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That is how it is here too. My D’s bf was a varsity football player, and the girls would even go to his HOME and decorate his BEDROOM before certain games. </p>
<p>I <em>really</em> appreciate w-g-d-s’s post because it is truthful and very reflective of a good many cheerleading squads.</p>
<p>~b.</p>
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Guess the post from we’re_going-down-swinging set <em>you</em> straight! ;)</p>
<p>At my daughters high school- in general the young womens teams are more competitve than the young mens teams- </p>
<p>Ive just attended womens basketball games ( they usually go to state), swim & track meets.
Since JV is usually scheduled on the same day at same place, if they have cheerleaders for V game, they have it for JV.
The real measure of how esteemed the team is however, is how often the band is scheduled to perform to rev up the crowd [I’m so glad]( <a href=“http://garfieldjazz.org/”>http://garfieldjazz.org/</a>)
My D and her friends go to football games- supposedly not for the football team ( they are at the bottom in their division) but for the band ;)</p>
<p>I imagine at some schools it is very obvious about which sports have priority, for instance the teams that my D is on- through her school- swimming and track, rarely if ever have cheerleaders or a large portion of supporters that aren’t parents- but I am pleased that the womens volleyball and basketball teams attract not only cheerleaders but the band ( even though the swim team had a better record than the volleyball team)</p>
<p>( tried to post this hours ago- hope its still relevant 
)</p>
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LOL. I’m still having trouble believing that the poster is serious. Jiminy.<br>
And if that is in fact their purpose, sexual inuendo and flirtation , subservient cookie baking and decorative preening, they can do their mating rituals someplace else. I’d suggest Lookout Point. (Maybe Fonzie and Richie will be there. ;))</p>
<p>I LIKE our cheerleaders and their routines. These girls y’all are talking about? Well - I couldn’t support those squads.</p>
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What I find even more incredulous is that <em>anyone</em> didn’t fully realize this before that post!! :eek: That post could have been written about OUR cheerleaders, 'cept you’d have to add in a pregnancy or two… ;)</p>
<p>~berurah
p.s. cur, what differentiates “subservient cookie baking” from “nonsubservient cookie baking”? Just wonderin’…I bake cookies (and biscotti) for tons of people, but I don’t think ANYONE would characterize me as “subservient.” ;)</p>
<p>If you cheerleaders want to get the respect you deserve, train like a sport and stop being “hangers-on” and working on the sidelines. In other words, be athletes, and stop “cheering” at ANY game. Cheerleading is an anachronism. If your fans really need someone to tell them to cheer and get excited, maybe not enough is happening on the field. Become stars rather than supporting players and then maybe you’ll get respect.</p>
<p>I’ve watched cheerleading competitions on ESPN, and the athletes are AMAZING. The only ridiculous part of it is when they stop the athletic routines to clap and do the actual cheers.</p>
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This sounds like a resonable way to determine which sports (and gender variations thereof) cheerleaders should be assigned to (unless the cheerleaders were actually the draw!).</p>
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This is also reasonable. Sports players only have to show up for games/practices of their respective sport (sometimes by gender) but if cheerleaders had to show up at all genders of teams and perhaps all teams, it’d be impractical unless there were a huge cheerleader team.</p>
<p>I agree with the others that I always considered cheerleaders to be cheering for the school rather than the boys they consider hot. This sexist idea (girls cheering boys because they’re boys rather than reps of the school) alone would be enough for me to not support cheerleading.</p>
<p>Perhaps a reasonable solution would be to have cheerleaders cheer at the top (in terms of audience draw) two boys teams and top two girls teams. The cheerleading tryouts could simply cut fewer candidates which would benefit those additional people that’d like to be on the cheerleading team. I assume the cheerleading team is already open to boys as well as girls. It seems like a win/win solution.</p>
<p>Well, for the record, my D’s HS cheerleading squad was nothing like what has been described here. They’re basically a pretty wholesome bunch (with an occasional exception, of course), and no suggestive cheers. They did have a tradition my D’s freshman year of bringing cookies or something like that to the players the day of the game, but that tradition was nixed when the cheerleading and football coaches learned that some of the football players hadn’t said “thank you” to the cheerleaders. I think the tone of the squad is set by the coach, and we were fortunate to have a pretty serious one.</p>
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<p>I heartily agree. But am I wrong in assuming that not all of your cookies go to males? ;)</p>
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<p>As I noted above, my D’s squad did cheer at both girls and boys games, both home and away, and it WAS a huge time commitment. Despite that (and commitments to several other extra curricular activities), she managed to have a good academic record.</p>
<p>Based on reading going<em>down</em>swinging’s post, and the “cheers” cited therein, I’ve decided that squads such as hers should be <em>required</em> to cheer for female teams. Might help them clean up their act. And get better writers.</p>
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uhhhh…What he said. </p>
<p>Why not expand the cheer squad and have basketball cheerleaders and football cheerleaders ? That way the overwhelming burden could be shared. Or a blue squad and a white squad and alternate every week? That would cut the time in half.</p>
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Uhhh…and what she said, too. LOL.</p>
<p>“And if that is in fact their purpose, sexual innuendo and flirtation, subservient cookie baking and decorative preening, they can do their mating rituals someplace else.”
