The Subversive Power of the Lesbian Cheerleader
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- Опубликовано: 24 янв 2024
- Let's look at the queer cheerleader trope including Santana in Glee, Cheryl in Riverdale, Jennifer's Body, But I'm A Cheerleader and more! Visit 80000hours.org/rowanellis to start planning a career that is meaningful, fulfilling, and helps solve one of the world’s most pressing problems. Make your 80,000 hours count.
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"Good For Her" Horror Video Essay: • rage & revenge: the bi...
Jennifer's Body Video Essay: • Why Jennifer's Body Fl...
Jennifer's Body Podcast Ep: www.queermoviepodcast.co.uk/e...
But, I'm A Cheerleader Podcast Ep: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Additional research and scriptwriting by Nicky Watkinson (nickyjwatkinson.co.uk)
Editing by Sparkles ✨
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Развлечения
It's funny how many stereotypically feminine things started out associated with masculinity: cheerleading, high heels, the color pink, etc. Really shows how arbitrary gender stereotypes are.
My favorite is the beret.... A literal Army hat. But then women started liking it and suddenly the men wont Touch them. Fragile masculinity under patriarchy at its finest 😂
Wait, wait….. you just figured out that women are associated with men?
Slow huh?
Wait, wait….. you just figured out that women are associated with men?
Slow huh?
The first geisha were men!
THEATRE😂
I swear for years I thought cheerleaders were just a made up movie thing, my British brain could not comprehend that they really existed in America, it just seemed too strange a concept!
Huh, here and I can't imagine high school without cheerleaders.
My highschool had 3 teams. Pep squad, dance, and cheerleaders. I grew up watching football games with scantily clad cheerleaders on the sidelines, and calendars of those same cheerleaders hanging in offices and workshops of my male family members.
the only time i would see a bleacher was during a school photo which was novel. Just a film thing as well
haha i loved the preppy uniforms i saw on screen so much that in my freshmen year, i tried to join my school’s cheerleading team. i was too shy to actually try out for anything so i only got as far as putting my name on the signup list 🥴
One of my old larper friends also did competitive cheer stuff in the uk, just way less a trope.
It wasn't anything like the archetype in Hollywood for me. You saw the Cheerleaders if there was a football game, that's it. They didn't "rule the school" and I assume they were just regular people.
It is cool that lesbian cheerleader films are mainly made by queer women. I am betting that if straight men wrote the sapphic cheerleaders most of them would be pretty bicurious types.
Maybe, but now I'm tempted to see if I can find a straight guy whose a total nerd about lesbian cheerleader movies, just to challenge them to tell a story competently within the genre.
I'm a straight guy and a big fan of But I'm a Cheerleader... But I don't think I've seen it in like 20 years now. And I can't tell too competent a story through film even about my own experiences, certainly not about lesbian cheerleaders.
Well, yeah…
@@tristanband4003gay guy here
I'd love to try, maybe something like Bottoms where it starts out silly then just gets unhinged.
Four of the 46 US Presidents being cheerleaders in their youth, nearly _ten percent,_ is my new favorite historical fact. I will now share it with _everyone._
It's even more considering most presidents were born too early to be cheerleaders. If we generously say Hoover had the opportunity, that makes it 4 out of 16, or 25%!
Bottoms and But I’m a Cheerleader are my favorite sapphic movies- I never made the cheerleader connection until now. I think I find the subversion of having a ‘popular’ girl be a lesbian is intriguing, and something about the social hierarchy being toppled by having a popular cheerleader pair up with an outcasted lesbian girl is just,,
I agree with you bottoms and but I'm a cheerleader are the best ones
Omg bottoms is so good, needs more love!
I recommend watching Bodies Bodies Bodies if you like those! It's more of a thriller, but the main characters are sapphic as the girl who plays PJ is in it as well.
Or gay men. More specifically, as much as I have my trepidations, Ryan Murphy writes some incredible and complex women of all sorts!
