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The thought of me cheerleading elicits one reaction from those who know me: laughter. I’m not co-ordinated, I’m not loud (except when voicing political opinions) and I can’t abide cheese. So what’s the appeal? For me and a lot of the other girls it is all about the team. My lack of hand-eye co-ordination relegated me from most team sports (they all seem to involve balls!) only leaving me with the option of individual sports such as figure skating. Cheerleading opens up a different aspect of exercise for those who have never particularly enjoyed it before, and all this has contributed to it becoming the fastest growing sport in the UK.
Myth number 1: Cheerleading is elitist
Team work is essential in cheerleading, more so perhaps than any other sport. For a stunt to work, all four members of the group must be perfectly co-ordinated and in time, otherwise the stunt will come down. Serious injuries can occur in cheerleading (broken noses are not uncommon) and therefore trust between team mates is essential; this leaves little room for bitching and requires a high level of professionalism.
Some may consider cheerleaders to be cliquey, but this is no more so than any other of the sports clubs on campus. Close bonds and friendships are an inevitable result of training so closely together, and part of the appeal of the team is that everyone gets on so well and is willing to help each other out. Although the squads are to be divided into competition and performance teams in the new year, club president Hannah Barwick-Walters says that socials and tour are an integral part of maintaining team spirit when they are not training together.
Myth number 2: Cheerleaders are stupid
The dedication and concentration required of cheerleaders defies this stereotype. For those on the competition squad, two missed sessions will see them off the team as the remaining three members of a stunt group are unable to practice if one person is missing. Similarly, the dangerous nature of the stunting means that a lapse in concentration could result in serious consequences. Despite not all cheerleaders being academic, the York Hornets, as students at the university certainly are, and Laura Horton was the first cheerleader on University Challenge when she captained the York team, reaching as far as the televised rounds.
Although cheerleaders tend to possess the ultimate cheesy smile, this does not represent a vacant expression. Rather characterisation or ‘facials’ are an important aspect of competitive cheer and are not at all easy to achieve when your mind is on the next move and getting the timing right. That cheerleaders make it look easy is not representative of the routine being easy, instead it is testimony to their skill.
Myth number 3: It objectifies women
This perception of cheerleaders primarily comes from a lack of understanding. Cheerleading actually originated with a group of guys at Princeton, an ivy-league university, in the 1870s, who started to cheer on the sidelines of an American football game. Side-line cheer differs from competitive cheer, as it involves the cheerleaders being part of the sports team for which they are cheering and the training sessions happen together. The York Hornets, as a competitive squad, prefer to cheer for themselves.
Whilst the uniform does include gold spankies, it is not much different from UYNC netball dresses, and the club is very careful about the image they portray when wearing them. Such that uniforms are banned on socials and are only worn for club promotion, competitions, and performances.
Myth number 4: It’s not a real sport
Technically no, it’s not, but this is merely a result of cheerleading having a number of different governing bodies which have yet to unify. The stunting and tumbling performed by cheerleaders bring it closer to gymnastics than dance (the number of knocks and bruises we have received certainly testifies to this), with the York Hornets achieving club status at the university as opposed to being a society.
In one term as part of the York Hornets I have used more muscles than I knew existed, improved my strength, fitness and flexibility, not to mention having lots of fun.
Cheerleading: It's not for girls, it's for athletes!
"Uniforms are banned on socials and are only worn for club promotion, competitions, and performances." So it only objectifies women during official club business, which is fine.
comment deleted by the author I think the problem is people automatically think of American Cheerleading films such as Bring it On where midriffs are on show and shirts have no length what so ever. However in the UK the major Cheer body BCA rules state that when standing upright, a uniform may not expose the midriff. In regards to our uniforms, we have long sleeves, high necks and perfectly reasonabley sized skirts. Of course, the gold hotpants some people may raise eye brows at, but actually they are there to make sure the girls are covered appropriately when tumbling and stunting, they are as much a piece of sports wear as goalie gloves and no one's complaining about them.
I was really surprised when I saw the cheerleaders perform at little D. They were absolutely incredible. They looked like gymnasts and dancers at the same time. However, my friend was in the squad, and when she said that you have to wear the gold bow as part of the uniform I did raise my eyebrows a bit... That's just encouraging the stereotype a bit. The uniforms are really similar to the netball ones. Shorter skirts and hot pants are pretty much the only practical thing they can wear. If people choose to oggle at their legs when they're performing (as many people do to the netballers!) then it's their problem for being unable to watch women doing a sport unless they're being objectified. The cheerleaders shouldn't have to change their uniforms because of the pettiness of some.
Thanks for the support Anonymous number two! We can't help if some people chose to stare at our legs whilst we perform, that's a shame for them missing the fabulous stunting! But yes, longer skirts would be a.) dangerous in case they were stepped on b.) Impractical, can you imagine doing splits or scale in a fitted skirt that comes to your knees? Finally c.) Trousers aren't practical because a firm grip needs to be had on the flyers legs lest she slip from our grip and injure herself or her group, fabric tends to be problematic for this and as such our flyers always train without leggings or tights. Anyway, just because it's a sport doesn't mean we cant look nice? 
Go Hornets!
Well how about you just wear black hotpants so that you're safe and can genuinely claim not to be trying to draw attention to your backsides? I can't see a good reason for them to be gold if not to catch the eye.
For the fun?
I'm not sure why they're gold not black, the comittee decided that, but I assume because it looked better than black hotpants, balanced out the ratio of black to gold. They are our University colours and we're just co-ordinating our strip. Now that we have gold ones we're hardly going to re-order black ones for the whole squad just because some spectators get distracted by shiny things. On a personal level I dont like drawing attention to my backside.
The RH Tomcats, a highly successful team that is amazing to watch have silver hotpants, and they consistently win first place not because of their shiny bottoms, but because their stunts are high level, well executed and beautifully timed.
Don't get fixated on minor details such as the colour of our pants.
I'm not saying you're not a good sports team, by all accounts you are. I just think it undermines the claim in the article that cheerleading doesn't objectify women when you all have to wear gold hotpants.
Thanks 
but the thing is our emphasis wasn't on attracting attention for our bums, we want to look nice whilst we perform obviously, but its not our main priority. If the entire team complained about wearing gold hot pants then I'm sure the comittee would consider changing the uniform. As it is we don't mind them so we don't fixate on them! They're just a piece of kit to us and should be to spectators too.
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