Stereotypes Of Cheerleaders

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How do you think you would feel if someone told you that your favorite shirt made you look fat? It would probably feel like a slap in the face. When you walked out of your house with that shirt on, it made you feel confident. Only for that confidence to crumble like a house of cards. For many cheerleaders across the country, this type of scenario happens daily. Cheerleaders are the type of people who are confident in their own skin, and aren’t afraid to show off, not only their school pride, but their pride in themselves. Therefore, that leads many people to stereotype cheerleaders in categories that they most likely don’t fit. Imagine you are a cheerleader, and one of your friends walks up to you and tells you cheerleading isn’t a sport. Once …show more content…
From movies and television shows, to social media accounts such as facebook, instagram, and twitter. All of these sources of media portray cheerleaders as characters who are dumb, mean, popular, pretty, and the girls who always get what they want. For example, Fox network's hit T.V show Glee, choose one of the main characters to be a cheerleader. The show portrays the character as very pretty, very popular, and very “slow”. People all over the world watch this show, and many people would assume that is what cheerleaders are like, when in reality, cheerleaders fit none of the categories people put them in. That is just one example of millions of others that exist in our modern day society. One of the biggest reasons people choose to believe the media when it comes to cheerleaders is because they genuinely don’t know the cheerleaders at their school. It is easy for people to judge books by their cover, if it doesn’t look good, it must not be. It’s easy for people judge cheerleaders by how the media portrays them, not until you really meet, and get to know the person, do you know what that person is really all …show more content…
Your average joe would most likely say that cheer isn’t a sport, and simply because society labels it as a “girly” sport. Although, there is facts that prove that some forms of cheerleading are considered a full fledged sport.The elements that consider a sport a sport are, any physical activity which involves propelling a mass through space or overcoming the resistance of mass. Contesting, or competing against/with an opponent. It must be governed by rules that explicitly define the time, space, and purpose of the contest and the conditions under which a winner is declared. Acknowledgement that the primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants. Even though you may not think so, competitive cheer checks into every single one of these boxes. Physical activity which involves propelling a mass would include stunting, contesting would include competitions, the rules would include time limit, mat size, and score sheets, and lastly, national competitions. Even though basketball, and football cheer aren’t considered a technical sport, only because you are not competing, competitive and all star cheer are considered a sport.
So cheerleaders, the next time someone comes up to you and tells you cheer isn’t a sport you can give them the facts. The world will never stop stereotyping all sorts of athletes and other people in general,