Unjustified Discrimination

Unjustified Discrimination

“She’s ditsy.” “That one’s a snob.” “Oh look, an airhead!” “She is so preppy.” You can hear their thoughts even before they become actual words. The fact remains that cheerleaders have been stereotyped. You don’t have to be a cheerleader to know that the world doesn’t think of them in the highest of regards. In essence, the world seems to think that cheerleaders are here to look pretty and act stupid. I, however, beg to differ. There is a lot more to cheerleaders than most people think. Before becoming a cheerleader myself, I had the same feelings towards cheerleaders. It wasn’t until after making the cheer squad that I realized all of these assumptions are simply that. Assumptions.
Prior to being a cheerleader, I assumed that cheerleaders were ditsy and that they didn’t have a smart bone in their body. However, I soon learned that cheerleaders are expected to have school spirit and constantly portray an aura of peppiness and happiness, but this causes unsupportive fans in the stands to misconstrue this as cheerleaders simply being silly. Before becoming a cheerleader, I thought this to be true. It wasn’t until after I performed at my first football game that I fully realized how fake you must become to fully play your role in the squad. Many times while cheering, I may not even want our team to win, nevertheless, I have to continue cheering my team on, acting as though it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted in my life.
Once upon a time, I used to sit in the stands as an innocent, yet criticizing, fan. I would sit and scrutinize the cheerleaders, but also look at how pretty they were. It seems everywhere you turn, when you are faced with a cheerleader, she is most often beautiful in every way and the envy of all those around her. Finally, after becoming a cheerleader, I began looking at the girls not only on my own squad, but at the girls on squads from nearby schools. I became aware of how totally and completely wrong this generalization is. These girls...

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