I subscribed to the youtube cause my technology is trash and cant take patreon....oh my bf helped me pay cause youtube wont take my card so dont be alarmed if u see a guys name attached to me 😆
I noticed that there were never any black girls (except for that ambiguous woman) on the team and the only female poc, the Asian woman, didn’t get any screen time
That's because we're never thought about because we don't fit "the mold" or "the ideal cheerleader." I was a ballet dancer and cheerleader for sixteen years and I was always othered and put on the outside because I was black. There were many times where I was passed up on opportunities that I knew I was qualified for because of what I looked like.
My daughter is in competitive cheer and I can tell you from the events we've been to this year, most of the sport is white and female. Not to mention the coach of this particular team is white and steeped in the moors of the sport. The big hair, the big bows those are things that are part of the tradition but not a part of any cultural group except white women.
I believe for us in this country, its always goes back to slavery. We haven't fully got from under it, lets not let those white people that destroyed or ancestor's lives continue to destroy ours. I completely agree with this statement.
@@bethanychatman9531 that's because since the beginning of slavery of African Americans black men were strip of any positive emotion besides angry, hurt, fear, to survived and it has past on into generation to generation until it become detrimental.
The problem with black, Hispanic, white young men is the lack of fathers in the home. We need more men like Mr. Evans from the show Good Times. He was a good father figure.
Can you *PLEASE* do on a video on how female dominated "sports" are much more demanding i.e cheer, gymnastics, ballet, and figure skating. All sports are hard to a certain point, but in these four sports the participants are pushed to their breaking points mentally and physically. Not to mention the compensation is next to nothing and only of handful will ever experience significant amount of income or mainstream success. And with all the hard work they put into it these sports/arts still aren't taken as seriously as other sports.
twicevelvet, yes it's insane to watch little Sally's middle class family have to take up second jobs and mortgage the house just so she can someday make it to the Olympics. Meanwhile former Nike is willing to school potential future basketball stars because when they become stars children will spend millions to wear their shoes.
not to mention they are sports where top athletes have to start really young and are basically considered too old to continue competing by the time they're 22
Cheer culture overall is toxic. My friend in high school had an untreated broken arm for three months straight because she was afraid she would be kicked off the team if she told her parents! I remember just staring at her arm at lunch and asking her every so often when she’s going to the doctor and all she did was laugh it off like it was no big deal. She now has a completely damaged disk on her spine and the doctor told her the arthritis is comparable to a 50+ year old person and she can’t do stunt work/gymnastics again. It breaks my heart hearing her talk about how she misses doing the stunts she used to be able to do. I feel like a lot of her injuries would have been prevented if her team prioritized the cheerleaders health and safety.
Eboni I didn’t really “notice”. She told me. But after she told me, I did notice how she avoided using the arm. Sadly, she was really good at hiding when she was in pain.
Thanks for this insight. My daughter is in cheer now and I'll keep an eye out for this sort of thing going forward. I don't want to risk her quality of life for a sport now that she may or may not stay involved with as an adult.
@@lincolnward85 Please do. If you notice, they're doing much the same things as acrobatic gymnastics, but with _much_ less requirements for mats. And gymnastics as a whole is essentially abusive in terms of what gymnasts put up with from coaches. I like watching gymnastics, but having read a lot about it, girls in it get injured terribly, and treated terribly when they get injured. I've read multiple accounts of girls being punished by coaches for getting injured, for telling their parents about injuries, and for trying to take care of or prevent injury. So they suffer silently. Serious national class cheer is less regulated, less safe, and more physically complicated because of all the people involved.
Loved this review. When you mentioned the fact there are no female poc but definitely male poc I immediately had a flashback to being in school again. I went to an majority white school, and will never forget constantly questioning why black boys or boy poc were always allowed into the “popular” groups, but not any girls. I think that was one of my first lessons on how different men and women as poc and specifically black women vs black men are viewed and accepted in different spaces.
destinyalesee Your experience is so similar to mine 😒 this article is really interesting and it talks about the disparity in socialization between black boys and girls at pwis! I think the intersection between racism and misogyny is so overlooked because men of color are also perpetrators and not the victims. www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/black-boys-have-an-easier-time-fitting-in-at-suburban-schools-than-black-girls/280657/
Millionaire Trading Academy lol do you know all black women? Do you truly even give them a chance, or just right them off from the jump....People will always be or seem “one type of way” when you choose to see them like that.... sorry if that’s you...
Baby Andy The same thing applies to hispanics. The boys integrate easier than the girls. The girls are seen as more aggressive and hood. The boys are too but it works for them and not against them like the girls.
Anyways Monica feels inadequate and resentful because she wanted to be a powersuit in New York and ended up coaching college cheerleading so now she’s compensating by taking it way too seriously and that’s the tea
@@shan9659 Yeah that scene where she says 'I have a degree so I could do something else if I wanted to' and then waited to be praised/applauded felt slightly pathetic tbh. Like she was really fishing for admiration from young adults 25+ years her junior... embarrassing
I still can’t get over what Monica did to TT. I was worried if he tweaked something, and wasn’t able to catch a girl. Monica not only put TT at risk, but all the athletes at risk.
I agree, she was definitely wrong. Also I think this needs to open up a bigger discussion about the way coaching is done in cheer & dance (& lowkey gymnastics). Bc what Monica did is what a lot of cheer & dance coaches do
Remember that episode of That's So Raven where Raven was told that she didn't have "the look"? 😳 The significance of that episode flew over my head as a kid, but now I look back...👀.
This show was incredibly triggering for me (in the best/and worst ways). As a former cheerleader, I simultaneously felt joy and pain at the memory of my experience and the harsh reality that the path of a cheerleader has a brief shelf life. As a black (lower middle class) girl, I also remember being the smallest on the team at my black highschool, then relocating, and being too fat (at 110lbs) at my white school. I had to work an after school job to pay for a sport (that ultimately offers no scholarships), and I wasn't raised IN cheer culture so I had so much catching up to do skill-wise which included expensive private lessons. I literally felt like I was no one during the seasons I didn't make the team. Sports are a beautiful thing where the teamwork and camaraderie are concerned, but it definitely puts you in a headspace where you don't know who you are without your uniform, jersey, etc. 'Cheer' made me miss the sport deeply, and also wish I had never been introduced to it.
Ayana Ruby - I’m a former high school cheerleader at an all black school. I remember wanting to do take tumbling and jump lessons to improve my skills. But we couldn’t afford it, which hurt so bad cause I knew having those skills would help for trying out for college teams.
“Ribeosis” oh god. In gymnastics they don’t care about injuries either. It’s a loud secret within the community. A lot of them have chronic injuries after their career.
Ayan Omar Ballet deals with injuries pretty well these days. The big companies have top notch sports medicine departments, and they are pretty good at making sure dancers take time off, help them rehab their injury, and then only come back when the sports medicine doc says it’s okay. This doesn’t happen everywhere, obviously. But it is getting better, I think. But also- ballet careers are longer than cheer or gymnastic careers. Women retire between 35-40 usually. Which is a fair bit older than the 22 or 23 for cheer and gymnastics. So dancers can afford to take the time to heal, and then come back. They know now that if they don’t, they’ll have their career cut short. Better to take time off to heal, and then come back and dance for another 10-15 years, than continue to try to dance on an injury, and destroy yourself within a year or two. There’s a pretty big difference.
Neartmhor Thank you for all of this! I have a toddler girl and I wanted to enroll her in ballet or gumnastics just for fun, seeing this kind of made me reconsider
I remember wanting to join the gymnastics team in my school but being too scared to attempt the stunts (backflips without any training at all and only 2 inches of foam on the floor as padding, for example). I now realize that the stunts were indeed too fucking dangerous.
What you said about not having sufficient medical staff is mainly because cheer isn’t recognized as a sport by the NCAA so they’re not required to have the medical staff or ambulances at competitions at the high school level. One of the reasons is Varsity, the company who has a monopoly on cheer, runs Jamz national championships tour. There’s a competition in each state and multiple in some states. If cheer was a sport there would only be one national championship and they would lose MILLIONS. So they spend money to make sure cheer doesn’t become a sport.
I had no idea about that! Thank you for bringing such an important point to bring to the table how much other ppls greed and money influences how these kids are treated.
They claim to prefer smaller, skinnier young women because it's easier to throw stunts with them but... the male cheerleaders I know could definitely throw stunts with women with a higher BMI so, I don't know if they're telling the truth or if they found a convenient excuse.
You could already see it when she hung up on her mom in the library. Also her wanting to take time off and come 'home' only to immediately be shipped off around the US by her dad was heartbreaking. She's an adult but I feel like she has a Britney Spears arrangement with her toxic family
her mom saying “i love you” and gabbi hesitating to say it back. then just hanging up without saying anything said A LOT. i hope babygirl gets therapy and gets to know who she is outside of this.
I was so excited when you announced this would be this week's video in the community tab lol. One thing: I found Gabi's parents SOOO CREEPY!! Like when she was on the phone to them and her dad asked if she was "eating clean" and told her that "eating jackfruit can keep you going for the whole day," - this girl is an ATHLETE. A) she probably could eat anything and still look the same way she does. B) She probably needs around 3000 calories with the amount of physical exertion she's doing - no wonder Gabi spends the entire show being lethargic. Also "Don't eat eggs - they're dairy" (lol, okay) from the same conversation. Eggs are about the most protein dense low-calorie food you can get, absolutely beloved by all athletes. the ONLY reason Gabi is being pressured into malnutrition is because she's a girl and I find that absolutely infuriating.
I know !!! It was so sad watching them pressure her to support them financially and under eat. Also the bikini thing was crazy to me. Pressuring your daughter to post more pictures of herself half naked so you can sell something? like i’m all for women owning their image and posting whatever they want but if my dad was like “post a pic of your ass we need money” i’d be pretty creeped out!
@33:27 My guess is that black men’s bodies are considered more useful to sports. So people make exceptions for them. Yes, Black women’s bodies are generally athletic too, BUT sports that are more aesthetic (basically most girls sports) tend to prioritize a singular image. They don’t want anyone standing out. These kinds of all sports rely heavily on beauty standards. Female beauty and male beauty are measured differently. At this point, I think we all know where black girls stand on this subject. It’s been discussed a lot lately. Also, statistically, white females receive more visual attention than black females. So there are many reasons why certain activities like these ignore black girls. In a way, we don’t fit their “brand”. Sadly, I remember going all throughout middle school and high school without ever seeing a single black girl cheerleader. Eventually, the black female students just started their own hype/dance crew. It’s sad that they even had to do that. Racism definitely hits different when you factor in our associations of femininity (beauty) and masculinity (strength). For those who don’t know, the term for this is “gendered racism”.
RUclipsr Named Morgan I was a black cheerleader. You can be black and cheer but there’s not a lot of us out there. If you watch all star cheer there’s some pretty good black girls on cheer athletics panthers and cheer extreme senior elite. There’s also a really good black tumbler on cheer extreme ssx. We out there you just gotta look hard 😂
I don't remember the name of the tennis player, (it's not Sharapova) but during the early years of the Williams sisters this one white tennis player made millions, but she was terrible! She didn't win yet people were willing to buy her exercise dvd.
