OT New Random Thread Pt. 3

[Official OWECheer]

I will be straight up with you. I ignore your social media posts nearly 100% of the time, not always because of what you do or say but how you go about it. No, the photo posted was not cute - this topic has been discussed before here on the board and no one needed photos during those discussions, and the majority are in agreement we'd rather not have athletes pose like this, but if you think it only happens in cheer you are very sadly mistaken. I have seen this type of photo taken with girls in prom dresses, lacrosse uniforms, basketball uniforms, school clothes etc. It is a social issue - not a cheer issue, but yet you insist on segregating it. Putting it here on a forum dedicated to cheer is one thing - putting it on twitter where the entire world is your soapbox yet making it only about cheer is counter productive.

You feel so strongly that this picture is inappropriate for children to post and represents the sport badly, yet, you choose to post it all over social media? I have lost respect for you because it seems rather hypocritical. You are not trying to protect the kids, instead you shamed them.

I understand where both of you are coming from. My problem is that the photos were taken in gym gear. I am considering taking the tweet and video discussing the issue down but you have raised an excellent point. My problem is that I see photos like this taken all the time, praised as being sassy and fierce when they are distasteful and damaging to our sport. I haven't seen it much from other groups of people (doesn't mean it's okay or doesn't happen, of course), but these photos have been up ad very popular for years; I didn't dig them out of the obscure nooks of the internet. As cheerleaders, the girls in the photo will be given MORE flack than lacrosse players, girls in prom dresses, etc. because of the sport in which they are involved I drive home all the time on my Twitter page and YouTube channel that we have to be mindful and understanding of the media we popularize about our sport (remember the thigh/body rubbing flyer montage video that got shared all over vine and twitter and praised as "OMG FIERCE!" when it was clearly just 90% sexual?). Even if I hadn't shared the photos as examples, things like this would still be out there. The sad thing is that so many people in our sport are willing to defend nonsense. Granted, Fierceboard is a bubble of mostly parents, coaches and industry people, and Cheer Twitter is full of young people, but the difference in attitudes is still disturbing.

 

[mamabear]

I understand where both of you are coming from. My problem is that the photos were taken in gym gear. I am considering taking the tweet and video discussing the issue down but you have raised an excellent point. My problem is that I see photos like this taken all the time, praised as being sassy and fierce when they are distasteful and damaging to our sport. I haven't seen it much from other groups of people (doesn't mean it's okay or doesn't happen, of course), but these photos have been up ad very popular for years; I didn't dig them out of the obscure nooks of the internet. As cheerleaders, the girls in the photo will be given MORE flack than lacrosse players, girls in prom dresses, etc. because of the sport in which they are involved I drive home all the time on my Twitter page and YouTube channel that we have to be mindful and understanding of the media we popularize about our sport (remember the thigh/body rubbing flyer montage video that got shared all over vine and twitter and praised as "OMG FIERCE!" when it was clearly just 90% sexual?). Even if I hadn't shared the photos as examples, things like this would still be out there. The sad thing is that so many people in our sport are willing to defend nonsense. Granted, Fierceboard is a bubble of mostly parents, coaches and industry people, and Cheer Twitter is full of young people, but the difference in attitudes is still disturbing.

There are several parents from the gym on this site whom you could have contacted privately. You also know how to contact the gym, and could have done so if you were truly concerned and wanted to protect the kids. Reposting it did nothing but bring attention to your blog and video pages.

 

[Official OWECheer]

It's gone

It was two girls squatting toward the camera, looking back and grabbing each other's butts. In gym uniform, of course.

@mamabear there was no reply in your post.

 

[Official OWECheer]

There are several parents from the gym on this site whom you could have contacted privately. You also know how to contact the gym, and could have done so if you were truly concerned and wanted to protect the kids. Reposting it did nothing but bring attention to your blog and video pages.

I understand, and am starting to think that that might have been a better response. I am not the type of person to do this for attention (I have a difficult time ignoring things that I feel very strongly about, not that that is a good excuse for what I did), but photos like this are in such great number online that it would not have been plausible to find everyone necessary to alert them to this. If you know any names of parents, coaches, etc. I could warn, I would appreciate having them. These photos were posted a million times over before there were on my page, and so removing them would be virtually impossible (though alerting necessary coaches and parents might help serve to push gyms into adopting a stricter social media policy).

 

[UCFKnights07]

@Official OWECheer
Ugh who cares, they are teenagers doing stupid things. Ive seen hundreds of photos like that all over social media and done by a wide variety of people and age.
You purposefully sharing it on here and twitter and then making a youtube video about just makes it worse, your adding to the problem not helping it.
You say it sends a bad message about certian programs allowing it, but i bet half of the people would have never seen these photos if you hadnt shared them and called attention to it.

 

[Official OWECheer]

@Official OWECheer
Ugh who cares, they are teenagers doing stupid things. Ive seen hundreds of photos like that all over social media and done by a wide variety of people and age.
You purposefully sharing it on here and twitter and then making a youtube video about just makes it worse, your adding to the problem not helping it.
You say it sends a bad message about certian programs allowing it, but i bet half of the people would have never seen these photos if you hadnt shared them and called attention to it.

I deleted the video, Angry people are still tweeting me photos of themselves, so I've resorted to @-ing their gym owners/coaches. It'll solve itself. Again, these were not obscure photos, they were popular photos.