@@paytonabigail577Bodies bodies bodies is my favorite thriller movie! It was stupid in a fun way,
My wife and I agreed our kids would NOT be allowed to play football or cheerlead. Not a gender role thing or anything like that. Those are two of the sports wity thr worst injury track records. High level cheerleading today is basically gymnastics without any of the safety equipment.
I've lost a tooth to cheerleading before - it's a full contact sport in lycra 😂
good choice. Cheerleading absolutely destroyed my body.
I’m glad someone is finally recognising modern allstar cheerleading for what it is as a form of gymnastics cause most people don’t actually realise it’s acro gymnastics and tumbling with a little dance added at the end for funsies 😂
Soccer/football is also pretty dangerous. I don't know how it is for men but the girls at my school would be getting hurt all the time playing it
I can confirm. I've played probably 20+ sports on different teams. Cheerleading was one I only did briefly, yet I got hurt more at cheerleading than with climbing and freerunning combined.
Santana is such a BRILLIANT character. So much depth. Her moment coming out to her Abuella is the single most heartbreaking moment on glee. It makes you forget that Glee is a comedy
Glee is a comedy? I always thought it's a school drama with funny bits and songs. Honestly, everything with Dave Krovsky (?), Rachel's mother, teen pregnancy... don't scream comedy to me.
@@sebastian7141 it’s a comedy, Sebastian.
@@sebastian7141it’s a dramedy a mix of both, both heavily influencing the plot
@@jademargileth1940 Yeah. that makes more sense. I just never heard someone call it purely a comedy
as a brown cheerleader that attends a fairly diverse school, cheer is quite black and white, literally. although whiteness is very much the beauty standard, my other poc teammates were inherently sexualized as black women. despite the distinct color and cultural differences, they still manage to bond over their popularity and attractiveness to guys. it's fascinating to look at intersectional identities and experiences in cheer and i can't wait to see more representation
I feel like Bring it On is the lesbian cheerleader move that should’ve been
Yes! Torrence and Missy should've been together!
The 2000s homophobia is strong tho 😭
Totally. Eliza in Bring it On and Buffy was just dripping with sapphic energy.
Enemies to lovers trope, anyone? Truly a missed opportunity.
Yes!!! I think we're all pining for Eliza Dushku to play a queer character! ❤
Ok but the commitment to the wardrobe and shoutout to the Cheer Squad for the outfit.
The whole cheerleader thing is interesting because all of the cheerleaders that I’ve meet in real life have been rather kind and compassionate people and cheer wasn’t the popularity thing that it is in movies
Man I wish I could have gone to your HS lmfao. A LOT of the cheerleaders I knew were mean girls. Like MEAN girls. Sucked bc as a baby queer I had such a huge crush on a couple of them lmfaooo. I lived in the Bible Belt so not sure it would have worked out for me like that even if they hadn’t all been rotten tho 😅😅
I went to a high school that had an almost entirely black cheerleader corps despite being 40% black/40% white/20% Latine, and those cheerleaders were the polar opposite of the mean-girl cliches.
I grew up in a smaller, conservative, suburban town in the US, in the 00’s, there were several queer girls on our cheerleading team. They would probably be called fem/high fem today, it was so interesting because they definitely flew under the radar, those who knew knew, but even when the rumors would pop up every now and then about there being queer girls on the team, a lot of people didn’t believe it just because they were cheerleaders…
This is kinda funny to me, because I know zero cheerleaders, but am a queer pole dancer with lots of queer friends in the pole dancing community and I always have to burst people’s bubbles that it’s really not that sexy a sport 😅
Loads of being red as a tomato from hanging upside down and doing your best cave… cave person(?) grunt while heaving yourself into the more difficult lifts
Oh, also: People who know my nerdy side first, are always really surprised I do pole dancing, but I’ve never met a pole dancer who was surprised to learn I’m nerdy. In fact, I used to be part of a D&D group exclusively recruited from pole class
When you’re into pole, you’ve already accepted that people will have weird presumptions about you, so there’s really no reason to not just embrace your nerdy interests, too
I'm also a pole dancer and while it absolutely CAN be sexy on purpose, most of the behind the scenes stuff is exactly as you describe it 😂 I'm constantly going to the studio looking like an absolute GREMLIN in my sweats and messy hair. I'm only sexy when I'm performing or for the thirty seconds it takes to get the video for Instagram.
