Worst Blog Ever

Image from Wikimedia

This is a response to an  article written by Sophia Harris, that appeared on the CBC website. The article was titled: Pro cheerleading 'should be abolished'.

First a little background about me: I am a former male cheerleader, who use to cheer for the Edmonton Eskimos Football team, back in mumble, mumble, mumble. During the years that I was a member of the team, we cheerleaders were known for our athleticism, energy, and dance routines. It was a time that I remember with nothing but fondness. I met some of my best life-long friends through cheerleading, and consider all of them like my extended family. Ok, that is a little about me, now onto the article.

So after reading this article, I have come to the conclusion that there is very little in this piece that actually has to do with cheerleading. She starts off the article with a quote from Mariah Burton Nelson, a former pro basketball player:

Cheerleading should be abolished,” former professional basketball player Mariah Burton Nelson told me. 

“Cheerleading implies that women's proper role is to support men, smile at men and fulfill the sexual fantasies of males,” declared Nelson, who played for Stanford University and in the first women's pro-basketball league in the U.S.

She then goes on to make this comment:

Many women’s pro-sports teams still struggle for recognition. Meanwhile, men’s leagues take centre stage, where women’s main job is to look good and entertain the crowd.

So on one hand, she is arguing against the legitimacy of one female sport, while trying to argue for the legitimacy of another female sport.

Anyway, my thoughts on all of this? Total load of rubbish!

Cheerleaders are a part of the game as a whole, like the players they are there to entertain the fans. They are no different than the opening act at a concert, or the comedians who come out to warm up the audience before the talk show host. They aren't the main reason you are there, but they play a big role in the entire production.

She then goes on make a spurious connection that cheerleaders are prime targets for exploitation; not sexual exploitation, but exploitation in the workforce. I'll get on to my views of the sexual exploitation later. She talks about cheerleaders being paid less than minimum wage, forced to do unpaid appearances, paying for and upkeep of their expensive uniforms, etc. While these issues did sound pretty crappy, the bottom line is, they have nothing to do with cheerleading. These are labour law issues, which is why many of them are going to court. They have very little to do with being a cheerleader, and very much to do with a corporation trying to get away with anything they can, to save a buck.

This leads us onto the sexual exploitation of cheerleaders, being made to where skimpy outfits, or posing for calendars, etc. On this topic, I am of two minds:

First, I have no issue with sexualisation for either men or women. Human beings are sexual creatures and I think that western society could do with some attitude adjustments when it comes to sex and the human body. That being said, the decisions should be up to the individual and not a condition of employment. You want to do a bikini photo shoot, or a sexy fireman calendar? Go for it! But be sure it is your decision, and if you can, get some of the proceeds for yourself.

Secondly, I actually agree that many cheerleading teams are overly sexualised, especially when we're talking about the outfits. Even my former team, the Edmonton Eskimos have the women in very tight and revealing outfits. Now, if the women voted on these types of outfits, then I withdraw my statement, and wish you all the best. However for most teams, I don't think the choice of outfits would be left to a democratic vote. Which to me, this is sending out mixed messages.

When I was a cheerleader, we worked extremely hard to fight against the old cheerleader stereotype. We presented ourselves as dancers, entertainers, and above all, athletes. Part of the process of redefining ourselves as cheerleaders was changing our outfits; something that was appropriate for everything we did. And while it took a little while, we won over the fans with this new style of cheerleading too.

This second point however is my bias. We fought to be recognised as one thing, and it seems that some of the values we fought for, have been over turned by others.

In the end, I thought the entire article was much ado about nothing. You could replace the word cheerleading with the word women or visible minority and make the same arguments throughout the whole piece. Like I said earlier, the article has less to do about cheerleading, and more to do about injustices.