RUclipsr Named Morgan I do agree to an extent. But I also think that black girls don’t have as much of an interest in cheer because black girls view it as lame and basic since it’s mainly white girls who do it. Black girls and women have always been able to find a way to do things we really want to do. Most just don’t want to do cheer. Notice a lot more black girls are doing gymnastics, that’s because more are interested now. And all the black female gymnasts are successful. Yes beauty standards factor In but still most black girls just don’t like stereotypically white female interests. If they do like it they often put a spin onto it to give it more flavor and sauce. And then low and behold the same white demographic becomes attracted to it and them wants in. They know we do shit better than they do, hence why they always come to us once we do our own thing. It’s pathetic when you think about 🤣🤣🤣
Monica always brought her name up when deciding who would center pyrimd and basket toss A LOT. Low key disregarding the other girls who had more experience and didn't have the "look". She favored her a bit more than the others.
That for me was the reason I can't take cheerleading as a sport serious. Why can't they (at least during trainings) wear some sort of protective gear? Tbh I stopped watching when that girl got a concussion and it was just 'normal'. I'm from germany when a soccer player here gets a rash on his butt there's immediatly two docs taking that player out the game in a strecher. And, great commentary by this youtuber, the whole 'looks' thing is telling me this is not abt their abilities as sportswomen but abt selling sex :/ I am very turned off.
@@tyrajackson6816 I'll be honest I don't know a lot about american football. It just seems wasteful to me to risk a good athletes ability to partaque in a competition/game just for training if you can avoid it ... do the football players get concussions during training too?
@@bindown2345 oh definitely. Football practices plays so when it comes down to the game they can do it flawlessly. So when they aren't doing strength training they're tackling. Kind of the same with cheer. A whole season for one or two competitions.
When I was in cheer and someone’s family was struggling all of our parents would pool to put those kids into program or the fee would be waived. Everyone of all races and sizes got to show off what they were good at. I’ve always been bigger so I wasn’t a flyer but we weren’t shamed for that. Big girls can stunt like the rest of them. Pushing flyers to be smaller instead of stronger is toxic and damaging. I snapped my ankle doing a stunt and I could not compete until it was fully healed and cleared by my doctor. Southern, white, cheer is not the same as cheer across the country. Southern sports teams are the most exploitative in the country. Don’t get me started on black women with natural hair in cheer.
The lack of black girls didn’t surprise me because I used to cheer and I rarely saw anyone that looked like me. I lived in a predominately white area though. But watching all star cheerleading you can also see there’s not a lot of us as well.
i think you don't see a lot of poc in cheer in general, probably bc it's seen more as a hobby and poc parents (especially black and asian) tend not to poor a lot a money into something that in the end has little to no long term benefit.
twicevelvet ya you’re right. I did gymnastics at the same time and my mom would rather put money into that than cheer. She only let me do school cheer instead of all star.
Black women dont have to be everywhere.. sometimes YES.. the world can enjoy themselves without you! Its ok black girl, the world would keep spinning if you werent here!
Hey Kim, white european guy here but I love your content and your takes, which are always insightful and humourous. Would you consider discussing voter suppression in the United states? The little I've heard of it shocks me and looks like it's another cynical upgrade of silencing black and brown voices in America. I'd love to know what you think about it
It’s really sad how men just feel so comfortable leaving their kinds behind and starting a new family with a new wife. Something I notice is often times men will leave their kids if him and the baby mama are no longer together and then they’ll go and be with another woman and be a father to the new girlfriend/wife’s kids. So why do some men only take care of their own children when they’re with the mom and when they’re not they dip out and feel comfortable taking care of a new family? It’s never made any sense to to me and I think it’s something we need to start having a conversation about.
Capricorn4life my nephews biological father’s the same way. A straight up dead beat. Has two children by two different women and doesn’t care of either of them
I'm sorry to say. I have a dance background. That type of intensity during practice especially for stunts and tricks that make people clap and stand (Cirque du Soliel, World of Dance, AGT etc.) is exactly what you saw... sometimes worse. This is the same level of intensity for rehearsals just about all those amazing dancers and acrobats do for many shows.
Your point about people having to be exceptional for people to take notice really raised an eyebrow for me. It’s something we see in many sports movies. The coach seeing talent in that one kid who seems to not care about school or anything or comes from the wrong side of the tracks. It’s a very common theme and it’s celebrated because these coaches are putting their time and investment into a person who doesn’t have the means or maybe money or motivation to broadcast their talent. But what about the other kids who aren’t necessarily special and need investment as well? It’s sad that why we’ve normalized that you must be “special” to be considered worthy of investment.
I love this comment. So as an early childhood educator for 16 years I have battled this for years. We get consumed with students who have high needs and this usually means we ignore the students who do not need us as intensely. And so in my later years I've made a concerted effort to pour my energy into those students who as you say, "not special" but who are just children are in need of my complete attention.
I thought you were not going to bring up no black girls... The wades and AGT, black male experience is very different than black women. “The look” that is it.
Jerry was one of my coaches at a cheer camp my team went to and I can tell you Jerry is as encouraging, kind, and energetic and he is on the on the show
Jerry WAS on mat for Daytona! I felt so bad I was hoping for this other guy to be injured so Jerry could be on mat, but I will root for Jerry until my dying breath!
I’m a former competitive cheerleader. I competed for 13 years. Re: weight, It’s much easier to toss thin girls around. Most competitive teams have a mandatory range for body fat. It’s pretty standard. Cheer is like any other sport. It’s an outlet and avenue for expression. There’s a difference between being truly hurt and hurting. It’s hard to get when you’re not an athlete. Being tired or sore is not the end of the world. You can work through that. Real injury means can’t perform or something is broken. Black girls do cheer at that level and do make teams and compete without being “distractions.” I was one of them not long ago. Cheer is expensive and time consuming in the same way that competitive dance or gymnastics can be. It’s year round training and a lot of travel. I’d be willing to bet that black girls whose parents paid for that all their lives would not be parents who’d be ok with their middle class daughters going to community college for cheer.
Apart from the injuries, even those girls talking about drinking vinegar to be more flexible?! Like what?! These super athletes aren't being taught how to proper nourish their bodies? Just leaves you feeling ICK.
all of the girls on the team are "skinny" and have "no curves" because flyers are typically suppose to be girls who are naturally small since they have to be lifted. Since it is a co-ed team, all of the girls are flyers---thus they are all very short and skinny. On all girl teams, the girls are different shapes and sizes. Bases are typically more muscular/strong, and backspots are tall and strong. Flyers are always very skinny for the most part. Im also a flyer on my college team, and competed at Daytona. Most of us flyers are between 5'0-5'5 and 100-115 lbs
Naseemah I can’t remember what’s it’s called but Netflix had another cheer documentary about a Canadian competitive team that was all female and I do remember seeing different sizes of women
Naseemah Spot on. I was a on an all girls team in college and I am 5’9” 155 pounds. I was a backspot and was picked because I am tall and strong with thick thighs.
I feel like sports are toxic, period. Even in high school, I knew trainers who would discourage students from going to doctors so that they could force them to play injured. I knew so many 16 and 17 year olds with torn hamstrings and ACLs who would not let themselves heal fully because they were afraid of losing their spots on the team. One gymnast I knew fell off of the uneven bars and at 14 had to wear a brace from her hip to her ankle for at least 5 months. And that’s not even going into the verbally abusive coaches...
I just love how you can love love a thing and still be so objective, questioning + fair. You have me watching videos on topics I have no intrest in whatsoever :)
The point where you were talking about the fetishization of young girls but then you said "let's bring it back" made me scream (not in a bad way lol) because I wish you'd have talked about it more!!!!!!!! It is such a big deal today and not enough people talk about it and how big of a problem it is. As a society, we need to have more conversations about this. People always want to shame young girls or they are always preventing them from doing certain things because of the consequences, but no one ever seems to stop and look at the CAUSE of these consequences!!!!! So please please PLEASE let's talk about it and I'm really interested in your point of view on this!
While i didn't see any Blk girls as someone with a daughter and cousins that were in the cheer world I don't necessarily want to i think there are more class barriers vs racial..allstar cheer is expensive 2ndly the injuries after my daughter was dropped and concussed once she said she wanted to try volleyball instead i happily jump at that instead and we were so OUT.. my cousin that made it to level 5 also left after a scary injury and moved to another sport eventually
@@alexsmith2910 true i just stated the case bc way too much issues of class get looked at solely thru a racial lense resulting in the issue not getting addressed effectively or worse not at all, but I will say while there are definitely biases that make it harder for unambiguous Blk girls, if u don't have the thousands of $$ in fees or the time required your not even getting in the door to have the racial convo
@@alexsmith2910 that doesnt mean we should talk about race alone and cover our eyes when class is involved. We keep stomping on the working class like capitalism wants, we're never getting rid of abuse and inequality
Definitely class. I have relatives that did the cheeper pop warner cheer in their cities until middle school but had to stop because highschool cheer is too expensive. I was fortunate that my parents could afford it, but my cousin who kept practicing on her own couldn’t get back into cheer until college since the school paid for most of the expenses.
I’m watching this series now. Yeah someone needs to talk to Morgan. That child always looks so stressed and sad and unconfident. I just want to hug that baby and get her into therapy for what she went through. I’m also concerned about Gabi. I think everyone and no one is paying attention to her at the same time. Because on the one hand, she’s this amazing athlete that everyone loves and trusts to do perfect every time. But on the other hand I noticed the comments about how she wishes she knew what it was like to be normal. Or to have a spring break. And how she’s homeschooled but she’s on planes flying all over the country all the time. When is she learning? On the flight?? And what is her future gonna be after cheer is over? And I definitely cried over Jerry Harris. And his mother, and how positive he is despite what he was going through outside of practice. What a beautiful beam of light in this world.
Watching her force TT to keep practicing on his injury totally changed how I saw Monica. And it can't be ignored that the only body Monica was comfortable with jeopardizing in this way was a black mans
hey just to let you know. fathers who abandon their children simply do not care. it doesnt matter what you say or how hard you fight they just DONT CARE. after trying for a while it gets old and you just accept the reality and work with what youve got. thats life. thats reality. you cant force people to be decent, they wont do it and youll drain yourself in the process. Speaking bc my father was irresponsible and didnt help at all, and my brother turned out exactly like him. its gotten to the point where im studying nursing with the possibility of adopting my niece cuz both of her parents are garbage and think life is highschool. all im saying is that its not the grandparents fault that the father is full of shit. seen my mom fight for years trying to fix things and get him to understand. guess what? it doesnt work. maybe dont blame the people who are assuming responsibility like theyre the cause. its undeserved and life isnt as simple as talk about it and everything is fixed.
You cant force anyone to do or be anything. But you can decide if you still let this man be in yiour life. Is it really the better alternative to keep this abusive person around. Who could/would possibly repeat the same actions?
I don’t understand why we don’t as a society publicly shame for actions like this or have some kind of legal action against them, women can and do leave their families but it usually seems to be men that do it who leave women to pick up the slack- it’s so wrong!
When she said "Ladarius had an even worse childhood if you can imagine", like come on, trying to rank and compare peoples trauma? Realllly? That's tacky. I have friends who'd rather get wasted than be parents yet still fight for their kids like they give a fuck. Things are tough, it's so painful but sometimes having kids isn't enough of a reason for some people to want to change. They deserve better. All of them.
When she said "Ladarius had an even worse childhood if you can imagine",she was stating an opinion based on the observed facts, people are allowed to do that when they are giving their opinion on a subject which is what she does. you being bent out of shape by it, now that's tacky.
Ironically, I cheered and my Coaches name was Monica as well! She would go on rants sometimes and tell us how she didnt need to be there teaching us bc her man 'made 6figs'. She was the explosive coach who would do vindictive punishments to prove a point. Thanks for your commentary!
