up and people from all different high schools in the county would come watch. In 2013, the varsity cheer team I was on at the time ended up making it to the State competition, and we won first place! This was the second time my high school’s varsity team made it to State’s, and the fact that we won was such an amazing feeling.

I’ve gotten to know so many different people from different cultures while cheering. Cheer leading is a both physical and social based sport. Yes I said sport, we'll get to that topic on another day...
But, I have definitely gained a lot of self confidence and teamwork skills that have helped me in the real world.

There is so much more to cheer leading than the general assumptions that people make. By tuning in to the two following posts, I am hoping to show you a different side to cheer leading if you have not learned it already.

Casanova and Casanovette

Slut.

Whore.

Hoe. 

Bitch.

Skank.

These are all words to describe sexually active women.

Player.

Ladies’ Man.

Romeo.

Casanova.

These are all words to describe sexually active men.

 Language is a strong, but subtle form of oppression. Referring to females by names that are not human is denying females the right to being accepted as a viable gender of the human race. For example, a bitch is a female dog. Calling a female a bitch is saying that she isn’t human and in turn doesn’t deserve basic human respect.

Men and women engage in the same activity, but men are praised for it and women are punished for it. Our society was built on the fundamental idea that women should be ashamed of their sexuality. This is seen in 17^th century Puritan society and on my modern day college campus. Women still receive a scarlet letter grade for being sexually active. 

Just last night I was sitting in the common room with a group of my friends. This girl walks by holding this guy’s arm. Two of my male friends proceed to say “Hey did y’all see that girl that just walked by. She has like 50 bodies." Me being the person I am had to ask WHY DOES THAT MATTER? My friend answered with “she’s just a hoe, plain and simple.” Instead of saying anything else, I just decided to listen to the rest of the conversation. One of my female friends then said “look at how she’s dressed. I mean clearly she’s a hoe." THERE IS NO CORRELATION BETWEEN CLOTHING AND SEXUAL ACTIVITY.

A male football player that has multiple sex partners isn’t something people think twice about. The phrase “boys will be boys” was created to justify such male activity. Meanwhile, a female college student has multiple sex partners, has safe and consensual sex, but is called a hoe.

If a male can be a Casanova, then I can be a Cassanovette.

Click here if you're interested in reading further into this topic