Different Types And Forms Of Dance

Cheerleading started as a male endeavor in 1898, when a University of Minnesota football fan led the crowd in verse in support of their team. It was not until World War II, when men shipped out to war, that women took over. Then cheerleaders came to represent the American ideal of femininity: wholesome apple pie with washboard stomachs, perfect teeth, and flawless complexions. Stereotypes cast them as blond, petite, and impossibly perky. “From its humble beginning cheerleading has blossomed into a competitive athletic activity with a serious image problem” (Forman 52). But today’s post-feminist youth have put a new, diverse face on cheerleading. Cheerleading in America is no longer a matter of waving pom-poms, a cute smile and being overly

“Cheerleading is not an extracurricular activity. It is a sport, a sport of academic discipline.” Crowds have been cheering since the begininning of sports, however it wasn’t until the late 1800s that organized cheering was introduced. A man named Mark Peebles brought cheerleading with him to the University of Minnesota and started to create a specific set of cheers for different times during the games. Another student however, named Johnny Campbell, decided to take cheering to a whole new level by organizing a team to lead the crowd during the games. From November 2, 1898 to today Campbell is known as the world’s first cheerleader. Cheerleading has been and should be today known as a sport because it has evolved to become more athletic, competitive and dangerous as any other sport. Seeing cheerleading as a sport will give these athletes the respect and aknowledgment of their accomplishments and achievements, get the safety standards deserved, and “recognition that a traditional female activity can also be a sport (Gonzalez).”

According to the magazine a Cheerleaders Guide to life, in the 1960’s, the National Football League teams began to organize professional cheerleading teams. It was the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders who gained the spotlight with their revealing outfits and sophisticated dance moves. They were first seen widely in Super Bowl X. This caused the image of cheerleaders to permanently change, with many other NFL teams emulating them. Most of the professional teams’ squads would be more accurately described as dance teams. They don’t usually lead cheers instead, they are crowd pleasers themselves.

The sport of cheerleading has been around for a long time; since 1884 in fact! In the beginning, cheer was a sport dominated by college men. Since, women have taken over, and in 1967 the first ranked college cheer competition was held. Both school and competitive cheerleading offer many rewarding opportunities. Though they are a part of the same sport, the two types of squads are actually quite diverse. School cheer is undeniably a worthwhile and respectable sport, but competitive teams often provide a more challenging approach, and are more suited to experienced cheerleaders.

In the article “THE SECONDARY SCHOOL CHEERLEADER AND RITUALIZED SEXUAL EXPLOITATION,” I learned many things. The first surprising thing was the cheerleading started off as mainly a boy sport and now you don’t see nearly as many boys as you do girls involved with cheerleading and I think that is partly because in today’s society boys get made fun of for being a cheerleader. (Bennett) Another major thing that bothers me about cheerleading is that many girls get into cheering for the wrong reason, let’s just say that a lot of it is popularity. All in all there is so much you can argue on either side for cheerleading and hopefully schools are starting to see how cheerleading has changed into something other than rooting on your team, or competing for a national title.

People usually see cheerleaders at football and basketball games. They see them shake their pom-poms and yell chants to get the team and crowd excited and involved. But there is much more to cheerleading than that.

Cheerleading is one of the leading causes of catastrophic injuries in female athletes in high school and college levels, yet people still argue that it is not a sport and how “easy” it is. Reasons cheer is not labeled a sport yet is because all of the benefits that would need to be provided for cheer teams because of title IX, the primary purpose of cheer (not competing), and the fact that cheerleading would not exist if they labeled it a sport because then their primary purpose would be to compete, not lead on their school’s teams.

