Evolution of cheerleading
Cheerleading has evolved a lot through out the years. At first it started as an activity that had very little that it was comprised of. The only job as a cheerleader was to cheer on your team and keep the crowd involved in the game. To the audience the cheerleaders simply cheered, “while looking cute and waving pom poms.” Because of how cheerleading started, it is still stereotyped as something that does not take much effort or physical ability.
It is the 21st century though; cheerleading has gone from throwing pom poms around to throwing people in the air and throwing your body in the air. Cheerleading has become a lot more physical and more competitive. Even in the last half century, cheer has gone from being one of the few ‘sports’ a female could participate in to a national sensation. National competitions are held every year and hundreds of cheer teams compete for a National Title; much like football or basketball teams do. But most people don’t see this competitive side to cheer. The Women’s Sport Foundation stated that the dance team and cheerleaders “usually exist to entertain or educate a spectating audience, or, in the case of cheerleading, to coerce audience enthusiasm and participation for an athletic team that is engaged in competition.” They go on to say, “these activities or performances are neither athletic contests nor practices (Tigay, 276).” Okay, yes cheerleaders are there to entertain the crowd during a competition, but there is so much more to cheerleading. As a few cheerleading boosters or supporters stated regarding the comment from the Women’s Sport Foundation, “this view doesn’t acknowledge the high-flying, fast-flipping, death-defying athleticism of 21st-century cheerleading (Tigay, 276).” The thing is people only see what cheerleaders do at football game or basketball game when we are given three feet of the sideline to perform and make their judgments from that. |