I'm also a huge nerd, and the joke at my studio is that we need shirts that say "we're all queer here" since most of us are in the rainbow squad.
@@BelleChanson0717love that!
I was a cheerleader, it's not sexy, you know how many times someone might fart on you?
Omg I was a cheerleader and currently a lesbian and also interested in like pole dancing. Now I just feel unoriginal lol 😅
I just love "but im a cheerleader" so much. One of my first gay movies.
It's surprisingly great.
I watched Dare Me a while back, and I was taken in by this weirdly dark depressing show about cheerleaders. I was also pleasantly surprised that the queer vibes I got turned out to be intended. And apparently the writer was urged to 'add a love interest for the protagonist' and replied with 'she already has two'.
Both of whom are... not ideal, mind you. But the entire show is filled with complicated people that are not the best influence on each other.
!!! I am a cheerleader and a lesbian and i love talking about the history of this sport !!! it’s so lovely to see this video. If anyone has questions about cheer i’m happy to answer
(side note/fun fact: there are cheerleaders in the UK! they’re just more of the competitive variety than the game day variety)
as a lesbian who prefers to be more androgynous in my daily life, i see the hyperfemininity of cheer uniforms & makeup as a sort of drag performance.
Is cheerleading in UK co-ed? In my country, I have never seen a cheerleading team exclusively for women only, so I am kinda curious if that applies to UK too.
@@bweeeeniee1131 im american so im not an expert, but from what i’ve seen cheer in England is like the US in that there are some all-girl teams and some coed! there are separate divisions for each type
I could write a whole dissertation about how the sapphic cheerleader as a character, but also as real people, subvert the tropes that demonize the hyperfemininity associated with cheerleaders.
One thing I want to say is that cheerleading is often viewed as a very class-exclusive sport. Cheerleading is EXPENSIVE! Most of the girls I’ve talked to that are on cheer teams have said that they (their parents) have to pay about $3,000 per month for the maintenance of uniforms, hair & makeup, doctors visits, training/gym time, and a lot of other things that a lot of people wouldn’t believe is necessary as a cheerleader. This is also why it’s been seen as a very whyte sport as well- the aesthetics and money required of the sport.
Honestly, Bring it On was the first piece of media I ever saw that had Black cheerleaders. I wish there were more movies and shows (and books tbh) that have BIPOC cheerleaders and queer cheerleaders, without the trauma p0rn that often occurs when ppl try to tell diverse stories.
Check out She Drives Me Crazy! It’s a fun, cheesy queer YA romance and one of the two romantic leads is an Indian American cheerleader and she is SO well written
This video came just at the right moment for me, I'm writing a coming of age horror story with a lesbian cheerleader as the lead. So now I have even more to think about for it, haha. Excellent work as always!
dude that sounds sick!!
I would definitely read that!
Same!! Post a link to it or where to follow news on it yk
Pls let us know when it's out
That's such a cool premise for a story!
"Jennifer's Body" was written by Diablo Cody, but it was directed by Karyn Kusama.
I've been wanting to make a video for forever about the 'Mean Lesbian' archetype - which also overlaps with this trope, so glad someone else is interested in tropes about queer women. I find them really interesting & there's so many patterns within wlw media
Thank you so much for highlighting the different expectations for different cheer positions. I have always been a backspot and a base, and a plus sized butch, so the petite feminine cheerleader stereotypes that fit my flyers have always left me feeling like an imposter in a sport i love so much
Another great and fascinating video! Thank you for discussing the scene from "Across the Universe". It describes a certain experience.
