VICTORIA WELLMAN at the Daily Mail writes:

Cheerleaders, with their micro-minis, tight mid-riff baring sweaters and iconic pom-poms, have been impressing male fans and rousing excitement among eager sports spectators in America for decades.

But the half time show of a professional football game that these days centres around a group of scantily clad women writhing and waving their toned arm in the air to the beats of the latest number one hit, was once a strictly male-only arena.

In fact in the late Thirties, the job was deemed too ‘masculine’ for women whose appropriation of slang and loud shouting was seen as unfeminine.

The Mail’s photo of the 1924 cheerleading squad for Columbia University appears above.

The art of cheerleading has most certainly declined. When I was a football cheerleader (photo below), I wouldn’t have been caught dead doing risky athletic stunts. That much enthusiasm for football would have been unthinkable to me. Nor would I have sought the position if it involved quasi-nakedness or clothes purchased from a porn shop.

Mostly, being a cheerleader was a massive civic commitment. It wasn’t just the team that depended on you. An entire municipality might draw sustenance from your selfless support for a game you hadn’t the least bit of interest in.

— Comments —

Bruce writes:

I recognize the mythologist Joseph Campbell as the cheerleader on the extreme right – he was at Columbia in 1924, and a college athlete (runner), so I’m sure it is him. Perhaps this link has not been made yet?

I was very keen on Campbell in the years before I became a Christian, and have many books by and about him with photos of his early years – so I am certain about this identification although this precise photo is new to me.

Laura writes:

Aha. Interesting. Many intellectuals were probably once cheerleaders.

Michael S. writes:

“Aha. Interesting. Many intellectuals were probably once cheerleaders.”

“Were”?

Laura writes:

Some intellectuals are nothing more than cheerleaders.

Paul writes:

I have always adored college and high school cheerleaders with their pretty selves shaking their pom-poms on close-up. Too bad the degree of camera attention to them has declined drastically over the years. They have even cut down on the close-ups of pretty women in the stadium. I don’t know whether this is because of women in the camera booths or the craven demands for revenue from advertisers. But it is nice that they still do it. After all, the great majority of those watching are men.

I have no interest in the male cheerleaders. Maybe in the old days I would have had an interest since I would not have known what I was missing.

I don’t like the professional cheer teams at the college or professional level. Although not ugly, they seem cheap relative to their sweet youngers. I suppose that could be considered mean because they are real people working hard for recognition. So I clap for them nevertheless.

Texanne writes:

From The Spectator:

“Cheerleaders frequently come up in case histories of mass psychogenic illness at schools, partly because psychogenic outbreaks often start with someone of high social status…”

Laura writes:

That confirms my impression. Cheerleaders are highly influential members of society.

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