Why Are Cheerleaders and Football Players Ostracized in the Media?

Cheerleaders and football players may have ruled the quintessential all-American high school, but in TV/movies, they are almost always the villains, the intellectually vacuous, superficial, bullying, dream-crushing, self-entitled spoiled brats.

Sure you have exceptions. In Legally Blonde, the beautiful and wealthy Elle Woods turns out to be a likable and smart character. And in Bring It On, cheerleaders are presented as hard-working, talented, and ambitious.

Yet for the most part, American media is obsessed with vilifying cheerleaders and football players. Movies such as Heathers and Mean Girls enjoy a cult following because of their uncanny ability to portray the dynamics of social cliques and downsides of popularity.

Cheerleaders and Football Players: The Paradox

Cheerleaders and football players may be "popular," but in the larger sense of the film/TV show, they paradoxically become the scapegoats. Cheerleaders and football players almost always get their comeuppance whether it be through "coning" (The Princess Diaries) or getting hit by a bus (Mean Girls).

The popular cheerleader is almost always gets second billing and never ends up with the hot guy. And movies such as Romy and Michelle's High School reunion portray ex-football players as burned out drunks.

Are cheerleaders and football players as bad as the shows make them out to be? Yes and no. Because of the impenetrability of high school's social caste system, high school was no picnic. On the other hand, I was still able to study hard and pursue my interests without having to worry about being thrown into a dumpster or attacked with a slushie.

Characters like Glee's Karofsky or Quinn Fabray are caricatures rather than universal representations. Yet there is some truth to every stereotype.

Cheerleaders and Football Players: Catharsis for Ex Drama Geeks

When Glee's creator Ryan Murphy accepted the Golden Globe Award, he proclaimed that the award for "anybody and everybody who got a wedgie in high school." Shows like Glee are a catharsis for every ex-drama geek. It's payback time, a well-deserved chance to turn the tables.

Although Americans idolize media industry people, we tend to forget that they were drama geeks in high school who may have had to fend of bullies and slushie attacks. TV and film provide a way for ex-drama geeks to stick the middle finger to their former bullies, as if to say, "hey, you may have been a jerk to me in high school, but now I'm a multi-millionaire TV producer and I'm going to make millions of people hate you by showing everyone what a jerk you are."

Yet there's another dimension to the psychology of ex-drama geeks. Mean characters like Sue Sylvester and Quinn Fabray provide the show's writers a chance to live vicariously, to put themselves in the popular girl's shoes. It's a subtle form of wish-fulfillment.

Cheerleaders and Football Players: Tried and True Formulas

Mean cheerleaders and football players are a media cliche, but there is truth to every stereotype, no matter how extreme or distorted. This is why we continue to watch cheesy teen movies, romantic comedies, and shows like Glee.

These shows follow tried and true formulas. We love to root for the underdogs and love to hate the popular mean kids. This is why the geeky but ambitious Rachel seems destined to end up with popular but earnest Finn even if Puck is arguably a more appealing match.

Ostracizing cheerleaders and football players is paradoxically a subversive and a conservative idea. It's subversive in the way it glorifies social outcasts and criticizes the high school status quo.

At the same time, it's an individualistic idea in its premise that hard work and good character will eventually lead to success, that who you were in high school does not reflect who you will become. Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps is a very American idea. It suggests that social mobility is possible, even in the American high school.

Sources:

Glee Golden Globe Acceptance Speech, YouTube