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Evolution of Cheerleaders
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Wow! Bobby soxers in saddle shoes in the 1920s? Must be time travel!
Was thinking the same thing as Phil.
Yeah, I think that one was mismarked – film quality, costume, shoes, hair all point to much later.
Next line stolen from Ace of Spades………….
I predict that by 2020 poles will be standard equipment for all cheerleading squads.
Everything was pretty cute up until the 1970s.
I’d like to see 2030′s, now.
Proof of Global Warming?
I don’t agree with how you portrayed modern cheerleaders… Teams are now competing with each other, on the national and global stage, we have to perfect routines that take months to perfect and we have to complete stunts that an everyday person could not do. Cheerleading takes a lot of hard work and dedication. It is about so much more than skimpy outfits.
If it’s “about so much more than skimpy outfits”, why are you wearing them?
Exactly!
For the same reason a ballerina or gymnast wears a leotard. Try doing a tuck or scorpion in one of the outfits from the 50s!
Have you noticed the ladies in the earlier photos look….well…HEALTHIER?
they’re like twigs, now.
to kait- really? their outfits are much bulkier but i personally didn’t think they looked all that different. in the 2000s+ photos, those girls have ABS, they have THIGH MUSCLES, they have boobs and butts! They are far more ATHLETIC, yeah, but they probably all weigh 20 pounds more than a fashion model- in muscle!!!
This isn’t the evolution of cheerleading, the photos stopped showing *actual* cheerleaders at 1980. “Professional” cheerleaders are not cheerleaders at all, they are dancers. There is a major difference between what real cheerleaders do and what dance teams do. Real cheerleading involves dance, tumbling and stunting, where is all that in this evolution?
And dance teams don’t dance? Have you ever watched America’s Best Dance Crew or America’s Got Talent? The dance teams on those shows do stunts too. Don’t try to make cheerleading seem like something special.
Wow! DUMB. I hate the images of “Pro” cheerleaders. Those are NOT cheerleaders. Those are girls with no self respect shaking their asses in hope of making a dollar- cough STRIPPERS. REAL cheerleaders compete year round doing difficult amazing stunts, gymnastics, and dance. This website is DUMB.
I take a certain pride in being called DUMB, Samantha
I wouldnt call NFL cheerleaders actual cheerleaders they are more of a dance team. i wish they could have shown how the stunts have become more difficult and dangerous.
@Jimbo…that was harsh…no need to quote with unnecessary harshness. Cheer leading has become a very difficult sport and all of those that say otherwise need to shut it and move on to something else to insult.
i wish they would have shown REAL cheerleaders in the 2010s… we work alot harder on stunting and tumling and its alot more intese than just dancing in skimpy outfits…thats not cheering.
WOW!… Amazing
I’m sorry, but all these are different types of cheerleading. Starting in the late-70s is when cheerleading hit a fork, and some cheerleading squads went in the “dance” direction (football cheerleaders like for the Dallas Cowboys) and the other went in a “gymnast” direction.
The stereotypical cheerleader is that of a gymnast, not a dance. Cheerleaders shout, yell, dance, tumble, get aggressive and throw each other 20 feet in the air.
Dancing cheerleaders run around in slutty outfit spreading their legs for the sake of football.
All I notice is the outfits getting skimpier and skimpier o_0
I was a cheerleader back in the late 70s. Most of the girls in our school would try out for those 7-10 spots on the cheering squad. If you did not make cheering, one would go out for sports such as field hockey or girls’ basketball as a second choice for many. We were respected. The summer before my senior year was the first time we went to a cheering camp, where we did learn a dance we performed at half time (no provocative moves). We also learned cheers to “lead” the crowd. I wonder if this was the original intention of “cheerleader” ?? We could get the whole crowd including teachers, parents, students and alumni to join us in appropriate cheers. Some cheers were not “nice” such as “nuts & bolts, nuts & bolts we got screwed!” which the crowd would start and it was the cheerleaders’ jobs to change the “not nice” chant to something appropriate.
Today, “Cheerleaders” apparently have different roles. Perhaps it’s time for new titles for these talented groups with names such as “skimpy-outfit club” or “varsity-dance movers” Don’t get me wrong, many do have talent and perform gymnastic/athletic/dance moves that are risky & dangerous. However, many are performing risky moves that are “stripper” like and give a different meaning/reputation to “cheer leading”.
They say sex sells so perhaps it’s about $$. Have the professionals, overpaid athletes & team owners, TV beer commercials, etc. encouraged this role change? How much are professional “cheerleaders” getting paid these days? The last I knew, it was pathetic. I’ll sign off with this cheer: Come on girls & women and parents of “cheerleaders” — stop settling and raise the bar higher!
Evolution?
Devolution more like.
It started with nice looking fun kids and ended with cheap looking girls who look like they are pole dancers on drugs.
