Elisabella
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ORIGINAL: ShaktiSama
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ORIGINAL: Elisabella
However, I think there is confusion going on between *sexual* and *sexist* - those dances display a lot of sexuality, but do you think that showing sexuality automatically makes something "sexist"?
I'm an erotic photographer, in case you missed the profile. Clearly the two terms have different definitions in my eyes.
In my eyes, there are several issues which make cheerleading outfits "sexist" as well as (inappropriately) "sexual".
1. Both males and females participate in cheerleading at the collegiate level. The male and female body are NOT significantly different in terms of how clothing needs to be cut and fitted in order to allow free movement. Nevertheless the female variant of the clothing reveals acres of skin and the male clothing is much more functional and non-revealing in the majority of cases.
This is true, however I would argue the dance costumes only reflect choices in streetwear - I'm pretty sure if you offered the guys short tight Chippendale's style shorts they would decline, and the cheerleaders I knew in high school liked their uniforms. They would wear them on Fridays by choice because they liked the way they looked in them.
Also the cheer squads do have some input in their uniforms. If they genuinely wanted to wear identical uniforms to the guy cheerleaders, they could bring it up and the school would have to acquiesce or face actual charges of sexual discrimination.
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This difference is not about any practical consideration--it's about sexualizing female bodies and NOT male bodies. This is sexist by definition.
So to clarify, are you saying that sexism is, in your opinion, allowing any difference in the way men and women act, regardless of whether the men and women themselves are happy with their roles?
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2. Cheerleading uniforms are deliberately sexual and are placed on the football field in a context where gender roles for both males and females are being asserted. The female role is not only (inappropriately) sexual, but anonymous and iconographically submissive, in comparison to the male role that is displayed on the same field. Males on a football field have names, numbers, and accomplishments which are acknowledged by the announcer and applauded by the crowd.
I personally don't see how the act of cheering on the field is submissive, but I also don't see how that matters. You say that you don't have a problem with women choosing to be submissive in a BDSM context, why do you have a problem with women choosing to be (your perception of) submissive in an athletic context?
The only women who go pro at cheerleading are women who genuinely enjoy and feel fulfilled by it. They not only have no problem with their role as cheerleaders, they push their bodies to the limits working out in order to compete with thousands of other talented women to get a spot. Do you think the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders feel ashamed of their "submissive" role? Because to me they seem incredibly proud of their chosen profession.
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This dynamic continues and worsens in adult life, as I have demonstrated. The educational and economic inequality between football players and cheerleaders continues and becomes much more dire in college and in professional life.
I can only speculate, but I don't think women become cheerleaders for the education or the money. It seems they do it for status. As much as you disparage the status of a professional cheerleader, there are plenty of women who see it as something glamourous to aspire to. Most women don't, and few HS cheerleaders go on to do it in college, and even fewer college cheerleaders do it professionally, but I'd say the fact that they aren't paid ridiculous amounts means that the women who choose that line of work do so because they genuinely enjoy it. Kind of like teachers.
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3. Cheerleading is an exploitive sexist AND sexual role which is increasingly peddled at younger and younger ages to female persons who are NOT ADULT WOMEN. I take plenty of photos of women who love to submit sexually to men and/or women, and who love to display their bodies sexually. ALL MY MODELS ARE ADULTS. If I was to persuade a child to dress up in a sexual costume and covort for my dominant amusement, people would have no trouble recognizing that it was horribly exploitive and morally wrong. Not really sure why it suddenly becomes wholesome or acceptable when the whole society gangs up on children of one gender to objectify them in the exact same way.
I have never once seen a child cheerleader as a sexual object. And I think that if any adult does view a child that way, it's the adult in the wrong. Saying "an adult pervert might find that arousing" is no reason to stop the child from what she sees as asexual fun.
Young girls wear bikinis and play dressup and I'm sure that paedophiles find that arousing as well. The difference between a cute little girl and a victim of a paedophile depends on only one thing - the action of the paedophile.
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Any use of the public school system to peddle submissive female sexuality to non-adults is morally wrong, in my opinion. Sexual submission and any pleasure one may have in being sexually exploited by voyeurs are adult matters. These are choices which should be made privately by adults--not rammed down the throats of all female children in a society by its public and publicly-funded institutions, like schools.
There's one glaring flaw in your argument - yourself. From reading your words it seems as though offering high school girls a chance to participate in cheering will brainwash all high school girls into being submissive sex slaves.
So why aren't you one? Your school had cheerleaders, didn't it? You were exposed to this awful sexual conditioning and yet you came out of it a staunch feminist. If all it takes to brainwash something is the mere existence of an option to choose one path, we'd all be cheering zombies.
Also, if sexual expression has no place in public schools, where do you draw the line? The argument you used could be used to support abstinence only teaching, or forbidding the school nurse to hand out condoms, or even forbidding pregnant teenagers to attend class until their condition is taken care of, as they might influence other teenagers to have unsafe sex.
And what about the cheerleaders who don't sexualize their role, but rather see it as an activity they enjoy participating in with their friends. Not all cheerleaders are shameless temptresses, especially in junior high school it's mostly just a social activity that girls do because it makes them popular and makes other girls envy them. You see it as lowering themselves, they see it as elevating themselves to a high status, at least in most schools.
I guess what I should be asking is - you have a problem with cheerleading, what would you like to see done about it? Would you like it banned from junior high school and high school because it offers those girls a chance to participate in what you see as a sexual role? And if so, are you ready to have Gay-Straight alliances banned as well, for being a school funded activity that promotes a certain sexual lifestyle?
< Message edited by Elisabella -- 11/4/2009 6:28:18 PM >
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