All-Star The Wire Article On Cheerlebrities

[cheerforeverever]

Sigh. I can't even get through reading the comments on websites for articles like these because they make me so irritated. Just reinforces the idea that the majority of the world is still very ignorant about modern day cheerleading.
Just a small sampling of the comments:
Post : They should have a TV show about these cheerlebrities
Response: Haven't you seen the show about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders? That is the top level :banghead:

Post: When there is no quarterback, no football team, what are you cheering for? :rolleyes:

Also of course references to injury rates, cheerleading just being for male entertainment at basketball games (I am sure they only know of the dance teams at professional basketball games), etc. etc.......I just want to sit all these commentators in a room and force them to watch an hour of true all-star cheerleading videos.

I guess that is the nature of the internet......people can rant about things that they have absolutely no correct knowledge on & endlessly argue with people that actually do know what they're talking about.
.:wham:
Makes me have to step away from the computer at times.

 

[Cheer Dad]

And - did you ;-) ?

Not yet. :( Hope to be home soon though.

 

[catlady]

OK, I'm ready to address the elephant in the room. Female Cheerleaders have been sexualized since the beginning of, I can't remember when. No other woman's sport has been plagued with porn and movies portraying them as the gorgeous, scantily clad, easy bimbo's, like cheerleading. If we want to change the image, we are going to have to step up the professional athlete image and I believe the USASF has tried with a lot of resistance. I, also, want to stress, those seemingly innocent uniform, sports bra and spank pics and videos posted on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter are most definitely feeding some fantasies most parents would prefer their daughters not be a part of. There are a lot of trusting parents out there and you all need to stop inviting "crazy" to your bbq's.

 

[Ems]

OK, I'm ready to address the elephant in the room. Female Cheerleaders have been sexualized since the beginning of, I can't remember when. No other woman's sport has been plagued with porn and movies portraying them as the gorgeous, scantily clad, easy bimbo's, like cheerleading. If we want to change the image, we are going to have to step up the professional athlete image and I believe the USASF has tried with a lot of resistance. I, also, want to stress, those seemingly innocent uniform, sports bra and spank pics and videos posted on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter are most definitely feeding some fantasies most parents would prefer their daughters not be a part of. There are a lot of trusting parents out there and you all need to stop inviting "crazy" to your bbq's.

 

[fierceeflyeer]

I honestly think that something seriously needs to be done. I would hate to see a tragedy happen. It's seriously getting ridiculous and I am frankly appalled by the many endorsements I have seen certain "cheerlebs" plastering all over their instagrams. I understand that profiting through these types of deals or whatever is a great opportunity and may be hard to pass up, but posting ad after ad of headphones, apps, workout gear, bows, shirts etc. is quite ridiculous. I know this has nothing really to do with the safety of these minors but it really makes me question in the direction our sport is going and the motives of some of these parents.

 

[SharkDad]

It's interesting to see the many directions this discussion goes. After reading this whole thread, I'm brought back to a thought I have mentioned a few times:

This is NOT a sport. It is an industry running a youth activity.

If this were a youth sport, there would be priorities protecting the kids: #1 Safety, #2 Athleticism, #3 A worthwhile experience

The industry runs it more like: #1 make loads of money off of mega cheer comps #2 sell camps to qualify to go to cheer comps #3 uniforms, bows and other merchandise #4 emphasise safety, athleticism, and experience whenever they can support profits

I personally find all 3 articles fairly truthful to what people outside of cheer see the sport, as promoted by our very own companies, parents, and athletes in plain sight. I don't see any of the authors being vindictive or with negative motives, in fact it looks like they properly quoted and used pictures in their articles. We should ask ourselves if the things the entire industry of cheer truly values are safety and athleticism or is it bows, make-up and pretty people. Some of these kids may be self-promoting, some not, but all 300,000+ followers can't be wrong in following the latest trend.

Is this the trend we want? What can we as individuals do about it?