PATTY NEXTDOOR that’s not what ironic means, that’s the opposite of what ironic means. Irony is the opposite of what has been established. It’s the actor who played superman winding up in a wheelchair in real life, not the actor who played superman in real life fighting bad guys and hooking up with a girl called Lois. That’d be a coincidence. Sorry I don’t want to sound like a pompous lecturer, so many people do it, I’ve no judgement to you personally, it’s just a huge pet peeve of mine.
Hannah weird that you felt the need to be a “pompous lecturer” after claiming you’re not trying to be. Wrote a book because it’s your personal pet peeve lol.
Lolo Volcy I said I didn’t want to be pompous not i was trying not to be - the difference being I accepted it was inevitable, but didn’t feel great about it. And I’m not being pedantic but I genuinely don’t understand your second sentence. Were you suggesting I write a book about the definition of irony or calling my comment a ‘book’ because it was slightly longer than average...?
Mrcoolkids that’s not all i took from it, that’s what I chose to comment about. It’s not really something you keep to yourself- some may disagree. And I may have pissed a bunch of people off (which I don’t love, believe it or not) but the connection of irony and coincidence may not be made so easily next time...
Jumped on this so fast ❤ lol I was dropped my junior year and had to have knee surgery. I still can't walk down stairs normally. The culture is crazy competitive and kids are disposable.
Hi Kim! I'm a cis white woman from Texas and I just wanted to say I love your content. I find your assertive warm energy inspiring and I always have something new to think about after watching your content. Thank you for creating this RUclips channel! I am working on a women in science podcast/RUclips channel at a snails pace, and I was wondering if you would ever be interested in talking about the challenges black people (especially black women) face in pursuing grad school and academia? I'm getting a Ph.D. in geophysics and it's a very white male dominated space, I'm curious about other people's experiences. Also, I lived in Dallas for the past 20 years and I even used to live in Plano. Found your videos while living in Oregon. Small world.
“ARE YOU A DOCTOR?!” 😂 great video, Harriet. Girl, I still have a disfigured finger from my days in all-star cheer and having coaches watch us break bones without even blinking an eye, smh. It’s simply the cheer culture.
Gabby's parents triggered the hell out of me and my parents aren't even like that. They just sounded like their daughter was their cash cow (even though the parents claim otherwise). Don't even get me started on not making Morgan's dad explain himself. So. Much. Trauma. in this show.
I definitely think Cheer is not taken seriously because it’s a “girls” sport and is viewed as supplemental to football. It was seen as filler for games with “hot girls in tiny outfits” who just happened to be exceptional athletes who worked their bodies and diets to the bone. When you flashed the pic of the young girls in cheer uniforms 23:13 that were sooo revealing and they are easily 12 or younger is so problematic these are expected to be worn. It definitely helps lead to hyper sexualization of female children on a level that has been so normalized. The bad part and reinforcing part on Monica only picking girls with “the look” is her team wins. Only when more diverse teams win will the look changes, people don’t diversify because it’s an equalizer in sports they do it if it’s profitable or beneficial in some perceivable way. It’s like confirmation bias where judges are set on a certain look and dock anyone who goes against it. There’s a movie about gymnastics called Stick It and it shows you get docked on anything non-conforming in a performance (like a bra strap accidentally showing, make up, song). So those type of girls only win so Monica will continue to pick them. It sucks but it’s the systems fault, Monica is just feeding into it to work that system.
I am going to just let you know as a person who was a cheerleader the uniforms are like that because it's easier to catch something that's tight to the body or in some cases skin then it is to catch something that's loose and flimsy and cheer is definitely a sport and you have to wear the appropriate athletic gear.
@@kennyb1588 not sure if you're being disingenuous but male cheerleaders are not dressed in teeny weeny bottoms and teeny weeny tops. The way the young girls are dressed has nothing to do with the sport and everything to do with aesthetics
@@kennyb1588 that's not a reason to be in a crop top and short shorts🙄. I mean they are able to practice well enough in tops that cover their torsos and looser shorts. I can't tell if you're trying to play dumb or not.
@@ad2094 you've obviously never done cheer because practice attire for girls is normally sports bras and nike pro spandex,especially for allstar and collegiate. Let's also not sit here and act like you wouldn't throw a bitch fit if a man wore a crop top and shorts so lets not even go there
Family being a priority, nooooo. She gave up on her dream. She is doing well, and not everything is a business. Marshal spoke nothing but truth, black masculinity is a lot and it is damaging to young black men and ultimately creates these cold hearted men. Big of him to admit he should not put his pain on other. I like him, he was in pain the entire time. I also feel there was a lot of fake praise to the coach all around. Just thought about something, I want to hear your thoughts on politics, especially now ( specifically, black women’s role in our democracy)That’s what I do generally, and I do not see a lot of black content creators in the political arena. 1. I know it is a lot of research and things to track ( which is already what you do). 2. People might not be that interested, which makes sense... it is a lot to do for no one to care lol. 3. The black connection with Biden is so strange to me, he literally offers nothing. Black gay men should be able to exist everywhere... Not that image, if a man is going to kill you 😳😩. Also, will be on your Patreon, miss you.
I agree with everything you said. I just wanted to add that black masculinity is as toxic as it is and in the ways that it is, because it has always been attacked. Culturally, politically, in the justice system, it is hard for straight black men to be properly, normally, healthily portrayed, which partly leads to them being overprotective about what it is to be a black man. A black man's man. With no traces of femininity, no sensitivity, no crying, overseeing their daughters' virginity (remember their praising of T.I. with that whole hymen thing?), not wearing bell bottoms (the recent Deon Cole thing), not having "turned-gay-by-Hollywood" kids (Will Smith, Dwyane Wade), etc.
Kostas Kotidis yes I completely agree with. First I truly appreciate your insight, it is honestly refreshing especially in an age where people just come on the effects and never looking at the cause. Your analysis is absolutely insightful. Need to connect with more people like you. How do we start changing these ideas, without attacking the people holding them (who will attack any deviation from the beliefs they hold)?
I’ve been a cheerleader 📣 , and I found myself contributing to a toxic environment. We won state at least four times and nationals twice. I saw an article about a girl crying being forced to do splits, and I lost it. I truly believed she was weak and couldn’t handle the lifestyle. There was a lot of bias around fliers and eating. When it would be lunchtime, the captain would “jokingly” tell the fliers to not eat, or we would do weekly weigh-ins, and she would bring up the number. She would say you weigh 120 pounds, and we have to lift you - remember that. I didn’t think anything about it because it didn’t apply to me. And the girl we lifted was small but thicker. So she was 150, and she gained an eating disorder and dropped to 100 pounds in 5 months to stay on the team. I eventually progressed to captain, and I noticed how much harm it sometimes does. It’s hard to manage this as a high schooler with your other classes, and to maintain an excellent GPA; it’s rough. I also made varsity in 9th grade in my first year because I fit the profile. I was “pretty, smart, and I had/have a nice weight and BMI,” and this is what got me on the team, not talent or drive. Looking pretty and being skinny.
This is such a good review! I was a competitive cheerleader as a child and you got it exactly right. It's a very white sport. I was on one of the three predominately black teams in the country (at the time, I'm sure there are more now). When I cheered it was very expensive, and parents had to be able to travel to competitions. We've had national competitions in Alabama, Florida, and Las Vegas. It didn't occur to me at the time, but most people probably don't have jobs where they already have weekends off. I know my parents have taken Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays off as well due to our travel. My coach was abusive and even 15 years or so later I still have a complex about my thighs. My knees are barely functioning due to injuries not being taken seriously (I think cheer teams have fewer medical teams on standby because it's still looked at as a girl activity, not even sport, even though most teams now have more male cheerleaders than female cheerleaders.) Cheer parents were probably as competitive if not more so than the cheerleaders. Parents recording their kids' teammates at tumbling/gymnastics classes, parents forming cliques and feeding misinformation to kids about other kids. A lot of parents for sure lived vicariously through the kids, particularly when the kids reached a higher level than the parents did in their own cheer days.
As a former cheerleader (cheered all through high school and 2 years in college), I remember doing WHATEVER it took to guarantee my place on mat for nationals in college. I worked out 7 days a week, dieted like crazy, ignored injuries, was constantly in the gym working on my tumbling, doing private tumbling lessons over the summer...etc. I cheered and competed at nationals my freshman year, and was excited to tryout again for my sophomore year. When I broke my ankle the summer before my sophomore year of college, I was devastated. I still showed up to tryouts, and was put on the team as an alternate. I was so disappointed in myself. But, I still worked out, and went to practice with a boot on my foot, stunted, was a spotter, and did whatever I could. By the time nationals came around, I was out of my boot, and competed again. But it was then that I knew that if I continued on, my injuries could get worse. I also needed to bring my grades up...lol.
I had the same thoughts watching this doc. I love that you’ve given voice to this in such a well thought out way. I felt the same way about football concussion protocol vs. the “female” sport having 4 concussions in a practice and they have to wait for a physical trainer to run from the baseball field to help a girl with a dislocated elbow.
My daughter cheered in middle and high school. Middle school was fun and she enjoyed it. We live in Georgia, but I'm from Brooklyn, so I was unaware of the culture. When she transitioned to high school, became captain in the 9th grade, everything changed. The jealousy of the mothers of this Black girl, who happened to be the first Black captain, was terrible. She is very smart and beautiful (I may be slightly bias 🤷🏾♀️), at the time she was outgoing. I won't go into details because it's her story and not mine, but she changed. She did give up cheer, although not dance, but her circle is very small now. If I had known the toxicity of this sport, I may have still let her do it if she wanted to, but I would have been more diligent in protecting my baby girl. She's 22 now and has definitely moved on, but that year, which started out so wonderfully, changed her and our family. If your child, especially your child of color in a predominantly white space, is involved, be a little bit more than involved. I believe we have to be our children's advocates and I was unaware of everything that was going on. I don't hate cheerleading and I don't think my daughter does, but we don't speak of that time happily. Oh and my last thing, it was at this time that my daughter was suddenly asked all the time if she were Blasian. In her words, she's black mixed with black. Not sure how that's connected if it is, but we had never dealt with that comment before.
Sounds like they were thinking she's too pretty to be "regular" black, because "regular" black can't be beautiful 🙄. Yeah, I believe they were big mad, glad y'all moved on.
Thank you so much for you’re detailed commentary on this documentary. Competitive Cheer was a large part of my life growing up. And being one of the only black flyers my experience in this world was sooo different than most. Cheer did save my life, it was my passion and what kept me up and out of my depression. You were exactly right about needing to have other passions and focus outside of the sport. Now that I’m considered old(22) there’s not much for me to do it kinda sucks.
MJ Cutie and his friend James was the one that kept encouraging! I think we see clips of friends saying stuff and don’t get to see the whole relationship.
In cheer your bases are super important. Having someone with a back injury as a base is so unsafe. It is not just that one person who is in danger of injury, everyone he is lifting and catching is in danger as well. If a base misses a catch someone could die or be injured for life.
Thank you so much for making the traumatic side of cheerleading so visible. I’m still sifting through the trauma of my ten year cheer career and this helped me pin point certain feelings and realizations I have about it. ALSO the insane sexism you pointed out had me THINKING. So much of the neglect of cheerleaders is caused by sexism!! The reason we never have proper emergency medical care despite the sport getting more dangerous every year (among other things) speaks volumes to the systematic lack of care for women.
