Cheerleading: not just for the sidelines anymore

Abstract

For decades, female athletes were relegated to the sidelines – physically and metaphorically speaking. The cheerleader, the girl who looked pretty and cheered for the boys, became a symbol for many women's sports activists and second-wave feminists of the place athletically inclined females occupied in the sport world. As access to sports, teams and funding increased for women's sports beginning in the 1970s and exploding in the 1990s, the cheerleader seemed to be an athletic anachronism. But the third-wave generation of cheerleaders had different ideas. Marginalized again, this time by fellow female athletes, cheerleaders have challenged the negative stereotypes by making cheerleading a sport on their own terms. Through personal agency, these girls embrace a powerful image of the cheerleader – one that fuses identities of femininity and athleticism. For these girls, it is not a choice between being a cheerleader or jock, girlie or athletic. Instead, they create a blended identity by keeping the feminine markers of a cheerleader while focusing on a competitive role rather than a supportive one.