I hate sports in general but if I was a lover of sports I’d stop going to stadiums and stop watching it if they had modern cheerleaders.
I don’t want to see that sort of thing and defenitely wouldn’t bring children to that.
Only a cheerleader would say that the people in the later photos of cheerleaders are not really cheerleaders.
Lol at all the sad sacks whining about the skimpy outfits etc.
Jufjo – you’d stop going to games just because of the cheerleaders? You sad, sad individual.
I don’t know if you’ve realised, but pretty young women are also part of the human race. This is something to be celebrated. Not avoided and treated as “dirty”.
Actually peoples,
Actual cheerleading has become the most dangerous sport for young women. And when you think about all the gymnastic things that they are now required to do, just in order to compete with other cheerleading groups, the reasons why will be obvious. Their efforts should not be belittled just because of what they’re wearing, dancers or not.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37020978/ns/health-fitness/t/flying-without-net-cheer-injuries-rise/#.TtWkZOre75k
I keep telling myself that their costumes are okay. I know for a fact had I grown up in this time, I’d be all for them and think they were awesome and I would have felt sexy wearing them.
But I look at them and the first thing I think is OMG, they look like hookers.
meh. I think women should feel comfortable cheering. Who can feel comfortable when you are always worrying that your cooter will be accidentally exposed (they are too damn short for comfort!)
Wow, Alan P, you’ve kind of missed the point. It’s more than the skimpy outfits – it’s the move towards the provocative that the “professionals” practice. Jufjo was spot-on; “devolution” is the word. And your comment “I don’t know if you’ve realised, but pretty young women are also part of the human race” makes no sense. First, no one said they weren’t. Second, there’s nothing pretty about cheapening yourself by leaving practically nothing to the imagination – other comparisons to hookers and pole dancers were also right on the mark.
Lol at all the sad sacks whining about the skimpy outfits etc.
Jufjo – you’d stop going to games just because of the cheerleaders? You sad, sad individual.
I don’t know if you’ve realised, but pretty young women are also part of the human race. This is something to be celebrated. Not avoided and treated as “dirty”.
My wife was a CL in highschool and my daughter is a CL now. There is a huge difference between my wife’s public school squad and my daughter’s Christian school squad, but it is more closely related to the 70′s and 80′s. The “modern” pics are of sluts dancing around selling themselves in skimpy costumes. That is NOT cheerleading, those are dancers only. Modern CHEERLEADING is more stunts, tumbels, throws and chants/cheers. They dont shake there asses and imbarrase thier parents/spouses, they CHEER the team and crowd, they compete and wim trophies and scholarships. Cheerleaders are REQUIRED to be smart and keep up thier grades…I find the last few decade pics to be offensive and inaccurate.
As a cheerleader in the 70s, we were still wearing the bobby socks, saddle shoes and varsity sweaters… we were just starting to do some of the extreme gymnastics like the current cheerleaders are required to do and wearing mini-skirts… yet we were still wholesome representatives of feminine athleticism for the student body. Today’s cheerleading is just tawdry and overtly sexual — too much like pole dancing for my taste. I miss the dignified poise of the cheer squads of my day.
What is also interesting is the connotation of a male cheerleader has seen some changes. I highly doubt it was as negative in the 20s~50s as it is now for a male to become a cheerleader.
When I graduated high school in 2005 the cheerleader outfits were quite short. In fact, the skirts were so short the girls were forced to wear longer shorts or pants under the skirts while school was in session because they did not fit dress code. They were allowed to take the shorts/pants off at the game when they were performing but I do think that Cheerleading (not gymnastic cheerleading) has gotten more focused on the sexual aspects of it, (young women in skimpy clothes) rather than the school spirit aspect.
Overall, I don’t blame the women so much as I blame society as a whole. We all brought it here slowly but surely. Sex still sells right?
As a woman who participated in another competitive female sport (volleyball) I have to say that I’ve always had a lot of respect for the talent of modern cheerleaders. It’s true that not just anyone can tumble or stunt like they do, and I think that stuff is AWESOME, respectable, and fun to watch! I have to agree though that the outfits these days ARE too skimpy to appear self-respecting. I’m not saying they need to be walking around in tea-length skirts again, but covering up even just a LITTLE bit would make cheerleaders’ talents stand out more, instead of their bodies.
On the other hand (and no one has addressed this sort of empathy yet), as a volleyball player who ran around in teeny spandex shorts for my entire athletic career, I understand that an inappropriate uniform is an unfortunate aspect opposed to a dealbreaker in regards to a sport you love.
Just throwing in my thoughts!
we wear such short tight outfits because when we stunt, we dont want anything to get caught with out clothes. also when we tumble, its easier when we have short tight clothes cuz we get more speed and nothing gets in out way. (speed like the way track runners wear short tight clothes.) In a way our uniform is kind of for safety…
Male cheerleaders are interseting!