I cheered allstar cheerleading in florida for 8 years. I cheered for Brandon All stars and our gym was predominantly black and we were the #1 gym in Florida. But that is rare. Most gyms are predominantly white. All start cheerleading is expensive and that's why you wouldnt typically see lower class or ppl of color. It's a secon Morgan for your parents.
Coming from a ballet background, I’m definitely concerned about how they’re handling injuries. But then again, people say ballet is a short career, but it’s nothing compared to cheer. They really don’t have the prospect of doing that for 20 years as a professional- ballet dancers do (though that’s definitely the upper limit). Also, there are so many more performances that last for longer, so there’re less pressure. You can take time off from an injury and come back- you won’t have missed the one performance that was essential. Ballet also has the same sort of image issues- white upper middle class tiny young women, performing for white upper class patrons. It’s a different image, with different connotations, but it still exists. It is starting to change though, which is great. We’re seeing more women of colour, and a lot more diversity in body size and shape -compared to beforehand, or, compared to Russia, where all ballerinas are stick thin and tall with long limbs and long necks. Russia has an extremely set look. America on the other hand, has short dancers, tall dancers, dancers that are curvy (for ballerinas- think Lauren Lovett), dancers that are more muscular (like Misty Copeland). I have noticed the same sort of change happening in other arts and sports in the West- much more muscular gymnasts (rather than the extremely tiny Asian gymnasts, for example), and as we saw from Trinity’s cheer team, more muscular cheerleaders. There really are so many similarities, but at the same time, I do feel there’s a little less pressure in ballet (because of how much longer your career can be), and ballet deals with injuries better. They also have top notch sports medicine departments at the big ballet companies.
honestly, your enthusiasm, concern, love and passion for a show or movie makes me want to watch it. you are incredibly sincere, honest and genuine in your reviews and that's why i always come back to this channel. thank you Kim.
I’m reading This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins where she describes this idea of white femininity in cheerleading and not making the team as a black girl. Uncanny!
This series triggered me. I’ll be 35 in a few months, I cheered competitively for 16 years, AllStar aka club cheer, college, and I then taught cheer camps and judged competitions. My body is all messed up and most therapists and doctors don’t understand the injuries because they can’t comprehend how you actually got injured in the first place. Many injuries go untreated for years.
This was not enough after a month of wiating for a video. You bout to make me actually do my first patreon because I’m thirsty for your videos. I love you too much.
Omg I’m also considering it-and after reading these comments , more than ever. I’ve never been tempted to go the patreon route with ANY other creator...but Kim ain’t just any other creator
Hannah me neither but I’m so glad I did join her Patreon. Her podcasts are amazing and if you don’t or can’t pay too much, you can try for just $2 and get her podcasts and her podcasts are amazing. Some other creators don’t always offer bonus content in the same way Kim does and some creators don’t even offer that much if you join a certain tier. But Kim offers a lot on almost all her tiers.
I love how detailed and insightful this is. It might be a bit on the nose but I would like to see you review The Good Place on Netflix if you’ve seen it.
"Does cheerleading have ti be thier life line?" That is exactly what I was thinking whenever I watch things like this. Like, I get it, this certain thing saved their life but it's I think it's dangerous to put all they have into this one thing because then a good thing can become toxic.
Just a thought when it comes to the body of cheerleaders, more often than not, that's just the way your body develops after years of intensive training and not necessarily wanting to look like a child. I have also heard that working out can increase the levels of testosteron the body produces, so it makes sence that the girls lack of butt, chest and curves (specially considering the amount of core excercise they do to be strong) Edit: Also, if I recall correctly all star teams where you can find more POC representation can be CEA in NC, Maryland Twisters and Stringrays. And finally, the approach Monica haves for injuries is just how it is in every other team out there sadly
Daniela Cruces Pérez I was heavily involved in cheer during my “development” years and I completely agree with you. I was always small but because of the constant training and conditioning but it’s like my body is now stuck looking 14. It’s very odd but there’s truth to it, even with my friends now we’re all in college.
Loved this analysis and totally agree that Monica used her “motherly” relationship with these athletes to her own advantage. Your analysis about race has been helpful to me to understand subtle norms when it comes to black femininity that I didn’t even notice the first time watching this series. thanks for this content!
I cheered for 3 years in HS while also doing band. I quit my senior year bc we got a new coach and she would constantly tell us we’d have to run 4 miles bc we were all getting fat and couldn’t fit our uniforms. The biggest size was a L and if you couldn’t fit it you couldn’t make the team. Most of us played sports or played them prior to HS so naturally we were a little heavier. It made me sick to think about it til this day.
I cheered and I was embarrassed publicly because my heroine was bad. My coach kept calling me out over and over. I wasn't jumping high enough. We were in practice. I was getting angry because she kept putting me on the spot. Then she had everyone gather around me to watch me herkie. I had to do it over and over again until I got it while everyone was watching. But I didn't so my friend pulled me aside and taught me, then I had to show everyone again that I got it. I felt ashamed. Made me feel like crap.
I loved that you talked about Monica's stoicism in front of her team injuries. I was literally baffled , so shocked. She did nothing , just moved on to the other thing. I could feel her exploiting them trough the screen. And the fact that she used Jerry to teach La'Darius a lesson , knowing damn well how much he wanted to be on mat ; the fact that she was so aware that Morgan would to anything she asked if her and repeated multiple times trough-out the show ( creepy!) . And yeah , Ashlee , the only poc woman on the team did'nt get enough screen time which was strange to me , because she was the one teaching Morgan ( love her ) the tricks when Sherbs got badly injured , so I was wondering. The show was really good at least season 1 , haven't watch season 2 yet , but they were so many things that were off like the lack of medical assistance , which you talked about
Whenever I was a cheerleader, it was also my lifeline. I was extremely depressed, I was suicidal, in and out of the hospital. Cheerleading was the activity that I came to day in and day out, that got me out of my house. It forced me to smile, and do something athletic. It forced me to choose to live. It brought me happiness and stability. I also was going to therapy, being medicated, and sometimes hospitalized. Cheer was the bright part of my day/week that helped me push through the hard times. I think cheerleading is one of those things that is so immersive, it just becomes second nature. I think everyone needs a thing to do, that will give them a bright spot. After I quit cheer, I was kinda flopping around in the wind, attempting to find a new outlet. I came back to painting. It doesn't have to be something that costs an arm and a leg to do, a lot of hobbies (that can keep someone stable mentally) can be free. It is just that cheer is their thing. Eventually they will have to find a new thing. They will have to find closure for the dark parts of their life, but right now this is keeping them going, and that is understandable.
One thing that made me stop was injuries. I had many concussions, and now I have really bad memory. I also completely tore my meniscus in every spot and had it removed. Going to get a full knee replacement at 25.
I think you’re looking at them saying that cheer saved them in the wrong way. A lot of kids that come from brokenness find an escape, for them it was cheer, for you it was education. You working so hard to get into Harvard could have been what saved you.
I've said many times that my excessive focus on overachieving was detrimental and allowed me to ignore emotional traumas for many years until I couldn't. And I was only able to become a fully functional person because of luck and privilege. I believe the exact same thing about these kids. You should not have to be an elite athlete or valedictorian to be saved.
I appreciate your commentary. That said, I would argue that the failure to acknowledge success has more to do with ignorance than gender. My son led a 4x national d2 collegiate rugby team at a school where theirs”bread and butter” was football and hockey. They’re was no financial support for the team, an undead rated National Champion team....that’s the elite of the elite. The city didn’t know. It was only in his senior year of undergrad that they started doing interviews for local news. The Rugby world is still growing, and doesn’t receive the support and accolades that football, basketball and baseball enjoy. I’m pleased that documentaries such as this may bring more attention to the major risks to health for these kids...especially head injury. I will say that I’m aware of multiple acknowledgements and abstracts on addressing the issues of concussions in both female and soccer players. I imagine at some point the will eliminate the use of the head as a means of moving the ball, as it is a major contributing factor. Thanks for creating opportunity for dialogue.
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I subscribed to the youtube cause my technology is trash and cant take patreon....oh my bf helped me pay cause youtube wont take my card so dont be alarmed if u see a guys name attached to me 😆
Morgan's father needs to be in jail for child endangerment, neglect, and abandonment
Looks By Naheemah when her grandmother said “we don’t talk about it cause it’s over” I wanted to scream
I noticed that there were never any black girls (except for that ambiguous woman) on the team and the only female poc, the Asian woman, didn’t get any screen time
The TVCC Team had more diversity just in their few minutes on the screen.
Imani Culver yup, I’m sick of it 🙄
That's because we're never thought about because we don't fit "the mold" or "the ideal cheerleader." I was a ballet dancer and cheerleader for sixteen years and I was always othered and put on the outside because I was black. There were many times where I was passed up on opportunities that I knew I was qualified for because of what I looked like.
halle tamera that’s why I love Alvin Ailey
My daughter is in competitive cheer and I can tell you from the events we've been to this year, most of the sport is white and female. Not to mention the coach of this particular team is white and steeped in the moors of the sport. The big hair, the big bows those are things that are part of the tradition but not a part of any cultural group except white women.
BLACK MASCULINITY CAN BE A PRISON 👏🏿 YES 👏🏿YES 👏🏿YES 👏🏿YES!
I believe for us in this country, its always goes back to slavery. We haven't fully got from under it, lets not let those white people that destroyed or ancestor's lives continue to destroy ours. I completely agree with this statement.
@@bethanychatman9531 that's because since the beginning of slavery of African Americans black men were strip of any positive emotion besides angry, hurt, fear, to survived and it has past on into generation to generation until it become detrimental.
The problem with black, Hispanic, white young men is the lack of fathers in the home. We need more men like Mr. Evans from the show Good Times. He was a good father figure.
Can you *PLEASE* do on a video on how female dominated "sports" are much more demanding i.e cheer, gymnastics, ballet, and figure skating. All sports are hard to a certain point, but in these four sports the participants are pushed to their breaking points mentally and physically. Not to mention the compensation is next to nothing and only of handful will ever experience significant amount of income or mainstream success. And with all the hard work they put into it these sports/arts still aren't taken as seriously as other sports.
twicevelvet, yes it's insane to watch little Sally's middle class family have to take up second jobs and mortgage the house just so she can someday make it to the Olympics. Meanwhile former Nike is willing to school potential future basketball stars because when they become stars children will spend millions to wear their shoes.
Yup football players can be ugly but in all of those sports you listed looking good really matters
They emphasize a lot on competition between people from the same club/group/team/etc. .
And synchronised swimming
not to mention they are sports where top athletes have to start really young and are basically considered too old to continue competing by the time they're 22
Cheer culture overall is toxic. My friend in high school had an untreated broken arm for three months straight because she was afraid she would be kicked off the team if she told her parents! I remember just staring at her arm at lunch and asking her every so often when she’s going to the doctor and all she did was laugh it off like it was no big deal.
She now has a completely damaged disk on her spine and the doctor told her the arthritis is comparable to a 50+ year old person and she can’t do stunt work/gymnastics again. It breaks my heart hearing her talk about how she misses doing the stunts she used to be able to do. I feel like a lot of her injuries would have been prevented if her team prioritized the cheerleaders health and safety.
It's interesting that you noticed her arm but her parents didn't.
Eboni I didn’t really “notice”. She told me. But after she told me, I did notice how she avoided using the arm. Sadly, she was really good at hiding when she was in pain.
