I never thought I’d be defending cheerleaders.
My history with cheerleaders is a bit precocious. In high school, I wrote a little column about how I thought our cheerleaders were hardly pepping up our apathetic, Kurt Cobain-mourning crowd.
As a result, I got a curt letter from a cheerleader’s mom and an anonymous letter from a girl who said I was “obviously jealous of someone prettier or more popular” than I was.
It was signed “Pissed with Pom-Poms.” No kidding.
But when I got a forwarded e-mail petition last week from Lezlie Frye asking me to sign my name in order to end “repeated hip gyrations and pelvic thrusts” by University cheerleaders, I felt a little “De-fense!” was in order.
In the e-mail, Frye said she wanted to organize a group of women to approach the coach and the cheer team to beg them to “replace the strip tease style movements” with more suitable choreography.
I had to wonder which vague strip tease movements the petition was specifically targeting. Certainly anyone strolling down the street probably has “repeated hip gyrations,” just from the act of walking. And “pelvic thrusts,” in some circles, such as modern or hip-hop dance, are part of choreography — a form of art.
However, the point of the petition is to specifically get women’s basketball cheerleaders to stop acting like strippers (read: prostitutes) because their movements are negatively influencing little girls. Well, duh. But influencing them to do what exactly? I can think of worse things kids can do than aspire to be cheerleaders — say drug addicts or murderers?
The very idea is so vague that it’s just plain silly. Where’s the petition to get the Oregon Marching Band to stop playing the “stick it in, stick it in — ugh!” jingle at football games? Where’s the petition to stop signature collection for other petitions? I don’t have a minute for Greenpeace, I don’t want to save the Uzbekistan Geoduck and I’m not interested in asking the Radical Cheerleaders to use six-inch voices during rallies.
But where do I sign to stop our athletic coaches from rewarding convicted felons with football stardom? I’d say this instance is more pressing than cheerleaders grinding up a dose of “Elvis Pelvis.”
I don’t want to discount the athleticism of nude dancers; moving up and down that pole probably takes some strength training and endurance. And I’d beg to argue that some of the characteristics the e-mail praises female basketball stars for possessing can also be found in the stripping profession: “athleticism, speed, skills and a willingness to face any challenge.”
That being said, I’d hardly group cheerleaders in the same category as strippers. After all, cheerleaders don’t take their clothes off, they aren’t taking money from eager onlookers and they’re participating in an actual sport.
If Frye and her supporters were so concerned with the impressionable minds of youngsters watching the halftime show, perhaps they would fare better talking to little girls about how they think the cheerleaders are objectifying their bodies and why that’s bad.
Tell them when they grow up, they don’t have to bump and grind to get attention. Besides, if kids don’t see booty shaking at basketball games, they’ll find it on MTV, VH1 or Fox. Opening the dialogue will do more for young girls than sheltering them from the subject altogether.