…basketball
soccer
volleyball
hockey…
'Sides, isn’t is common to hear women (and men who are so inclined) make mention of the wonderful tightness of football pants (and the asses therein)? What of bike shorts? Or those big sweaty mens playing basketball in their tank tops? Or wrestling singlets? I don’t think it’s just a girl thing, so much.
Spandex see no gender. 
Perhaps the purpose of cheerleaders is to assuage fears of homosexuality on the part of the viewer? I mean, sports consist of sweaty, athletic men in either tight (football) or skimpy (basketball) outfits, in close physical contact with each other, which other men watch for enjoyment. Omnipresent cheerleaders allow men to say to themselves, “Oh yeah! That’s what I like. I’m straight as an arrow and have no doubts about it. I watch big muscular men pat each other on the butt, but I’m still turned on by hot chicks in skimpy outfits, so everything’s okay.”
Well they sure didn’t save the XFL did they?
[list][list][list] 
to the spirit of a school. I don’t know that cherleaders at a professional level are necessary at all…most people go to a professional game to watch the game. In college though, it is mostly to show support for one’s school. The cheer here at SMU (the home of cheerleading btw…) do their best to get the crowd involved in the game. Don’t you play better when you know that there is a group of people who are pulling for you?
They work hard for their school. So do the bands and the Pom-pon squads. Give them the respect that they deserve.
–==the sax man==–
I’m sorry, I didn’t clarify myself: My friends and I were discussing what is ‘traditionally’ a ‘woman’s’ sport.
while the sports you mentioned are valid women’s sports, they are not the type ‘associated’ with women (please note that I don’t feel this way, but many do).
But in later discussion. we thought about swimming.
and as for basketball…are we talking about American Basketball?
Last time I saw it, they wore horribly baggy shorts. much longer than back in the 70’s and 80’s. and the shirts are equally as baggy.
and as for them getting the crowd motivated to cheer,
doesn’t the audience do that anyway? who cheers any less at a touchdown?
I haven’t watched much european football (i.,e. soccer) but from what I remember, there are no cheerleaders.
(can some one please correct on this if I am wrong). Those fans don’t seem to have any problems showing enthusiasm.
Because nothing goes better with symbolic ritualized violence than symbolic ritualized sex.
I’m a cheerleader, and we’re used for school spirit, or basically to represent the school. I don’t find it demeaning at all, as our routines are a lot more complex that you would imagine - yah, okay, skimpy costumes, but compared to what teen girls wear out lately, it’s nothing.
Ahhhh…gotcha. And I stand by my inclusion of basketball (American basketball, not that crazy Samoan basketball ;)). They may have baggy shorts, but they’re still wearing tank tops, by god. Surely, the tank tops count for something?
As for cheerleaders themselves, it does increasingly take a lot of athleticism and skill to be a cheerleader. Whether cheerleading is a sport in and of itself, I dunno. I’ve never seen Michelle Akers make sparkle fingers, ya know?
Opus1,
I don’t know if you were implying this towards me or not? But if you did let me clear something up. I don’t watch football(except for Superbowl parties)ever or basketball for that matter. I am not in to team sports at all. I like EXTREME sports ie. wakeboarding, motorcross and others. If I happen to get forced in to going to a football game I in fact watch the cheerleaders the whole time. What can I say women are a weakness of mine.
I just wanted to clear that up if you were indeed directing your statement towards me. If you did not intend that statement towards me. In the words or Rosana Anna Dana, “Nevermind”. 
Opus1 I think your putting to much thought into it. while what you suggest indeed may be a rationalization some people make, it has nothing to do with the origins of cheerleading.
Sex and violence, sports are just like TV and the movies!
Hey now – As an overweight, non-athletic softball catcher, I resent that remark! … Wait a minute, no I don’t. You’re right.
Cheerleaders have to be on their game at all times, or they’re off the squad. Or they don’t make the squad in the first place. Football and basketball players can make a mistake or two, because the factor of the other team brings in the possibility of someone fumbling because the other guy interfered with him, or missing a shot because the other guy was quicker at blocking than he was at shooting. Cheerleaders, OTOH, have no imepediments to their performance, so if one makes a mistake, it’s all her. And if the squad does stuff like lifts or high kicks, being even half a beat off could be dangerous.