Thanks for this insight. My daughter is in cheer now and I'll keep an eye out for this sort of thing going forward. I don't want to risk her quality of life for a sport now that she may or may not stay involved with as an adult.
@@lincolnward85 Please do. If you notice, they're doing much the same things as acrobatic gymnastics, but with _much_ less requirements for mats. And gymnastics as a whole is essentially abusive in terms of what gymnasts put up with from coaches. I like watching gymnastics, but having read a lot about it, girls in it get injured terribly, and treated terribly when they get injured. I've read multiple accounts of girls being punished by coaches for getting injured, for telling their parents about injuries, and for trying to take care of or prevent injury. So they suffer silently. Serious national class cheer is less regulated, less safe, and more physically complicated because of all the people involved.
A 50yo shouldnt be having arthritis...
Loved this review. When you mentioned the fact there are no female poc but definitely male poc I immediately had a flashback to being in school again. I went to an majority white school, and will never forget constantly questioning why black boys or boy poc were always allowed into the “popular” groups, but not any girls. I think that was one of my first lessons on how different men and women as poc and specifically black women vs black men are viewed and accepted in different spaces.
destinyalesee Your experience is so similar to mine 😒 this article is really interesting and it talks about the disparity in socialization between black boys and girls at pwis! I think the intersection between racism and misogyny is so overlooked because men of color are also perpetrators and not the victims. www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/black-boys-have-an-easier-time-fitting-in-at-suburban-schools-than-black-girls/280657/
Yeeessss black men are always the “cool ones” in white spaces.
@@babyandy6607 That was a great article; thanks for sharing that!
Millionaire Trading Academy lol do you know all black women? Do you truly even give them a chance, or just right them off from the jump....People will always be or seem “one type of way” when you choose to see them like that.... sorry if that’s you...
Baby Andy The same thing applies to hispanics. The boys integrate easier than the girls. The girls are seen as more aggressive and hood. The boys are too but it works for them and not against them like the girls.
Morgans father had the nerve to show his face on camera. That made me mad.
Leena Elyssa straight up angry.
@@LyraMarie85 maybe he got tht Netflix check🤷🏾♀️🤑
Right! And he never to explain why he abandoned his kids. She wanted to be on tv. So pissed
I haven't finished watching and now I'm definitely not gonna watch
@@maritareads5229 you still should its very good
Anyways Monica feels inadequate and resentful because she wanted to be a powersuit in New York and ended up coaching college cheerleading so now she’s compensating by taking it way too seriously and that’s the tea
Oh and bringing up her irrelevant degree every chance she gets
😭😭😭
Babes, are you from Corsicana?! Lmao
@@shan9659 Yeah that scene where she says 'I have a degree so I could do something else if I wanted to' and then waited to be praised/applauded felt slightly pathetic tbh. Like she was really fishing for admiration from young adults 25+ years her junior... embarrassing
exactly
I still can’t get over what Monica did to TT. I was worried if he tweaked something, and wasn’t able to catch a girl. Monica not only put TT at risk, but all the athletes at risk.
It was definitely unsettling
Sara Smith it literally hurt my back to watch
I agree, she was definitely wrong. Also I think this needs to open up a bigger discussion about the way coaching is done in cheer & dance (& lowkey gymnastics). Bc what Monica did is what a lot of cheer & dance coaches do
Remember that episode of That's So Raven where Raven was told that she didn't have "the look"? 😳 The significance of that episode flew over my head as a kid, but now I look back...👀.
is that the one where they catch that racist lady on hidden camera? 😂 slick
caramel coffee noo this the episode where she designed a dress for a competition and she wanted to wear her own design but she didn’t have the look
"Maybe Gabby counts. Just kidding. She's just from Florida." 💀💀💀💀💀💀
This show was incredibly triggering for me (in the best/and worst ways). As a former cheerleader, I simultaneously felt joy and pain at the memory of my experience and the harsh reality that the path of a cheerleader has a brief shelf life. As a black (lower middle class) girl, I also remember being the smallest on the team at my black highschool, then relocating, and being too fat (at 110lbs) at my white school. I had to work an after school job to pay for a sport (that ultimately offers no scholarships), and I wasn't raised IN cheer culture so I had so much catching up to do skill-wise which included expensive private lessons. I literally felt like I was no one during the seasons I didn't make the team. Sports are a beautiful thing where the teamwork and camaraderie are concerned, but it definitely puts you in a headspace where you don't know who you are without your uniform, jersey, etc. 'Cheer' made me miss the sport deeply, and also wish I had never been introduced to it.
Ayana Ruby - I’m a former high school cheerleader at an all black school. I remember wanting to do take tumbling and jump lessons to improve my skills. But we couldn’t afford it, which hurt so bad cause I knew having those skills would help for trying out for college teams.
@@brandyandcream2 wow, thank you
" "Are you hurt or are you hurting?" --- OK, but are you a doctor?" wig. @37:45
This took me out 😂
😭 also, ARE you gonna pay my hospital bill?
“Ribeosis” oh god. In gymnastics they don’t care about injuries either. It’s a loud secret within the community. A lot of them have chronic injuries after their career.
MorbidMaddi and I thought Ballet was the most dangrouse
Exactly why I quit when I was younger, it’s a fun sport but I couldn’t bring myself to trust that environment
Ayan Omar Ballet deals with injuries pretty well these days. The big companies have top notch sports medicine departments, and they are pretty good at making sure dancers take time off, help them rehab their injury, and then only come back when the sports medicine doc says it’s okay.
This doesn’t happen everywhere, obviously. But it is getting better, I think. But also- ballet careers are longer than cheer or gymnastic careers. Women retire between 35-40 usually. Which is a fair bit older than the 22 or 23 for cheer and gymnastics.
So dancers can afford to take the time to heal, and then come back. They know now that if they don’t, they’ll have their career cut short. Better to take time off to heal, and then come back and dance for another 10-15 years, than continue to try to dance on an injury, and destroy yourself within a year or two.
There’s a pretty big difference.
Neartmhor Thank you for all of this! I have a toddler girl and I wanted to enroll her in ballet or gumnastics just for fun, seeing this kind of made me reconsider
I remember wanting to join the gymnastics team in my school but being too scared to attempt the stunts (backflips without any training at all and only 2 inches of foam on the floor as padding, for example). I now realize that the stunts were indeed too fucking dangerous.
What you said about not having sufficient medical staff is mainly because cheer isn’t recognized as a sport by the NCAA so they’re not required to have the medical staff or ambulances at competitions at the high school level. One of the reasons is Varsity, the company who has a monopoly on cheer, runs Jamz national championships tour. There’s a competition in each state and multiple in some states. If cheer was a sport there would only be one national championship and they would lose MILLIONS. So they spend money to make sure cheer doesn’t become a sport.
I had no idea about that! Thank you for bringing such an important point to bring to the table how much other ppls greed and money influences how these kids are treated.
Wow. Had no idea. Thank you for the insightful information.
They claim to prefer smaller, skinnier young women because it's easier to throw stunts with them but... the male cheerleaders I know could definitely throw stunts with women with a higher BMI so, I don't know if they're telling the truth or if they found a convenient excuse.
Fun fact, the bigger flyers are actually easier to stunt with because they can hold their own weight better than the really small ones.
Gabbi's parents treat her like a cash cow and she is going to resent them for that in the future for sure
You could already see it when she hung up on her mom in the library. Also her wanting to take time off and come 'home' only to immediately be shipped off around the US by her dad was heartbreaking. She's an adult but I feel like she has a Britney Spears arrangement with her toxic family
her mom saying “i love you” and gabbi hesitating to say it back. then just hanging up without saying anything said A LOT. i hope babygirl gets therapy and gets to know who she is outside of this.
Hannah H exactly it’s sad
Annice she is definitely going to need it unfortunately
So do her parents. Would they even be together if it weren’t for them capitalizing on their daughter🧐🤔?
I was so excited when you announced this would be this week's video in the community tab lol. One thing: I found Gabi's parents SOOO CREEPY!! Like when she was on the phone to them and her dad asked if she was "eating clean" and told her that "eating jackfruit can keep you going for the whole day," - this girl is an ATHLETE. A) she probably could eat anything and still look the same way she does. B) She probably needs around 3000 calories with the amount of physical exertion she's doing - no wonder Gabi spends the entire show being lethargic. Also "Don't eat eggs - they're dairy" (lol, okay) from the same conversation. Eggs are about the most protein dense low-calorie food you can get, absolutely beloved by all athletes. the ONLY reason Gabi is being pressured into malnutrition is because she's a girl and I find that absolutely infuriating.
I know !!! It was so sad watching them pressure her to support them financially and under eat. Also the bikini thing was crazy to me. Pressuring your daughter to post more pictures of herself half naked so you can sell something? like i’m all for women owning their image and posting whatever they want but if my dad was like “post a pic of your ass we need money” i’d be pretty creeped out!
Chloe Jones yea her parents were pimps basically. Disgusting.
@@chloejones6240 l
Yes!! Well said about black men masculinity and black female femininity have totally different values to society
@33:27 My guess is that black men’s bodies are considered more useful to sports. So people make exceptions for them. Yes, Black women’s bodies are generally athletic too, BUT sports that are more aesthetic (basically most girls sports) tend to prioritize a singular image. They don’t want anyone standing out.
These kinds of all sports rely heavily on beauty standards. Female beauty and male beauty are measured differently. At this point, I think we all know where black girls stand on this subject. It’s been discussed a lot lately. Also, statistically, white females receive more visual attention than black females. So there are many reasons why certain activities like these ignore black girls. In a way, we don’t fit their “brand”.
Sadly, I remember going all throughout middle school and high school without ever seeing a single black girl cheerleader. Eventually, the black female students just started their own hype/dance crew. It’s sad that they even had to do that. Racism definitely hits different when you factor in our associations of femininity (beauty) and masculinity (strength). For those who don’t know, the term for this is “gendered racism”.
RUclipsr Named Morgan I was a black cheerleader. You can be black and cheer but there’s not a lot of us out there. If you watch all star cheer there’s some pretty good black girls on cheer athletics panthers and cheer extreme senior elite. There’s also a really good black tumbler on cheer extreme ssx. We out there you just gotta look hard 😂
Realite Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll definitely check it out! I love watching cheerleading. 🙏🏽
I don't remember the name of the tennis player, (it's not Sharapova) but during the early years of the Williams sisters this one white tennis player made millions, but she was terrible! She didn't win yet people were willing to buy her exercise dvd.
@@ernestthomas9090 Anna Kournikova. She was a better doubles than singles player. Def capitalized more off her looks than tennis skills
RUclipsr Named Morgan I do agree to an extent. But I also think that black girls don’t have as much of an interest in cheer because black girls view it as lame and basic since it’s mainly white girls who do it. Black girls and women have always been able to find a way to do things we really want to do. Most just don’t want to do cheer. Notice a lot more black girls are doing gymnastics, that’s because more are interested now. And all the black female gymnasts are successful. Yes beauty standards factor In but still most black girls just don’t like stereotypically white female interests. If they do like it they often put a spin onto it to give it more flavor and sauce. And then low and behold the same white demographic becomes attracted to it and them wants in. They know we do shit better than they do, hence why they always come to us once we do our own thing. It’s pathetic when you think about 🤣🤣🤣
“The look.” Coded
Morgan looks like the epitome of a Disney Princes. Very telling when she was upheld as the pinnacle
Themis & Thoth yasssss I caught that
Shamicka White i was going to do a breakdown of coded language... but I think we all get it. Lol
Monica always brought her name up when deciding who would center pyrimd and basket toss A LOT. Low key disregarding the other girls who had more experience and didn't have the "look". She favored her a bit more than the others.
