All-Star Here's The Real Problem....

[ztaprincess]

Okay, this whole thing is getting out of hand. I've never been a die-hard SE fan (WCSS all the way) but I can recognize the fact that they are extremely talented... Did you catch that? THEY. Every single girl out there is an asset to the team- whether she's a featured tumbler or doesn't tumble at all, if she backspots, bases, or if she flies. She's putting effort into that routine and every single girl on the team deserves recognition. But this isn't Maddie-bashing.. She's extremely talented as well and a wonderful role model... As are the rest of the girls. EVERY team that competed in the Majors was amazing and none were flawless. EVERY athlete deserves the upmost respect.... And a cookie.

Aaaand I'm done.

I believe that is where a lot of people are coming from, not the people that are downright nasty about it, because all of those athletes make up the team and all work just as hard. While I may not be a SE fan I still give all of those girls respect for going out there and doing what they do as well as they do it. Not one of them are more important to me then another and I would react to them all the same if i met them at a competition. I would be greatful to meet an athlete with the talent that SE has. All 36 of them should be proud of themselves.

 

[xtremeteal4life]

kingston I understand what you're you saying and all, but everyone reaches a breaking point ya know? Also, so many people fell last night (I think every team except Coed Elite-feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), yet no one brings them up. There are other athletes on those respective teams who are well known in the cheer world as well. It's my understanding that we're not to talk about minors w/o parental permission, yet I've seen repeated incidents of it regarding her (prior to her turning 18) w/o repercussion.

I'm not blaming the board at all, so please don't take it as such. You mentioned twitter, but by posting a message here and linking people to the message (which was done via Facebook), cheer fans, athletes, and coaches, were more likely to see it and read it. Makes sense to me anyway.

 

[King]

We can make an absolutely no Maddie policy. Which means any posts discussing her will be deleted and threads locked. Positive and negative (because the positive will eventually lead to negative anyway).

But short of that there's not much to do.

 

[ACEDAD]

We can make an absolutely no Maddie policy. Which means any posts discussing her will be deleted and threads locked. Positive and negative (because the positive will eventually lead to negative anyway).

But short of that there's not much to do.

I don't think you should ban discussion of her because talking about her fall is completely legitimate.

 

[King]

I don't think you should ban discussion of her because talking about her fall is completely legitimate.

Are we being facetious or talking to my freedom of speech side?

 

[nhgurlnh]

I think until people can put their big girl panties on and suck it all up, we need to take a Maddie break.

She is a kid! Let's just leave her be!

 

[JumpingJackFlash]

An excerpt I found (I "updated" some words, which I highlighted, to fit cheer)

"I believe that there is a part of all of us who look at cheerlebrities as more than who or what they really are, we look at how they are treated by others and what they have and what we don't. The thing is that I believe we want to believe we could be famous or a cheerlebrity if we “got the right breaks too.” So all ready there’s some built in animosity or hostility. By saying, “If I had…” we immediately begin the process of turning what would seem like jealousy into an insidious mirror that does not tell us the truth about ourselves. Thus, although we understand logically how good Maddie is at what she does and most of us realize we couldn’t do what she does, there is a part of us that wants to “bring her down to our level” to make us feel better about ourselves. People are resourceful and will find the reason to try to “bring down a cheerlebrity” and remember, that the time you’re spending talking about or focusing on a cheerebrity’s rise and fall (that I suspect you’re living through vicariously) the less time you have to focus on yourself and more to the point, the things you don’t like about yourself."

 

[socratesofcheer]

The point of this thread is to point out that this athletes coach and her fans created a monster. Willingly or unwillingly her coach and fans tried to make her larger than the sport. When the entire cheer world celebrates one stunt out of an entire routine to make that person the STAR of the show, you better believe the nay-sayers will be out en masse when she fails.

Personally, I could care less if she flies/bases/tumbles or can cook a mean casserole the fact that grown ups created this for a child is dispicable.

It's time the creators of videos and those who promote their athletes to be bigger than life own up to it.

 

[0riginal]

I think until people can put their big girl panties on and suck it all up, we need to take a Maddie break.

She is a kid! Let's just leave her be!

Agreed. Falls are going to happen and we're all going to want to discuss them at some point, but if people can talk about Tsunami or F5 (or any gym for that matter) civilly, why can we not do the same for SE?

