Cheerleaders, Sex, and Football Players at the Ballet: Cheering's Sexual Evolution

The cheerleader was a novel concept. Princeton University and the University of Minnesota pioneered the tradition, not with half-dressed pom-pom shakers selling sex, but with men-and only men-riling fans to root for the home team.

In fact, the gender and sex stereotypes so prevalent today did not really work themselves out until after World War II.

In the beginning, though, the name was accurate-male cheerleaders would lead throngs of fans in chants of support, jeers of derision, and many other collective auditory explosions.

However, nowadays there are two general categories of cheerleaders: the rah-rah, we-do- lots-of-gymnastics competitive type and the ogle-me-till-you-need-to-speak-to-a-priest type. The former are found at competitions, high schools, and colleges around the country, choreographing peppy cheers in a band of athletic youths somersaulting, leaping, and tossing one another for first place. The latter, found mostly at pro sporting events, drip with sex appeal and may cause your nine-year-old son ask where babies come from.

Granted, these categories are not mutually exclusive, but in practice a delineation can usually be made between the athletic competitive cheerleader and the erotic sex cheerleader.

So when did cheerleaders begin to become glorified exotic dancers?

You can thank Tex Schramm, the original president and GM of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and brainchild for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.

In the promotional spirit of MLB's Bill Veeck, Schramm was (in the early 1970's) looking for ways to put fannies in the seats. So he used fannies.

Schramm decided to revamp the concept of the cheerleader. At first, he brought in models, caring little for athletic capability. Later he focused on combining looks and talent. He added choreography to the women's routines as well, and created a hybrid dance/cheerleader any fan of the NFL or NBA would be familiar with.

Sex sells.

Nowadays, at many pro sporting events, instead of fans being led by people rousing them in raucous chants with impressive athletic feats, the emphasis has changed. At many venues, fans are encouraged to be passive consumers of scantily-clad, hyper-sexualized women whenever there is a TV timeout or other break in the action.

So the question needs to be asked: is there anything really wrong with this? On the level of mixing messages to our seven-year-old nieces and daughters who want to be cheerleaders ("like her, daddy," says the little girl-pointing to a quasi-stripper), there is clearly a problem.

As every parent knows, children are sexual beings, no doubt; but, for young girls the level of maturity and sophistication needed to comprehend such images is often missing (to say nothing of what little boys are learning from such experiences.)

However, at a more general level the entire spectacle is laughable.

It is the equivalent of muscle-bound, short-short wearing men choreographing tackling drills during the intermission of "Swan Lake" or "The Nutcracker".

Or how about fully uniformed baseball players reading excerpts of a bestselling book during lulls at a book signing-I bet Mark McGuire could read the hell out of "The Da Vinci Code".

Is it time for cheerleading to end at pro sporting events? I'm not smart enough to answer that. But I do know there is a major difference between men watching athletic feats and men wanting to copulate. Again, while the categories are not mutually exclusive (think of all of the man-hugs and kisses that go around after a Super Bowl victory), I wonder why the trend to mix athletics with sex continues. And I wonder how I'll answer when my niece asks me if she should be a cheerleader.