I mean, if "the look" is a skinny clearly part native girl, then yeah...
It was a great documentary but i felt the disregard for the danger involved and the injuries suffered was very worrying
That for me was the reason I can't take cheerleading as a sport serious. Why can't they (at least during trainings) wear some sort of protective gear? Tbh I stopped watching when that girl got a concussion and it was just 'normal'. I'm from germany when a soccer player here gets a rash on his butt there's immediatly two docs taking that player out the game in a strecher.
And, great commentary by this youtuber, the whole 'looks' thing is telling me this is not abt their abilities as sportswomen but abt selling sex :/ I am very turned off.
bin down well could be said the same about football. Demanding sports often don’t pay attention unless it’s life threatening
@@tyrajackson6816 I'll be honest I don't know a lot about american football. It just seems wasteful to me to risk a good athletes ability to partaque in a competition/game just for training if you can avoid it ... do the football players get concussions during training too?
@@bindown2345 oh definitely. Football practices plays so when it comes down to the game they can do it flawlessly. So when they aren't doing strength training they're tackling. Kind of the same with cheer. A whole season for one or two competitions.
When I was in cheer and someone’s family was struggling all of our parents would pool to put those kids into program or the fee would be waived. Everyone of all races and sizes got to show off what they were good at. I’ve always been bigger so I wasn’t a flyer but we weren’t shamed for that. Big girls can stunt like the rest of them. Pushing flyers to be smaller instead of stronger is toxic and damaging. I snapped my ankle doing a stunt and I could not compete until it was fully healed and cleared by my doctor. Southern, white, cheer is not the same as cheer across the country. Southern sports teams are the most exploitative in the country. Don’t get me started on black women with natural hair in cheer.
I definitely cried when ladarius’s brother cried. That was gold.
PURE GOLD!!!! Omg I broke
FR! It reminds me of a movie scene
The lack of black girls didn’t surprise me because I used to cheer and I rarely saw anyone that looked like me. I lived in a predominately white area though. But watching all star cheerleading you can also see there’s not a lot of us as well.
i think you don't see a lot of poc in cheer in general, probably bc it's seen more as a hobby and poc parents (especially black and asian) tend not to poor a lot a money into something that in the end has little to no long term benefit.
twicevelvet ya you’re right. I did gymnastics at the same time and my mom would rather put money into that than cheer. She only let me do school cheer instead of all star.
Black women dont have to be everywhere.. sometimes YES.. the world can enjoy themselves without you! Its ok black girl, the world would keep spinning if you werent here!
@@TerryJulianLive We should totally listen to you "black girls are annoying and complain all the time". Totally good faith actor.
Millionaire Trading Academy lmao dude who sent you troll here? Go back to your weird racist forums
Ok, let's get ready for class ladies and gentlemen.
Hey Kim, white european guy here but I love your content and your takes, which are always insightful and humourous.
Would you consider discussing voter suppression in the United states? The little I've heard of it shocks me and looks like it's another cynical upgrade of silencing black and brown voices in America. I'd love to know what you think about it
Hey! I discussed it here. ruclips.net/video/F5RxA0iv-vc/видео.html
@@ForHarriet619 saved for later. Thanks for your reply and keep shining your light 😉
I am really concerned about how their mental health is going to be when their time is over there 😕.
It’s really sad how men just feel so comfortable leaving their kinds behind and starting a new family with a new wife. Something I notice is often times men will leave their kids if him and the baby mama are no longer together and then they’ll go and be with another woman and be a father to the new girlfriend/wife’s kids. So why do some men only take care of their own children when they’re with the mom and when they’re not they dip out and feel comfortable taking care of a new family? It’s never made any sense to to me and I think it’s something we need to start having a conversation about.
Yes I would love to see a video on this. I experience this with my child's father.
Capricorn4life my nephews biological father’s the same way. A straight up dead beat. Has two children by two different women and doesn’t care of either of them
@@AJ-cq5pw it's so sad.
I agree. Why is it so easy for men to abandon their children? They do it so easily.
Indiegirl007 and why do they feel so disconnected from their children that they have no heart or feelings about it
I'm sorry to say. I have a dance background. That type of intensity during practice especially for stunts and tricks that make people clap and stand (Cirque du Soliel, World of Dance, AGT etc.) is exactly what you saw... sometimes worse. This is the same level of intensity for rehearsals just about all those amazing dancers and acrobats do for many shows.
Your point about people having to be exceptional for people to take notice really raised an eyebrow for me. It’s something we see in many sports movies. The coach seeing talent in that one kid who seems to not care about school or anything or comes from the wrong side of the tracks. It’s a very common theme and it’s celebrated because these coaches are putting their time and investment into a person who doesn’t have the means or maybe money or motivation to broadcast their talent. But what about the other kids who aren’t necessarily special and need investment as well? It’s sad that why we’ve normalized that you must be “special” to be considered worthy of investment.
I love this comment. So as an early childhood educator for 16 years I have battled this for years. We get consumed with students who have high needs and this usually means we ignore the students who do not need us as intensely. And so in my later years I've made a concerted effort to pour my energy into those students who as you say, "not special" but who are just children are in need of my complete attention.
“If you’re not black: being cold is a good thing.” Thank you Kim I was legitimately confused for a second lmao
I thought you were not going to bring up no black girls... The wades and AGT, black male experience is very different than black women. “The look” that is it.
Jerry was one of my coaches at a cheer camp my team went to and I can tell you Jerry is as encouraging, kind, and energetic and he is on the on the show
Jerry WAS on mat for Daytona! I felt so bad I was hoping for this other guy to be injured so Jerry could be on mat, but I will root for Jerry until my dying breath!
I’m a former competitive cheerleader. I competed for 13 years. Re: weight, It’s much easier to toss thin girls around. Most competitive teams have a mandatory range for body fat. It’s pretty standard.
Cheer is like any other sport. It’s an outlet and avenue for expression. There’s a difference between being truly hurt and hurting. It’s hard to get when you’re not an athlete. Being tired or sore is not the end of the world. You can work through that. Real injury means can’t perform or something is broken.
Black girls do cheer at that level and do make teams and compete without being “distractions.” I was one of them not long ago. Cheer is expensive and time consuming in the same way that competitive dance or gymnastics can be. It’s year round training and a lot of travel. I’d be willing to bet that black girls whose parents paid for that all their lives would not be parents who’d be ok with their middle class daughters going to community college for cheer.
Same here.. Community College was not an option.
Right community college 😬😳 um ain't nobody got time for that
Apart from the injuries, even those girls talking about drinking vinegar to be more flexible?! Like what?! These super athletes aren't being taught how to proper nourish their bodies? Just leaves you feeling ICK.
all of the girls on the team are "skinny" and have "no curves" because flyers are typically suppose to be girls who are naturally small since they have to be lifted. Since it is a co-ed team, all of the girls are flyers---thus they are all very short and skinny. On all girl teams, the girls are different shapes and sizes. Bases are typically more muscular/strong, and backspots are tall and strong. Flyers are always very skinny for the most part.
Im also a flyer on my college team, and competed at Daytona. Most of us flyers are between 5'0-5'5 and 100-115 lbs
Naseemah I can’t remember what’s it’s called but Netflix had another cheer documentary about a Canadian competitive team that was all female and I do remember seeing different sizes of women
All of the flyers at my school were short and curvy so....
Joyce Malova same at mine
Naseemah Spot on. I was a on an all girls team in college and I am 5’9” 155 pounds. I was a backspot and was picked because I am tall and strong with thick thighs.
@@samanthascarcella526 it's called cheer squad.
I feel like sports are toxic, period. Even in high school, I knew trainers who would discourage students from going to doctors so that they could force them to play injured. I knew so many 16 and 17 year olds with torn hamstrings and ACLs who would not let themselves heal fully because they were afraid of losing their spots on the team. One gymnast I knew fell off of the uneven bars and at 14 had to wear a brace from her hip to her ankle for at least 5 months. And that’s not even going into the verbally abusive coaches...
I just love how you can love love a thing and still be so objective, questioning + fair. You have me watching videos on topics I have no intrest in whatsoever :)
The point where you were talking about the fetishization of young girls but then you said "let's bring it back" made me scream (not in a bad way lol) because I wish you'd have talked about it more!!!!!!!! It is such a big deal today and not enough people talk about it and how big of a problem it is. As a society, we need to have more conversations about this. People always want to shame young girls or they are always preventing them from doing certain things because of the consequences, but no one ever seems to stop and look at the CAUSE of these consequences!!!!! So please please PLEASE let's talk about it and I'm really interested in your point of view on this!
Since you did this Netflix show I’d love to hear your take on “Love Is Blind”
While i didn't see any Blk girls as someone with a daughter and cousins that were in the cheer world I don't necessarily want to i think there are more class barriers vs racial..allstar cheer is expensive 2ndly the injuries after my daughter was dropped and concussed once she said she wanted to try volleyball instead i happily jump at that instead and we were so OUT.. my cousin that made it to level 5 also left after a scary injury and moved to another sport eventually
The class barrierers are intersectionally linked to race as well.
The two can not be separated.
@@alexsmith2910 true i just stated the case bc way too much issues of class get looked at solely thru a racial lense resulting in the issue not getting addressed effectively or worse not at all, but I will say while there are definitely biases that make it harder for unambiguous Blk girls, if u don't have the thousands of $$ in fees or the time required your not even getting in the door to have the racial convo
@@alexsmith2910 that doesnt mean we should talk about race alone and cover our eyes when class is involved. We keep stomping on the working class like capitalism wants, we're never getting rid of abuse and inequality
Definitely class. I have relatives that did the cheeper pop warner cheer in their cities until middle school but had to stop because highschool cheer is too expensive. I was fortunate that my parents could afford it, but my cousin who kept practicing on her own couldn’t get back into cheer until college since the school paid for most of the expenses.
I’m watching this series now. Yeah someone needs to talk to Morgan. That child always looks so stressed and sad and unconfident. I just want to hug that baby and get her into therapy for what she went through.
I’m also concerned about Gabi. I think everyone and no one is paying attention to her at the same time. Because on the one hand, she’s this amazing athlete that everyone loves and trusts to do perfect every time. But on the other hand I noticed the comments about how she wishes she knew what it was like to be normal. Or to have a spring break. And how she’s homeschooled but she’s on planes flying all over the country all the time. When is she learning? On the flight?? And what is her future gonna be after cheer is over?
And I definitely cried over Jerry Harris. And his mother, and how positive he is despite what he was going through outside of practice. What a beautiful beam of light in this world.
Watching her force TT to keep practicing on his injury totally changed how I saw Monica. And it can't be ignored that the only body Monica was comfortable with jeopardizing in this way was a black mans
hey just to let you know. fathers who abandon their children simply do not care. it doesnt matter what you say or how hard you fight they just DONT CARE. after trying for a while it gets old and you just accept the reality and work with what youve got. thats life. thats reality. you cant force people to be decent, they wont do it and youll drain yourself in the process. Speaking bc my father was irresponsible and didnt help at all, and my brother turned out exactly like him. its gotten to the point where im studying nursing with the possibility of adopting my niece cuz both of her parents are garbage and think life is highschool. all im saying is that its not the grandparents fault that the father is full of shit. seen my mom fight for years trying to fix things and get him to understand. guess what? it doesnt work. maybe dont blame the people who are assuming responsibility like theyre the cause. its undeserved and life isnt as simple as talk about it and everything is fixed.