 

[PghxCheer2]

[disclaimer: Please don't read this post with attitude. People tend to read into my Maddie posts too seriously. I typed it with a calm head, so please read it with a calm head.]

I think what's wrong with the Maddie love/hate war is many people's inability to separate Maddie as a person from anything she's apart of. What IC said on twitter was wrong. Cheer Extreme didn't have a good performance, nor did Maddie. But handle their error as an adult and realize that maddie didn't type the tweet herself. She didn't make the wrong decision to promote their magazine through her fame, either. She's not the one saying that "Maddie and Cheer Extreme did a great job guys!" She's not the one saying that she's some cheer god, or the best flyer in the sport, or the face of Senior Elite/CEA. She's not the one waging some war between herself and her teammates. That comes from everyone that stands around her, whether they're standing there to hate her or to love her, or to make the infamous comment of: "I don't really have an issue with Maddie, but I just don't understand why people love her so much. There's lots of girls that are better than her." The point is that whether it's love or hate, you're still obsessing over her in all the same ways.

As adults and young adults, don't question why a cheerleader,or anybody really, is famous, question why you even care. It's the same as with any public figure. It's still never been explained to me why anybody wants to sit down and criticize the character or abilities of Tim Tebow, Lebron James, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Xtina Aguilara, etc. I don't admire any of those people that much, but that doesn't mean I sit around and tell people what they're like and what they can't do. You're allowed to constructively criticize somebody, but most of the things I read in a Maddie-thread or even worse, twitter, are downright mean. Remember, never say something on the internet that you wouldn't say to that person's face. And if you would say it to their face, well then congratulations! You're probably an a-hole that cares too much about things that have no effect on your life.

 

[JumpingJackFlash]

The point of this thread is to point out that this athletes coach and her fans created a monster. Willingly or unwillingly her coach and fans tried to make her larger than the sport. When the entire cheer world celebrates one stunt out of an entire routine to make that person the STAR of the show, you better believe the nay-sayers will be out en masse when she fails.

Personally, I could care less if she flies/bases/tumbles or can cook a mean casserole the fact that grown ups created this for a child is dispicable.

It's time the creators of videos and those who promote their athletes to be bigger than life own up to it.

I think this particular "monster" is going to be just fine. And her "creators" owe you nothing. If you could care less, don't make a thread and keep posting on it. Move on to something more productive to enhance your life for the better and stop worrying about hers. You sure do seem to be bothered A LOT by something you couldn't care a thing about.

 

[acheer]

:enjoyshow:

 

[tumbleyoda]

There are obvious positives and negatives to being a cheerlebrity. This is unfortunately some of the negative. While in no way should we attack any athlete, several reasonable questions have been raised by others about the situation. Those are relevant and should not get the thread locked. Attacking the athlete IMO will.

 

[socratesofcheer]

I think this particular "monster" is going to be just fine. And her "creators" owe you nothing. If you could care less, don't make a thread and keep posting on it. Move on to something more productive to enhance your life for the better and stop worrying about hers. You sure do seem to be bothered A LOT by something you couldn't care a thing about.

Well Jack, not worried about her skills. Not saying anyone owes me anything. Your reading comprehension seems to be a little off. As you can tell by the very first post, I blame folks like you for celebrating a young athlete to the point that others feel the need to knock them down.

If you would have continued to read you would see that I have a problem with adults creating a situation so polarizing for a young person and not the young person.

 

[ztaprincess]

I think this particular "monster" is going to be just fine. And her "creators" owe you nothing. If you could care less, don't make a thread and keep posting on it. Move on to something more productive to enhance your life for the better and stop worrying about hers. You sure do seem to be bothered A LOT by something you couldn't care a thing about.

I don't think she was being called a monster but the situation as a whole is the monster. All the 2by2 videos, which I personally feel should be left off the internet and made just for the family paying for them, the facebook groups, and obsessed fans are not helping the girl live a normal life that she should be living. Treat her like a normal KID not a celebrity. I actually feel sorry for her when she can't walk around a competition without being hounded by random people.
It actually reminds me of an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras I watched the other day with MacKenzie and she was in tears because little girls were following her around pagents wanting to be her friend. The adults around here did nothing while the little girl was being surrounded by little girls asking for hugs and pictures. These kids should never have that much attention put on them to the point where they can't live a normal life doing what they love to do.
It isn't just the haters that need to back off it is the obsessed fans that need to back off as well so that this girl can be just a girl who loved to cheer.