As a young closeted bisexual man in college in 2004, my (secret) boyfriend sang "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to/for me at a karaoke night. It was the most romantic thing I had ever experienced.
As you said, it really changes the whole meaning of the song when you add that layer of queerness to it because it transforms the song from what many think of as juvenile bubblegum pop, to describing genuine love and a yearning for the simplest of things, things everyone else can just do. The simple things some people take for granted. It ultimately describes the theft of time those of us back then (and unfortunately still today) experienced.
None of this is really on topic, I suppose. But in this case, the "innocence" of the cheerleader, and the typical high school "young love", what many think of as a bittersweet, idyllic time, being given to this type of story is moving and meaningful. I hope people can understand that. It is a big deal. But maybe I'm just old.
Either way, well done and thank you.
I love Across the Universe 🩷
Lovee that more people are talking about how queer cheer is inherently. Its much less a subversion then people assume, we work just as hard to be buff but because its a performance based sport where make up, costume and apparence matters were disregarded. As a queer cheerleader myself, it feels like we get lost in translation when were everywhere, on every team!
In thinking about some of the aspects of the cheerleader trope you mention, i think it's also interesting to add in some of the ways that cheerleading exists legally in the US. I don't know if this has changed, but last i checked, cheerleading isn't legally recognized as a sport (deliberately, so that it can remain the marketing domain of a couple of companies). That means that coaches aren't required to have any particular training such as sports medicine, nor are they legally required to provide safety precautions despite students performing tricks that could cause permanent spinal injury if done wrong. There is at least one case of a girl who was pushed by the coach to perform a flip without a spotter in tryouts, flubbed it, and ended up quadriplegic.
So to me, it's interesting that this conception of the idealized girl is someone who's doing something as athletic and arguably more skilled compared to her male counterparts and doing it with less support or protection while putting a perfectly coiffed, smiling face on it.
As a lesbian cheerleader from minnesota, i have so many thoughts and feelings about this subject
Cries in nostalgic lesbian flashbacks. I still remember the "Hurt Locker" dialogue verbatum. I was never popular in school, but us Sapphics still loved Santana Lopez either way
never realized how many sapphic cheerleader characters there are until now omgg
You are SLAYING IT in that cheerleader outfit 🤩
It's a legit cheer uniform.
Jennifer’s Body is absolutely the DARKEST comedy.✨😭🤣😭✨🤩✨ I’ve never felt so bad about enjoying something so good.✨💀✨ And the SOUNDTRACK?!✨💕✨
It feels bizarre to say that cheerleaders represent purity. To boomers it probably seemed subversive, but when Gen X and Millenials were growing up the dynamic of the "popular" kids bullying the "unpopular" kids was ubiquitous in media. It is odd that there were not more people pointing out the contradiction of the popular kid that everyone hated, but really the bullying was probably symbolic for the intense resentment that everybody loves a certain kind of body and certain kind of gender performance that were made synonymous with "ideal sex partner". Indeed I think memes like the "Goth GF" exists because some men feel intense irony or even shame when they realize they want something besides the cheerleader.
This is a topic that I'm not super familiar with so I was happy to see it covered! I learned so much!
Yeah, I was just, like, vaguely aware of the existence of the movies Jennifer's Body and But I'm a Cheerleader. Definitely was not aware there was a movie called Bottoms. That's wild.
Only tangentially relevant, but two thoughts that popped into my head along the way:
1. (For context, jic, the last season of Riverdale is set in the 50s, they don't remember their lives in the 21st century, they just *are* 50s teens now) Earlier in the season Cheryl lost her position as head cheerleader for queer-adjacent reasons despite being closeted, but in the second last episode she challenges the current head cheerleader to a dance battle to win the position back. The audience has been trained season after season to expect something hypersexualised, but what we get is more of a cute twist-laden sock hop routine to Rockin' Robin. Then she immediately comes out to the squad, at which point two other cheerleaders also reveal themselves to be queer. It's just kind of an interesting flip on the expectations of Cheryl as the the queen bee bitch archetype and coming out the other end the Innocent.