I can totally relate to this because my father was the same as yours. He simply doesn't care or want to care.
You cant force anyone to do or be anything. But you can decide if you still let this man be in yiour life. Is it really the better alternative to keep this abusive person around. Who could/would possibly repeat the same actions?
I don’t understand why we don’t as a society publicly shame for actions like this or have some kind of legal action against them, women can and do leave their families but it usually seems to be men that do it who leave women to pick up the slack- it’s so wrong!
When she said "Ladarius had an even worse childhood if you can imagine", like come on, trying to rank and compare peoples trauma? Realllly? That's tacky. I have friends who'd rather get wasted than be parents yet still fight for their kids like they give a fuck. Things are tough, it's so painful but sometimes having kids isn't enough of a reason for some people to want to change. They deserve better. All of them.
When she said "Ladarius had an even worse childhood if you can imagine",she was stating an opinion based on the observed facts, people are allowed to do that when they are giving their opinion on a subject which is what she does. you being bent out of shape by it, now that's tacky.
“You shouldn’t have to be exceptional to live.” My god I think you stabbed at the heart of America’s problems-that mentality
Girl you looking fireeeeeeee that headband ooooo
I know right. I am totally gonna steal that look
Ironically, I cheered and my Coaches name was Monica as well! She would go on rants sometimes and tell us how she didnt need to be there teaching us bc her man 'made 6figs'. She was the explosive coach who would do vindictive punishments to prove a point.
Thanks for your commentary!
PATTY NEXTDOOR that’s not what ironic means, that’s the opposite of what ironic means. Irony is the opposite of what has been established. It’s the actor who played superman winding up in a wheelchair in real life, not the actor who played superman in real life fighting bad guys and hooking up with a girl called Lois. That’d be a coincidence.
Sorry I don’t want to sound like a pompous lecturer, so many people do it, I’ve no judgement to you personally, it’s just a huge pet peeve of mine.
Hannah out of everything she write that is what you took from it? Damn
Hannah weird that you felt the need to be a “pompous lecturer” after claiming you’re not trying to be. Wrote a book because it’s your personal pet peeve lol.
Lolo Volcy I said I didn’t want to be pompous not i was trying not to be - the difference being I accepted it was inevitable, but didn’t feel great about it. And I’m not being pedantic but I genuinely don’t understand your second sentence. Were you suggesting I write a book about the definition of irony or calling my comment a ‘book’ because it was slightly longer than average...?
Mrcoolkids that’s not all i took from it, that’s what I chose to comment about. It’s not really something you keep to yourself- some may disagree. And I may have pissed a bunch of people off (which I don’t love, believe it or not) but the connection of irony and coincidence may not be made so easily next time...
Jumped on this so fast ❤ lol I was dropped my junior year and had to have knee surgery. I still can't walk down stairs normally. The culture is crazy competitive and kids are disposable.
Hi Kim! I'm a cis white woman from Texas and I just wanted to say I love your content. I find your assertive warm energy inspiring and I always have something new to think about after watching your content. Thank you for creating this RUclips channel! I am working on a women in science podcast/RUclips channel at a snails pace, and I was wondering if you would ever be interested in talking about the challenges black people (especially black women) face in pursuing grad school and academia? I'm getting a Ph.D. in geophysics and it's a very white male dominated space, I'm curious about other people's experiences. Also, I lived in Dallas for the past 20 years and I even used to live in Plano. Found your videos while living in Oregon. Small world.
“ARE YOU A DOCTOR?!” 😂 great video, Harriet. Girl, I still have a disfigured finger from my days in all-star cheer and having coaches watch us break bones without even blinking an eye, smh. It’s simply the cheer culture.
Gabby's parents triggered the hell out of me and my parents aren't even like that. They just sounded like their daughter was their cash cow (even though the parents claim otherwise). Don't even get me started on not making Morgan's dad explain himself. So. Much. Trauma. in this show.
I definitely think Cheer is not taken seriously because it’s a “girls” sport and is viewed as supplemental to football. It was seen as filler for games with “hot girls in tiny outfits” who just happened to be exceptional athletes who worked their bodies and diets to the bone. When you flashed the pic of the young girls in cheer uniforms 23:13 that were sooo revealing and they are easily 12 or younger is so problematic these are expected to be worn. It definitely helps lead to hyper sexualization of female children on a level that has been so normalized.
The bad part and reinforcing part on Monica only picking girls with “the look” is her team wins. Only when more diverse teams win will the look changes, people don’t diversify because it’s an equalizer in sports they do it if it’s profitable or beneficial in some perceivable way. It’s like confirmation bias where judges are set on a certain look and dock anyone who goes against it. There’s a movie about gymnastics called Stick It and it shows you get docked on anything non-conforming in a performance (like a bra strap accidentally showing, make up, song). So those type of girls only win so Monica will continue to pick them. It sucks but it’s the systems fault, Monica is just feeding into it to work that system.
I am going to just let you know as a person who was a cheerleader the uniforms are like that because it's easier to catch something that's tight to the body or in some cases skin then it is to catch something that's loose and flimsy and cheer is definitely a sport and you have to wear the appropriate athletic gear.
@@kennyb1588 not sure if you're being disingenuous but male cheerleaders are not dressed in teeny weeny bottoms and teeny weeny tops. The way the young girls are dressed has nothing to do with the sport and everything to do with aesthetics
@@ad2094 because most of the time men don't fly
@@kennyb1588 that's not a reason to be in a crop top and short shorts🙄. I mean they are able to practice well enough in tops that cover their torsos and looser shorts. I can't tell if you're trying to play dumb or not.
@@ad2094 you've obviously never done cheer because practice attire for girls is normally sports bras and nike pro spandex,especially for allstar and collegiate. Let's also not sit here and act like you wouldn't throw a bitch fit if a man wore a crop top and shorts so lets not even go there
Family being a priority, nooooo. She gave up on her dream. She is doing well, and not everything is a business. Marshal spoke nothing but truth, black masculinity is a lot and it is damaging to young black men and ultimately creates these cold hearted men. Big of him to admit he should not put his pain on other. I like him, he was in pain the entire time. I also feel there was a lot of fake praise to the coach all around. Just thought about something, I want to hear your thoughts on politics, especially now ( specifically, black women’s role in our democracy)That’s what I do generally, and I do not see a lot of black content creators in the political arena. 1. I know it is a lot of research and things to track ( which is already what you do). 2. People might not be that interested, which makes sense... it is a lot to do for no one to care lol. 3. The black connection with Biden is so strange to me, he literally offers nothing. Black gay men should be able to exist everywhere... Not that image, if a man is going to kill you 😳😩. Also, will be on your Patreon, miss you.
Also, I really appreciate your videos.
I agree with everything you said. I just wanted to add that black masculinity is as toxic as it is and in the ways that it is, because it has always been attacked. Culturally, politically, in the justice system, it is hard for straight black men to be properly, normally, healthily portrayed, which partly leads to them being overprotective about what it is to be a black man. A black man's man. With no traces of femininity, no sensitivity, no crying, overseeing their daughters' virginity (remember their praising of T.I. with that whole hymen thing?), not wearing bell bottoms (the recent Deon Cole thing), not having "turned-gay-by-Hollywood" kids (Will Smith, Dwyane Wade), etc.
Kostas Kotidis yes I completely agree with. First I truly appreciate your insight, it is honestly refreshing especially in an age where people just come on the effects and never looking at the cause. Your analysis is absolutely insightful. Need to connect with more people like you. How do we start changing these ideas, without attacking the people holding them (who will attack any deviation from the beliefs they hold)?
Hope Kim does not mind this discussion under her video. 😅
I’ve been a cheerleader 📣 , and I found myself contributing to a toxic environment. We won state at least four times and nationals twice. I saw an article about a girl crying being forced to do splits, and I lost it. I truly believed she was weak and couldn’t handle the lifestyle. There was a lot of bias around fliers and eating. When it would be lunchtime, the captain would “jokingly” tell the fliers to not eat, or we would do weekly weigh-ins, and she would bring up the number. She would say you weigh 120 pounds, and we have to lift you - remember that. I didn’t think anything about it because it didn’t apply to me. And the girl we lifted was small but thicker. So she was 150, and she gained an eating disorder and dropped to 100 pounds in 5 months to stay on the team. I eventually progressed to captain, and I noticed how much harm it sometimes does. It’s hard to manage this as a high schooler with your other classes, and to maintain an excellent GPA; it’s rough. I also made varsity in 9th grade in my first year because I fit the profile. I was “pretty, smart, and I had/have a nice weight and BMI,” and this is what got me on the team, not talent or drive. Looking pretty and being skinny.
This is such a good review! I was a competitive cheerleader as a child and you got it exactly right.
It's a very white sport. I was on one of the three predominately black teams in the country (at the time, I'm sure there are more now). When I cheered it was very expensive, and parents had to be able to travel to competitions. We've had national competitions in Alabama, Florida, and Las Vegas. It didn't occur to me at the time, but most people probably don't have jobs where they already have weekends off. I know my parents have taken Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays off as well due to our travel.
My coach was abusive and even 15 years or so later I still have a complex about my thighs. My knees are barely functioning due to injuries not being taken seriously (I think cheer teams have fewer medical teams on standby because it's still looked at as a girl activity, not even sport, even though most teams now have more male cheerleaders than female cheerleaders.)
Cheer parents were probably as competitive if not more so than the cheerleaders. Parents recording their kids' teammates at tumbling/gymnastics classes, parents forming cliques and feeding misinformation to kids about other kids. A lot of parents for sure lived vicariously through the kids, particularly when the kids reached a higher level than the parents did in their own cheer days.
As a former cheerleader (cheered all through high school and 2 years in college), I remember doing WHATEVER it took to guarantee my place on mat for nationals in college. I worked out 7 days a week, dieted like crazy, ignored injuries, was constantly in the gym working on my tumbling, doing private tumbling lessons over the summer...etc. I cheered and competed at nationals my freshman year, and was excited to tryout again for my sophomore year. When I broke my ankle the summer before my sophomore year of college, I was devastated. I still showed up to tryouts, and was put on the team as an alternate. I was so disappointed in myself. But, I still worked out, and went to practice with a boot on my foot, stunted, was a spotter, and did whatever I could. By the time nationals came around, I was out of my boot, and competed again. But it was then that I knew that if I continued on, my injuries could get worse. I also needed to bring my grades up...lol.
I had the same thoughts watching this doc. I love that you’ve given voice to this in such a well thought out way. I felt the same way about football concussion protocol vs. the “female” sport having 4 concussions in a practice and they have to wait for a physical trainer to run from the baseball field to help a girl with a dislocated elbow.
