To my readers who are a complete third party regarding this
issue, you may not know what the concepts of cheerleading are. People only know
certain things from the horrible stereotypes which in movies
such as “Bring it On” give to this truly astonishing sport. All cheerleaders are not the popular, perfect, and mean girls in school. Cheerleading is not all about the things that the media portrays. From personally
being involved with cheerleading I will provide a little background on what I have experienced and gone through. I have been a
cheerleader since the age of 6, even as a little mascot for the older
cheerleading teams, I’ve loved being involved. It has always been a time
consuming and competitive sport in my life. There was always constant traveling
through the months of August from when our season began all the way through to
March when the season ends. Just comparing this information so far with other
sports the season is about two seasons consecutive to each other. Ever since I was a little girl my winter
months have been the most hectic, taking my family and I to many different
cities and states nearly every weekend. This usually occurred from January to
March during competition season. During my freshman year my varsity team had
made it to Nationals in Orlando Florida. That is when we finally had received
appreciation from our school on how all of us had to earn our place, and
deserved to finally be considered members of a sports team. What people do not
see is how big of a time commitment this sport is. They only see what the
public sees, which are cheerleaders cheering at other sport events. All through
out my cheerleading career the practices have been long and rough, everyday for
the minimum of three hours. Which at least at my high school was more than the
football, basketball, and lacrosse teams practiced. At my school in our trophy
cases cheerleading has their own separate case because of all the awards,
acknowledgements, and plaques we have received. Clearly for cheerleaders to
receive all these awards they have to had attended many events, which each of
them cost money to attend. This shows that cheerleading is gaining spectators,
and support. When these ladies and gentlemen work as hard as they do, and
provide this much success, how is it that we are still not considered a sport?
Is it because we wear skirts? We jump around and actually look like we are
enjoying what we do? Or is it because half the people who insist that cheerleading
isn’t a sport could never attempt to do things we do? I believe it is a
combination of all of these factors, but it is mostly because people are
misinformed.
Also, another horrible stereotype that is directed to male cheerleaders is that if men cheerlead, they are homosexual. Just because a man can be flexible and has decided they like to cheer, does not provide any reason for him to be gay. It honestly hurts me when I hear this stereotype being directed to male cheerleaders. I have had two different males on my cheerleading teams and I have seen them being made fun. Both of them had strong enough personalities to avoid the pointless comments made towards them. In college, many of the male cheerleaders are also involved in other sports such as football in basketball. This is just another reason to why cheerleaders are as strong as they are. They need to keep their heads above everybody else and succeed in what they do. Hopefully one day these horrible stereotypes will no longer
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