cheerleading: give me a wha-?

Whether you're interested in this strange, sticky subject or not, this commentary on cheerleading is worth reading. Cheerleading: a sport in crisis by Steven Wells is a blazingly sharp, substantial and fair perspective on the state of cheerleading in the U.S. today. Free to read in its entirety at The Guardian's online Guardian Unlimited Sport. Published March 15.

There are so many brilliant passages in this piece, it's hard to choose a few, but here's a taste.

"Cheerleading is quintessentially American. More than that, the bright-as-a-button, perma-grinning, pony-tailed cheerleader is the shining icon of idealised American femininity. And as such she is at the centre of some of the American Culture Wars' most savagely fought brawls...

"But this is no clear-cut conflict - it's nostalgists v authoritarians v libertarians, with cheerleading exposing the ugly ideological mess at the heart of modern conservatism...

"While the cheerleader might give us a fascinating snapshot of the American Culture Wars, Natalie Adams reckons there might only be as few as 1.8m cheerleaders in the entire country. This contrasts with probably more than 10m female soccer players...

"...until the second world war, cheerleading was almost exclusively male - and in some places male cheerleading flourished well into the 1960s. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D Roosevelt, Jimmy Stewart, Michael Douglas, Samuel L Jackson, Steve Martin and George Bush senior were all teenage cheerleaders. But nowadays it's like Billy Elliot never happened."