“She’s just... from Florida” this video is excellent 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
If I saw Morgan's father in person I'd throw hands
Get that sponsorship, Kim 👏👏👏
My daughter cheered in middle and high school. Middle school was fun and she enjoyed it. We live in Georgia, but I'm from Brooklyn, so I was unaware of the culture. When she transitioned to high school, became captain in the 9th grade, everything changed. The jealousy of the mothers of this Black girl, who happened to be the first Black captain, was terrible. She is very smart and beautiful (I may be slightly bias 🤷🏾♀️), at the time she was outgoing. I won't go into details because it's her story and not mine, but she changed. She did give up cheer, although not dance, but her circle is very small now. If I had known the toxicity of this sport, I may have still let her do it if she wanted to, but I would have been more diligent in protecting my baby girl. She's 22 now and has definitely moved on, but that year, which started out so wonderfully, changed her and our family. If your child, especially your child of color in a predominantly white space, is involved, be a little bit more than involved. I believe we have to be our children's advocates and I was unaware of everything that was going on. I don't hate cheerleading and I don't think my daughter does, but we don't speak of that time happily. Oh and my last thing, it was at this time that my daughter was suddenly asked all the time if she were Blasian. In her words, she's black mixed with black. Not sure how that's connected if it is, but we had never dealt with that comment before.
Sounds like they were thinking she's too pretty to be "regular" black, because "regular" black can't be beautiful 🙄. Yeah, I believe they were big mad, glad y'all moved on.
Thank you so much for you’re detailed commentary on this documentary. Competitive Cheer was a large part of my life growing up. And being one of the only black flyers my experience in this world was sooo different than most. Cheer did save my life, it was my passion and what kept me up and out of my depression. You were exactly right about needing to have other passions and focus outside of the sport. Now that I’m considered old(22) there’s not much for me to do it kinda sucks.
Jerry did end up on mat at the end
He did ! He earned his spot
MJ Cutie and his friend James was the one that kept encouraging! I think we see clips of friends saying stuff and don’t get to see the whole relationship.
"Younger versions of Monica". 😂😂😂 Thanks Kim. Good review.
In cheer your bases are super important. Having someone with a back injury as a base is so unsafe. It is not just that one person who is in danger of injury, everyone he is lifting and catching is in danger as well. If a base misses a catch someone could die or be injured for life.
😂😂😂 “ok but are you a doctor?” 💚 you Kim!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 i died... twice
Nikki 😂
Thank you so much for making the traumatic side of cheerleading so visible. I’m still sifting through the trauma of my ten year cheer career and this helped me pin point certain feelings and realizations I have about it. ALSO the insane sexism you pointed out had me THINKING. So much of the neglect of cheerleaders is caused by sexism!! The reason we never have proper emergency medical care despite the sport getting more dangerous every year (among other things) speaks volumes to the systematic lack of care for women.
I cheered allstar cheerleading in florida for 8 years. I cheered for Brandon All stars and our gym was predominantly black and we were the #1 gym in Florida. But that is rare. Most gyms are predominantly white. All start cheerleading is expensive and that's why you wouldnt typically see lower class or ppl of color. It's a secon Morgan for your parents.
Coming from a ballet background, I’m definitely concerned about how they’re handling injuries. But then again, people say ballet is a short career, but it’s nothing compared to cheer. They really don’t have the prospect of doing that for 20 years as a professional- ballet dancers do (though that’s definitely the upper limit). Also, there are so many more performances that last for longer, so there’re less pressure. You can take time off from an injury and come back- you won’t have missed the one performance that was essential.
Ballet also has the same sort of image issues- white upper middle class tiny young women, performing for white upper class patrons. It’s a different image, with different connotations, but it still exists. It is starting to change though, which is great. We’re seeing more women of colour, and a lot more diversity in body size and shape -compared to beforehand, or, compared to Russia, where all ballerinas are stick thin and tall with long limbs and long necks. Russia has an extremely set look. America on the other hand, has short dancers, tall dancers, dancers that are curvy (for ballerinas- think Lauren Lovett), dancers that are more muscular (like Misty Copeland). I have noticed the same sort of change happening in other arts and sports in the West- much more muscular gymnasts (rather than the extremely tiny Asian gymnasts, for example), and as we saw from Trinity’s cheer team, more muscular cheerleaders.
There really are so many similarities, but at the same time, I do feel there’s a little less pressure in ballet (because of how much longer your career can be), and ballet deals with injuries better. They also have top notch sports medicine departments at the big ballet companies.
honestly, your enthusiasm, concern, love and passion for a show or movie makes me want to watch it. you are incredibly sincere, honest and genuine in your reviews and that's why i always come back to this channel. thank you Kim.
I’m reading This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins where she describes this idea of white femininity in cheerleading and not making the team as a black girl. Uncanny!
This series triggered me. I’ll be 35 in a few months, I cheered competitively for 16 years, AllStar aka club cheer, college, and I then taught cheer camps and judged competitions.
My body is all messed up and most therapists and doctors don’t understand the injuries because they can’t comprehend how you actually got injured in the first place. Many injuries go untreated for years.
Im glad you pointed out Monica's backstory.
This was not enough after a month of wiating for a video. You bout to make me actually do my first patreon because I’m thirsty for your videos. I love you too much.
SAME!!!!
I drank the Patreon koolaid it's worth it
DJ Fejes you can sign up for just $2 if you want and get her podcasts. Her podcasts are great
Omg I’m also considering it-and after reading these comments , more than ever. I’ve never been tempted to go the patreon route with ANY other creator...but Kim ain’t just any other creator
Hannah me neither but I’m so glad I did join her Patreon. Her podcasts are amazing and if you don’t or can’t pay too much, you can try for just $2 and get her podcasts and her podcasts are amazing. Some other creators don’t always offer bonus content in the same way Kim does and some creators don’t even offer that much if you join a certain tier. But Kim offers a lot on almost all her tiers.
Are we going to get a follow up on this now that the allegations against Jerry have come out? Definitely having issues processing that...
Delivering not only facts but looks as well. Yes mam
I love how detailed and insightful this is. It might be a bit on the nose but I would like to see you review The Good Place on Netflix if you’ve seen it.
The next episode should HANDS DOWN be on Love Is Blind
Jerry's mom was an angel
"Does cheerleading have ti be thier life line?" That is exactly what I was thinking whenever I watch things like this. Like, I get it, this certain thing saved their life but it's I think it's dangerous to put all they have into this one thing because then a good thing can become toxic.
Yuki Onna no one ever says things like this if someone plays basketball or something else. To ask that, it’s still to trivialize it.
Just a thought when it comes to the body of cheerleaders, more often than not, that's just the way your body develops after years of intensive training and not necessarily wanting to look like a child.
I have also heard that working out can increase the levels of testosteron the body produces, so it makes sence that the girls lack of butt, chest and curves (specially considering the amount of core excercise they do to be strong)
Edit: Also, if I recall correctly all star teams where you can find more POC representation can be CEA in NC, Maryland Twisters and Stringrays.
And finally, the approach Monica haves for injuries is just how it is in every other team out there sadly
Daniela Cruces Pérez I was heavily involved in cheer during my “development” years and I completely agree with you. I was always small but because of the constant training and conditioning but it’s like my body is now stuck looking 14. It’s very odd but there’s truth to it, even with my friends now we’re all in college.
Loved this analysis and totally agree that Monica used her “motherly” relationship with these athletes to her own advantage. Your analysis about race has been helpful to me to understand subtle norms when it comes to black femininity that I didn’t even notice the first time watching this series. thanks for this content!
You are truly so gifted! Your review was thoughtful, insightful and precise. Amazing. You rock!
Monica personally may have regrets but everyone who ends up settling for something different isn’t always unhappy. Everyone can’t be EVERYthing
Well said
"Hunger" was a fantastic read, love Roxanne 👏🏾♥️
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR SO LONG OHMYGOOOOOD
I cheered for 3 years in HS while also doing band. I quit my senior year bc we got a new coach and she would constantly tell us we’d have to run 4 miles bc we were all getting fat and couldn’t fit our uniforms. The biggest size was a L and if you couldn’t fit it you couldn’t make the team. Most of us played sports or played them prior to HS so naturally we were a little heavier. It made me sick to think about it til this day.
I cheered and I was embarrassed publicly because my heroine was bad. My coach kept calling me out over and over. I wasn't jumping high enough. We were in practice. I was getting angry because she kept putting me on the spot. Then she had everyone gather around me to watch me herkie. I had to do it over and over again until I got it while everyone was watching. But I didn't so my friend pulled me aside and taught me, then I had to show everyone again that I got it. I felt ashamed. Made me feel like crap.
I loved that you talked about Monica's stoicism in front of her team injuries. I was literally baffled , so shocked. She did nothing , just moved on to the other thing. I could feel her exploiting them trough the screen.
And the fact that she used Jerry to teach La'Darius a lesson , knowing damn well how much he wanted to be on mat ; the fact that she was so aware that Morgan would to anything she asked if her and repeated multiple times trough-out the show ( creepy!) .
And yeah , Ashlee , the only poc woman on the team did'nt get enough screen time which was strange to me , because she was the one teaching Morgan ( love her ) the tricks when Sherbs got badly injured , so I was wondering.
The show was really good at least season 1 , haven't watch season 2 yet , but they were so many things that were off like the lack of medical assistance , which you talked about
By the way , looove TVCC head coach Vontae and his approach to coaching
The longer I live, the more I side-eye professional sports in general.
Why aren’t you at 1 million subscribers yet? Come on people! Subscibe to this awesome queen!!
Always here for your takes, Kim!
Whenever I was a cheerleader, it was also my lifeline. I was extremely depressed, I was suicidal, in and out of the hospital. Cheerleading was the activity that I came to day in and day out, that got me out of my house. It forced me to smile, and do something athletic. It forced me to choose to live. It brought me happiness and stability. I also was going to therapy, being medicated, and sometimes hospitalized. Cheer was the bright part of my day/week that helped me push through the hard times. I think cheerleading is one of those things that is so immersive, it just becomes second nature. I think everyone needs a thing to do, that will give them a bright spot. After I quit cheer, I was kinda flopping around in the wind, attempting to find a new outlet. I came back to painting. It doesn't have to be something that costs an arm and a leg to do, a lot of hobbies (that can keep someone stable mentally) can be free. It is just that cheer is their thing. Eventually they will have to find a new thing. They will have to find closure for the dark parts of their life, but right now this is keeping them going, and that is understandable.
One thing that made me stop was injuries. I had many concussions, and now I have really bad memory. I also completely tore my meniscus in every spot and had it removed. Going to get a full knee replacement at 25.
I think you’re looking at them saying that cheer saved them in the wrong way. A lot of kids that come from brokenness find an escape, for them it was cheer, for you it was education. You working so hard to get into Harvard could have been what saved you.
I've said many times that my excessive focus on overachieving was detrimental and allowed me to ignore emotional traumas for many years until I couldn't. And I was only able to become a fully functional person because of luck and privilege. I believe the exact same thing about these kids. You should not have to be an elite athlete or valedictorian to be saved.
I appreciate your commentary. That said, I would argue that the failure to acknowledge success has more to do with ignorance than gender. My son led a 4x national d2 collegiate rugby team at a school where theirs”bread and butter” was football and hockey. They’re was no financial support for the team, an undead rated National Champion team....that’s the elite of the elite. The city didn’t know. It was only in his senior year of undergrad that they started doing interviews for local news. The Rugby world is still growing, and doesn’t receive the support and accolades that football, basketball and baseball enjoy. I’m pleased that documentaries such as this may bring more attention to the major risks to health for these kids...especially head injury. I will say that I’m aware of multiple acknowledgements and abstracts on addressing the issues of concussions in both female and soccer players. I imagine at some point the will eliminate the use of the head as a means of moving the ball, as it is a major contributing factor. Thanks for creating opportunity for dialogue.
You have great points....especially about the “All American” look! Yes!!
this is an inccredible incredible review of the docuseries and has made me see it in a more ccomplex and nuanced light.