Cheerleading and Eroticism and Schools

The article "Cheerleading, eroticism, and schools", written by Pamela Bettis and Natalie Adams, is one of a very twisted reality. Written by two women, I expected the article to take on the typical stance of fighting against 'boys will be boys'. However, this article goes into depth into the history of cheerleading and how the sport shaped itself into the image that is portrayed nationally be media.

After reading the full 14 page article, I was left shellshocked and feeling a bit of ashamed of what my own gender did to the activity of cheerleading. The article wastes no time manipulating you to believe that cheerleading is a subliminal sex act by choosing to use the words such as "sexy tease". While at first I was offended that the authors would suggest that females were the reason cheerleading changed from a group people chanting and performing aerobic feats for supports, to a group of girls who stood on the sidelines for no other reasons than to be provocative; I continued to read to understand the author's point of view better. The authors insert a documentary movie type feeling by conducting their experiments. They went on to prove that most of the girls that were or wanted to be cheerleaders, only wanted to do so to feel coveted. These interviews with young girls seemed pretty subjective at first, but when you relate to it as a high school student; you realize how detrimental this kind of behavior from young girls is. Even though this piece of writing does not include any charts or graphs, the historical information presented is more than enough to make a case. The authors have lead me to believe that the emphasis on sexuality that the sport has placed upon young women, is not healthy for their mental growth and self esteem. I, like the author, believe that if young women continue to treat themselves as an object to be admired just for their social status and looks; respect will be lost for the whole female gender. Cheerleading