2. It's interesting that Buffy ('92) is flagged as one of the only examples with a cheerleader protagonist in the 80s/90s, purely because her arc in that story is one where she has to unlearn her cheerleader-ness. The trappings of cheer and popularity in the film are equated with vapid and shallow personality traits, and her big turning point is when she breaks ties with those friends and chooses her supernatural calling and fringey Pike instead. That's framed as the good, right thing. Contrasts slightly with the TV series where Buffy is constantly trying to reclaim those "frivolous" interests alongside her other facets (but noteworthy that she rarely, if ever, manages to. She doesn't make the cheer squad, she doesn't win homecoming queen).
Great video essay! I had no idea that cheerleading began as all-male. It feels so associated with feminity in today's culture, with not many male cheerleaders being represented in media (the only example I can think is the Disney trilogy Zombies has a male head cheerleader). Love how many great analytical points you hit; the history of cheerleading in relation to sexism, the problematic fetishisation of youth, sexualisation and objectification of the cheerleader and the problem with the predatory lesbian trope
the only male cheerleader i can think of having seen on TV was Justin’s guy friend that Harper had a crush on in Wizards of Waverly Place. Zeke I think, something like that.
Omg Rowan, I haven’t started watching yet but that outfit with your hair !! 🔥💙 Not a crumb left 😍🥰
The scene of prudence in Across the Universe absolutely blew my mind when I was a kid watching it for the first time.
There's also Alyssa Greene from The Prom who sings, "If you don't like shaking pompoms, you'd better learn to act" and "you'll Bible Camp each summer to keep you pure and clean" showing the association of cheerleading with her mother's expectations of fulfilling "traditional" gender roles as part of "purity"
I've always had huge crushes on cheerleaders or just athletic girls in general all through my adolescence. I was a weirdo visibly queer art kid, there's definitely something to it. Maybe it was fully inspired by media I watched, who's to say
I am a queer woman who dislikes sport and doesn't have a competitive bone in her body, yet I would kill for a crumb of any cheerleading media. I can't wait for this video to make my life make sense lol 😂❤
Neat.
Also made me think of that old superhero show "Heroes" with its tag line -
"Save the cheerleader, save the world."
As someone who grew up as an American cheerleader for many years this was an interesting video! Very well done! But I’m a cheerleader is literally one of my favorite movies ever, sooo funny and sweet 😂💗
Thank you for mentioning Dare Me, it was my first quarantine obsession and I went through it thinking I was losing my mind and seeing gays everywhere 😂 I was so heartbroken when it got cancelled and I had to look up the book to confirm I was indeed not crazy. I suppose it did well and transporting me back to the chaotic experience of being a queer teenager because it was so frustrating, but in an addictive way. Excellent video, I absolutely adored this topic ❤
I was glad to see the mention of Prudence and Fear Street. I also keep forgetting that Jennifer is on Flag squad instead of cheer, and ive seen that movie multiple times and watched multiple fan analyses of it.
THIS IS SO COOL, thank you for the history lesson & the across the universe mentioned. Makes me love the scene more. The movie is really good at recontextualizing the songs they used.
the image of george w bush as a cheerleader is now forever burned into my brain
another banger essay
Great video! I feel like the song "Cheerleader" by Sir Babygirl also has a place in this conversation? It's about having a crush on/secret relationship with a cheerleader and the social dynamics that arise from that.
Always happy to see a new upload from you! 🌺
I love learning about topics I never would have looked into on my own. Thank you for the work you put in to all of your videos!
I’m so glad you mentioned Zolita’s music video! Other songs that come to mind are “Cheerleader” by Liza Anne and “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan
Really good video! The uniform really matched your hair perfectly too. Nice!
