One does not simply sit down to watch an NFL game without also seeing shots of cheerleaders. Specifically, female cheerleaders lacking enough clothing to make a purchase at a supermarket. Why doe such a gross gender gap exist here? In this post, we will explore the issue of female cheerleading in sports through the lens of feminist theory, looking specifically at androcentrism, heteronormativity and objectification. We will begin by first looking at the issue of why male sports are so much more popular than female sports, as understood through androcentrism. This will allow us to then look at why most cheerleading roles are filled by females.
Androcentrism is prominent in sports due to the concept of male physical dominance being perpetuated as a social norm. Acting as a polarizing amplifier, social normality takes the average physical difference between males and females and through the development of social constructs such as hunting vs. gathering imprints in the minds of future generations a norm of male physical advantage. This results in male physical advantage no longer existing as a purely observed characteristic but as an expected one. Thus, it becomes expected that males will outperform females in any physical social activity. Given the years of incubation this concept has been allotted in the span of human history (virtually all the time), it is no surprise to find that today's male sports are valued more than female sports, as such sports fit gendered physical expectations better than female ones.
Having established the presence of androcentric sports, it has yet to be specifically seen why cheerleading is an area largely occupied by scantily-clad females. It is here that the issues of heteronormativity and objectification come into play. Females in cheerleading roles serve as objects of admiration for largely heteronormative players. It is very hard for a male to successfully fill this role because such a male could not be sexually objectified to the extent that a female could under heteronormativity. It is important to recognize the joint partnership between heteronormativity and objectification. Objectification demands the presence of objects to be adored and appreciated, and heteronormativity demands that males should be interested in females. In unison, these two concepts create the necessary environment for female cheerleading to thrive.
Given the trends in pornography consumption, it is not unreasonable to predict that cheerleading in female sports does not exist to the relative extent that female cheerleading does in male sports. Pornography consumption trends are important as they are an indicator of gendered tendencies to objectify. Since males on average consume more pornography than females, based on this reasoning, it can be said that females do not objectify to the extent that males do. Bringing this new information to our formula, we find that lacking an objectification drive, heteronormativity becomes less relevant for cheerleading in female sports, and will factor in only in the sense that the position is stigmatized. The demand for male cheerleading in female sports is not as great as for female cheerleading in male sports due to object-driven pleasure not being as prevalent in females.
The final result of these three factors is an environment perfectly calibrated for females to serve as cheerleaders in male sports as heteronormative objects of pleasure in an androcentric environment. Thus, taken together, the feminist concepts of androcentrism, objectification, and heteronormativity can explain the gender-polar nature of cheerleading in sports.
One of my reasons for being completely put off by sports is exactly what you are describing. It is all about the control and power of the male and the objectivity of the female cheerleaders. It is so frustrating. They do not need to be in these tiny little skirts. The whole sport arena is pig-headed about these things. I don't know if you have ever watched the movie "A League of Their Own" but it is informed fiction about the all female baseball teams that were present during World War II. The story has some truth behind it. While men players were allowed to wear pants the girls were not. They were expected to exploit themselves in skirts so that people would come to watch. It is the same exact thing. I do realize that sports are a great place for women to show how strong they are too. It seems to me that sports can be very supportive of sexism and not supportive of sexism. There are these scantily clad females cheerleading in football games and then there are these amazingly strong women competing. It may mean that things are changing. Perhaps eventually the cheerleaders might actually put on some pants. I guess that's too much to hope.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Belcher