A cheerleader is a person who is a member of a group who shout out special songs or chants to encourage sports teams. (“Cheerleading”. World of SportsScience. Ed.K Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Vol 1. Detroit: Gale,2007.139-141 Gale Virtual Reference Library. 9 Nov. 2016). Cheerleading began in the late 1800s at the University of Princeton, in New Jersey. (“History of Cheerleading.” iSport Online.Cheerleading.iSport 9 Nov. 2016 cheerleading.isport.com/cheerleading-guides/history-of-cheerleading). Cheerleading was in fact created by men at this time. The men who started cheering were called “yell leaders.” Women did not start cheering until 1923, and since then women have dominated cheerleading. Cheerleading started to evolve

Although despite all the stereotypes, men are also complimented in this sport. Since cheerleading has been deemed as a female sport for many ages, when men joined cheerleading, this led to judgment by people such as friends and family. Judgments were sometimes based on thinking that the male was gay or more feminine. Although when a male cheerleader’s friend or family sees their friend or son perform, they become less judgmental. Thus, this is because the person who sees this sport becomes aware that cheerleading is more than just pom-poms that are generally stereotyped in movies. Men are respected by cheerleaders in the community of cheerleading since it demands an excessive amount of physical force as well as endurance. Thus, a male cheerleader is usually seen as a perk since they can lift their flyer much

In the 1960’s not only did almost every high schools have cheer squads but most colleges had squads too. NFL teams began making cheer teams in 1960’s too.The first NFL cheer team was in Texas and known as The Dallas Cowboys. It was quite vicious to make that NFL cheer team! . “There was a mother in Texas who tried to hire a hitman to kill a rival cheerleader, so her daughter could be on the squad.” In 1965 was when the first pom- poms were actually made. They were called Pom- pons not pom-Poms as they are here in 2017. Cheerleaders were pretty successful in the 1960’s. In the 1970’s and 80’s cheerleaders started getting more competitive and they added stunts and competitive

The controversy over whether cheerleading is a sport has been spreading and many people actually do not know if it is. At the moment, cheerleading it is not a sport which was originally my opinion in this situation. Although,cheerleading is being considered for classification as a sport, it really isn`t a sport. The society, in general, has not accepted cheerleading as a sport as it was voted on in 2014. For it to be a sport it needs to be legally voted on to be a real sport by law.

Cheerleading isn’t only chanting on the sidelines at a basketball or football game anymore. Now, stunts and competing against other teams have been incorporated to form Competitive cheerleading. Competitive cheerleading has been around since the late 1960’s (Delp, Web). Many people will say that cheerleading isn’t a sport, and that makes cheerleaders tick when they hear this from “outsiders.”

Cheer leading was started in the 1880’s by a pep club of all men that lead the crowd with chants in Princeton University football games. One of the men in that pep club, Thomas Peebles, introduced the concept of cheer to the University of Minnesota when he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. By 1889 pep clubs, cheers, yells and fight songs continued to develop in many schools and universities around the USA to stimulate their sport fans school spirit (“History of Cheerleading”). Now cheer leading is overruled by mostly women. An article comments that estimates show that around 97 percent of modern cheer leading participants are female, but at the collegiate level, cheer leading is a co-ed sport with about a 50-50 split between males and females (Young). It has come a long way since the 1880’s. Most sports these days are male dominated. Soccer, baseball, and basketball all have

Many have seen her. Many know her. But who is the American cheerleader? Is she a blond haired, blue eyed sex symbol? Is she a drug-addicted girl with no brains and even fewer moral values? Maybe she is just your average, pretty, girl-next-door with a loud voice and lots of spirit. What is clearly true is that cheerleading and cheerleaders have evolved greatly over a century-long history. What started as one bold college student has turned into an activity with over 3 million participants (Brady 1); one that is backed by a $150 million industry (Williams 2). Modern cheerleading has come a long way from its historic roots, but large differences still exist between the iconic cheerleader, the stereotypical cheerleader, and the truth.

Cheerleading can occur all year round which means that is going to take away people who might’ve played a sport but would rather do cheerleading. Numbers for sports have been dropping ever since cheerleading has become popular, in schools less than half of the students play sports. Throughout the entire United States there are 400,000 cheerleaders in high school. These cheerleaders could’ve been playing sports and doing other physically challenging activities but instead they chose to do flips and cheers (Study