Thank you for the essay. As someone who's based her current dnd character on characters like Santana and Cheryl, this was a very interesting essay and it will probably help me develop her background and portrayal.
fantastic video rowan!! 🩷
rowan really serving out here with the hatsune miku look
I'm so happy you're still making videos I've been watching since I was in my teens I love youuuuuu
God I love your vids. You dive into topics I never thought about or didnt know as a thing. Bookmarked this to watch later. 😊
I love how in depth this video was, like everything you make, it was so eye-opening. And I love the sound of this sponsor, I will be passing it on to my brothers.
I had to check too many times to confirm this was Rowan and not Hannah Witton! It is Hannah's studio without Hannah!
Lesbian cheerleaders would have saved me
Fascinating essay, thank you ❤
this video was so good! glad the algorithm brought me to your channel!
Great vid! Can't lie, this is a trope I'm always down for.
Recommendation for the band Pom Pom Squad, and in particular Head Cheerleader. Definitely the epitome of 'the sapphic obsession with the lesbian cheerleader', and great music too.
tysm for subtitles
I’M SO HAPPY THAT YOU TALKED ABOUT PRUDENCE !! I HAVEN’T REALLY HEARD PEOPLE TALK ABOUT ACROSS THE UNIVERSE :3
I absolutely loved this video, went on amazon and bought Here and Queer and I'm getting ready for a lovely evening with your book and some 🍃🍃😌😌cheers!!
Loved it ❤
Great video!
Great video as always, incredible research and presentation. Plus you used a photo of Jeff Timmons of 98 Degrees fame in a fireman’s uniform when he was a Chippendales dancer for a time, love that he did that 😊
this video was excellent. thank you
great video!! but i am impressed you found a cheer uniform to perfectly match your hair and im living for it!!!!!
Bottoms!✨😆✨💕 I HAD to see that dumpster fire in theaters. All jokes aside I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was camp but not camp at all. Everyone’s characters played off of each other so well that I don’t wanna mislabel it like that…and it was hilarious! Thank you for sharing and adding some cheer movies to my tbw list!
i’m absolutely obsessed with that mint green uniform and how it matches your hair
This is such an interesting video!
1) I love the copperbox for cheer. Such a convenient venue if you're in London.
2) The 'new' (it's like three years old now) uniform for Sparks Allstars is really damn good. Are you on the team?
I only really caught the end of the premiere so I can't comment on the content, but cheerleading is an awesome sport.
I know someone on the team and they let me borrow their uniform!!
Cool. I'm watching the video from the start. Thanks for making it and your reply.
I've never competed at copperbox but I've coached comps there it seems so fun!
@@Hanarchyreigns obviously it's no FC Bournemouth (though the BIC is not big enough for that competition now), but it's in a good location, it's a good size and there aren't any bad seats if you're spectating.
@@KaizerRemix omg so true I love competing in Windsor but we need a bigger space
Were you aware the captions stop like hallway through the video? I tried reloading, and they still did not reappear.
An excellent and thought provoking analysis.
I confess, being British (and therefore not having any connection with cheerleading) my knowledge of the subject was very limited. Thank you for educating me.
Anyone else had an issue with subtitles around the 21min mark? Idk if it's just my phone.
Interesting video btw!
My English captions stop at 20:55 . Great video so far!
your outfit!! 😍
This video inspired me to finally watch Bottoms and not I'm going to have to recommend it to all my friends, always love your essays
Would love to see the rest of the uniform 🤩 Matches your hair perfectly! 😍
great video!
around 20:56 the subtitles disappeared, don't know if that's a problem just for me
One of my best friends was actually a lesbian Cheerleader, she was a little older than me but had came out in High School and actually it went shockingly fine for her. She remained fairly popular and got to date and stuff. I always find it interesting seeing the different ways it manifests in media.
bless u for this video, I’m on an adult gay cheer team so this could not be more spot on for me
Loooved the video🧡Is it possible for you to list all the films/tv shows you mentioned please? Thank you!
