Cheerleaders are perhaps the oddest part of our culture's obsession with mindless team sports.

We're talking about people who *aren't even playing the game* shouting out mindless hype to help give the Borg in the stands a mindless adrenaline rush to help get them excited about a mindless activity.

And we're supposed to take all of this seriously?

For crying out loud, either play the game yourself or go read a book.

When I was in High School, the cheerleaders weren't the popular girls. They weren't UNpopular, but it wasn't like in the movies.

When I taught High School last year, there were no cheerleaders. No one wanted to be one.

Where are all these popular cheerleaders? Is it a southern or midwestern thing? Or did movie makers grow up in the 50s, when they were popular, but haven't caught up with reality?

We're one letter into the story and already the trash-talking has begun.

My apologies to Kate Torgovnick. (Lynn Harris knows what we Salon Letter writers are like, unfortunately.)

There are many events in Track and Field that don't involve a ball or competing directly against one single team. Do those athletes get derided and dismissed?

For some reason, there are too many folks who can't get past their memories of little girls in little skirts bouncing up and down while waving oversized pom-poms in the air to see the current state of competitive cheerleading - at all levels.

A co-worker, today actually, told me that there's no way she's going to let her daughter do competitive cheering again. Gymnastics, sure. Softball, fine. Soccer, wonderful. Swim, sounds good.

Cheer? Oh hell no. The coaches work the girls constantly, there are grueling practices on school nights and weekends and the competitions are helacious because the teams are cutthroat. Add the expense of costumes and competition and travel and, it's all too much - as far as this woman is concerned, cheer is THE toughest sport out there for a school-aged girl.

Cheer is not what it was 20 years ago. Today it's a tough, brutal, competition between two teams of serious atheletes.

Set to dance music.

Did you even read the article, or are you just another closed-minded hater who still can't get over feeling left out in high school?

If you think cheerleading is easy, why don't you practice with them for one day? You wouldn't even survive one hour! If you aren't willing to try practice it once, then why don't you shut up and stop talking about stuff you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about!

Anyone who thinks cheerleading is all about "looking cute" is not only stupid, but also mega-stupid. You try doing all those back-flips and jumps in the hot sun, gettting blisters, and risk falling down improperly!

And to those dummies who think "male cheerleaders are soft", you try holding up a fellow cheerleader up in the air with proper technique. You probably won't even last ten minutes trying!

Also, in response to Nicole Shield's question, cheerleading is probably most popular in the South! While the South can be too conservative at times, at least they DONT have this "hey, look at me everyone, I'm making snide comments about everything" attitude or "hey look at me everyone, I'm rebellling against traditions for the sake of it" attitude that is common among the Northeast and the West Coast, which explains Thomas Servo's attitude!

I never been a cheerleader, and because I haven't done so, I would never thumb my nose at something that some practiced hours in something I've never done! Also, unlike Thomas Servo, I won't make snide comments about everything, just for the sake of making snide comments

"Play the game or read a book," my ass.

I was teaching at a major university a few years back. The cheerleaders in my class taught me that (a) they are a lot smarter than the nitwits they are portrayed to be in movies, and (b) that they are among the fittest athletes on campus. One of them, a woman who had to keep her body fat down below some ungodly level--it was like the body fat of a carrot--mentioed how it was a real bitch going to the weight room whenever the football team was in there, because, as she said, "You want to lift some, and there are all these linebackers checking out their titties in the mirrors."

I don't know were the author has been for that time but cheerleading has been a big deal since at least 1980. When I played sports in high school back then the chearleaders practiced WAY harder that we ever did. While we went for 2 hours or so they would practice at least 4 and maybe more if a competition was coming up. Oh ya, they've been competing against each other since the 70's. This was in Memphis. Several high school teams annually made it to Nationals. The Memphis Tiger squad won many championships during that time. So this book may be interesting but it sure is old news.

Did you even read the article, or are you just another closed-minded hater who still can't get over feeling left out in high school?

If you think cheerleading is easy, why don't you practice with them for one day? You wouldn't even survive one hour! If you aren't willing to try practice it once, then why don't you shut up and stop talking about stuff you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about!

Ready, fire, aim..

Dude, you totally missed Tom Servo's point.

He never said cheerleading was easy, having been peripherally involved with pro cheerleading myself I know for a fact that it's damn hard, the pros I knew weren't even allowed to eat or drink in uniform among many other rules.

What Mr Servo actually commented on was our culture's strange obsession with team sports, a comment I pretty much agree with.

It just seems odd that the less physical grace and athletic ability have to do with our day to day survival and earning a living, the more we idolize those who have those attributes to a markedly greater degree than the average person.

Just mark me down as another closed minded hater who can't get over feeling left out in high school .... over forty years ago.