<p>Is the team student-directed or faculty-directed? I have zero problem with teenagers dancing however they want to dance at clubs and parties, or in dance troupes they form on their own, but I don’t think it’s helpful for adults to choreograph stripper moves for them. I wouldn’t be shy about speaking to the coach or principal about it.</p>
<p>similar problem with professional cheerleaders … here in Boston my kids and I go to professional lacrosse games … the audience is made up of tons of kids 8-14 and their parents … and the cheerleaders grind away (not that the 13/14 year old boys are complaining).</p>
<p>yeah, you aren’t that surprised by it in the context of professional sports, but it was just a bit shocking to me in this setting…especially as the rest of the program was so all-American high school USA</p>
<p>Its not that I’m shy about it, but I just don’t want to be a complainer at the school; having worked in schools, I know how hard the job is…but still, it is worth an email at least…not that I expect anything to happen. But I like to choose my battles with my kid’s schools!</p>
<p>In our district, it was the band dance teams as much or more than the cheerleaders. It had really gotten out of hand, and because of a racial component to this, it was pretty much a taboo subject for parents, newspaper, etc. However about 2 years ago, a school board member (for whom I have a great deal of respect) who was from the same community, said something about the behavior of the young band ladies in an open school board meeting, and after that the worst offenders improved.</p>
<p>I can imagine. I did notice at our hs football game that our cheerleaders were moving around in a suggestive fashion. I have 2 boys, and thought to myself that I wouldn’t be real happy if my daughter was doing that. It wasn’t gross, it just looked silly. </p>
<p>And I don’t want to offend anyone involved in the highly demanding sport of competitive cheerleading, but I also thought how times have changed because all of the athletic girls are participating in sports, leaving, not the most outstanding physical specimens for the cheerleading squad. (OK, I will go hide under my desk now!)</p>
<p>NJRes, you don’t have to hide under your desk but do keep in mind that a girl can be quite athletic and have no interest in playing soccer or field hockey, which is what is available to girls at the team level in the fall (that is, football season). There’s cross-country of course, but if you are a spring track sprinter, you may not really enjoy that, and there is girls’ tennis, but if you are in a high school with a lot of good players you may not make varsity even if you are pretty good, and as a senior you are not allowed to compete at the JV level, at least in NJ. So, no, I would say not all athletic girls have been removed from the cheerleading pool. i would say that t well-coached cheerleading (weight training, etc.), even if not geared toward competition, is good exercise. Remember too that at the college level there are male cheerleaders as well as female–sexism and sexual innuendo aren’t necesarily part of the routine at that level at all. So cheerleading is in fact a form of athletics; it’s unfortunate that some schools allow the “sluttier” aspects to dominate–does not have to be that way.</p>
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<p>I’ll let you know what I hear back! (save some room for me under the desk)</p>
<p>Reason #483,274,658 to go to an all-boy HS. The “cheers” consist of loud, synchronized grunts. (I’m not kidding…)</p>
<p>I would complain. I go to our HS football games (to watch the band!) and have noticed that our cheerleaders do not do too many stripper moves. Much more cheering and gymnastics. The local dance place does though. One year when I was President of our PTA I got a complaint from a parent about a song the group was going to perform to at the end of the year festival. The majority of the crowd was to be families and the song was something about having sex, and having it often. I listened to all the lyrics and called the dance academy and asked her to substitute another song because that one was inappropriate. She was shocked and said they had been performing it in other venues without complaints. After I read the words to her there was a long pause and she agreed to eliminate that dance.</p>
<p>Choreography these days is drawn from MTV. School drill and cheer teams also draw from that same store of questionable taste. If you watch national drill team competition, it’s more of the same. So what to do? Talk to the school board, of course.</p>
<p>Twelve years ago–first year in the district–I had many students who were on the drill team. Went to the performance. Died of embarassment… and got told “it’s just the way it is.” All the girls see is the effort of being in unison, as far as I can tell. Even a video doesn’t seem to throw them.</p>
<p>wecandothis, I think you were right to get in touch with the principal. I would say, though, that the tone of the email could have been a little more low-key—not because you are incorrect in your opinion or in your desire to see things change, but because there is an underlying sense of anger and self-righteousness that is almost certain to set off a negative–that is, defensive–reaction on the part of the administration no matter how right you are. It may work better if you say the same thing a little less emotionally and as if you are sharing a sense of sorrow or disappointment with the administration rather than expressing outrage. Also, unless you really do have a committee behind you or other parents who are ready tp put their names on a letter, you are not necessarily helping yourself to refer to “us parents” as if you really did have an ad hoc committee working on the issue. (If I were to read this letter in the local paper, I would find it a little over the top, somehow.) I hope you get a satisfactory response from this, but if not, try a softer more neutral but still strighforward tone next time you have a complaint and see if you get a better result. (I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that you are a first-time high school parent or at least that you have not raised any issues with the administration prior to this.)</p>
<p>The funny thing is, if girls were required to do this, as part of a class, or as a larger group, there would be protests.</p>