I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that rather than leaning into the male gaze and problematic stereotypes, lesbian cheerleader characters tend to deconstruct them
It took me whole video to notice that you are filming in Hanna's studio!
Okay! I instantly thought, "wait a second.." when I started the video. I hoped a comment would confirm it.
A list of all the movies/tv-shows mentioned would be great
I don't know why, but you talking about Prudence made me start crying.
even as a non-binary person who doesn't identify as/with fem, and who was A.M.A.B., sapphic queerness is my very close queer cousin & it even informs my relationships w/ men of all ppl bc i see sapphicness as a bedrock pillar of LGBTQ+ even if it's not my experience to personally claim
(and not in the "i have an inner lesbian" weird cishet dude way lol)
that being said, i agree that examples of queerness in spaces/roles seen as bastions of heteronormativity (by cishet ppl) are really powerful examples of the tension between assimilation & alienation, and hopefully more inclusive representations get shown in media as time goes on
also, Paige Michelchuk(?) in Degrassi
This video is how I found out that Dare Me was adapted into a show!! It was one of my favorite books in high school. I highly recommend it as a psychological thriller with queer cheerleaders!
The lesbian cheerleader trope has always been so appealing to me. I think it has something to do with how lesbians are often stripped of their femininity (at least that was my experience. I didn't know fems existed). The fact that being a lesbian doesn't take away any of their hobbies or make them less of a woman was refreshing to me.
Great video! I love your stuff, if it’s ok I have a recommendation for another video. There’s a silly little horror podcast I love called the Magnus archives it’s very gay!
I’m a native Minnesotan and a lesbian and I never knew the role of the U of M in cheerleading history. How cool!
Fig from dimension 20 is my fav character ever and know i am going to think about the implications of her being a flyer before knowing she was a tiefling
Wonderful essay as always. Since you mentioned George W. Bush--I went to Andover, which is the same high school he went to, and is the oldest boarding school in the US. Bush was head of the Blue Key Society, which is still there. At least when I went (*ahem* years ago), it was still the definition of "cheerleader" you are discussing before higher ed institutions went co-ed. Blue Key lead cheers, yes, but only in the strictest sense. There are no uniforms, no practice, no routines--just a few members of the Blue Key Society running along the front of the stands and starting cheers. The main job of Blue Key Society is not actually cheer leading--it's freshmen orientation. They're the ones who stand next to the main gates with welcome signs as the freshmen arrive. Each member is assigned 2-3 freshmen (called Juniors at Andover) that they shepherd through the week of orientation. So it's stuff like pep rally, general school spirit, but also showing fourteen-year-olds how to operate a coin laundry and where the registrar is. I was a member of the Blue Key Society--but so is like a quarter of the upper classmen. When I was there, we had no "cheerleaders" in the modern sense. I remember during Bush's presidential run there being a distinctly sexist flavor to commentators talking about the fact that he'd been a "cheerleader." Not that I want to defend the guy in any way. But it was a pretty clear demonstration of how far the meaning of cheerleader has moved.
i just created a character for a dnd multishot i’m starting soon who’s a cheerleader and this was very helpful to watch while creating her!! it’s given me a lot to think about and is very interesting! for anyone wondering btw she’s a monk
I saw "Backspot" at TIFF last fall and it was so so great, I'm glad you mentioned it! Evan Rachel Wood is the ideal lesbian cheer coach 🙌
Not a movie or show but there's a graphic novel called "cheer up: Love and pompoms" with a lovely queer romance!
it’s funny to think that we all know all of this already but never put it together. even though it’s sounds crazy out loud, it only sounds like that because it’s crazy. its honestly amazing how much expectations goes into one title.
I think it's funny that bringing up how color guard is lumped in with cheer's heterosexual expectations only reminded me that I knew a LOT of queer people in my high school's color guard. I can only imagine how many queer cheerleaders there are out in the world...
SO glad to see the prudence mention in here