Uh, have you seen teens interacting these days? High school itself is full of “sexual innuendo and flirtation.”
And whoever said that our cookie-baking is subservient? Does this mean that, when I bake my best friend cupcakes for her birthday, I’m subservient to her? Anyways, we have lots of fun baking the cookies. We get as much out of it as the boys.
Lastly, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with doing nice things like decorating lockers. It’s just to motivate them, let the boys know that we’re behind them. “Decorative preening?” I think not. We’re not birds, for crying out loud.</p>
<p>I think there is a productive role for the cheer squad at every school, and that is to promote school spirit, cohesiveness, pride in the alma mater, etc., just to make the whole high school experience more fun and memorable for everyone!</p>
<p>Our cheerleaders tend to focus on football, which happens to be our weakest sport, and ignore our nationally ranked girls cross country team.</p>
<p>If they would take the lead in making sure that the deserving athletes in every sport got the proper recognition, they would be alot more appreciated.</p>
<p>Sure it would be a great idea to expand the cheer squad but its unrealistic when people aren’t try-ing out. Most cheerleading are going Allstar route so they won’t have to deal with all the highschool grab. That highschool garbage is the notation that cheerleading is not a sport. I didn’t join cheerleading to meet hot guys, thats what the caf is for…just joking, I joined it because it was a mix of the different things I enjoyed. I dance, I tumble and I love to stunt. </p>
<p>Why so much hatered for cheerleaders? And also please stop stereotyping cheerleaders. Not all cheerleaders joined the team for guys, many of us are gymnasts or dancer looking to get involved in our school.</p>
<p>tmacgirl, you make excellent points. But the other cheerleader posting here, unfortunately, highlighted the worst of your sport. I am glad you posted your perspective.</p>
<p>tmacgirl, can we get you to share your thoughts on this part of the going<em>down</em>swinging’s post? </p>
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I’d really like to know. </p>
<p>going<em>down</em>swinging, as for you, “I would feel so weird cheering for girls” , don’t you “cheer” for your friends in dance, drama, band, orchestra? Or do you really mean what you say and clap and whistle and cheer only for the activities where your boyfriends are?</p>
<p>I cheer and hoot and holler whenever two kids are playing tiddlywinks or marbles or Mock Trial or Band. (Yes. I am THAT guy. )</p>
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Right ya are! In fact, I’ve sent biscotti to several of my CC girlfriends! ;)</p>
<p>I think that we’re<em>going</em>down_swinging is describing the typical cheerleading squad in many areas of this country. I’m not sure why her honest portrayal is garnering so much anger. She’s just tellin’ it like it is…and frankly, her posts support the point I made on page one: Namely, that it’s simply silly to sue about cheer squads being “sexist” by not supporting girls’ teams equally when the entire concept of cheerleading is an inherently sexist one, exceptions notwithstanding.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
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LOL! Unfortunately, you have to be a football hero, to get along with the beautiful girls. Neither Richie nor Fonzie stike me as football types.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, when you posted earlier about your d not liking the whole cheerleading scene, I could relate. I’ll go ahead and paint with an extremely broad brush…sorry. But in these parts, the cheerleaders are the most likely girls to have pierced navels and moms with tatoos and “colorful” language. The true tumbling, stunting, gymnastic stuff is impressive. But not prancing with pompoms. I always found the most creative cheers were improvised by fans in the stands, anyway. (Ever been to a Ranger game?)</p>