I feel compelled to defend cheerleaders, because in high school, some of them made snide remarks about my appearance, so I retaliated by being nasty. What I didn’t realize at the time was that a few nasty comments aren’t real harassment, and I should have just shrugged them off. More to the point, if I’d been as senstitive and insightful as I thought I was, I would have realized that agreeing with the stereotypes about cheerleaders was as wrong as agreeing with the stereotypes about Cure-listening, black-wearing, spike-haired self-proclaimed intellectuals such as myself. Three fingers pointing back at you, don’tcha know.
That said, however, if I had a daughter, I wouldn’t encourage her to be a cheerleader, because it takes up so much time without paying off. They don’t give cheerleading scholarships, cheerleaders don’t turn pro, there’s no money to be made, and it’s not something that “counts” in the adult world.
Although. I wonder if there may come a time when it’s appropriate for a young woman to play up, professionally, that she was on, or captained, a championship cheering squad. It’s certainly appropriate for a young man to play up his college athletic achievments.
Cheerleaders are very rare here (I’m writing from the UK, but the same applies throughout Europe), although some clubs are trying to introduce them during the half time interval.
The reason given for this is that there are increasing numbers of women and girls in the crowd these days and the clubs want to give them some participation to aspire to, rather than provide eye candy for the guys. This is supported by the fact that the cheerleaders are often too young to think of that way without getting locked up.
The reaction from most crowds seems to be a mixture of polite bemusement or embarassment. This is partially because it’s too obviously a marketing exercise imported from the US and independent of any existing demand. It’s also partly because they’re not usually very good.
I can confirm that we don’t need any encouragement to react to the action on the field :), but thankfully our more excessive reactions seemed to have declined, at least during domestic games.
In any case, there wouldn’t be room for cheerleaders during play at British football stadiums because the crowd is very close to the pitch. British men are no less enthusiastic than American ones about sexy chicks gyrating around in skimpy costumes, but frankly that’s not what we go to the footy to see.
[hijack]
Waaay back in the early 70’s, whilst working the same summer job in college, a guy who was a cheerleader at a major state university, was asked,
“On those lifts, where you hold the girl up by her thigh, what happens if you put your hand where it shouldn’t be? Do you get penalized for illegal use of hands?”
His reply,
“No, we get half the distance to the goal”
[/hijack]
We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread…
At the few European soccer games I’ve seen on TV, it seems the crowd does a lot of singing. Besides not being able to understand them (even the Brits), does this just spontaneously start in one section and spread? or what?
Until very recently, singing at football matches in the UK was entirely spontaneous. Each chant/song was started by the most enthusiastic, hardcore group of fans and was taken up by the rest. Knowing all the words is a measure of your loyalty and committment to the team.
In Europe it’s also much more common than in the USA to have numerous visiting fans and you can expect a lot of competitive singing/chanting between the home and away supporters.
Singing seems to be declining since the law was changed to force all stadiums to become all-seater (until the late-80s it was common to have large standing-only areas). Having to sit down, rising prices and the increased gentrification of football has led to this reduction in vocal support, and clubs have started using PA systems to encourage more noise. I much, much preferred the old days and find that artificial encouragement has the reverse effect - the crowd’s own voices are often drowned out by amplified renditions of Queen’s We Are The Champions, Tina Turner’s Simply The Best or some plastic, “official” club song etc.
Actually, [they do give scholarships](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=“cheerleading+scholarship”" target=_blank). And there’s not no money to be made, there’s just very little money to be made. And, hey, every guy likes a flexible girl…
There’s been a definite trend toward extreme modesty in men’s sports clothes. The obvious examples are basketball, and, to a lesser extent, tennis. Where the shorts used to be fairly tight and hit as much as 10 or 12 inches above the knee, nowadays, they reach the knee or even futher down. It’s really kind of funny that this happens even while society has tended to get more permissive. I think it may have to do with the general big-&-baggy==hip ethos which has been so evident since aroung 1990.
What I find really ironic is how, when the L.A. Times published a sidebar on how b-ball uniforms have changed, and poked fun at the “hot pants” which players used to wear. The ironic part? Around the same time, I saw a film clip of some Lakers riding in the victory parade. One of them was standing up, and I swear, the man’s pants were so long and baggy that, together with his tank top, they looked like a bright yellow sun dress!
Well, I’ll be.