The stereotypical cheerleader is not only blonde and beautiful, but their profession also, as “As George Kurman [author of “What Does Girls' Cheerleading Communicate?”] claims, … ‘incarnates in a word, a basic male-voyeuristic fantasy’” (Adams and Bettis 71). Beautiful, professional cheerleaders, like the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, are subject to the male gaze, allowing the teams to profit as the saying “sex sells” is ever-present and exploited in professional cheerleading. As Adams and Bettis explain, “It is, in face, the sexual nature of cheerleading that contributes to why it is such a controversial yet perennially popular activity” (71).
Though Radical Cheerleaders reject beauty standards that dictate how they should look, they still …show more content…
“Radical Cheerleading … is about a decision to put yourself out there as who you are, with your short skirt or whatever and still feel like there's no excuse for getting harassed or getting sexually assaulted” (Vaccaro 48). In their cheers, the Radical Cheerleaders stress that the perpetrator remains the only party responsible for harassment and sexual assault. One cheer, titled “Harassment,” states, “I know what your ass meant and that’s harassment … forget for a moment whats [sp] between my thighs … that aint no alibi” (“Radical Cheerbook” 9). The cheer rejects the common belief that women and their bodies are to blame for violence, instead mocking perpetrators and showing the ridiculousness of such an argument.
Some cheerleaders are angry at the association between radical and traditional cheerleading. Lindsay Telfer states, “Fuck the image of the sexy cheerleader – we are not happy-go-lucky, flaky women. We’re not even all women. We are angry, we are mad, and we have a real message behind what we are doing” (qtd. in Adams and Bettis 39). However, other cheerleaders see the connection between the two and value it. Lauren Jacks explains, “Cheerleading, she says, ‘is all about trying to get everyone else excited about your causes, so it's perfect for political activism’”