Useless Debate of the Week: Is cheerleading a sport?
July 23, 2010 at 2:04 am uncethemoogle 1 comment
On Wednesday, federal judge Stephan Underhill laid down the righteous right hand of the law and decreed that cheerleading was NOT a sport. Take that, feminist movement!
Judge Underhill ruled that Quinnipiac University in New Jersey could not replace its women’s volleyball team with a competitive cheering squad, saying cheerleading is “too underdeveloped and disorganized” to be treated as an official collegiate sport.
Clearly the good Judge has never taken part in the collegiate Beer Olympics.
Is it at all surprising that Fox News managed to not only make this a front page news item on its website, but also succeeded in getting “experts” to deliver their own viewpoints on this dramatic ruling by the American judicial system?
ACLU staff attorney David McGuire, a co-counsel in the case, said critics of the judge’s decision aren’t seeing the big picture of the effect it has in protecting Title IX and ensuring that schools are providing the appropriate number of male and female athletic opportunities in proportion to the number of male and female students at the school.
The crux of Mr. McGuire’s argument is that the Honorable Underhill’s ruling prevents Quinnipiac from misrepresenting their true number of opportunities available for female students. Keeping cheerleading out of the school’s official athletic system prevents a loss of opportunities for female athletes.
I’ll let that sink in.
We live in a country where high schools and colleges have school sponsored teams for golf, bowling, curling, and dodgeball to name a few. All those sports require of you is either a desire for abuse or the ability to roll something across the floor. Cheerleaders? All they do is attempt their best contortionist poses, hurdle through the air as dynamically as a skirt wearing torpedo, and build pyramids without the use of mortar or slaves.
For shits and giggles I looked up Quinnipiac’s athletic department. They have 11 female programs as opposed to simply 7 for men. Where in the hell does McGuire’s ACLU-jargon-spewing equality statement apply in this instance?
Alright, Gallery Members! I put it to you. Is cheerleading a sport, or simply a public tryout for Hooters girls and Playboy bunnies?
Entry filed under: Serious Nut. Tags: cheerleading, Peanut Gallery, quinnipiac, Serious Nut, Useless Debate.
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Minimum Wage Cavalier | July 23, 2010 at 4:02 pm
This is a strange debate to have, since during my high school years I never qualified cheerleading as a legitimate sport, since the multitude of cheerleaders that I knew never actually attempted to learn any acrobatics. Since this is a collegiate issue rather than a high school one I would assume that the actions and skills of the athletes would be on a more superior level, adding in not only witty quips about how the other team stinks, but flips, tricks, and all sorts of other things. If these things are met, then I completely agree that cheerleading is a sport. However, if this is actually just a salon party for girls to get together and oggle the boys, well then it is most definitely not a sport.