 

[cheerisloving]

Ignore.

I saw this last night on Twitter and I agree. Playing Devil's advocate as an older athlete in the sport I had no issues with the photo. Sure, it may be racy to a more conservative eye but it's how kids pose today. Girls in HS who play other sports pose like that. I'm not saying it's right but that is how our society is changing. I'm not that removed from that age and I didn't look at it as being sexual, rather younger girls trying to look assertive, fierce. I don't think a program would find it disrespectful to the program, it's not explicit, it's not overtly sexual.

I think we have to be careful. I know we want people to see cheer as a sport but I feel like someone who doesn't believe we're a sport isn't going to be swayed by how athletes pose for pictures. Cheer is different because it's graceful, sassy, it's all performance.

 

[Official OWECheer]

I saw this last night on Twitter and I agree. Playing Devil's advocate as an older athlete in the sport I had no issues with the photo. Sure, it may be racy to a more conservative eye but it's how kids pose today. Girls in HS who play other sports pose like that. I'm not saying it's right but that is how our society is changing. I'm not that removed from that age and I didn't look at it as being sexual, rather younger girls trying to look assertive, fierce. I don't think a program would find it disrespectful to the program, it's not explicit, it's not overtly sexual.

I think we have to be careful. I know we want people to see cheer as a sport but I feel like someone who doesn't believe we're a sport isn't going to be swayed by how athletes pose for pictures. Cheer is different because it's graceful, sassy, it's all performance.

I appreciate everyone's responses so far. Did I overreact? In retrospect, yes. And you have a point about the poses not swaying the perception of cheer as a sport; however, the perception of cheer as creating/being an environment that sexualizes kids only get strengthened, not just by this but by a myriad of things that have been previously discussed on here. Cheerleaders will not receive the same leniency in judgment as other groups of young people.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy for not being okay with certain things.

 

[cheerisloving]

I appreciate everyone's responses so far. Did I overreact? In retrospect, yes. And you have a point about the poses not swaying the perception of cheer as a sport; however, the perception of cheer as creating/being an environment that sexualizes kids only get strengthened, not just by this but by a myriad of things that have been previously discussed on here. Cheerleaders will not receive the same leniency in judgment as other groups of young people.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy for not being okay with certain things.

If the girls were younger I could kind of see it, but these are not kids per se. These are what 16-18 year olds? No one is forcing them to do this, it's a choice. And it has nothing to do with the sport itself. Like I said this is the culture. For the sake of them being minors I won't post the picture of my friend's younger sister and her softball team from my HS doing the same pose...This is how girls pose now. The sexualization in cheer isn't in how girls pose for pictures with their friends. I have controversial opinions about the topic of sexualization and cheer that are too long for this thread but essentially it's in coaches not designating age appropriate choreo, uniforms that are a bit too much. Not girls choosing to take photos.

 

[ErinS]

Let's just take a second to lol at the fact that the senior I had a crush on when I was a freshman in high school just asked me out


And I said no lol




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[Beans100]

If the girls were younger I could kind of see it, but these are not kids per se. These are what 16-18 year olds? No one is forcing them to do this, it's a choice. And it has nothing to do with the sport itself. Like I said this is the culture. For the sake of them being minors I won't post the picture of my friend's younger sister and her softball team from my HS doing the same pose...This is how girls pose now. The sexualization in cheer isn't in how girls pose for pictures with their friends. I have controversial opinions about the topic of sexualization and cheer that are too long for this thread but essentially it's in coaches not designating age appropriate choreo, uniforms that are a bit too much. Not girls choosing to take photos.

I didn't see the picture, but I can guess what it looked like. I agree that it's a culture problem. It's not cheerleaders being over sexualized, it's just people in general. I think that girls are told that sexy = cute/fierce/dominating. It's the same with boys though. I've seen pictures of guys with their hands down the pants, or them posing to accentuate their "manhood." If someone wants a picture to get attention, they'll add a sexy element to it. Because it's risqué, it makes the person look like they have a lot of confidence. Confidence is enviable, therefore, that person must be enviable. People wanted to feel desired or liked by their peers. It's just sad that so much has to be shown for someone to get attention.

 

[cheerisloving]

I didn't see the picture, but I can guess what it looked like. I agree that it's a culture problem. It's not cheerleaders being over sexualized, it's just people in general. I think that girls are told that sexy = cute/fierce/dominating. It's the same with boys though. I've seen pictures of guys with their hands down the pants, or them posing to accentuate their "manhood." If someone wants a picture to get attention, they'll add a sexy element to it. Because it's risqué, it makes the person look like they have a lot of confidence. Confidence is enviable, therefore, that person must be enviable. People wanted to feel desired or liked by their peers. It's just sad that so much has to be shown for someone to get attention.

*I'm a college aged athlete fyi*
We've been told that there's a limit between 'sexy' and 'trashy'. We can take photos that are all of those things- cute, fierce, dominating. We can't take something explicit or anything that implies something explicit. I know girls who take photos for attention, I also know a lot of girls that do it for fun.

 

[cachoi]

What I have a bigger problem with is minors captioning those pictures "look back at it"

 

[stuntjumptumble]

Cool tweet!!!!


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[Eyes On The Prize]

Cool tweet!!!!


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Doesn't meanj have an app he should be redesigning or something instead of trolling???? Paying $5 for that monstrosity is the real american horror story here.