FFS. 1 in 4 schools offers "cheerleading" as a sport.

[HerBeatitude]

wtf is going on in schools?

This article says it all for me.

How can we make these schools stop it and encourage girls to take part in sport for their own achievement instead of to cheerlead for the boys?

Probably cheerleading in USA became to popular to be confinded to the sidelines so existing cheer squad started to compete against each other and would be joined by new squads who had never been affiliated with an actual team (so were not technically cheerleaders but were competing in cheerleading competitions) so it just evolved and the name stuck.

Teeny skirts and crop tops actually.

don't get me wrong, team sport is great too, but some kids just aren't into it and it puts them off exercise altogether. have to say, 'cheerleading' sounds appalling as a name - I wouldn't be rushing to sign dd up for classes - she can join the football club

The Oxford English definition of

Sport: an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature

So yes, cheerleading would be a sport.

It's expensive to do at a private club no doubt.

So is ballet. So is horseriding.

Oh, so is football - boots, kit, training, match subs...

It doesn't have to be tho, you can just get a cheerleading group going in school at lunchtime, and yes, maybe 10yo girls will join in instead of doing zero activity at lunchtime.

I don't care if it's a sport or not! It's active, that's what matters to me.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not dissing how physical this modern cheerleading is.

So snooker and darts don't qualify then.

But I guess dance does, if it's not happening at a club...

Agree Clary.

Snooker and darts count as sport as they require skill and participate at competition level, uing the Oxford Disctionsry defn.

Yes, clary, that's true. A lunchtime club will be a lot cheaper. And some will be better run or run along different principles.

I don't know what the logic is behind the men's trousers but with gymnastic sports its standard to wear next to nothing so the judges can see what you are doing properly. The throws would be more dangerous with loose fitting clothing to. In ds's gym club they can wear a tracksuit to warm up but if they are on apperatus then its leotard and tight shorts only, for safety, not oggling.

But they're not an athletic activity are they?

I would just have thought that with the ogling image that goes with cheerleading, the modern clubs would not put the girls in teeny feminine outfits and the boys in normal clothes.

Anyway, what do I know, perhaps the clubs in the UK have sensible nonsexist costume policies.

trouble is chherleading is always going alongside kind of crap. the original cheerleading. no skill. just lots of long hair and not much clothing.

it's rather a shame the cheerleading schools and clubs are doing is so called. should be called extreme team gymnastics or something instead.

Well one would assume that schools would.

I'm actaully quite reassured by the pro arguments, as long as it is a genuine sport in its own right and not just a totty line up for the main (male) event, it's OK. Would definitely not want the micro tops and skirts aspect of it though, I agree because of its negative connotations here, that's to be avoided at all costs.

And I do hate the argument that anything that gets girls moving is OK. I think there's a balance between encouraging teenage girls to participate in sport and re-inforcing the already very strong perception, that "real" sport is male. Making up sports especially for women, seems a bit... I don't know, there are arguments for and against, on the one hand you can argue that sport which is tailored to women's skills, women's bodies and women's interests is more valid than trying to slot them into "men's" sports but otoh you can argue that the only reason some sports are "men's" is because women have been deliberately excluded from them.

HerBeatitude I think that you are thinking of the American version of cheerleading where it's more common that they do it for other sports. The UK Cheerleading is very individualistic and a sport in it's own right it's just like dance.

Well if the girls would play football then that would be great!

And in fact some do.

But this is something they might enjoy, that's my point.

There's a footie club after school at my DCs' school - DS2 does it (not DD of course, she's at orchestra! ) and last week when some of his classmates who are female came out as well I heard a parent (of boys) say "Oh is there a girls' football club too? That's nice."

aaaaaarrrrghhhh no the girls are playing football with the boys, that's OK, isn't it, unless we make a big deal of it that is??

They won't be wearing ting skirts and crop tops when they do cheerleading at school, they will wear skanky airtexes and shorts.

Oh God Clary that is so annoying isn't it.

DD signed up for after school football club after seeing Bend it like Beckham.

Ah skanky airtexes - takes me right back.

I guess I'm just confused over why this is getting called cheerleading then.

Yeah I wish DD would do footie.

She is not keen tho and one reason is the boys never pass to her.

She does dance tho and swims twice a week so she's pretty active. It's just that I do like team sports.

Yes I think in order for mixed girls and boys teams to work you need half and half girls and boys, so that the boys can't simply hog the ball.

Because already at that age they are conditioned to believe that girls aren't players, so ignore them.

Mind you, I think they do that to any weak team member tbh. It's just that they automatically relegate the girls to being weak, before actually giving them a chance to play the ball.

Just wanted to say that VC's article is brilliant.

I'm sure that a lot of schools do have a problem with girls not participating, especially at secondary level. Hopefully things have changed from when I was at school but the reason that my friends and I lost heart with PE was because we weren't allowed to do the fun sports, like football and tag rugby (let alone real rugby heaven forbid). Hockey is not for everyone, we all found it completely yawnworthy and skived off at every chance. Netball was alright but you have to be tall and willowy to be good at it really IMO.

I wanted to do rugby - I have a low centre of gravity and am hard to knock over :o

So instead of finding "special" girly sports, why not just open up access for girls and boys to do whatever sports they want?

I wanted to do cricket at school (God knows why really) but was basically told I couldn't because it was a boys activity.

Played footie in the playground though.

We always wanted to do cricket.

But I bet if we'd been allowed to, we'd have whinged about it.