 

[Dixie]

To piggyback on Sharkdad's comment of this not being a sport: if cheer as the public currently perceives it is ever proclaimed a sport, I will begin campaigning for marching band to also be justified as a sport. Those kids practice for hours on end year round - in the heat of summer and chill of winter - completely covered up in uniforms - with hats instead of bows -performing on instruments that took years to perfect - remembering what notes to play, when to breathe and where to march for 8:30 - in front of judges - unable to deter the outcome of their competition. AND in marching band you can't say 'I'm just here to march but I can't play'. You have to do it all.
Band isn't a sport either, but it sure takes talent and athleticism and I don't see any 'bandlebrities' hocking mouth pieces - yet.

 

[Cheeranswers]

ya I'm about ready to seriously have a name change for our sport. i think its partly why people don't and won't take us seriously. example: the comment asking what we're cheering for without football. i have personally never yelled a cheer in my entire life. people don't get the difference between sideline/highschool cheer and all-star cheer, and they never will because they'll never feel the need to. these articles are driving me insane. EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE PUTTING OUT AN ARTICLE.rant over.:wasntme:

 

[MissCongeniality]

I want to add...this is not just about front page cheerlebrities. Even the up and comers (hello mom posing as your 7 year old cheerleader on social media and putting her out there anywhere you can with dreams of becoming the next big thing) are at risk. All it takes is crossing paths with the "right" person. It doesn't matter if you have 100 followers or 100 million.

To piggyback on Sharkdad's comment of this not being a sport: if cheer as the public currently perceives it is ever proclaimed a sport, I will begin campaigning for marching band to also be justified as a sport. Those kids practice for hours on end year round - in the heat of summer and chill of winter - completely covered up in uniforms - with hats instead of bows -performing on instruments that took years to perfect - remembering what notes to play, when to breathe and where to march for 8:30 - in front of judges - unable to deter the outcome of their competition. AND in marching band you can't say 'I'm just here to march but I can't play'. You have to do it all.
Band isn't a sport either, but it sure takes talent and athleticism and I don't see any 'bandlebrities' hocking mouth pieces - yet.

At my kids' HSmarching band IS a sport (counts as PE credit), cheer is not considered a sport nor does it count towards required PE credit.

 

[xtremeteal4life]

I'm not sure what page you are looking at but she absolutely does not use that word on her page. She despises the word for all of it's negative connotation and thinks the whole concept is silly. She's a regular kid. Spend 2 minutes with her and this is very clear.

I will say that I was on the phone when this interview was conducted. I can say without question that this garbage article and the answers which Gabi gave to the questions were taken completely out of context. My only regret now is not recording the phone call. I am working on contacting the writer to ask for a retraction and correction. Gabi would never insult fellow athletes and absolutely did not do any of the sort. If I didn't know any better, I would think this article was a hit piece targeting my daughter and the other girls mentioned. I am appalled at the article. What they didn't include, was her additional comments about the talents and skills of these girls.

I'm upset with myself now for allowing the interview, which I normally don't do, but the writer seemed genuine and the subject rather seemed benign and innocent. Lesson learned.

I truly mean no disrespect to your daughter or your family- I've heard from many CEA families who I know, that y'all are really good people. I have no reason to doubt them.

My question lies within the realm of doing media related things about this sport and being able to discern the "good" from the "bad". I remember not too long ago that your wife and two daughters participated in a short lived show meant to pit competitive kids in the same sport against one another and choose a "winner". The show depicted your wife in a very unfavorable light (again, the people from CEA who know your family have nothing but good things to say about her as well- and I have no reason to doubt them) and I remember you coming on the board to defend your family; explaining how things were taken out of context and that things were set up in such a way to give the producers what they wanted.....and that they had misrepresented their original intent to you and that basically, well..."lesson learned".

Now fast forward to this current article where you're basically saying the same thing (again, I'm not saying I believe it- please understand that). How are you able to discern the good from the bad now? What lesson did you learn last time that led to any changes regarding how you decide what types of media (other than social media lol) she can engage in? What's the criteria? Do you research these people, their backgrounds, read stories they've published, etc to get a better idea as to how they'll be handling it, what angle they're trying "work", etc?

