The Dark Side of Cheerleading
Cheerleading apparently looks like a pretty nice sport that takes place during the half times of American football and basketball games in America. There is a dark side to it though with a lot of dodgy practices coming to light in recent years. What is meant to be a way to cheer the teams playing a sport has turned into a pretty ugly business indeed. The death of an eighteen year old high school cheerleader has brought the bad side of this sport to the forefront.
Cheerleading has evolved for many years in America. It started out in college sports events in the late 1800s. Actually, the first cheerleader was a man named Johnny Campbell who, in 1898, stood in front of the crowd at a Princeton University college game and directed the crowd to cheer along with him. By doing so he became the first cheerleader in history. Shortly after him others started to cheer their respective teams in unison and cheerleading was born. During those days, the cheerleaders were all male but today they are predominantly female.
Cheerleading, over the years, became more and more popular starting with high school cheerleaders going into college cheerleading squads. From there on a large number of them would go onto become professional cheerleaders working in various professional sports leagues in America. During this transition period, something strange started to happen in the world of cheerleading. Similar to what is required in the world of modelling, where all a model basically needs to be is tall because she is essentially a walking clothes hanger, models needed to get more attractive.
A Cheerleader’s essential job is to rally their team to perform better by cheering them. Over the past few years this sport has become more glamorous and fashion-oriented. Looking at the pictures of cheerleaders, it tells us that they are mostly blonde, skinny, well endowed and attractive. This trend has pushed the world of cheerleading into dangerous territory.
The death of an 18 year old high school cheerleader in 2008, who was getting breast augmentation surgery done, highlights a very important issue in cheerleading. The death did not have anything to do with the breast augmentation itself but was a result of complications with the anaesthetic. The fact that a cheerleader was getting surgery done highlights a growing trend, in cheerleading, of women trying to look perfect to win a spot on a professional cheerleading squad in the National Football League (NFL).
The cheerleaders that eventually make it to a professional squad cheering for a national football team in America have to go through a gruelling process of interviews and trials just to be considered by the judges. Over the years, these trials and interviews have been noticed to be picking blonde, good looking, young, thin and big breasted women to be on football cheerleading squads. It is because of this very reason that women, who try out for the squads, go through a lot to even make a place.
This is where the true dark side of cheerleading comes out; issues such as eating disorders to control weight have been noticed, cosmetic surgery is on the rise with potential cheerleaders trying to make themselves look better. The interview process makes the women feel demeaned because the judges require the performance of a cheerleading routine and then a bikini session where all the potentials have to walk around in front of the judges wearing bikinis. Every inch of their bodies is critically analysed which can be very humiliating for some at times. This is a big problem in the sport because as the clothes of cheerleaders have gone skimpy, the interest lies in the cheerleader rather the “cheering”.
The world of cheerleading is full of bad practices and dodgy rituals behind the scenes. The governing bodies of the NFL and other sports need to open up this can of worms and expose these practices once and for all. An end needs to be brought to the discriminating and sexist way in which cheerleaders are chosen and the pressure that is put on these young women to look perfect all the time.
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