Cheerleading is not a sport. Anyone can cheer. Cheerleading is easy. The cheerleaders are usually the loosest girls in school. All male cheerleaders are gay. Cheerleaders are dumb. Cheerleaders are stuck up. Cheerleaders are skinny, white blonde girls with big chests. Cheerleaders are mean. Cheerleaders just do it to show off their bodies to pick up guys. Cheerleading leads nowhere!
These are the common misconceptions and stereotypes about sideline and competitive cheerleaders. You hear it at the games, in the hallways, and from the players of the sport the cheerleaders are representing. And you also hear it from the media and movies when cheerleaders are represented. But none of it is true.
Cheerleaders practice for hours, run, exercise, tumble, and do cardio to stay in shape and to practice their moves to avoid injury and stay synchronized when performing. One bad move, one mistake, and a cheerleader is down on the ground hurt and in pain. And no one wants to see that and no cheerleader wants to know they’re responsible for that from their mistake.
And cheerleading, believe it or not, is the sport with most injuries in the United States every year. Cheerleading injuries affect all areas of the body. The wrists, shoulders, ankles, head, and neck are the most commonly injured areas. Sprains account for a majority of the injuries. Cheerleading injuries are up 440% in the last 20 years! And it is the sport responsible for 66% of catastrophic injuries in female athletes, more than any other sport including full contact sports like football. And yes cheerleading is a sport and the girls are athletes.
In many cases, a flyer gets thrown 20 feet in the air and if anything goes wrong that cheerleader can receive serious injuries. Concussions are on the rise and most injuries are received from stunting. Again, one mistake, one misstep, one lapse in judgment, can lead to a serious injury, or even a fatal one.
Cheerleading is a sport! Don’t believe it? A sport is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” There you go. Many people don’t see it as a sport because there is no hitting, or because they feel they are not really competing. But that’s just sideline cheer. There is competitive cheer also. And sideline cheer, the cheerleaders are out there in all kinds of inclement weather, risking even more injury to get crowds motivated, to get the crowd to support the team with noise, and it has been proven to work.
Cheerleading has been around for a long time, dating back to the 1880s in the United States. Although it’s dominated by females now, it was a male-dominated sport in its early origins. It has a long history surrounding it full of very famous people who cheered in their younger days including Paula Abdul, Halle Berry, Dakota Fanning, and Rachel Ray to name a few, and then there were many famous male cheerleaders including former president George W. Bush, comedian/actor Steve Martin, Samuel L. Jackson, Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the recently departed famous actor Kirk Douglas. And if you still believe male cheerleaders are all gay go tell that to Mr. Jackson, I”m sure he’d love to debate you on that.
Cheerleaders are not dumb, in fact, most of them are in College Prep classes, in the National Honor Society, and are at the top of their classes in grades. But due to movies and stereotypes, most people already have their preconceived notions already made up. All the negative stereotypes about cheerleaders are simply not true and when people stereotype them it is a form of sexism and it can really hurt them.
Sexism is rampant in our society as cheerleaders don’t get the respect they deserve whether it’s on or off the mat. They get demeaned by their peers and especially by many of the boys they support in sports. Some schools don’t even really want cheer teams, they deem it as unnecessary or irrelevant. National Football League cheerleaders constantly work out and practice yet only make $75 to $150 per game. And the college level of the NCAA, NAIA, or NJCAA does not even recognize cheerleading as a sport yet it is still in high demand.
Yet the cheerleaders still work hard and do their best to compete even though most colleges won’t offer but a minimal amount of money for a scholarship, But to qualify for one you have to work really hard and be a top contender and the scholarships range anywhere from only a $1,000 to as much as $7,500, depending on the college, much less than any other sport. A few years ago there were minimal scholarships available but it’s getting much better.
We are slowly advancing as a society in the fight against cheer stereotypes and sexism in general but we still have a long way to go. But in the meantime, when you see the cheer team standing in freezing cold rain or snow, or when they compete on the mat, give them the respect they deserve just like you would any other athlete because they’ve worked hard for it and they’ve earned it. Because they are athletes and cheerleading is a sport!