Title IX Delima: Cheerleading – Sport? No?

So when does cheering become merely sport versus an athletic competition? Is the competition to be better than the other school’s cheerleaders really a “competition?” These are, surprisingly, relevant questions, especially as it pertains to the women’s movement. And it’s an issue addressed far better than me by my sister. She says of a recent ruling by a Connecticut federal judge that cheerleading is not a sport, “dur.”

The judge ruled that schools cannot use cheerleading to count toward gender equality in sports, ie to fulfill the school’s Title IX requirement.

As dumb as I think cheerleading is, I can’t decide what I think about this ruling. Is it pro-feminist or anti-feminist? I actually think it’s anti-feminist. And I do think cheerleading is dumb. After all why stand on the sideline and yell when they actually let you play in the game now? But I’m not going to argue that it’s not a sport. I know you have to be incredibly athletic to do what they do. And they go places and compete against the other schools.

I know that when my mother was growing up there weren’t women’s sports. Not in the schools, not in rec leagues, there just weren’t opportunities. The one chance for women to be involved in sports was as a cheerleader. Thus, the athletic women of that generation probably were primarily cheerleaders. But then Title IX came along and changed all that. I played soccer from the time I was five all the way through college. I started swimming on a swim team when I was seven. And didn’t give cheerleading much thought. We did pelt them with soccer balls a time or two when we had to share the indoor practice field with them at KU, but that was merely because we missed our shots on goal. I swear.

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