I grew up cheerleading, and my high school team was one of the only cheer squads with male cheerleaders. Each year we had about 5 or 6 males, and each year they were mocked and ridiculed for being a "feminine" male cheerleader. These five artifacts I found online depict exactly what I am talking about. Ignorant high school teenagers who think all male cheerleaders are "gay" or "femme": that is the stereotypical 'single story'. Each year I cheered with new boys I realized they were being falsely evaluated. These boys were just as girl-crazy and manly as the rest. Heck, most of them joined the team because they were girl-crazy.
This video was posted and cut to only show the male cheerleader dancing. Yes, this is a great example of a male cheerleader seeming feminine, however, that is the single story. What if he is simply better at executing dance technique than other males? Does that constitute him as "femme"? What I have learned over the years is that practice makes perfect, and this boy may have had hours of practice to be able to move like that.
The movies Fired Up and Bring It On are two well-known cheerleading movies. Movies, such as these, often depict a gay male cheerleader. No wonder our society tends to think the same in real life. Media has made it the norm to think these boys are different than the rest. I spent some time wondering what made society think this way about boys cheerleading. Maybe it's because a majority of the team is girls? Maybe it is because dancing is associated with females? Maybe it is because the cheer squad is a support system for the male sports teams? I don't know. But, it is a single story that is portrayed in the media.
Media definitely shapes the perception of society. The media has successfully made a stereotype and 'single story' for male cheerleaders suggesting that they are all feminine or gay. The pictures shown above are "posed" male cheerleaders. I can confirm from my own personal experiences that no male cheerleader I have ever met poses or gives expressions like these. All the one's I've gotten to know and spent a great deal of time with are just as average-joe as the entire football team. In fact, half of the guys I cheered with also played football for the high school. Despite what the media portrays, male cheerleaders do not have a single story.
Very interesting post. I love that you picked such a unique minority group that is personal to you. I think you made an excellent point, that when a certain perception of a minority group is emphasized in a popular movie, this can have a profound influence on the public opinion of that group. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great topic to cover, especially here at BYU. I know many people see the cheerleaders here and automatically assume they are gay. But I look at them and see big, muscular guys, that are good at dancing and doing acrobatics. I don't think it's right to judge all male cheerleaders, when in fact they are (like you said) probably as girl crazy as any other guy!
ReplyDeleteI love that you addressed this. In my high school, we did a powder puff football game every homecoming. The senior guys always came decked out in short-shorts and tank tops. They danced like girls and acted like they were gay. Why? Because that's what the media told them to act like. The only boys on our cheer team were gay, and they felt like they needed to assert their own manhood by making fun of the gay guys by doing ridiculous moves that even girls wouldn't be caught dead doing.
ReplyDeleteWe see how quickly that single story changes once people move on to college. The male cheerleaders I see at BYU games look like they could play football. I don't ever hear anyone poking fun at them. High school unfortunately is a different environment.
ReplyDeleteI am certainly guilty of having had those thoughts of femininity towards guys who do things like cheer. Especially toward a brother of mine that did it, although now that I think of it he did it because his girlfriend was on the squad. I find it interesting you say that most of the male cheerleaders from your high school played football. Interesting perspective!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this post because I was a male cheerleader in high school. Several times I got asked out by a gay man to go to do different things simply because I was on the team. I joined because a group of the girls found out I could do back handsprings and so they came up to me during lunch and asked me to try it out. I agreed pretty readily because basically I had 8 very attractive girls asking me to come hang out with them all the time and I had a blast doing it.
ReplyDeleteVery common stereotype! I have a cousin who is a very masculine male cheerleader and he definitely faced similar reactions from people. I think we have this image of male cheerleaders just because of the way they are portrayed in the media. Interesting piece!
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