 

[justdance14]

To piggyback on Sharkdad's comment of this not being a sport: if cheer as the public currently perceives it is ever proclaimed a sport, I will begin campaigning for marching band to also be justified as a sport. Those kids practice for hours on end year round - in the heat of summer and chill of winter - completely covered up in uniforms - with hats instead of bows -performing on instruments that took years to perfect - remembering what notes to play, when to breathe and where to march for 8:30 - in front of judges - unable to deter the outcome of their competition. AND in marching band you can't say 'I'm just here to march but I can't play'. You have to do it all.
Band isn't a sport either, but it sure takes talent and athleticism and I don't see any 'bandlebrities' hocking mouth pieces - yet.

Shimmys to you!! I'm in the marching band at my University, and although it isn't nearly as intense as high school band, it's still crazy. I came from a crazy competitive high school (state champs, state finalist 10 years in a row, etc.) The only year we didn't make it to state was my senior year. At least in cheer you have guidelines/rules to follow. One judge that didn't like us placing us 8th cost us a finals appearance. If ya'll want to see what an amazing band can do, just watch a few of Ohio State's videos.

I will say that I definitely believe that cheer is more of a "sport" than band. I consider band to more of an art form, like dance.

 

[John Butler]

I truly mean no disrespect to your daughter or your family- I've heard from many CEA families who I know, that y'all are really good people. I have no reason to doubt them.

Now fast forward to this current article where you're basically saying the same thing (again, I'm not saying I believe it- please understand that). How are you able to discern the good from the bad now? What lesson did you learn last time that led to any changes regarding how you decide what types of media (other than social media lol) she can engage in? What's the criteria? Do you research these people, their backgrounds, read stories they've published, etc to get a better idea as to how they'll be handling it, what angle they're trying "work", etc?

No offense taken. Until you've walked a mile in our families shoes, it is difficult to share what the experience is like. Without question we've taken some missteps along the way, but there's no universal guide for how to deal with sort of thing, so we navigate it as best we can. To answer your questions with regard to discerning the good from the bad, it's still difficult. It's always difficult to know people's motives and angles. Even more so when you're in this type of situation. All my life I have relied on a "self instinct" to determining people's motives, but that becomes much harder when you're not just dealing with a regular "inner circle of friends". We've learned many lessons along the way, too many to document here. I try to use sound common sense judgement combined with input from some of our lifelong friends who are not in the sport. Outside of that, I pray about the things we are approached with regularly and ask God to help give me guidance along the way.

We have not really ever been asked to do an interview for a publication before and as I mentioned in my previous post, the subject matter as presented by the interviewer seemed rather benign and more about pop culture than anything else, so we allowed it under the condition that I would be on the phone to supervise. If they had posted all of the questions that were asked along with the direct answers to each question, I believe everyone would agree that it was pretty harmless and sweet. Of course, the questions and answers weren't listed in the final article. Instead, the author chose to take the direct quotes and apply them to whatever topic she was discussing, which in a few specific instances, gave the appearance that answers were being given in a context that was not accurate. I did limited research on the author beforehand and her prior material did not scream "Walk away".

Either way, we've moved on. Life is a learning experience and I encourage my children to LIVE. We make many good choices, but as humans, we also make mistakes. What determines wisdom is learning from those mistakes. I can assure you we make it a point to always learn, even the hard lessons. But we won't use the tough lessons and fear of mistakes as a reason to stop living and experiencing, because that's what life is about. I have always encouraged my children to worry solely about their actions with others, and not what someone "said they did". I am proud of all of my children and feel they each represent themselves well and spill over with the love, respect and honor that my wife and I have tried to instill in them. Outside of that, IMHO, there isn't much more a parent can ask for!

 

[blyndreamalum]

If ya'll want to see what an amazing band can do, just watch a few of Ohio State's videos.

TBDBITL! OH-IO! Sorry, can't help it as an Ohio State born and raised girl

 

[Cheer Dad]

I order you to stop what you're doing at your next wifi opportunity and watch it! It's the best piece for Allstar ever!

And - did you ;-) ?

Mission accomplished. Narrator was a little boring but overall good.

 

[ScottyB]

Oh yeah, it definitely is! But they could just youtube it or something I guess. It really bugs me that the author took the girls Instagram pictures for the article, and I'm assuming they didn't ask to use them. I know everything that you post online can be seen by everyone and can be taken and all that , but it just really bothers me that they were used in an article most likely without permission.

If it is publicly online and they credit the source, they don't need permission. Tis the dangers of Social Media