Thanks for share these photos.
Wow, watch the puritanical ravings of sex-fearing old people and self-righteous defensiveness from contemporary cheerleaders freaked out that CL might not get the high, rocket-science level of respect it so, um, obviously deserves… Just because someone posted some pics of CLs through the ages. What a fraught issue!
The Britsh newspaper ‘The Daily Mail’ lift half of their articles from Retronaut, example:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2118746/Cheerleading-masculine-women-How-todays-bare-midriffs-pom-pom-waving-male-sport.html
Guess imitation is the best form of flattery
Quite so, Rich
The last photo of cheerleading that appears on this post is the 1980′s picture. After that these are all dancers. I know the Dallas Cowboy’s call their girls cheerleaders but they are a dance squad. If you look to the college squads for examples of modern cheerleaders, you’ll find the outfits are pretty similar to what was going on in the 80′s. You should re-do this post accurately, because while it would not be quite so sensationalist, it would still be interesting to those of us who came to it hoping to see an actual progression of cheerleading.
This is not true! Have you seen ALLSTAR cheerleaders?! These are girls who are paid to shake and drop and they don’t do anything! Look up some REAL cheerleading like World Cup Allstars, Maryland Twisters, Cheer Extreme, Top Gun Allstars, California Allstars, Cheer Athletics, and Stingray Allstars!!! THOSE are real cheerleaders. Not ones who whip their hair or drop it low. Ones who work almost everyday in the gym at least 3-8 hours! THAT is real cheerleading.
I dont agree with this. I hope u know those are not real cheerleaders. Real cheerleaders are girls on Top Gun All Stars, Cheer Extreme, World Cup, Cheer Athletics, etc. Real cheerleaders compete against other teams. They work just as hard or even harder than other sports. If the Dolphin cheerleaders or the cowboy cheerleaders stunted and tumbled and put much more effort into their “cheerleading” I would give them more credit. Those girls are dancers. Look up the teams I told you. also come to one of our practices. then you’ll see how much harder we work.
those last few images are not of Cheerleading. NFL “Cheerleaders” are NOT CHEERLEADERS!
Sense of beauty deteriorates from ’80s onwards.
If you were trying to provide a skewed perception of what cheerleading “today” looks like, well done, my hat truly goes off to you. I would hope in the future, you would manage to do your research prior to posting something that objectives women, and really a whole sport. Yes…cheerleading is a sport, you can ask the football players who cheer in the spring to stay in shape. I’d say take a look at some of the videos from the NCA/NDA collegiate competitions. Actually, they’re about to take place in just a few days, you’d be impressed to see what actual cheerleading looks like.
Modern day cheerleading is about athleticism and the ability to stunt, tumble and perform extremely difficult routines. I myself am a dancer, and to also see that cheerleaders regard pro-teams as dance teams is also inaccurate. Just as cheer teams, dance teams do not run around in skimpy outfits trying to rile up men spanning across generations (i understand this is also my perception, but relatively accurate), they perform incredibly difficult dances. The technique and caliber of dance teams is far more impressive than what pro-teams offer in their routines. That being said, i just hope you understand that sports like cheerleading and dance teams have come very far in the past few years to prove themselves as sports, and when ignorant depictions are spewed across the internet it does not help our cause. Food for thought.
If you want to get mad at someone, you should get mad at the NFL’s teams for calling those girls cheerleaders. The author of this article didn’t make up the term. It sounds like most of you have a bone to pick with the professional sports leagues rather than the people who use the existing terminology.
Cheerleading has become its own competition sport but maybe that practice should actually be called something else instead. It started out as a way to cheer on the side lines for whatever sport was occurring on the field or court. That’s what the last few pictures still depict. If the modern gymnast style full on sport style cheerleaders don’t want to get confused with the girls in the last few pictures they should probably come up with a new name for the sport. That’s the basis behind a lot of these “cheer leading isn’t a sport” debates we see all the time. There clearly is a variety now that qualifies as a sport and another that does not.
The one that’s a sport these days is the new type, not a continuation of the old. They really shouldn’t have kept the same name. Those competitions everyone keeps discussing on this page have absolutely nothing to do with cheering on the sidelines. There are actual gymnast teams too that don’t try to be cheerleaders at all. Gymanst style cheerleading is its own weird thing (like a hybrid of the two) and it really doesn’t have anyone to blame but itself for the confusion that now exists.
What I don’t get is: If cheer leading has so much gymnastic stuff in it, why don’t the girls just go be gymnasts? It’s pretty much one of the neatest sports ever and it doesn’t really have suggestive moves.
And why don’t the “dancers” go be dancers somewhere else? I don’t see how they really inflict any school spirit..
Then, they can have cheerleaders be the kids who lead students in cheers, get rid of the suggestive dancing part of it, throw in a couple tumbles if they want and just bring it back to wholesome fun.