Cheerleading

History and Background

Despite the association of cheerleading with femininity, the original cheerleaders were men. Cheerleading was connected to the emergence of college football in the Ivy Leagues in the mid-1800s, and the growth and formalization of cheerleading paralleled that of football. Over the latter half of the 19th century, as attendance at college games grew, large stadiums were constructed, and spectators were distanced from the playing field. Cheerleaders—or “yell leaders,” as they were then called—led cheers from the sidelines to both encourage and control crowd involvement. By the 1920s, cheerleading was a formal, extracurricular activity for boys of the middle and upper classes in high schools, colleges, and communities across the country, related to but distinct from other spirit programs such as marching bands, drum corps, and drill teams. As high-profile ambassadors for their schools and communities, cheerleaders were associated with [Page 124]such character-building traits as discipline, cooperation, leadership, and sportsmanship.

White women and women and men of color were initially excluded from the private, all-male academies where student-led athletics first developed, but many state-supported institutions shifted to coed enrollment at the turn of the century, and white women began joining cheer squads during the 1920s and 1930s as collegiate sports proliferated and men and women began socializing more in public. A separate cheerleading tradition evolved within black educational institutions during the same period, with a similar emphasis on character building and leadership. Overall, however, cheerleading remained an overwhelmingly white enterprise, and evidence suggests that it became even “whiter” after desegregation because the total number of black schools diminished and black students were rarely elected as cheerleaders in the newly integrated, predominantly white schools. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s, well after scholastic athletic programs had diversified, that cheer squads began to reflect the ethnic and racial composition of schools. This shift was in part the result of protest activity on the part of black and Latino students. Regardless of these demographics, cheerleading is still largely associated with whiteness, both because of its representation in mainstream media and because the “bubbly enthusiasm” so fundamental to its expression since feminization is linked to a white middle-class aesthetic.

The 1960s and 1970s was the period in which the shift toward “feminization” was more or less complete, with girls constituting roughly 95% of cheerleaders at this time. World War II played a significant role in this transition because the wartime mobilization of men opened up new opportunities for women in sports and cheerleading, just as it did for women in the labor force. Female involvement changed the nature of cheerleading, spurring greater emphasis on physical attractiveness and sex appeal, which, in turn, led to the trivialization and devaluation of cheerleading. Their status as icons of popularity notwithstanding, female cheerleaders have long been stereotyped as dumb and/or sexually promiscuous, while male cheerleaders are generally assumed to be gay—also a response to the feminine character of cheerleading insofar as homosexuality is largely perceived as a form of gender nonconformity.

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