High School Hs Cheer Stereotypes

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Apr 14, 2017
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I need some HS cheer stereotypes commonly seen in tv and movies. So far I have:

1. The bizarre way everybody ever thinks we all wear crops. During school hours.

2. No coaches.

3. Completely inappropriate hair/makeup.

4. Completely illegal choreo.

5. The twerking.

Anything else?
 
The dumb blonde...

Yeah “stupid and rich” didn’t make the list because it’s just a given. Which is sad.

And I meant more like cheer-specific things that only actual cheerleaders would know aren’t the least bit accurate. Like the freaking inverted baskets in Bring It On.

Also re: Bring It On, that assault is totally charming if the guy is cute. I swear that scene didn’t sit right with me as a teen and it’s doubly gross now.
 
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That you cheer all the time.
That you wear your cheer uniform to school (Bare midriff and all) daily.
 
That you cheer all the time.
That you wear your cheer uniform to school (Bare midriff and all) daily.

Can you imagine sitting in a desk with a bare midriff all day? What kind of hell that would be? I was already uncomfortable sitting on the striping of my skirt. I can’t imagine trying to take a physics test while constantly wondering whether or not that cookie I had at lunch was manifesting itself into a back roll as I tried to remember what volume was.
 
Here are some common stereotypes I saw in movies & TV shows:
1. The cheerleader is always shown as "Queen B", a character who is mean and popular in school.
2. Midriff baring uniforms in high school - that is and always was illegal in high school cheerleading (that's why I have no idea why some shows like "Kim Possible" show them in a midriff baring uniforms, even though a simple Google search will show that this was never the case).
 
That you only practice in the school gym-even for highly competitive teams. At least around here, all the competitive teams practice at a dedicated cheer gym, and usually have at least one coach from that gym. And at least around here, the traditional high school rival team may well practice in the same cheer gym, with the same coaches, and often condition and tumble together, and see each other more as siblings (and one will often be in varsity, one in super varsity. Or one in coed vs the other in all girl) and their rival for cheer may well be a team that never would ever play the football team, but is a challenge on the mat-and probably has a coach who was on the same college team and is the coach’s BFF-off the mat.

That the team picks new members at tryouts, and tryouts are a popularity contest.

That people who have never cheered before can walk in and be stars (especially grating when they explain it as “oh, I did a year or two of gymnastics” or leave it unexplained. My niece went from level 7 gymnastics to failing high school tryouts-because yes, she could tumble amazingly, but Thatwasn’t enough for a team where most of the kids had been training with Brandon or Top Gun.)
 
1. Random tumbling in front of the school Entry
2. “Head cheerleaders” (Captains) =Homecoming queens
3. Poms are carried relentlessly all over campus for no reason... like they have a purpose in AP BIO
4. Cheerleaders are always on a diet and don’t eat- my kids can eat more than most professional football players.
 
The Hoco Queen thing is funny because yes many of my athletes were Hoco, Winter Formal, and Prom Royalty every year but for every athlete I had on Royalty there were same number who had no interest. And they generally do not make a huge deal about it to other girls on the team.

Another is that cheerleaders do not do anything other than cheer and cheer life. Like 40% of my girls played a Spring sport (softball, track, tennis.) They were all involved in at least one club outside cheer (Student Council, Model UN, etc.)
 
Don't forget about male cheerleaders in fiction as well. Gay stereotypes, anyone?

And to go along with it, female cheerleaders in fiction are always straight, stereotypically feminine, and into a specific type of guy (usually the football players).
 
Here are some common stereotypes I saw in movies & TV shows:
1. The cheerleader is always shown as "Queen B", a character who is mean and popular in school.
2. Midriff baring uniforms in high school - that is and always was illegal in high school cheerleading (that's why I have no idea why some shows like "Kim Possible" show them in a midriff baring uniforms, even though a simple Google search will show that this was never the case).
Fun fact, we had crop tops in high school. The full top rule change happened the summer before my senior year (2004.)
 
^^^I had a crop in 9th grade (late 90s) but we wore it with a full length shell.

Another huge stereotype I see: cheerleaders are at the forefront of the drug/party/drinking scene.

Whenever I had to discuss drug/alcohol related issues/discipline with a parent or student, it has rarely been a cheer athlete (in all my coaching years there were maybe 2 on JV dismissed for drugs/alcohol policy violations.)

I'm one of the staff members who coordinates counseling/drug court appts/etc. for students who violate school policy on drugs/alcohol and I've dealt with everyone from honor student XC runners, golfers, and wrestlers to F students who are one fight away from alternative school. I've learned that drug use has no stereotype, including the "cheerleader druggie/party girl." It is never who you would stereotype to be using.
 
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