<p>mattmom- you’re probably right, maybe diplomacy isn’t my strong suit…because I thought I WAS being diplomatic, yet not sugar-coating it too much. I just felt I was more likely to get some action by being direct…leaving the shaking boobs out of it, at the very least, I don’t think I need a back up committee to prove to the school board that the song chosen was highly suggestive and inappropriate, and should be deleted from the repertoire (google it if you haven’t heard it…I was actually a little shocked by it just hearing it on the radio the first time!)…No, not a first time hs parent, but my daughter goes to the other local hs, the one w/out football and cheerleaders, so I guess I’m a little new to that scene, and truthfully much more comfortable with the culture at that school…but this is the first time I’ve had an issue with this school that I’ve complained about to admin. anyhow, I’m betting they have heard from other parents already on this one…i</p>
<p>suNa–sooo true!! lol</p>
<p>as someone suggested, school board is the next stop</p>
<p>Cangel. When I saw this thread in the forum I had to read it since I just came from a school pep rally (my son was recognized as a NMSF 
). The cheerleaders and dance team put on a show and it was overall pretty mild. When I read your post, I thought wow that sounds just like…and then I saw your posting location (we are in Alabama too). Just about fell out of my chair because my wife and have made the same observation whenever we played an inner city school. We always thought the moves and the high-stepping was cool, but the booty shaking was just too much!</p>
<p>wecandothis – I thought your e-mail to the principal was great and to the point.</p>
<p>It’s good you sent it.</p>
<p>We had a similar reaction last year at our daughter’s MIDDLE school talent show. Most of the acts were kids dancing and lip-synching to pretty tame pop music, plus a few brave voice and piano soloists. There were two acts, however, that consisted of 5th and 6th grade girls doing the whole exaggerated grind/booty-shaking thing. Most of the audience just sat there like they had cartoon question marks hovering over their heads, except for the girls’ own parents, who screamed and whistled as if they’d done something truly remarkable. It was bizarre.</p>
<p>I presume some of you may have seen the ‘talent acts’ from the pageant in the recent movie, “Little Miss Sunshine”? Talk about starting early with the slutty performances. 6-year-olds in heavy make-up shaking their thang… no matter that they don’t even <em>HAVE</em> any “thang” to shake yet!</p>
<p>to all of u parents-i’m a cheerleader and at my school we don’t do any booty shaking. i think it’s rude to group cheerleading up as if everyone does that. personally, i feel that there shouldn’t be anything done at the school where there is a problem bc you don’t have to watch that part of the show. also, if the girls’ parents are okay with it, then why should you care? you have the option to get up and leave if it offends you.</p>
<p>Mootmom, that scene in Little Miss Sunshine was hilarious…though quite sad at the same time!</p>
<p>I’ll admit that I am not sure just what this dance was as we don’t have any cheerleading where I live. The cheerleading compettiions that I have seen on TV look pretty athetic, involve some gymnastics, precision and some choreography, nothing suggestive, so it can be done appropriately. </p>
<p>My kids attended a dance studio for ten years and I have seen countless dance performances. That is private and not through school. Even so, I just read the lyrics to “Promiscuous Girl” and I know for a fact that there is no way our studio would have ever used that song in a performance. For one thing, it uses the “F” word. Another is the topic, whoa. Our dance studio put on a lot of contemporary dance and hip hop but nothing was sexual, I don’t recall shaking boobs or butts and certainly not suggestive lyrics. </p>
<p>I also agree with some others that how kids dance today at a dance is one thing but that is NOT the same as a school sponsored performance. There are a lot of contemporary moves that dancers and cheerleaders can do without sexualizing it or making people gawk at the girls. </p>
<p>I can share one experience but it isn’t cheerleading (which doesn’t exist here) but it was a school sponsored performance. When my D was 12, she was in the HS musical of Cabaret. I fully support this choice and in fact, the production was outstanding. However, after all the hard work and wonderful performance, the thing that the entire town was talking about and was all over the papers, was the VERY inappropriate costuming choices that the director made for the Kit Kat Girls. I know this show well and my D has been in a professional production of it since then, as well. Family members have seen it on Broadway. But the costumes at our HS were MUCH MUCH more racier than the professional adult productions. The girls were wearing underwear on stage, ala Victoria’s Secret…lace strapless bras and bustiers, panties with garters, hardly anything on and in fact, a cabaret girl back in the '20s would have had more on than these girls. It was a poor choice and caused a big uproar in the community. Ever since, the director keeps picking “safe” shows…Joseph/Dreamcoat, Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma, Into the Woods, Guys and Dolls. I think the choice of Cabaret was great but it was the inappropriate way he dressed the girls overtly like hookers/strippers to an extreme that took away from how great the production was. The sexual outfits on the girls were all people were talking about which was too bad. </p>
<p>So, it sounds like this cheer performance created a "buzz’ in the parent audience. If so, then there is power in numbers and I am sure the principal heard about it. If it was just something that offended a person here and there, then likely nothing will come of it. </p>
<p>Certainly there are ways to make dance performances and cheer routines very contemporary and fresh and hip without making the girls scintilate the audience on purpose.</p>
<p>no, we aren’t criticizing the non-booty shakers like yourself at all…someone pointed out, and I certainly agree, that its good exercise and requires talent and athleticism to do the more highly demanding and gymnastic routines.</p>
<p>But as a taxpayer and contributor to constant school fund-raisers, and a regular volunteer, don’t I have a right to complain when “Promiscuous Girl” is the theme song for the cheerleading team? Should I have to leave because the routine is offensive, when I’m attending back-to-school night to meet my child’s teachers and be involved at school? I should hope not. If the girl’s parents want them to dance like that, they should find a different venue…</p>
<p>It would be different if it was held in a different setting; I probably would leave, but that wasn’t an option for me last night</p>
<p>by the way, I think the song has a great beat and is very catchy, and Nelly Furtado is very talented, but I just don’t care for the message in the lyrics…I heard a parody sung to the same tune, but it was entitled “Ridiculous Girl”…that would have been a better theme song…IMHO</p>