Cheerleading: The Not So Glamorous Reality

The Independent published Cheerleading: The Not So Glamorous Reality.

I’m talking about competitive cheerleading, not the silly, fluffy pom-pom shaking, semi-nude dancing you see at the edges of American football games. I mean cheerleading as a sport where men and women form a team, throw each other in the air, do back-flips and handstands and toe-touches and dance to fast music and then get judged against other teams doing the same thing. This sport, unfortunately, shares a name with the dancey-dancey-booty-shaky version enacted for titillation on the sidelines of men’s games, but it bears very little resemblance to competitive cheerleading.